10 Lessons Learned at Enter 2009
It seems I travel to so many of these conferences now that it is difficult to identify key take-aways from each one. The thing I enjoy most about these conferences is the collaborating and sharing that comes from an industry that is, in all other cases, extremely competitive. Here is what I learned from IFITT’s Enter 2009 in Amsterdam:
1. Don’t be afraid to try new things with social media.
Many of the sessions, including the DMO (Destination Marketing Organization) ones included this theme. Social media permeates so many different aspects of the user experience that there is no real standard for how to integrate social media into a strategy. What seems to be critical however is that it should be done in a way that is authentic, transparent, and increases relevance for the customer. Creating a Facebook application just for the heck of it, isn’t a good reason. Makes me ask why so many organizations were jumping into SecondLife? Not to mention how much they paid for that advice.
2. Destinations must partner with industry to enable stakeholders.
DMOs and other marketing organizations should be looking at industry partners to enable technology rather than trying to build from scratch. The bottom line is that industry is far more creative and innovative when it comes to the development of technologies. Why? Because they have to be innovative in order to survive. DMOs should be leveraging that innovation to enhance their mandates (to market their destinations and stakeholders) instead of becoming technology shops re-creating pre-existing technologies and solutions.
3. Think outside the box when looking for revenue opportunities.
Hotels and airlines should be looking to other segments of the the industry to find revenue opportunities. For example, hotels could be partnering with local stakeholders to market and sell experiences around their hotels. Airlines can promote local attractions and tours in order to encourage travelers to book to specific destinations. Local tour companies can partner with local restaurants and shops to encourage cross pollination of the traveler across multiple businesses. This kind of cooperation increases the likihood that the traveler will spend money at the destination as well as increase a vendors potential commission revenue.
4. The industry needs to look beyond airfare and hotels.
I always enjoy sitting in on the e-Distribution sessions at these conferences. The reason why I enjoy them is simple, I enjoy asking the tough question to the panel… “What about the other 95% of tourism business. How do you propose distributing them?”. Ofcourse, they never have an answer. In a room full of PHDs, I would have expected at least one, but alas there was none. At least this still bodes well for Rezgo.
5. Mobile applications are redefining the destination experience.
I made the conscious decision to travel only with my iPhone to see just how well I could get along with a mobile device. I have to admit, I had a blast with the iPhone. Although the high cost of data roaming charges prevented me from using a lot of real-time location services, I did find an abundance of coffee shops with free wifi to keep me busy. Firstly I had created and downloaded my custom NileGuide for Amsterdam complete with all the sights I wanted to visit. Secondly I downloaded and installed my WorldNomads Dutch guide to help me ask simple questions like “Where is the Toilet, Please”. Trust me, this is essential in any city, not to mention that fact that you should always carry change to pay the toilet attendent. Everything else I needed, I could do with Google Maps. We are not very far away from a mobile travel guide that includes a maps implementation for real time directions and location based services. Now, if only we can convince the mobile carriers to reduce their data charges.
6. Closed technologies may be evolutionary, but open technologies are revolutionary.
The example I saw of this simple concept was Google Maps. While both Microsoft and Mapquest have had mapping technologies for some time, the proliferation of applications using both these platforms has been limited to companies who can afford to license them. The release of the Google Maps API has been revolutionary in that it has resulted in the massive adoption of mapping applications and the creation of geographically encoded data. The real revolution is the second part because now, every individual has the ability to geocode a variety of objects including photos, videos, products, and even people.
7. The future is about mash-ups.
There is no point trying to create an all in one website that does everything for everyone. At the end of the day, any attempt to do so will result in a site that does nothing for anyone. There are so many technologies out there that are very good at what they do that have XML or other APIs that can be integrated into a website. Let’s not waste time, energy, or money re-inventing analytics, mapping, or even booking engines in order to extend functionality. Look no further then a site like ProgrammableWeb to discover a world of APIs at your finger tips.
8. Look to other industries for best practices.
The travel industry is NOT unique. As much as many of its practitioners would like us to believe, there are lessons to be learned from other industries that can be applied to the travel industry. Accounting practices, business operations, and management are cross compatible and we should be looking to e-commerce and retail for guidance on best practices. How are other industries handling on-line transactions? How do other industries deal with on-line payment? These are all questions that we should be asking but currently don’t.
9. The travel industry must focus on the customer.
Anna Pollock made a very good comment during the closing discussion that we, as an industry, need to focus on the experience of the customer rather than pinching every penny out of their pocket book. Case in point: I stayed at the Qbic Hotel at the WTC (about 5 minutes away from the RAI Conference Centre). It was the cheapest but still business travel focused hotel I could find with close proximity to the venue. I was very impressed with the service and the quality of the rooms, why? Because as a business traveler it met all my needs without the added fluff. Believe it or not, there was no phone in the room, but free WIFI throughout the hotel (so I could use Skype). This is an example of a hotel focusing on the customer’s specific basic needs rather then trying to provide services just for the sake of it. After my visit, I received a nice email from the hotel asking me to rate the hotel… the only hotel I have stayed at in over two years to do so. Well done.
