ABOUT FUTURE TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGY IN ONLINE TRAVEL: INTERVIEW OF TIM HUGHES

Tim Hughes, vice president at Orbitz Worldwide, HotelClub, and founder of the BOOT is going to speak at the Travel Distribution Summit in Singapore in April this year, and for the occasion, he was interviewed by EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta.

The first important point is for the online travel agents to understand the shift in online consumers’ behaviour. Because of the power granted to reviews and recommendations online, OTAs will have to come up with a different approach to drive traffic to their sites. It is no longer about customers’ preferences: now potential customers ask more open questions when choosing a trip: a “yes” or “no” answer is not enough. Additionally, Google plans on integrating social media in its search engine (“Google Social Search”) and this means that the word of mouth will spread at the speed of light and will still be difficult to control. But as much as the OTAs have to accept this fact, it means that word of mouth marketing strategies can be developed as well.

For this, Hughes insists that marketers put the notion of “trust” first. Indeed, the consumers first have to trust the sources of the information, the information has to interest them and be relevant to what they were looking for. If all key elements are gathered, it will trigger very positive results.

Another interesting factor that Tim Hughes points out is that we are at a turning point in terms of mobile phone advertising. Mobile phones have a huge advantage over all other web devices because they follow our each move and are able to give us precise information. The only problem with such technology is the difference in display depending on the different phone makes, but once this is overcome, mobile advertising will be very promising for the hotel industry.

I think what Tim Hughes says is crucial for any young hotelier willing to enter the hospitality market. Whether we like it or not, an important part of the future of the hotel industry is going to happen on the Internet. We have talked over and over about the impact of social media on the image of a business, but this time it is going even further. If web users are able to use a recommendation search engine, it will bring out a whole new set of preferences for them, which hoteliers have to be ready for. Mobile advertising will also be the leading advertising platform in the near future, and it is time the hotel industry understood the huge opportunity behind it.