The 7 Wonders Challenge was a true test of the power of our technology. If you don鈥檛 already know what it鈥檚 about, here鈥檚 the deal. We asked an agency partner, Travelbag, to plan a route to get our hero from the Great Wall of China to Chich茅n Itz谩 in Mexico 鈥� plus every Wonder in between 鈥� in less than one week. All powered by 乐播传媒+.

And now that it鈥檚 all over (and we鈥檝e got a world record under our belt), everyone鈥檚 asking the same thing: how did we do it? Here鈥檚 a few technology secrets from behind the scenes.听

SOPHISTICATED SEARCH, ON SMARTPOINT CLOUD

When you鈥檙e planning a trip like this you鈥檙e faced with no one single airline that can take you to all the destinations on the itinerary. And because every minute counts, you have to find the fastest, simplest, and most reliable route.

Travelbag planned this trip using Smartpoint Cloud, the modern retailing interface that connects agents to 乐播传媒+. On it, agents could see all the flight options in one single interface, saving a ton of time and energy searching and comparing.

Plus, it鈥檚 integrated search functionality took all the various combinations, put them together, and scored them 鈥� including low cost carriers, NDC content, and private fares. For the planning stage, this combination of choice and convenient search really was critical.

Flight search on 乐播传媒+

ALL THE DETAILS, IN ONE HANDY PLACE

Keeping customers up to date is tricky for agents, even on straightforward trips. It鈥檚 just the nature of travel 鈥� things change and people do unexpected things. But when you’re doing something as big as setting a world record, you need everything to run like clockwork. AND there鈥檚 a lot to contend with: time zone differences, flight changes, or just having no WiFi.

Trip Quote on 乐播传媒+

We needed crystal clear, real-time communication throughout the entire journey. That鈥檚 where Trip Quote on 乐播传媒+ came in. Using this automated, online tool, Travelbag could send any updates to Adventureman easily, keeping him informed no matter what.

Trip Quote consolidated his flight and hotel details in one designated, easily accessible place. And that鈥檚 super valuable when you鈥檙e sprinting from one Wonder to the next, or when you鈥檙e really down to the wire getting through a busy airport.

UNEXPECTED CHANGES? NO PROBLEM

On a massive trip like the 7 Wonders Challenge, something on the journey was bound to go awry. A combination of heavy traffic in Rome and Adventureman going to the wrong terminal caused him to miss a crucial connecting flight along the way. To stop this ruining our world-record attempt, Travelbag needed to find a solution quick snap.

Luckily, 乐播传媒+ has an easy exchange capability, so the agent could find and book a new flight quickly, without a bunch of manual entries. Obviously in this case the agency had to react under extraordinary time-pressure, but things like this happen every day working in travel.

When something unexpected changes, customers need agent鈥檚 help to get things resolved immediately. Having the right technology 鈥� that enables a rapid response and supports you in the crunch times 鈥� is what makes or breaks a really good customer experience.

Easy flight exchanges on 乐播传媒+

STAYING ONE STEP AHEAD

The challenge for Travelbag was not only to react to changes outside their control, but also to constantly be looking for changes that could save time here and there. After all, even ten minutes difference could make or break this record-setting attempt. The agency had to stay one step ahead the whole time, and 乐播传媒+ helped them do it.

Using Productivity Automator, a tool on 乐播传媒+, they could see if new flights or a better option became available, pre-trip and during the trip too. Travelbag could set up various rules and automations to flag when a better flight became available somewhere on the itinerary.

Just like how Google Maps will proactively tell you if it finds a faster way to your destination, Productivity Automator anticipates the best options when there’s millions of different alternatives and things change continuously. And this meant Travelbag didn’t have to keep manually searching for ways to optimize time, and they could detect changes automatically.

Productivity Automator on 乐播传媒+

EVERYTHING ON MOBILE

Travel is fast-paced, especially if you鈥檙e running late. Adventureman was on the go all the time, he couldn鈥檛 stop and fire up a computer to check an itinerary or make changes. Having everything to hand was critical, and so Trip Manager played a huge role on this trip.

It puts all of the power of our modern tools onto mobile, allowing the customer to make changes with a few taps. Adventureman could pick seats with extra leg-room. Or add bags when he bought too many souvenirs. Which came in pretty handy, when he picked up a giant stuffed llama for his daughter at Machu Picchu.

Accessibility and convenience on all devices is something that modern travelers expect now. Sure, the 7 Wonders Challenge is an extreme example, and customers won鈥檛 always be so tight on time. But broadly speaking, you can鈥檛 overstate the power of having everything you need in the palm of your hand.

Trip Manager on 乐播传媒+

HOTEL REQUESTS, HANDLED

After seven days of nonstop, round-the-clock, round-the-world travel, Adventureman really needed (and deserved) a good night鈥檚 sleep. He got just 12 hours shut-eye in seven days, so you can imagine how tired he was by the time he reached the final stop in Mexico. We wanted him to finish off the trip by staying somewhere really special. And he had a few specific asks (a pool, a room with a view, and a great restaurant). After all, it鈥檚 not every day you set a world record.

So having all of that detail on hotels options was essential during booking. With hotel search in Smartpoint Cloud, the agency could access detailed property information, like room attributes, maps, photographs, and comparative rates, to choose the perfect property.

And it鈥檚 not just Adventureman. More and more, modern travelers want agencies to help them with hotel as well as flight tickets. Those who do it well, get the rewards.

Hotel Search on 乐播传媒+

CONSCIOUS OPTIONS CONSIDERED

Sustainability is one of 乐播传媒鈥檚 driving philosophies, so getting that right for 7 Wonders was critical from the beginning.听 We know that travelers today want to see sustainable options on their trips.

Our recent research on what consumers want found that 84% will pay more for environmentally friendly travel options. So 乐播传媒+ is arming modern agency retailers to deal with these changing demands. On Smartpoint Cloud, you can get integrated flight emissions data in every search.

So, whenever you look for a flight, you see not only the price and duration, you also see the carbon emissions.听We could take this into account for Adventureman鈥檚 trip, and so too can customers/agents when making choices or building itineraries.

Environmental search on 乐播传媒+

A RECORD鈥揝ETTING PLATFORM

I’m beyond proud that 乐播传媒+ powered this challenge. This was truly one of the biggest asks I鈥檝e ever seen. Just look at the numbers: four continents, nine countries, 13 flights, and 29 ground transport trips to cover 22,856 miles in 6 days, 16 hours and 14 minutes.听 It鈥檚 staggering.

Nothing exemplifies modern travel retailing more than a record-setting itinerary like this. Because modern travel is all about rising to the challenge, making things easier for everyone.

This challenge proved that epic adventures 鈥� even really, really complex ones 鈥� can be made possible with the right tools by your side. And Travelbag had just that, with 乐播传媒+.

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Following several consecutive global crises many of our people reached out to ask how 乐播传媒 can help. We didn鈥檛 want to say 鈥榶es鈥� to one cause and 鈥榥o鈥� to another 鈥� instead we wanted a partnership that could support as many people as possible. That鈥檚 why we鈥檝e teamed up with Save the Children, a global charity that helps millions of children and families across the world and responds immediately in times of crisis.

Save the Children not only helps children and families in emergency situations, it champions for the world鈥檚 most vulnerable young people, who face extreme poverty, or are discriminated against because of their gender, disability or ethnicity.

And these shared values and commitment to learning make Save the Children a perfect charity partner for us. 乐播传媒 is also passionate about educating and empowering young people through our internship, graduate, and work experience programmes, with a focus on empowering women in STEM in particular.

FUNDRAISING THROUGH EPIC EVENTS

Earlier this year, we kicked off an internal鈥痵taff fundraising program to raise money through a series of activities. The theme was ‘Epic Events’, and teams who took part were challenged to face their fear for charity.

But this was no ordinary fundraising drive. We’re talking swimming with sharks, spending the night in a haunted house, climbing mountains, rowing rivers, and even learning how to swim in order to compete in a triathlon.

SHARK BAIT

Swimming with dolphins may be on a lot of people鈥檚 bucket list, but sharks? Nuh-uh. But that鈥檚 exactly what we challenged two colleagues from our Dubai office to do. And not only have they never been scuba diving before, one is so scared of sharks he won鈥檛 even swim in the sea. Watch below as the Shark Bait team face their fear and get dropped in to a tank with four HUNDRED sharks. Gulp.

