Is travel booming? Most signs point to yes.

Digital Travel Connect 2023, which took place last month here in the UK, revealed some very interesting insights into the state of the travel industry. Although this invite-only retreat for industry VIPs was Chatham House Rules – meaning that what happens at Digital Travel Connect stays at Digital Travel Connect – I can share some of the key learnings with you.

The biggest takeaway is that travel is in a radically different position to that of 6-12 months ago, but that’s not news to you. Like an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition, a remarkable transformation has occurred. Where travel companies, particularly large hotel chains and airlines, were struggling to get back to 2019 levels of both revenue and staffing, the industry of today is completely different.

Travel companies are making big, bold moves to invest in new solutions – whole systems are being either ripped out and replaced or totally upgraded, all in preparation to adopt new capabilities that will bring travel out of obsolescence.

The other interesting trend is in what travel companies are talking about buying – airlines and airports no longer look simply to the “aviation-specialised” solutions that all of their competitors use; they look to the out-of-industry solutions that will give them a competitive edge, particular when those solutions come from retail. The same seems to increasingly apply to hotels who look to their standard suite of products that simply don’t cut the mustard.

We’re now living in a world where legacy travel businesses look not just to each other for the next move, but to the likes of Spotify, Amazon, and H&M for the secrets to their digital success.

Data and personalisation solutions, which arguably go hand-in-hand, were among the most urgent investment priorities. CX, UX and loyalty solutions were not too far behind. From 2022 to 2023, the percentage of delegates who cited personalisation as a 0-6 month investment priority increased from 34% to 47%, and for data & analytics solutions, it rose from 43% to 56%.

Among the leading investment priorities for our delegates over the next 12 months were:

• Data/Analytics
• Personalisation
• CX
• UX
• Loyalty & Retention
• CRM
• CDP
• Payments
• Programmatic Advertising/Adtech
• Voice of customer
• Mobile app
• Automated customer care/chatbots
• Social media marketing
• Marketing automation
• Influencer marketing
• SEM/SEO
• Localisation
• CMS
• CDM

Survey of Digital Travel Connect 2023 delegates for their top 5 solution investment priorities

And, of course, certain new AI popped up in one or two (or twelve) conversations across the conference - the jury is still out on who will be the first big travel company to take advantage of this new tool but those solution providers that can bring Generative AI case studies from other industries to travel would be extremely popular.

When I spoke with our Digital Travel Advisory Board, composed of leaders from a wide variety of leading travel businesses, they made it very clear that in-industry or out-of-industry demonstrations of real-world generative AI use would provide significant learnings for the industry (so if you’re reading this and you have such a case study, definitely get in touch). All this being said, one can’t jump the gun and ignore the wide variety of challenges the industry is faced with. From inflation, fuel costs, strikes across travel networks as well as concerns about sustainability, there are numerous obstacles now, and more to come.

Many customers are still booking very late, with some booking experiences or travel on the day of, which leads to some very obvious challenges for everyone from a large airline to a small sea-kayak company. This creates serious issues when it comes to forecasting and revenue management, making an already uncertain future even more so.

There are also, of course, concerns as to what generative AI will do to those who work within marketing and customer experience design. While some do express concern about how such technologies will impact digital businesses like review sites, OTAs and metasearch businesses, many at Digital Travel Connect were more confident that generative AI will act more like a second pair of eyes than a replacement for people power.

Then again, there have been and always will be challenges, and the industry faces a unique opportunity during this difficult financial situation than other industries.

According to Mastercard’s outlook on the travel industry, consumer spending on experiences is up where spending on goods is down. People seem to be cutting costs almost everywhere except when it comes to booking their next holiday.

And even more astonishingly, and despite insistence by many that Zoom and Teams would eliminate need, business travel is now hitting or exceeding 2019 levels – in some instances it is even surpassing leisure travel.

The outlook for travel is, largely, a bright one. Even the focus of customers on “value” presents a unique opportunity to the right marketing team and the right product team to position their brand as one that can provide true value to customers.

For solution providers looking to get into travel, dip their toe back into travel, or expand their already-existing portfolio of travel customers, there has never been a better time to get in front of travel companies as they make their biggest, boldest steps to innovate.

Following the success of Digital Travel Connect 2023, we are proud to announce the return of our flagship event, the Digital Travel Summit 2023 which will gather 50+ speakers, 200+ delegates and the industry's leading solution providers for 2 days of cutting-edge insights and in-depth conversations.

View the Digital Travel Summit 2023 Agenda here.