10. Stop arguing about who owns the customer because no one does.
Let’s get this out now so there is no confusion. No one owns the customer or the customer data, the customer does. The sooner we all recognize this and accept it, the sooner we can begin serving the needs of the customer rather than focusing on who owns the most user data for marketing purposes. As we move to a more interconnected model I think we will begin to see single sign-on technologies like OpenID or even Google ID become more popular with travel sites. The benefit with a shared profile is that the user information is shared at the customer’s discretion with vendors with whom the customer chooses to patronize and with strict conditions. The downside, to the industry, is that it will have to be creative in how it markets and serves customers’ needs in the future knowing that access to private information will be much more limited.
Absolutely excellent report Stephen thanks. I agree with your 10 lessons. Let’s hope the industry listens and overcomes the fear of change. Cheers,
Very nice report. Let´s hope there will be some big advances in most of the points within a year
Merci for the post
point 1, 2 & 3 are in my mind too
It’s strange Enter09 don’t talk about the human ressources in our industry (mean lack of good human ressources, specially DMO’s)
or maybe I miss something
Best regards
Claude
Thanks for the post Stephen and great to here of so many positive and realistic developments in the industry.
Just a few random thoughts sparked off by your post:
“The industry needs to look beyond airfare and hotels” – yes absolutely. And I would add that, often, the small guys in the travel and tourism sphere would also benefit from looking up to see what the big guys are doing.
“Closed technologies may be evolutionary, but open technologies are revolutionary.” – again agree. For us, the roll out of google analytics moved the question on dramatically. It’s no longer a case of asking, “so, do you have a decent system that monitors how people are usng your site?” but rather. “OK, you’ve got stats for your site – do you understand what they mean and what have you ever done differently because of them?”
“Look to other industries for best practices” – yes although Travel is pretty advanced. But I think there are some areas where an organization can be two (or more) things at the same time and this is where this concept of looking to other industries is important. For example, a DMO with an online presence is in the tourism space but often its activities share more in common with, say, a government agency (especially if it is non-transactional). From our web analytics perspective, we would view the travel aspect as important but would look to identify meaningful insight based on our experience of working with, say, universities or brand awareness campaigns.
“Stop arguing about who owns the customer because no one does.” – I’m not sure about this one but I guess it depends on the level of data you are talking about.
Stephen, great article. Sums it up nicely. Will the industry listen? I can’t throw out my doubts based on a long history of involvement. ENTER is a case in point many of their participants seem to live in a world apart from the crowd at PhoCusWright. Often seems like a parallel universe to me – the academics and the business people. There has to be more interaction between the two, or maybe it doesn’t matter at all. Who knows.
Great comments Stephen. Always good to get some feedback on the subject. With regards to the “Stop arguing about who owns the customer”. My point is that we (i.e. the industry) are so focused on customer DATA that we forget that the customer is a person and is more then just the data we collect. My feeling is that people are going to start to look at ways to provide the minimal amount of information required in order to complete a transaction (initially) and to limit what information corporations have access too. The example provided at Enter was from Microsoft Advertising who was using demographic data collected through Microsoft Passport as a source for “targeting” advertising to users. I think this will change as people begin to aggregate their own profile information through single sign-on technologies so that they cannot be “targeted”. This will force marketers to become more transparent in their marketing and to limit where and when it is appropriate to market to consumers.
Yes… there was no discussion about human resources at all. Funny because last year at the Global Tourism Summit, human resource shortage was a primary issue. Amazing what a 12 month period and massive global recession can do to priorities.
Well, that’s why I got involved with IFITT. Can I convince you to get more involved too? I think it’s good for both sides. A dose of reality for the academics and a little bit of out of the box thinking for the industry. Let me tell you, some of the research is pretty abstract, but the potential is very cool.
Well, if it’s validated by the marketplace I’m all for adopting ideas that come out of academia! Getting more involved is an option I will entertain – short of paying to attend the conference….
Why is my cool updated gravatar not displaying, I wonder!
Hi, interesting although I must say one thing I have not yet read about that should be provided with every online community is a community currency feature.
The little sods here at social networking platformNetvillage have got an amazing community currency system built all throughout their platform, it allows members to earn and spend for whatever purpose and when you get real creative, you can allow this to spill out into the real community and print your own money that you se between your online community members.
Think about it for a while, isn’t this just amazing, you can become your own Secretary of the Treasury, have your OWN Federal Reserve, set your own interest rates etc.
Go on, give it w whirl Shirl, go and see what these little darlings have been doing at social networking platformNetvillage.
Oh well, I have to go now, bye bye.
The Tea Lady.