GHOULS IN THE HOUSE

Most work trips include staying in a nice, comfy hotel. But not this one. This might just be the scariest trip 乐播传媒 has ever boo-ked, as five colleagues from across the UK and Ireland stay overnight at the Ancient Ramm Inn, reported to be the most haunted house in the UK. Watch if you dare, as the Ghouls in the House team face their fear of ghosts, witches, and demons.

INTERN MILAN

Ain鈥檛 no mountain high enough to stop our 乐播传媒 interns. They were challenged to hike a whopping 80 kilometres in just four days through the Alps of France, Italy, and Switzerland. Hit play below to see the blister-burning footage of our newest recruits going round the Alps in 80ks.

TAKE ON THE THAMES

Row row row your boat, gently down鈥he UK鈥檚 largest river? We challenged 50 乐播传媒 employees to take on an epic rowing adventure, traveling 23 miles along the Thames in a series of team relay races. Each crew has to row for about an hour 鈥� that鈥檚 gonna mean some sore arms tomorrow. Catch the action below.

OLD DOGS

They say you can鈥檛 teach old dogs new tricks. They haven鈥檛 met this 乐播传媒 team, whose epic fundraising challenge was to complete their first ever triathlon. Oh, and there鈥檚 a catch. The person doing the swimming part of the race has to learn how to swim in order to compete. Yep, you read that right. Tune in below.

We believe that our organization and our people can make a real difference. And we’re glad to do it in partnership with Save the Children.

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Summer 2023 saw some pretty extreme weather events take place across the globe. From fires in Greece, Hawaii, and across Europe, to heavy smog in New York and typhoons in China 鈥� and even Burning Man, an event known for dry heat and high temperatures, ended in flash flooding. Climate change was quite literally a hot topic for people and vacationers everywhere this year.

And this directly impacts travel agencies. In the short term, obviously you鈥檝e got more requests for last minute changes and cancellations. Seasonal unpredictability and climate change may, in future, also create shifts in booking patterns e.g. around lead times or destination popularity.

Travelers want to make informed choices and travel retailers have a responsibility to help them do so. The challenge across the industry is how do we provide this level of detail, at scale.

 

At 乐播传媒, we think eco-conscious travel starts with making more informed decisions. We鈥檙e doing our part by equipping agencies with tools to address emerging and changing customer expectations, especially when it comes to eco-conscious travel options. After all, modern retailing is about adapting to what customers need.

CONSUMERS ARE NOW WILLING TO DO MORE

Earlier this year, we shared research which showed just how much customers care about sustainability.

They want to know more about the effects of their journeys 鈥� 71% of leisure travelers, and 80% of business travelers said they want more information on carbon impacts to help them assess their journey options.

And travelers are ready to adjust their actions in real time to align with the cause, as our findings showed they鈥檙e willing to choose options that could take from their own wallet. Almost half of those surveyed (49%) said they would pay more for a route with lower environmental impact.

This shows that modern consumers care about the environment more than ever. So when you think or talk about modern retailing, sustainability and other ethical considerations have to be part of that conversation. We think this is going to be a huge priority for retailers into the future.

Travelers want to make informed choices and travel retailers have a responsibility to help them do so. The challenge across the industry is how do we provide this level of detail, at scale.

Robyn Binks, Senior Product Manager, 乐播传媒

听 听 听

CORPORATE TRAVEL IS SHOWING A GREATER APPETITE

When it comes to sustainability, we believe corporate travel managers are going to play a huge role. While individuals like you or I aren鈥檛 typically held to account over our carbon footprint in our private lives, businesses and other big organizations are scrutinized more heavily. And that means: TMCs need to be enabled to understand the carbon emission impact of a trip, so everyone can make an informed decision.

As our Chief Technology Officer Tom Kershaw : expecting a consumer to spend an extra $100 for a longer layover to save on carbon emissions during their trip might be too much to ask for. But a corporate travel manager has the budget to incorporate that need.

We鈥檝e already seen many companies announce their goals to become carbon neutral or achieve net zero emissions. Reputation, regulatory, customer and even employee pressures are changing the way companies think and act when it comes to managing carbon emissions from business travel. And, for teams where travel is a necessity, corporate travel managers must measure and report on emissions data, while equally providing what the traveler needs.

Expecting a consumer to spend an extra $100 for a longer layover to save on carbon emissions during their trip might be too much to ask for. But a corporate travel manager has the budget to incorporate that need.

We can鈥檛 forget that corporate travelers have their own environmental ambitions to account for too. So, businesses with reduction targets and eco-conscious travelers need to be able to access travel options that are accurate, credible and transparent about sustainability. And, they need the right technology to help do it.

WHAT NEW TECHNOLOGY CAN DO

Two things that are important when it comes to sustainability, accuracy and transparency. We must predict well in advance what the likely emissions are going to be. And we need to make that information readily available, and technology is the key to doing it. This is why we continuously adapt and update 乐播传媒 products.

We know that customers are asking agencies more and more: what purchasing choices really make a difference? To be able to answer that, agents need accurate, transparent emissions data, on a consistent basis, and for every trip searched for.

That鈥檚 why 乐播传媒 has partnered with a not-for-profit organisation, and coalition working to bring consistent, reliable sustainability information to agents and travelers. The Travalyst coalition has aligned on a single way to publish CO2 emission estimates for flights and the chosen method is the Travel Impact Model (TIM), a framework developed by Google that is publicly available.

And thanks to our partnership with Travalyst, powered by the TIM, we鈥檝e just launched a new carbon emission estimation tool in our platform, 乐播传媒+.

This displays higher, typical, or lower options based on the estimated median CO2 emissions for the route being searched. For agents, this means being able to compare options across carriers, and present that information back to the buyer. So now, when you search for a flight on 乐播传媒+, you see the price, duration, and carbon emission estimates.

For TMCs, this makes it easier than ever to service business travelers who want to know the finer details of their trip, including information on flight emissions.

The good news is, these features are available in one place, 乐播传媒+, and can be accessed via Smartpoint Cloud, Desktop, and API. And the advantage for airlines is that agents can offer the most suitable flight for their customer, using a consistent, and publicly available model. Now, when you decide to book travel, you鈥檝e got three options that can easily be considered, all in one place: the journey time, the cost, and the environmental impact.

WORKING WITH OTHERS TO AFFECT CHANGE

Right now, software and tools provide vital visibility into eco-conscious trip choices. But the bigger picture is, driving real change means adopting an attitude.

The industry as a whole needs to be transparent about eco-conscious information across all travel options, but also it鈥檚 about instilling change for the future with new, higher standards of monitoring our impact on the environment.

Co-operation and collaboration is vital, and at 乐播传媒, we鈥檙e ready to help. Through our Travalyst partnership, we鈥檙e taking an active role in industry-wide collaboration: to drive transparency and consistency in sustainability data necessary to empower travel agents and travel managers.

Now, when you decide to book travel, you鈥檝e got three options that can easily be considered, all in one place: the journey time, the cost, and the environmental impact.

And, our commitment to industry partnerships doesn’t stop there, as 乐播传媒 is one of the founding members of the Global Business Travel Association’s (GBTA) Sustainability Leadership Council. As the first travel retailing platform to join this we鈥檙e driving cross-industry collaboration between the consumers and the providers of corporate travel services.

People will always need and want to travel. But, planned more mindfully, travel can be used to create positive change. And collectively, we can provide customers with the tools and information to make better choices.

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Tom Kershaw, 乐播传媒’s Chief Technology Officer, talks about the current state of NDC, real progress in 2023, and moving the needle on adoption.

What’s your perspective on NDC?

We鈥檙e excited to see more than a decade of ruminations and machinations finally come to some fruition. We鈥檙e excited to see NDC launch at scale. The听听has really got the industry energized towards getting a system in place, and that鈥檚 led to a lot of really healthy discussions around the role of distribution and how you allow airlines to customize.

We got American launched on 乐播传媒+ in Q4 2022, and it has been an exciting couple of months. The scramble can be a little bit difficult for some, but it鈥檚 an exciting time to see all that stuff coming to fruition and us collectively debating some of the fundamental challenges that NDC faces.

One is that it has to work just like all of the rest of the content, but the airlines are purposely doing it so they can differentiate their content. So how you allow airlines to customize what鈥檚 on the shelves and differentiate and compete with each other while also applying a common adjustable agent experience is quite challenging. This has finally got the industry talking to each other for the first time, which is really helpful.

I think a lot of the the work in IATA was fairly prescriptive and technical, and now that we鈥檙e deploying in the real world some of these fundamental challenges are really coming to the surface. One of the most important of those challenges is you can customize, change and personalize the offer, but it still has to fit in a screen eight inches by eight inches wide. You鈥檝e got a small amount of real estate to present all the travel options to the agent and the traveler so that reality sometimes butts up against the desire of the airlines to customize so it has been an interesting journey.

