BANGKOK, 27 November 2023: Despite the growing media hype surrounding AI and Chat GPT, technology, data, and people working together create the magic ingredients for the travel experience to succeed.
That was how Hotelbeds’ chief technology officer, Paula Felstead, opened her presentation, “How will tech shape the future of travel?” at last week’s Markethub Asia event hosted in Bangkok for Hotelbeds team players and partners.
“It is the most powerful when all three elements are combined,” she explained. “ Without one, the rest will fail.”
Addressing the emerging trends in technology and the challenges, she said the focus should be on data quality, mainly to allow for personalisation.
“We need to, and we need to remove as many friction points out of the transaction flow as possible, and we must ground ourselves in making sure that what we are doing with technology adds value and improves our businesses,” she explained.
“One of the key elements today is that travel is one of the worst cases for security; the opportunity for the bad actors is huge. The more connected we become as an ecosystem, the more problems will flow. If we took this on collectively as an industry, to pool our information and come together to confront the issues, we would all benefit, especially the end travellers.
“We should be wary about embracing the ‘latest and greatest’ tech. There is no first mover advantage in embracing AI without understanding how it will benefit your business.”
“Technology is like an iceberg. Everyone is focused on what is visible, such as AI, but everything underneath is the most important – data, ability to scale, and security.
“At Hotelbeds, we have just undertaken a huge tech migration in just under 11 months because our previous tech stack would not allow us to scale and grow. The investment we’ve made is on the underwater section of the iceberg, so over the next 12 months, the visible top of the iceberg will be improved data.
“Tech can be challenging to drive tangible results, so we should always start with the problem we are trying to solve and the value we’re trying to drive, then use tech wisely rather than being sucked into the hype. Tech is great, people are better, data is essential.”
(Source: Markethub Asia, Hotelbeds)
