According to a recent research from Accor, the top hotel company in the world, highly personalised service is increasingly serving as travel consultants’ primary point of differentiation.
The paper, titled “Tailor-Made Touch or Digital Efficiency?,” examines the approaches, innovations, and developments affecting leisure travel advisors now and in the future. Developing the services and forging the relationships that can help them delight and connect with their customers on a level that is beyond what alternative intermediary models can achieve is said to be even more crucial than continuously digitally transforming their operations.
The report, which is specifically targeted at the European market, describes how the pandemic accelerated the transformation of the leisure travel intermediary market, leading to the widespread adoption of digital technology and the model changes of many key players in an effort to become platform businesses or b2b technology providers.
It supports the idea that, when used properly, technology—from messaging platforms to payment systems to artificial intelligence—can be the best friend of travel advisors, enabling them to maximise their capacity with a wide range of inventory, gain access to potent digital distribution channels, gain a deeper understanding of their clients, market themselves more effectively, and offer more sophisticated and effective services.
However, it contends that even more crucial to travel planners’ success as they develop is their capacity to connect with their clients and deliver the high-touch, individualised service that tourists now want.
“Consumers increasingly value the ability of travel advisors to remove the stress from their trip, tailor it to their preferences, plan every last detail in a flexible way, and be the reassuring presence that takes care of problems when they arise,” said Saskia Gentil, SVP Sales, Europe & North Africa at Accor.
Source- travel daily