What progress has been made in the past year on NDC?

We鈥檝e started to see several European carriers launch, some at scale. We鈥檙e still talking, as an industry, about a vast minority of itineraries on NDC, and I think it will be way sub-50% for many years to come. We鈥檙e starting to see some unique offerings come to the channel, and that鈥檚 starting to see NDC rolling as a viable alternative, but there鈥檚 still a lot to work out.

I think initially the industry thought NDC was going to Balkanize travel and was going to mean maintaining multiple connections to multiple airlines. What we鈥檝e realized is that it鈥檚 actually more conducive to an aggregator model or distribution model than traditional [distribution]. Because of the variations, because it鈥檚 got different workflows, different seat selection and different fare classes, you really do need a distribution mechanism to normalize all that and make it consumable by the user.

You mentioned the travel industry talking to each other more. Does that go for the agency community as well?

The agency community – I think it was sitting on the sidelines watching NDC evolve, and it was initially very much a supplier-driven technology around moving the system record, allowing customization and changes that agents were not actively engaging in a dialogue about how to make all this work. They certainly are now.

So having agents active in the process is going to help the travel industry because for the first time we鈥檙e going to have a marketplace. Instead of buyers and sellers kind of trying to game each other and not cooperating, the collaboration we鈥檙e starting to see is going to lead to a fair and neutral marketplace where everyone benefits and you have some level of standardization and commonality around how these things are done.

Just the prospects of a standards-based open community marketplace concept is exciting because it鈥檚 something the travel industry has been missing for a long time.

You mentioned NDC being sub-50% of itineraries for some time. What will it take to move the needle?

Once we have something that is consumable by the agent and consumable by the end traveler on a screen, you will really start to see this take off because there are some real advantages to being able to personalize and customize offers.

Until NDC, it was really a “one size fits all” offering to the agents, and now we can start to think about how to customize it or dynamically alter the offer based on both supply and demand conditions. Across much of travel, we have to deliver incentives and benefits to our technology to entice people to use it, and up until now, and with NDC, that鈥檚 a bunch of cost and a bunch of changes that have to be made without really providing any benefit to the traveler. Now we鈥檙e starting to see some really interesting concepts around pricing and personalization come into the NDC channel and a more varied offering.

Instead of three choices to fly to New York, there are a lot of nuances. You can decouple stuff, you can add ancillaries, you can add special seat selection, you can take advantage of special fare offers that come and go depending on marketing conditions. So now that you鈥檙e starting to see the effects on the traveler, I think it will take off.

But there鈥檚 still a long way to go, because there are still some pretty serious technical challenges to NDC. Because every NDC carrier is almost like it鈥檚 own marketplace when you have 20, 30, 40 NDC connections, all of which are different, that鈥檚 where the industry really is going to face some challenges, and that鈥檚 where we鈥檙e focused right now. How can you make a multi-supplier experience consumable and scalable? It used to be we aggregated across multiple airlines; now each one has it鈥檚 own nuances and differences.

The other challenge has been around the commercial innovation. Do you see movement there?

I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 really been a huge challenge. There was this common narrative that NDC was about changing commercials. I think we鈥檝e seen the ability to change commercials independent of NDC. You don鈥檛 have to move your tech stack to get to a new commercial model. I think the reason NDC exists is to allow customization. It鈥檚 to give airlines control over the product that appears on the shelf, and I think that鈥檚 understandable.

In parallel it has helped to prompt conversations around new business models and those are welcome. The industry does need to think creatively about how to price, how to run a fair and neutral marketplace based on the value you鈥檙e providing, so we welcome some of these conversations.

In any industry, we talk about technology being the cool thing that transforms everything, but commercial innovation is equally important and coming up with pricing models or bundles that are subscription-based or transaction-based is going to be important. I think that providing services that are not fully integrated, the traditional [global distribution systems] is a fully integrated model, means you can think about the pieces of what we do – managing data, ticketing and exchanges – that really can go across multiple supply sources.

That鈥檚 what NDC has done to us; we now have to provide all these services to independent supply sources. We haven鈥檛 seen watershed change in the business model, but it鈥檚 at least prompting that discussion, and it鈥檚 going to lead to some creative outcomes.

Do you foresee a future of microservices?

I think microservices or services that cut across multiple supply sources, that鈥檚 what NDC is. If I look at what 乐播传媒 has done, we used to have our services that apply to this big pool of content, now they are written to apply to each individual airline implementation, and that means we have built stuff that works across multiple supply sources. I think you will start to see more of a horizontal approach to delivering travel services.

Another thing it will allow us to do is around the search process. In our industry it鈥檚 free and that鈥檚 where the growth is. The search volumes go up daily and are already way ahead of pre-pandemic levels because there are more options in the funnel as well as the decoupling of ancillaries, but no one monetizes that. We monetize ticketing, so that鈥檚 another example where if you鈥檙e really good at search you can eventually think about turning it into a stand-alone business. That would be completely anathema to everything that currently exists.

The reason I love NDC is because it鈥檚 disruptive, and it gives us a chance to rethink some of the things we鈥檝e been doing over and over again for decades and a hearty dose of technical change is very welcome.

IATA has a goal of getting rid of electronic miscellaneous documents, passenger name records and e-tickets by 2030. That would mean NDC and related developments would have taken 20 years to implement, but even then is it realistic?

“Getting rid of” is a phrase I struggle with. I think we鈥檒l get the majority of the way there, that last 2% in travel is always the hardest. The hardest thing for us in the industry is the PNR [passenger name record]. It鈥檚 the anchor of our business; all our processes and back office systems are built around it.

ONE Order [the industry initiative intended to simplify airline reservation systems] has been kind of the hardest nut for the industry to crack because there are so many dependencies on it, so many variations in PNR structure. It often lives on legacy systems, which means it’s harder to modify and move, and you鈥檝e got this all-over-the-map approach to ONE Order where on one side we talk about where we are today then someone says, “Let鈥檚 do it all in blockchain.” We need some disruption, but it also needs to be realistic, and the idea that you鈥檇 rip the guts out of the industry and replace it with a blockchain-based system is probably a little ambitious.

Another interesting thing with NDC that people don鈥檛 talk about is that it should be the end of the debit memo. There should be no more dispute over charges because everything is anchored in the system, but getting to a debit memo-free world where everyone is happy and hugging in the street is going to take a little bit of effort, so we鈥檙e going to have to see how these things play out.

SAS delayed then abandoned its wholesale model, Air France-KLM delayed its surcharge implementation for a second time. Why is it the industry can鈥檛 quite hit these deadlines?

Not to apologize for travel too much, but every industry in the world sets deadlines it misses. I can think of the end of the third-party cookie, which was supposed to be gone last year. With these big, multi-layer projects that involve hundreds of different vendors or, in our case, airlines and agencies and the front-end online booking tools, there are lots of pieces that come together.

One of the big challenges NDC faces is that you end up having to do normalization and translation in the booking tool. It鈥檚 really hard to do technically, but in general when you have this many pieces trying to come together, delays are inevitable, and one of the challenges is that we really don鈥檛 have robust standards in the industry.

The IATA standard for NDC, as you know, has many different versions, the airline customizes it. We have a new schema coming out this year, which is going to be a breaking change, which means it has to be completely recoded. So that lack of standards has led to a lot of challenges and delays because you can鈥檛 have 30 standards, you can have one or two. And you can鈥檛 take a standard and change it around because of convenience to you.

That lack of standardization has hampered what the industry is trying to do, and also the fact that our industry is by its very nature global also creates challenges as there are all these regional variations that have to be taken into account. We鈥檙e getting better, but I do think the technology in the industry is slower than many other industries.

Do you think there鈥檚 more appetite to gather around a sort of master standard?

No. Do I feel like that the revolution has occurred and everyone has come together? No. I still feel frustrated by the lack of standardization, the lack of community participation. I鈥檓 also frustrated by the lack of open source and standards in the industry. It鈥檚 getting better, but NDC is an example where if we get some of these things standardized much better, we could probably move at a pace, which is five times where we are today because we wouldn鈥檛 have to make all these customizations in the point of sale and front-end systems. We could have a common approach to things.

Is it because the travel industry is not good at getting together and talking about things?

