Amadeus APAC president, Albert Pozo, has called out five global travel trends influencing the travel ecosystem. The “Power of 5”, which he shared at the first of the Amadeus Breakfast Club series for media in Singapore, includes the Internet of Things, virtual and augmented reality, the sharing economy, chats and bots, and smart cities.
These five trends play to the increasing individualisation of travel and he said the industry must respond faster to the demands of individual travellers by going beyond customisation to personalisation.
While not the only dominant trends within the industry, Pozo argued that these five warranted most attention for their respective abilities to drive further innovation.
The Internet of Things, for example, could be used as a data collection method on travellers, as information can be collected from multiple devices to paint a clearer picture on individual consumer wants and needs.
Augmented and virtual reality can help fortify the transition from the inspiration to purchasing stages of travel planning.
The sharing economy has become “part of the managed travel ecosystem” meaning technology providers are better able to integrate their services into leading companies like Airbnb.
Albert Pozo, Amadeus President APAC
Artificial intelligence can help to connect text from chat apps into services, creating another medium for companies to conduct transactions and identify and address unique needs of each user.
And finally, smart cities allow a “traveller to feel connected at all times”… even within the “Bermuda triangle” of the airport, describes Pozo. A permanent state of connectivity can be used to ‘accompany’ a traveller on their journey, providing reassurance throughout a journey.
To tackle these five trends as avenues for growth, Pozo outlined Amadeus’ plans to position themselves as “innovators of the future” by addressing every aspect [of a journey] to find opportunities for customer customisation. “More than ever, there is fragmentation because there are more dots to connect.”
Said Pozo, “We want to position ourselves as a ‘technology disrupter’…we have not just been working on one element or dimension of travel, we are looking to build up the entire ecosystem.”
To achieve this, Pozo declares there is no “magic recipe” but it does, at least in part, depend on putting their money where their mouth is.
“We spend a very significant amount of revenue on R&D. On average, we are spending 16.6% (over 4b Euros) of global revenue on research and development.”
Of that €4b, Amadeus’ key areas of investment include: cloud technology, focusing on data management and real time analytics through different channels (specifically mobile). They are also working as a “leader in transaction processing in travel” with a strong focus in security, reliability and scalability.
“We are engaging with more than 5000 engineers that are maintaining and evolving the [travel] ecosystem.”
However, they also try to stay aware of budding businesses beyond the Amadeus body itself, as potential sources of future innovation.
“We cannot be too full of ourselves… It is increasingly fundamental for us to continue to work with small companies (and startups through their Amadeus Next initiative) to uncover new ideas and new trends.”
Lead image: iStock.
