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Some travel companies have seen changes in search results following Google’s latest update, which addresses in part “low quality AI-generated content that’s designed to attract clicks.”
Steve Singh has been mulling the concept of the Perfect Trip in business travel for more than 10 years.
The co-founder and former CEO of Concur, which sold to SAP in 2014 for $8.3 billion, believes a trip where a traveler’s data is drawn from a single repository and can be shared across all travel suppliers to ensure a smooth and joined up journey is now more possible than ever.
The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place, Singh said, which is why he chose, alongside a group of investors, to acquire Direct Travel earlier this month.
Entre novembre 2022 et mai 2023, ChatGPT a connu une progression exponentielle. Le chatbot, qui a dépassé la barre des 100 millions d’utilisateurs à peine deux mois après son lancement, a atteint un pic de 1,81 milliard de visites en mai. Par la suite, la courbe de trafic a diminué avant de se stabiliser et de remonter progressivement.
Entre mars 2023 et mars 2024, le trafic de ChatGPT a augmenté de 13 %. Plus remarquable encore, il est presque revenu à son niveau de mai 2023, s’établissant à 1,77 milliard de visites au cours du mois dernier.
For decades, a debate has raged in the travel industry on the subject of “who owns the customer?”
But what exactly does “owning the customer” mean? In essence, it comes down to profiles and preferences.
The suppliers and intermediaries that can collect (and therefore “own”) the most data related to user intent and preferences can offer the most personalized services to travelers, laying a foundation for long-term relationships and customer loyalty.
But what if rather than a supplier or intermediary owning the customer profile, travelers themselves controlled their own personal information, choosing which suppliers and intermediaries to share specific details with?
Enter the concept of self-sovereign identity (SSI), first introduced to the Phocuswright audience in the 2022 article: Self-Sovereign Identity: Unlocking Seamless Travel. SSI enables consumers to manage their personal information behind a verified digital ID and distribute trusted information to the sellers of their choice.
More travel means more online reviews. More reviews mean more fakes — and more work for the people, and technology, set up to catch them.
Tripadvisor said Tuesday it blocked a record 2 million misleading reviews from its site in 2023, while stopping 4 in 5 of those reviews from ever appearing on the site — another record for the company.
Removing fake reviews to preserve the integrity of those that remain has been a growing concern for both government regulators and the companies that rely on online customer reviews, including suppliers such as hotels and tour operators and online travel agencies that also display reviews, such as Expedia and Booking.com.
With more than a billion reviews and opinions from global travelers on its site, Tripadvisor lays claim to the title of the travel’s leading guidance platform — making its biennial transparency reports something of a barometer for the industry.
Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) am Arbeitsplatz ist in der deutschen Arbeitswelt aktuell ein viel diskutiertes Thema. Eine aktuelle Umfrage unter Arbeitnehmer:innen, durchgeführt von Bitkom Research, liefert dazu detaillierte Erkenntnisse.
Im Fokus steht die Frage, inwieweit KI die Arbeitslandschaft verbessern oder verschlechtern könnte. Die Statista-Grafik zeigt die am häufigsten genannten Vor- und Nachteile.
Etwa die Hälfte der befragten Erwerbstätigen befürwortet demnach den Einsatz von KI, um monotone Routineaufgaben zu übernehmen, während ein annähernd ebenso großer Teil der Arbeitnehmer die Einbindung von KI eher ablehnt.
Quelle est l’application de voyages la plus populaire et la plus téléchargée à l’échelle mondiale, selon vous? Expedia? TripAdvisor? Lonely Planet ou National Geographic? Pas du tout. Vous l’aurez sans doute deviné par le titre qui coiffe cette chronique : il s’agit de Google Maps.
On sait que Google joue un rôle actif dans la recherche du voyage, que ce soit via son moteur de recherche classique, tant en version desktop que mobile, que via les fonctionnalités périphériques telles que Google Flights, Google Hotels et Google Voyages. C’est toutefois à travers Google Maps que l’on gère dorénavant sa fiche d’entreprise donnant accès aux photos, informations pertinentes (heures d’ouverture, clientèle visée, etc.), gestion des avis en ligne et plus encore.
Schweizer Unternehmen stark bei Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI), schwächer bei Identity und Cloud
Schweiz liegt in Europa auf Platz drei hinter Grossbritannien und Deutschland
Umfrage unter 8‘000 IT-EntscheiderInnen weltweit, 205 aus der Schweiz
Wallisellen, 4. April 2024 – Während 2023 noch fast jedes zehnte Unternehmen in der Schweiz optimal vor modernen Sicherheitsrisiken geschützt war, sind es heute nicht mal mehr 2 Prozent. Das zeigt der Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index 2024. Der Index ist weltweit eine der umfassendsten Untersuchungen zum Cyberreifegrad der Privatwirtschaft. Ein zentrales Ergebnis: Fasst man die beiden höchsten Kategorien zusammen, belegt die Schweiz weiterhin Platz drei in Europa hinter Grossbritannien und Deutschland. Stärken zeigen Schweizer Firmen bei KI-basierter Sicherheit, Schwächen in den Bereichen Identity und Cloud.
Companies from various industries are becoming more familiar with its capabilities and more adept at harnessing its power, including Boeing, Johnson & Johnson and Exxon Mobil, which are using AI to improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The travel sector is no exception. AI holds substantial transformative power in the field, and its proper application can yield considerable benefits. From hotel chains like Hyatt and IHG to emerging startups, travel companies are quickly capitalizing on this opportunity.