I think agents and airlines have a little bit of an adversarial relationship that鈥檚 totally unnecessary, and we鈥檙e now starting to engage in dialogues that are better. I also think organizations like IATA are just too big and global. You see smaller grassroots organizations coming together to solve problems and to put solutions into real production even before they鈥檙e really ready, to really experiment and innovate and iterate on problems.

As you see smaller groups in our industry come together and do that, to complement what IATA is doing, you鈥檒l start to see some real change. You鈥檙e starting to see that in the environment and sustainability space, for example, where groups are coming together and they are really innovating and creating some community property around some of the stuff. If we could take that and apply it to big, meaty commercial problems, you鈥檇 start to see some exciting stuff happen.

So is it the lack of standards or lack of collaboration?

Certainly, it鈥檚 the lack of a standards. By nature NDC is kind of an airline wanting to put its own differentiating fingerprint on its content, and that sometimes is at odds with an agent needing to provide multiple options to the consumer. So that lack of dialogue and standardization has without a doubt hampered the ability of NDC to grow and changes to the standard also hold us back. The definition of new in our industry is a little bit different in others.

What real progress regarding NDC do you see in 2023?

I think we鈥檒l start to see an additional 30 or so carriers who launch NDC at various stages of readiness. We are about to cross that threshold where you can do one or two, but when you have 30 you absolutely have to have a standard. The role of distribution is growing, not shrinking, and we鈥檙e going to have to make hard decisions about how we normalize 30 different carriers, plus all the existing content we have through our ATPCO [Airline Tariff Publishing Co.] connections.

So we鈥檙e going to see duplicative content inventory, and this is what the internet has been doing well for years – this flood of very similar content that we have to de-duplicate, score and personalize and deliver. When you get to 10-plus carriers in the NDC channel, you鈥檙e going to see some really interesting things happen.

While commercially it can be a challenging problem, it鈥檚 a really fun technical problem to try and take these disparate things and put them on a shelf in a way that鈥檚 consumable by the average person 鈥� who, by the way, doesn鈥檛 care about any of this complexity and doesn鈥檛 know what fare class means and doesn鈥檛 want to to know. That鈥檚 the fun challenge that鈥檚 coming this year, and I think we鈥檒l cross the thresholds this year where you start to get sufficient scale in NDC that it really becomes a first-class citizen in travel.

Does the fact that full-service carriers have gone ahead and developed some of these solutions and are fully engrossed in NDC make it easier for those coming behind?

That鈥檚 the theory. It鈥檚 like the new version we鈥檙e putting out this year; [we think] this is the one, this is the standard, it won鈥檛 vary anymore. It鈥檚 one of those things I have to see to believe. There are best practices out there now.

When we do an implementation, we can copy some of the things we have done from the previous six carries so the seventh becomes slightly easier, but I also think that as it starts to scale the temptation from airlines to differentiate and deviate from standard practice is going to put more pressure on companies like 乐播传媒 to do those translations and normalizations.

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Missed out on the coverage? Take a look at some of the highlights below and check out the full adventure here.

FORBES

New world record set For visiting 7 Wonders Of The world In 7 days

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CNN

Adventureman sets world record by visiting Seven Wonders in seven days

Watch this man break a world record by visiting the Seven Wonders of the World in seven days

鈥� CNN (@CNN)

REUTERS

Traveler visits seven wonders in record time

This adventurer from the UK traveled to all seven wonders of the world in less than seven days, setting a new world record

鈥� Reuters (@Reuters)

ABC NEWS

Traveler sets record visiting seven wonders in seven days

WONDER WANDER: A British adventurer has set a new Guinness World Record by reaching all seven Wonders of the World in less than seven days.

鈥� ABC News (@ABC)

BBC NEWS

Gloucestershire man sets travel record around Seven Wonders

Man sets travel record around Seven Modern Wonders of the World

鈥� BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews)

USA TODAY

Seven world wonders in less than a week: Man sees The Great Wall, Taj Mahal and more to set new record

Seven Wonders of the World in under seven days: Now that’s a new Guinness World Record!

鈥� USA TODAY (@USATODAY)

INSIDE EDITION

British 鈥楢dventureman鈥� Sees 7 Wonders of the World in 7 Days

Jamie McDonald, hailing from Gloucester, England and proudly going by the name 鈥淎dventureman,鈥� recently achieved a world record by seeing the seven wonders in seven days.

鈥� Inside Edition (@InsideEdition)

TRAVOLUTION

乐播传媒 and Adventureman set a new world record

乐播传媒 and Adventureman set a new world record

鈥� Travolution (@travolution)

THE PHILLIPINE STAR

A man set foot on all seven wonders of the world鈥攈ere鈥檚 how he did it

TRAVEL GOALS! ✈

The Guinness World Records put the spotlight on Jamie McDonald, also known as 鈥淎dventureman,鈥� for achieving his goal in just six days and 16 hours. | via

READ:

鈥� The Philippine Star (@PhilippineStar)

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HEART RADIO

Adventureman chats to Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston on the 7 Wonders Challenge

ITV NEWS

Adventureman chats to Dan Walker and Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije on 7 Wonders

CHANNEL 5 NEWS

Ruth Liptrot watches Adventureman’s video diary

TODAY (AUSTRALIA)

Adventureman makes the news in Australia

China Central TV

CCTV cover Adventureman’s world-record-setting trip

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LADbible

Brit sets world record by visiting every world wonder in less than a week

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The post 7 Wonders in the News appeared first on 乐播传媒.

Today we鈥檙e pleased to announce that American Airlines NDC content is available to all 乐播传媒 customers ahead of American Airlines planned changeover date and ahead of our original planned go live date.

We were one of the first to market with American Airlines NDC content in 乐播传媒+, covering not only booking, but end-to-end servicing including cancellations and modifications too. And for those customers on other 乐播传媒 platforms, we鈥檙e live with shop, price and book, with modifications coming in Mid-April. To make a modification prior to that time, you must contact American Sales Support directly. However, keep in mind that American鈥檚 Basic Economy fares are ineligible for ticket changes anyway and we鈥檙e aiming to have modifications live in Mid-April. We will update you as the ability to modify American NDC bookings becomes available.

Soon we鈥檒l be bringing United Airlines NDC content to 乐播传媒-connected agencies in the same manner. Customers are already testing United鈥檚 NDC content on our platforms today, and the capability will roll out to customers not yet upgraded to 乐播传媒+ over the coming weeks.

Our commitment remains to be 鈥渁ny content, any time, anywhere.鈥� Unlike our competitors, we鈥檙e focused on enabling great NDC for travel agents, not just suppliers. And our solution for NDC addresses everything 鈥� not only booking, but end-to-end servicing including cancellations and modifications, too. All this helps give our agents and their travelers the easier modern retailing experience they expect.

乐播传媒+ continues to be our focus, as our retailing platform delivering modern retailing for travel sellers everywhere. It is based on a fully modern microservices architecture, is cloud-first, and contains many of the features the modern travel agent values (features such as automated exchanges, advanced configurable flight search, and highly scalable order management). But we always recognized that some of our customers would not be fully deployed on the new platform in early 2023, and that critical content would also need to be accessible through each of our platforms.

We remain a strong partner with both American and United for their distribution of content and will continue to provide our agency customers with access to the best content and the best end-to-end customer experience. In fact, we were the first to launch American鈥檚 NDC content on 乐播传媒+ back in Q2 2022, and our NDC development with United is in testing and nearing completion.

Dave Bartels, Vice President of Pricing and Revenue Management at United Airlines, shares, 鈥淯nited is excited to be working together with 乐播传媒 on our NDC initiative to provide tailored content to our customers through the 乐播传媒 subscriber network, which will allow customers to better customize their travel with different amenities and experiences.鈥�

Scott Laurence, Senior Vice President of Partnership Strategy at American Airlines, added, 鈥溊植ゴ� has been an agile partner and was out in front in their release of American鈥檚 NDC content via 乐播传媒+, a key part of our distribution strategy. Enabling American鈥檚 NDC across all platforms is another testimony to the partnership that we have enjoyed.鈥�

Continue to stay tuned to this channel for more updates in the coming weeks.

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Travel retailing software should be picking up the slack 鈥� yet many platforms still force agents to waste valuable hours on unprofitable, repetitive manual tasks. That鈥檚 incredibly frustrating at the best of times. But right now, it鈥檚 a deal-breaker. So, how can under-resourced businesses stay on top of everything and keep customers happy? Let self-service and automation do the heavy lifting.

