The travel and tourism industry has been severely affected by COVID-19. As soon as the WHO declared it as a pandemic, the countries around the world started closing borders and inducing transport limitations.
However, things are getting better now as “Dubai” the world’s sought-after destination for tourists started welcoming holiday-makers from July 7 following the successful management of the Covid-19 pandemic and Dubai’s efforts to revive the sector by reopening tourism facilities including hotels and airports, as well as the resumption of flights.
As the travel & tourism sector is gradually reviving Small travel & tourism business will need to make some changes in their business strategies to overcome Covid-19 pandemic.
#Start to build a social media presence
Social media is far from fading away. So, travel agents and agencies need to “get a personality” in this new world. To put it differently, it is important to start building a social media presence and incorporate social media into marketing and communications strategies as soon as possible.
Social media is one of the more significant tools nowadays. Major businesses are already employing it to build brand awareness and customer relationships with some very good results. So, why don’t you start using it now?
#A new type of relationship with clients
One of the ways of doing it may well be by creating a new kind of online relationship between travel agencies and clients. By using platforms like online B2B, B2C and B2B2B and taking advantage of better communications, travel agencies can widen the ways in which they can communicate not only with customers, but also with their business network and partner services.
This way, data is available in a few seconds and visible by everyone, transforming a process that once might have taken hours, into an instant thing, boosting productivity and reducing dead time. By the end of the day, travel agencies have happier clients.
Book it yourself
This may well be one of the largest impacts on the travel agency: the rise of online booking tools. In fact, customers looking for booking a trip no longer have to physically visit an agency, all they need to do is go online, look for services and book an entire trip themselves. That is a reality travel agencies have to learn how to deal with, reinventing themselves and offering differential services that are able to put them again on the route of the customer needs.
Digitalization or Automation through technology
Digitalization or Automation in the travel & tourism sector is all about increasing speed and creating the agility to spot and respond to customer needs better than ever before.
Although too many companies in the sector are still dealing with legacy organizational structures, and the old way of thinking and doing things, it is time to transform and modernize and the adoption of a tourism management platform will certainly be the foundation to accommodate the new demands!
Maximum efficiency, agility, end-to-end experiences based on real-time data, hyper-personalized services are some of the “must-do” nowadays.
The truth is that incredible growth opportunities are available right now, allowing to reach wider audiences and better revenues; allowing to generate better leads and higher sales; allowing all the travel agencies to survive in a new, techie and much more competitive world.
#About our Organization
Global Innovations is a leading Travel Technology & Solutions company, based in Dubai, providing software solutions to DMCs (Inbound Operators), Travel Wholesalers (Outbound) and Travel Agents which enable them to fully automate their business processes. With the profound knowledge, expertise, skillset and proven record of last 17 years, we leverage not only the state-of-the-art IT services enabling the Travel Agencies and tour operators to enhance their global presence but also consulting services to streamline the internal business process in line with the industry’s best practices. We are a cross-disciplinary team of Domain Experts, User Experience Designers, Software Engineers and creative technologists that provide elegant, cost-effective services to an international client base. We specialize in innovative, strategy-inspired Travel Technology Solutions proudly driven by our collaborative and transparent client relationships. Our Products are serving Customers from GCC countries Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman etc and worldwide.
For further details on products and services please contact us.
Author: Mustaqim Arai (mustaqim@giinfotech.ae)