Supporting travelers is tricky, but understaffing makes it even trickier

Modern customer support is all about finding solutions fast, and technology doing the hard work to keep people happy. But in travel the reality is more complicated, because the customer support journey is twofold:

1. Travelers seeking support from agents
2. Agents seeking support from suppliers to resolve traveler queries

It鈥檚 a very fragmented industry where nobody 鈥榦wns鈥� the whole customer experience, unlike how Amazon fulfils third-party orders from start to finish. Booking a trip isn鈥檛 like ordering a physical product; a trip is the sum of many moving parts that are each fulfilled by different providers.

And as a result, getting support often means dealing with multiple systems, platforms, or channels. This is a whole lot of hassle for agents, who have to spend time trying to figure out varying rules and processes, as well as searching around for information. This eats into the already limited time they have for other tasks, damaging the overall customer experience.

But the truth is: customers don鈥檛 care about all this technical complexity. They just want their problems resolved. And since the pandemic they have different needs 鈥� they don鈥檛 just want help booking, they also want pre-trip, mid-trip, and post-trip advice. They have more insurance and visa queries. And they want agents to explain ticket exchange policies, so they don鈥檛 get caught out. All this means that understaffed agencies aren鈥檛 just doing extra work, it鈥檚 new work too.

Five ways travel can modernize its customer support

Consumers expect trips to be like any other purchase: fast, simple, and hassle-free if you change your mind. But because travel pre-dates the internet, it often falls short of the modern retailing standards offered elsewhere. And, since travelers can do their own research, overstretched agents are now under added pressure to be faster, more informed, and more convenient.

To stay relevant and meet these expectations, travel has no choice but to modernize, and offer a support service similar to the likes of Amazon, Deliveroo, and Shopify. Here鈥檚 what they can teach us:

1. Keep it simple

Travel is fragmented, and yes, that explains why things are the way they are. But consumers expect us to solve that complexity for them. They don鈥檛 want to go through one system for an airline, one for a hotel, one for a car rental, etc. They just want to deal with a single brand/retailer, though a single, centralized platform. Travel agencies are best placed to be that one point of contact, because only they can connect all this fragmentation and support customers at every and any stage of the journey.

2. Anticipate your customers鈥� needs

Customers now expect their profile, past purchases, behavior, shopping cart, and service issues (past and current) to follow them seamlessly from channel to channel, app to web, online to over the phone. But in travel, this often isn鈥檛 the case, so customers end up disappointed during shopping and booking. Agents that have in-person interactions have an advantage, as they can hone in more on customer needs, but online has lagged behind. The travel industry needs to address this. Being an expert consultant is better than relying on an algorithm, especially for first time customers. But to do that, you need the right tools that consolidate all the information and options, and help match customer needs with the right offers.

3. Give people options

Different kinds of problems require different kinds of interventions. Customers expect support to be available through different mediums, i.e. phone, chatbot, email, etc. It鈥檚 not about one method being better or faster than another, they鈥檙e all needed for different purposes. Most modern companies offer customers multiple communication tools. And, they empower them to solve problems themselves, not just because it reduces their own workload, because they know people like being in control. In this sense, self-service is one of the fundamentals of modern customer support.

4. Develop a customer-centric culture

The most successful brands don鈥檛 just think of customer support in terms of helpdesks, they keep service at the heart of every function of the business. That鈥檚 their key differentiator. These companies succeed by making sure customers can get support easily, regardless of how complex the back end of things might be. And this creates a 360潞 view of the customer across all channels. In travel, a properly equipped agency can play that role because they can offer and service the whole trip. And that gives them the single view of the entire customer journey.

5. Automate whatever you can

Manual tasks are the enemy of productivity. For example, processing a single manual refund can take up to half an hour. Multiply that by how many exchange requests an agency typically receives, then consider what that means when the demand for travel soars. You get the picture. This is time agencies simply can鈥檛 afford, and time that would be much better spent selling or dealing with the really complex issues that need human interaction. The solution? Offload manual tasks on technology, and claw back valuable minutes for agents through automation. The most efficient retailers in the world are

Breaking free from manual tasks

Right now, agencies need to be able to solve problems quickly and independently, rather than putting people on hold while they phone an airline or a hotel for help.

乐播传媒+ Productivity Automator allows agents to break free of manual tasks and work more efficiently. It automates the low-value parts of the job, like finding the cheapest price or sourcing multiple options, collating services from different providers, reissuing tickets, and of course, flight changes and refunds. I鈥檓 proud to say, this tool helps agents save an average of 1.5 hours per day on manual tasks.

Empowering people to problem-solve

Like I said, when it comes to problem solving, people want to do things themselves.

For travelers, this means being able to make whatever changes they can, without agent support. That鈥檚 what our Trip Manager portal within 乐播传媒+ allows them to do. Through it, travelers can service their own bookings, check ticket exchange eligibility, and easily select the best alternatives for their needs. This eliminates calls to agencies or airlines, saving valuable time and money.

For agents, doing things independently comes down to finding what you need, when and where you need it. My乐播传媒 is our self-service portal where both agents and suppliers can access knowledge and request assistance, all through a single sign-on. It has an AI-assisted chatbot that answers simple queries, like where to find a certain tool, or resetting a password.

It uses machine learning to develop a better understanding of our customers鈥� needs instead of just reacting to them. In the same way that Google can prioritize what content is displayed on the first page of a search, we help solve customer queries automatically and then prioritize showing them that content. This helps us continuously improve our products too.

Plugging the skills gap in travel

Travel is a highly technical and very specialized sector, so filling roles and upskilling takes longer. Within My乐播传媒, there鈥檚 an online community where users can support each other, get the answers to thousands of FAQs, and receive expert support from our training teams.

Ultimately, this is all about saving time and reducing frustration for people. By removing unnecessary admin, and enabling agents to solve queries themselves, we鈥檙e putting control back in their hands. This accelerates the average onboarding time and helps plug the skills and labor gap that鈥檚 currently constraining our industry.

At 乐播传媒, we know every bit of time saving counts right now. So, we鈥檙e making sure our customers get to use every minute profitably. And we鈥檙e doing that through modern support and facilitating more self-service and automation. Ultimately, that lets agents get on with what they do best: making their customers happy.

The post Staff Shortages? Keep customers happy with modern support appeared first on 乐播传媒.

This makes software 鈥榮ticky鈥� for all the wrong reasons, with customers needing a lot of training to get set up, and new features meaning even more training. Eventually you end up with a bunch of specialists in that particular program, making it a pain to change provider. And you couldn鈥檛 even if you wanted to, because licensing contracts are typically 3+ years with 6-month notice periods. Far too often, this is just the way it is.

User experience isn鈥檛 a fundamental part of strategy for a lot of B2B software. But it can be, should be, and it is for us. And in travel, that amounts to simpler, more satisfying retailing experiences.

The development of design-led products

Today, we take the convenience and simplicity of a SaaS software model for granted. But it鈥檚 only in the last decade 鈥� thanks to high-speed internet 鈥� that in-browser delivery has replaced software installation via disc or download.

Within a few years, this change has opened up a world of choice and convenience for consumers. Products can now be accessed instantly and updated regularly, rather than waiting for two years for another release/installation. And as a result, changing provider is now as easy as opening a tab and entering your card details.

But the world of B2B products hasn鈥檛 moved as quickly as B2C 鈥� because it didn鈥檛 have to. The mindset of adding new features persisted, and so did the habit of pushing complexity on to users. However, once B2B disruptors started building SaaS products, customers began to expect that as standard, forcing widescale change.

Design changes in travel

Consumers today are in a much better position to compare products and make the switch. No industry is exempt from this disruption, including travel. In this way, design has shaken up even traditional industries, like retail banking. If you ask people why they prefer Revolut to a traditional high-street bank, they鈥檒l probably say 鈥渂ecause it鈥檚 faster, cheaper, easier, and more fun to use.鈥� The experience economy has become a competitive arena, and travel is feeling it too.

Although travel desktop booking platforms are highly technical 鈥� with complex rules and cryptic interfaces designed to save time 鈥� often the UX leaves a lot to be desired. Rich user interfaces are progressing, but usually just mask the same old complex setup with a glossier storefront. And meanwhile, travel API design has continued with only developers from within our industry in mind, making it hard to hire from elsewhere.

In short, a lot of the change has been superficial. Travel still desperately needs better user experiences that save time, enable upsell and cross-sell, and help with complex tasks like comparing offers, evaluating seat maps, and exploring hotel properties. And beyond desktop, travel needs lightweight API design that鈥檚 more consistent with other industries.

乐播传媒 has a team of people dedicated to designing and building consumer grade apps, like . This expertise is now at the heart of designing 乐播传媒+ products and improving the experience to give the B2B market a consumer grade experience too. This is helping us create the next generation of simpler, more effective Cloud-based products.

The ingredients for design-thinking

Understanding problems lets you solve problems. But many companies are struggling to get this bit right. At 乐播传媒, we鈥檝e developed a set of design best practice principles from thousands of hours of user research, which help us stay true to solving our customers鈥� problems above all else.

OBVIOUS OVER SUBTLE

It鈥檚 easy to overcomplicate things. Keeping it simple starts with focusing on what鈥檚 most important. For example, 70% of the calls that travel agents get are to ask: 鈥渃an I change my flight?鈥� They waste a lot of time looking for the answer: 鈥測es鈥�, 鈥渘o鈥�, or 鈥渋t鈥檒l cost you.鈥� Agents tell us they need to be able to easily find this information above all else, but normally it鈥檚 hidden away in complicated rules, terms and conditions. So, we prioritized that need 鈥� providing agents with a yes or no answer and some indication of cost 鈥� rather than taking the old B2B approach of making the agent figure it out for themselves.

THE RIGHT STUFF, NOT ALL THE STUFF

In travel, there鈥檚 lots of choice. One of the biggest challenges consumers and agents face is navigating that choice. The wrong approach is showing every option and forcing the customer to wade through all of it to make a decision. Instead, the focus should be on showing what we know matters most 鈥� not guessing what might be most important. It鈥檚 about showing the right offers, at the right time, to the right person.

For example, we know from research that agents searching for hotels really just want to see a few bits of critical information in the initial search response. They focus on (1) the lowest price that meets their requirements and (2) the rate status (non-refundable vs refundable). Both pieces of data are critical in the initial set of results, so the agent can then focus on other important criteria, like amenities and location.

CONSISTENT OVER NOVEL

Better user experiences are created through familiar patterns that make customers feel at home using your products. We know there鈥檚 a generation of agents who know and love cryptic interfaces 鈥� that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e building our next generation

Smartpoint Cloud to both support existing ways of working and transition everyone to a new world of choice in travel retailing.

We鈥檝e also created a design system to deliver greater consistency across our entire product suite. That means: a set of guidelines and components 鈥� like buttons, icons, logos, and colors 鈥� that helps us create better user experiences.

Design systems are used by the best brands everywhere, from to . If you use any Google apps, or an Android smartphone, you鈥檒l be very familiar with , even if you never heard of it. Material design makes Google鈥檚 products feel like Google products, even on an iPhone. At 乐播传媒, our helps us work at scale to quickly build better, more coherent experiences for our customers.

Channeling feedback into design

Because customer needs are constantly changing, you need to get continuous product feedback. That鈥檚 how you keep product roadmaps focused on customer needs. But the travel industry has traditionally used slow feedback loops, where software providers build a product, release it, and monitor usage, with a feedback cycle planned every 12 months or so. And that makes these companies less agile.

Consider the earlier example about flight-exchange eligibility. During the pandemic, we dove deeper into customers鈥� specific needs in this area, and responded with a new solution. Rather than simply moving on to the next feature, we then validated that it worked in practice. It did, and it鈥檚 been invaluable during COVID-19.

Product telemetry, on the other hand, lets companies react to change as quickly as possible. We鈥檝e been building products based on customer data we鈥檙e capturing, looking beyond research to product analytics and heat maps to improve design. This isn鈥檛 revolutionary in B2C, but it鈥檚 something B2B companies have been slower to adopt. Tools like Google Analytics and FullStory can help you understand how your product is being used. You learn faster, and therefore improve faster.

Designing simpler travel retailing experiences

Well-designed products enable simpler, better travel retailing. When decision-making is easier, agents don鈥檛 have to click between multiple tabs to compare offers. That makes them faster and more efficient. The same goes for platforms that offer greater self-service. But that all requires trust 鈥� trust that they鈥檙e seeing the right offers, and trust that their software is designed to meet their needs.

B2B software providers need people to continue using their product because they want to, not because it鈥檚 too complicated to change. They can do that by focusing on solving customer needs, and making their life easier. Design is the way to do this, and that鈥檚 why design-led products are competitive products. In travel, they offer agencies an entirely different kind of value 鈥� and the bookings prove it.

The post Designing Simpler Experiences appeared first on 乐播传媒.

The headline: travel retail is in need of modernization. It has lagged behind other industries for far too long, and there are things we can do right now to help propel it into the future.

1. Let鈥檚 lobby for more time off for our employees. Not just for altruistic reasons; it makes business sense for the sector.

TED Talk superstar and Ogilvy legend, Rory Sutherland deep-dived into the topic of creative thinking and looking at things differently, giving practical examples of how this can be applied. He covered insights into how travel business can improve, to why you might want to think about installing a second dishwasher during your next kitchen remodel (no, really). You can catch his full talk .

One radical idea that Rory suggested was for the travel industry to lobby the US government for more time off for employees 鈥� not just for the employees鈥� benefit, but for the good of the entire sector.

鈥淚f I were in the travel industry in the United States, I’d spent 90% of my lobbying budget lobbying for four weeks of guaranteed paid vacation. I don’t understand why you don’t do that. Bernie Sanders was the only person they thought he was mad. I didn’t think he was mad.

鈥淭he reason 40% of Americans don鈥檛 have a passport isn’t because they’re uninterested in traveling. It’s because they don鈥檛 have time to go anywhere. Given that money spent in leisure time is actually more labor intensive than money spent on goods, it would probably benefit the American economy if people had more time to spend it.

鈥淎nd this isn鈥檛 a mad idea. Henry Ford largely created the two-day weekend for his workers. Not entirely out of his own beneficence, but because he felt that if that spread, if the two-day weekend spread across American workers, then it would be worth buying a car.

鈥淗enry Ford asked a different question, which was not, how can I get my workers to work as hard as possible? He asked the question: is it possible to create more leisure in wider society so that it’s actually worth owning a car in the first place? And I think we often, we need to ask more interesting questions.鈥�

2. Travel retailing needs to work like the internet to fix the experience gap

Jen Catto, CMO of 乐播传媒, introduced new research at the event which showed the need for our industry to make big changes. She talked about the experience gap that exists in the industry.

While 鈥渢ravel is the number one most enjoyable thing for people, they find shopping for travel to be decidedly underwhelming, creating a chasmic experience gap.鈥� For example, in the US (the largest travel region), 43% of respondents said they don鈥檛 find booking travel enjoyable. However, 95% of that same group enjoy actually being on holiday.

Jen outlined a new vision where travel retailing can become 鈥渕ore like the internet鈥�. With standard taxonomy (there are more than 60 different branded names for the 鈥榩remium economy鈥� seat alone), common standards, and a more collaborative approach travel retailing, we can help achieve this.

鈥淎ll of this would make the process much faster, cheaper, and an overall better user experience. And what鈥檚 more modern than building things together?鈥�听

3. Travel鈥檚 moment for the metaverse has arrived

Whether you believe the hype or not, it鈥檚 impossible to talk about the future of travel retailing without looking to the metaverse. Expert Consultant, Steve Bambury, introduced three applications for metaverse in travel during our event in Dubai.

The first application, which has been around for several years, is using VR to showcase a destination or travel experience. Users can explore the travel experience using VR tools today like Wander, Sygic Travel, and Travel World VR as examples of how virtual reality can help travelers virtually 鈥渟ee鈥� a place, which can 鈥渃reate the emotive drive to see it for real鈥�.

Next, Steve predicts that every travel business is going to have a shop or a building in the metaverse to reach the customers there. And like the real world, the most important thing to think about is location, location, location. The land next to Nike or Atari or Snoop Dog is at a premium because that鈥檚 where the highest virtual footfall will be. These parcels of land have increased by 10 to 20 times versus the price they were at a year ago.

听Steve also says in the next five to 15 years, we鈥檙e going to be looking at holidays in the metaverse. 鈥淪hould I go to France in real life, or maybe Ancient Rome or the fictional island of Atlantis in the Metaverse? As ridiculous as this might sound it is a distinct possibility 鈥� the idea of virtual trips to impossible places, to the past, to the future,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople aren鈥檛 going to stop taking real trips, but they will start to supplement their in-real-life travel with crazy stuff like this.鈥�

4. You can measure people鈥檚 experiences using wearable devices. We put it to the test in Dubai.

During the event in Dubai, the audience wore a smart wearable wristband to monitor mood, energy, and reaction to content.听We wanted to measure the unconscious and emotive response to the materials they were shown at the event. People are irrational beings, and the traditional method of self-reporting or asking people what they think is inherently biased. What if we could see what they feel, and predict what they were going to do in future, based on the data? Paul Zak, founder of Immersion gave an amazing talk on topic.

鈥淥ftentimes we measure what鈥檚 easy to measure 鈥� clicks, likes, views 鈥� and we see that as valuable intel on what people are feeling, but it鈥檚 not,鈥� Zak says. 鈥淎ttention just opens the door to having an amazing experience. The experience is actually the emotional state, the feeling state that you get.鈥�

鈥淎nd highly emotional experiences you want to repeat, you remember them and they motivate us to share the experience with others.鈥� At the end of Paul鈥檚 talk he put the algorithm to the test and showed which speakers at our Dubai event held people鈥檚 attention the most, kept them engaged and excited, and which topics struggled to get the pulses moving.

Paul introduced the SIRTA methodology for travel companies to work with to create an extraordinary experience. By analyzing the brains of more than 50,000 people to measure their unconscious reactions, Paul says his agency has formulated a five-stage plan to creating a highly emotional, 鈥渁mazing鈥� experience.

• Staging: Paul describes staging as making a customer feel comfortable. In the case of a travel provider, this can be done by saving user preferences and using artificial intelligence to streamline and expedite the booking experience.
• Immersion: The next step is immersion, which can take the form of providing photos and content that help the consumer understand what the experience will look and feel like before, during, and after a trip.
• Relevance: Paul says consumers respond more positively when digital interactions with a brand are relevant and customized to their needs.
• Target: Brands should target their most loyal customers. 鈥淭he super fans will work for you for free,鈥� Paul says. 鈥淟et them help you. Leverage their energy, their passion, their emotion … they鈥檙e also the greatest test market.鈥�
• Action: And finally, Paul says to solidify the experience with a clear call-to-action.

5. Does green travel sell? Yes, but it depends on the sector you鈥檙e in.

There was no debating that sustainability is important. After all, working in the travel industry is a celebration of the incredible wonders to be explored across the world. But do consumers care enough about sustainability to vote with their wallets, and pay more, or potentially even inconvenience themselves slightly, for greener options? During a discussion on the topic, we heard from all sides on the conversation.

Jason Toothman, Chief Commercial Officer, Agency at 乐播传媒 introduced some research on the topic, explaining that 82% of people said sustainable travel was important to them. Half (48%), however, said they would opt for such trips only if it didn鈥檛 inconvenience them. And convenience isn鈥檛 the only limitation. Only 4% said sustainability was primary consideration when booking a trip.

John Bevan, Divisional Senior Vice President at Dnata Travel Group, says companies such as his have to figure out how to provide meaningful climate impact data to their corporate clients. 鈥淭hey have huge targets, very fast targets to net zero. They want to know what is the least impact route to go from A to B. Once we鈥檝e cracked that and have reliable data, then that will automatically appear in leisure and influence leisure travelers,鈥� Bevan says. 鈥淪o I think through necessity and through setting strict targets, the corporate businesses are putting pressure on us.鈥�

Steve Barrass, Chief Executive Officer, of TAG 鈥� an agency that also caters for a lot of celebrity travel 鈥� said that green travel is an emerging and major consideration for his clientele. He said while carbon footprint reduction 鈥� not carbon offsetting 鈥� is the best solution, at a minimum 鈥渆verybody should be doing something鈥�, including individual leisure travelers. 鈥淚s it going to cost more? Yes. How will we deal with that cost? Some will be passed on to the customer, some providers are reducing margins … because it鈥檚 the right thing to do. And is it going to be less convenient? Yes. But the price, I promise you, is worth it,鈥� he says.

Nicole Sautter, Manager of Global Sustainability for American Express Global Business Travel, explained what her company is doing in this area:

1. Track & report on Co2 for clients
2. Influence choice at POS
3. Offset and empower clients to offset
4. Promote SAF (sustainable aviation fuel).

She says large corporations can also stimulate progress on sustainability by using their size and influence to spur change. For example, Sautter says on the question of sustainable aviation fuel, it鈥檚 not just a matter of stimulating demand for it, but also supply 鈥� which she says is lacking. 鈥淚t would only take a few decision-makers [in business travel] to make a decision to invest in sustainable aviation fuel to send a market signal to producers,鈥� she says.

6. Data sharing could revolutionize travel, but only if everyone is onboard

Josh Cameron, Chief Strategy Officer of Utah-based Chistopherson Business Travel, said the debate about data sharing 鈥渃ould be solved today, if airlines and hotels went to open up their loyalty programs, we have been begging for that,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are happy to help those who keep asking for it [our data], but they have to be prepared to give it up. If it was beneficial for any airlines that has a loyalty program to open up and share that data it would already have been done.

鈥淎s a TMC, we have always wanted that data because we have mutual customers.听But whatever data is taken out of that mutually beneficial landscape and put into a competitive one is the very data they are asking us for, and they do not want to share it. What Google is doing with cookies is indicative because they do not want to share that data, they want to make monetary gains from it themselves. The very people that want that data are the ones that do not want to share in the first place.鈥�

Anand Lackshminarayanan, Senior Vice President of Revenue Optimization for Middle Eastern carrier Emirates, said there are clear benefits of using shared data for the right purposes.

And he said while there is always the risk that agent data will be used to direct market, airlines are able to capture consumer data anyway when they fly and check in. 鈥淵ou are never going to be able to win loyalty of a consolidator or a travel agent if you are an opportunist,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are in it for the long haul. We strongly believe in give and take and even, perhaps, in data sharing, yes.鈥�

Anand Lackshminarayanan said it is a 鈥渢wo-way street鈥� and data privacy rules like GDPR in Europe are setting the standards by which Emirates is taking its responsibilities seriously. 鈥淲e have been far behind other industries and it鈥檚 time we caught up. We have got to get data coming through in some digital means, either NDC or direct connect with airlines because it will add value to the consumers.鈥�

Anand Lackshminarayanan said as airlines move from pricing a seat to pricing a customer they need more information from the indirect channel to understand what segment they are in. 鈥淲e do not want to push consumers toward a particular channel, but we need some sort of information about the consumer. A lot is happening to try to calibrate this data to give the consumer what they want.鈥�

Although more digital data-sharing of customer data is expected, Josh Cameron said simply asking consumers to agree to that by opting in is not necessarily the answer.

鈥淭he end traveler is not always the owner of that data,鈥� he said, 鈥渋t could be the corporate, it could be the TMC. I don鈥檛 know it鈥檚 as simple as the traveler opting in. GDPR or California privacy law would actually step in. Plus, if there鈥檚 a breach, I can鈥檛 just hand out data to anybody anytime.鈥�

7. Other businesses can accelerate change in modern retailing

Last year 乐播传媒 launched its with Amazon Web Services. With over 120 applications, the program connected some of 听the brightest minds in tech to the biggest names in travel. Out of all the applications, it came down to two winners, and we took the opportunity at the event to get an update from the those businesses to talk us through how they鈥檝e progressed with their proof of concepts since the end of 2021.

Diego Acu帽a, of The Data Appeal Company, presented a tool that gathers and visualizes travel destination data from more than 500 million social and review posts every day. They鈥檝e been working with the new 乐播传媒+ API to offer an additional layer of information to their data visualization platform.

Managing Director, Dean Maidment of Taguchi Marketing Automation, shared how they had progressed with their ground-breaking marketing automation platform for the travel industry. Dean explained how the business had had developed a proof of concept, integrating with 乐播传媒+ and the opportunities he sees in travel now. What鈥檚 more, there were several expressions of interest from the audience in Dubai, which is what the accelerator is all about.

Watch some of the keynotes from The Future of Travel Retail event.

The post 7 ways we can modernize travel retailing appeared first on 乐播传媒.

We believe one of the best ways to do this is to get fresh perspectives, inspiration, and learnings from businesses and experts outside the travel industry. So, who better to speak to than Rory Sutherland?

Rory Sutherland is a TED Talk superstar and Ogilvy advertising legend. He works with a consulting practice examining consumer behavior to find 鈥榰nseen opportunities鈥� 鈥� often small contextual changes, which have enormous effects on decision-making.

Rory鈥檚 take on behavioral economics is that people are irrational beings, who often don鈥檛 make decisions based on facts and figures. At a recent 乐播传媒 event, he shared unique perspectives on what travel could gain by exploring the irrational side of customer behavior and doing things differently. These are the highlights.

If you鈥檙e working in travel, you鈥檙e working in the entertainment industry. But don鈥檛 forget the nuts.

Rory jokes that the 鈥渟ad but inescapable truth about not so much travel, but the transport industry, is that it’s effectively a business of engineers who are desperately trying to pretend they’re not in the entertainment industry.鈥�

Rory says the thing he loves about airlines is that you鈥檝e got to balance the technical ingenuity with the demands of customers who have very little appreciation for that side of the business. He says, it鈥檚 鈥渢he mixture of absolutely hardcore logistics 鈥攈ow do you get a replacement fan blade delivered from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur by three o’clock in the morning 鈥� combined with the fact that you’re dealing with a bunch of completely irrational passengers. Regardless of the extraordinary genius of putting them into the air in a pressurized metal tube at 35,000 feet, they say 鈥業 don’t think I’ll fly with that airline. Last time I went the nuts weren’t very nice.鈥� And that鈥檚 the point 鈥� those small contextual things have the biggest impact on people鈥檚 decision making.鈥�

Stop looking at the quantity of time and start looking at the quality of time. Fix the Wi-Fi and hire supermodels.

In travel, Rory says, a lot of energy is focused on rational things, like journey times. But the experience of time can be fundamentally different. Engineers measure time in seconds, but humans measure it in boredom, pain, or enjoyment.

He illustrates this with a now-famous TED Talk example about the Eurostar in 2009, when they were spending billions of pounds to reduce the London-Paris journey time by about forty minutes. He felt they were trying to solve the wrong thing, and if you looked at problems psychologically, rather than technologically, you might come up with different answers.

He says, 鈥渨hy don鈥檛 we stop looking at the quantity of time and start looking at the quality of time? Because even though it took longer to get to Paris by train, before they’d spent this money, people were still deserting airlines in droves and traveling by train; even though it took three hours and 20 minutes.

鈥淚t was nothing to do with the quantity of time; it was to do with the fact that on a train, you plant your ass in your seat, you have three hours to read, watch a film, or get on with some work. And then you arrive in central Paris. Rather than spending six billion pounds making it faster, if you want to compete with the airlines, why don’t you just spend 50 million pounds putting Wi-Fi on the trains?鈥�

He goes on to say, if you really want to spend a billion pounds, here鈥檚 what you could do: 鈥淗ire all of the world’s top male and female supermodels and get them to walk up and down the train and handing out free Ch芒teau P茅trus to all the passengers. You’ll have saved yourself five billion pounds, and people will ask for the trains to be slowed down. In a similar vein, nobody boasts about how fast their cruise ships are.鈥�

People will pay more for a longer journey if the experience is better

If we continue to optimize travel and transportation using only rational information 鈥� like distance, speed and capacity 鈥� we鈥檙e going to miss out on a lot of things. In fact, people will often be prepared to pay for a longer journey if the experience is better. Take for example the Heathrow pod parking, a system of driverless autonomous vehicles, which run on virtual tracks.

鈥淭he extraordinary thing about these is the price for the pod parking, which is about a mile from the airport, often exceeds the price you have to pay for parking in the short stay car park.

鈥淣o one will actually admit, but it’s because they want to ride on the pod. I have business colleagues who are serious people in their sixties, otherwise highly intelligent adult people, And occasionally they turn up for the pod parking and are told 鈥榯erribly sorry, the pod parking is full today, so we’ve upgraded you for free to short-stay parking, which is right next to the airport.鈥� They secretly admit how disappointed they were: 鈥業 was looking forward to riding on the pod.鈥�

鈥淣ow the problem with that is you probably can’t justify that as a mode of transport if you used conventional metrics, because a bus would be just as effective. A bus might be quicker, but it just doesn’t feel the same.鈥�

The one feature that makes Uber amazing is the map. Here鈥檚 why.

Rory says, 鈥渢he human brain doesn鈥檛 hate waiting, it hates uncertainty鈥�, and that鈥檚 why people like digital bus/train timetables. Uber鈥檚 map allows the customer to track exactly what time the car will arrive, so they can spend the waiting time on more enjoyable activities.

鈥淭he map feature on Uber, where you can see your driver coming, doesn鈥檛 change how long you need to wait, but it changes the experience of that wait.

鈥淭he guy who had the idea for the map had seen the movie Goldfinger. James Bond has to follow Auric Goldfinger through the Swiss Alps, while remaining unobtrusive. He attaches a tracker to Goldfinger’s car and he can follow him at a distance and see on a scrolling map on the dashboard where Goldfinger鈥檚 car is. And one of the founders of Uber said, that’s what should happen when a car arrives.

鈥淏ecause waiting for a taxi under conditions of uncertainty is agony for the human brain. We hate uncertainty. With the map, the duration of the wait may be the same, but you go, ‘oh, look, he’s stuck at those traffic lights, I’ll have another pint’.

There’s also an element of status with it. People time their departure from the building to coincide exactly with the car drawing up, because it makes you feel like Keyzer Soze at the end of The Usual Suspects. You aren鈥檛 standing around in the rain thinking, 鈥淚 wonder if that’s my car over there?鈥�. That鈥檚 low status behavior. You don’t get many rappers doing that generally.鈥�

How to stop the buzzkill of the early airport queue

The transformation of waiting time is already being looked at in airports, such as Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. They鈥檙e looking at a program that makes it intentionally unclear where the plane boards, so nobody forms an advance queue that encourages others to join. Rory explains that 鈥渢he whole experience of waiting to board a plane is messed up by the eight people who insist on forming a queue too early.鈥�

鈥淪o instead of just sitting there having a cup of coffee and reading a book, once the queue forms, you feel you have to join the queue for fear of missing out. Which means that the last 25 minutes aren’t spent in comfort and convenience, but they’re spent standing there like a fool to prevent anybody getting in front of you.鈥�

鈥淭heir plan in DFW is to make it really ambiguous where the plane actually boards. So no one can form a queue in advance and people will spend the time waiting doing something enjoyable. Again, it’s not changing the duration. It’s changing the quality of time.鈥�

Travel websites are all designed for the business traveler

Rory thinks that travel websites, particularly airline websites, are designed with the business traveler in mind. That sounds ludicrous if you鈥檙e an OTA or an airline that has only 10% business travel today, but Rory goes on to explain;

鈥淚f you look at every single airline website, it’s designed for the business traveler. It says, where are you going, when are you going, and what class of travel do you want? For business travel, that’s fine because they know when and where they’re going. My boss very rarely says to me, 鈥業’d like you to go somewhere sunny sometime vaguely in late August.鈥� The reality is I have a place to go and I have a time I have to get there. And the class of travel is determined by my employer.鈥�

鈥淭o a consumer, all of those questions are 鈥渋t depends鈥�. Search, for consumers, is an iterative process. Whether I go premium economy or business or economy depends on what the price of the other available ticket is.You can’t decide to go premium economy until you know what the economy price was. Secondly, whether you go in July or August, depends on the ticket price, and where you go might depend on the ticket price.鈥�

鈥淚 don’t think we’ve yet designed a really, really good interface for consumer travel selection. We need a much better way of looking for travel, which acknowledges the messiness of human decision-making as opposed to the neatness of business decision-making.鈥�

Lobbying for more staff time off could boost the industry

One of the big questions corporations have right now in post-pandemic times is: should employees be able to work more flexibly? Rory thinks we鈥檙e asking the wrong question. What we should be asking is: do we want our customers to work more flexibly?

鈥淚f I were in the travel industry in the United States, I’d spent 90% of my lobbying budget lobbying for four weeks of guaranteed paid vacation. The reason 40% of Americans don鈥檛 have a passport isn’t because they’re uninterested in traveling 鈥� it’s because they don鈥檛 have time to go anywhere.鈥�

鈥淚f America had a greater degree of autonomy around working patterns, it will be a huge injection of cash into the discretionary economy, which benefits the travel industry.鈥�

This isn鈥檛 a mad idea, and it isn鈥檛 necessarily a new one according to Rory. 鈥淗enry Ford, created the two-day weekend for his workers. Not entirely out of his own beneficence, but because if the two-day weekends spread across American workers, then it would be worth buying a car.鈥�

鈥淪o Henry Ford asked a different question, which was not, how can I get my workers to work as hard as possible. He asked the question, is it possible to create more leisure in wider society so that it’s actually worth owning a car in the first place?鈥�

鈥淎nd I think often, we need to ask more interesting questions.鈥�

Watch Rory Sutherland鈥檚 full talk, and discover more radical insights from retailing pioneers outside of travel.

The post It’s time for more creative thinkers in travel appeared first on 乐播传媒.