Contrary to popular belief, AI will not replace travel advisors' jobs since they require a deep and thoughtful human touch. However, AI does offer unparalleled opportunities to streamline operations and enhance the overall customer experience.
Google is enabling new generative artificial intelligence-powered tools in Search as part of its continued testing of the technology to aid travelers as they plan a trip.
The new Search experience can provide a suggested trip itinerary with an overview of hotel and flight options as well as suggestions of attractions and dining – but, at least for now, the results do not include ads.
According to a Google spokesperson, the focus now is to experiment and refine the trip ideas functionality, without ads, but in the future the search giant will test ads, such as in dedicated slots in the results page and when the user asks follow-up questions.
The new capabilities are available for users in the United States, in English language only, that have enrolled in Search Labs and enabled the Search Generative Experience (SGE).
The Italian Competition Authority has opened an investigation into Booking.com to determine if the online travel agency is intentionally “reducing the freedom of Italian hotels in setting prices.”
In February, during the company’s earnings call, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel announced that Spanish regulators had filed a draft decision alleging similar wrongdoing and proposed a fine of $530 million.
At the time, Fogel said the company “could not disagree more” with the Spanish decision and “arbitrarily large fine” and would appeal if it becomes final.
KÜNSTLICHE INTELLIGENZ
Ist das die Revolution im Chatbot-Geschäft?
Der Chatbot von Dialogshift wird in Kürze auf Booking.com Fragen potenzieller Gäste beantworten. Bereits heute interagiert das textbasierte Dialogsystem vielerorts im Netz in verblüffender Qualität.
As generative artificial intelligence continues to make waves, it’s no surprise that experts see it potentially changing industry needs on the whole - including in property management systems (PMS).
But could generative AI eliminate any need for humans to manage the PMS? And how could this technology change processes across the industry in the near and long term? Many experts see big changes approaching.
Traditional PMS processes won’t remain intact for long, said Markus Feller, CEO of Like Magic, a digital solution to support hospitality employees and guests. While AI has been used mostly for automated messaging, Feller said the technology is clearly capable of much more.
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Google is launching new and expanded features in its Maps and Search functions to help travelers find more sustainable ways to get around — displaying walking routes alongside driving directions, offering cleaner rail alternatives to air travel and identifying the most convenient locations for electric vehicle charging stations.
Available in the coming weeks in walkable cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Paris and Rome are new features in Maps that will show public transit or walking options alongside the driving routes users request.
PhocusWire first produced this visualization of digital travel company quarterly revenues in November 2019.
Within months, of course, the COVID pandemic brought most of the world to a standstill, putting the brakes on what had been a steady uptick in revenue for many travel brands.
For about two years thereafter, the industry saw a series of fits and starts as variants of the virus spiked every few months, causing setbacks to a sustained recovery. Geo-political conflicts, primarily the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, last fall, the latest war between Israel and Hamas, have also had an impact.
But for the most part, 2023 seemed to be a year of good fortunes for digital travel’s publicly-traded companies.
En 2024, l’intelligence artificielle générative va occuper une place centrale dans les stratégies de marketing sur les réseaux sociaux, estime HubSpot. Les outils d’IA générative deviennent en effet essentiels pour les professionnels du marketing, avec 97 % d’entre eux qui envisagent d’exploiter des fonctionnalités d’IA intégrées aux plateformes sociales pour la création de contenu. Ces fonctionnalités comprennent la génération et l’édition d’images, la rédaction de légendes et l’utilisation de chatbots pour gérer les interactions et les réponses aux messages, centralisant ainsi plusieurs aspects de la gestion de contenu sur une unique plateforme.
Parmi les principaux avantages du déploiement de fonctionnalités d’IA générative in-app, on trouve :
La création de contenus destinés aux réseaux sociaux,
L’inspiration et l’idéation,
La création de contenu personnalisé,
L’amélioration du contenu créé,
La créativité.
The initiative is part of an expanded partnership with Google Cloud, which has been IHG's partner since 2022.
New features will launch in the second half of this year providing guests with a more "dynamic digital experience," according to a release.
“Working with Google Cloud as an AI innovation partner, we’re making trip planning easier and more interactive for prospective travelers," said Jolie Fleming, chief product and technology officer at IHG Hotels & Resorts. "Our customized travel planner will use Gen AI to help people discover destinations among our more than 6,000 IHG hotels across 19 brands in over 100 countries. Soon, guests will use the IHG One Rewards mobile app as a true mobile travel companion to build a full itinerary and book hotels in a few taps.”
The hotel distribution landscape is undergoing a major shift, with OTAs now dominating and squeezing hotel margins, while metasearch engines make properties indistinguishable. Additionally, alternative lodging growth threatens hotels' market control.
Amidst this disruption, savvy hoteliers find opportunities in emerging technologies for customized guest experiences, strategic partnerships for local affinity, and targeted social media to expand reach.
Key takeaways
OTAs now make up over 35% of global hotel bookings, exerting substantial influence with their reach and budgets. Distribution costs through OTAs are soaring, with commissions hitting 30% or more and some hotels paying up to 40% after discounts;
Alternative accommodations like extended stay rentals and unique properties are challenging traditional hotels for leisure and business guests. Airbnb, for example, has gained significant market share in major cities, as shown in the chart below;
Despite these challenges, hotels can seize opportunities by adopting an innovative omni-channel approach. By leveraging technologies to enhance guest conversion, hotels can gradually reduce their reliance on OTAs and regain market share.
Boom-Phasen in der Entwicklung Künstlicher Intelligenz, zum Beispiel durch den Sieg des Schachcomputers Deep Blue über den damaligen Schachweltmeister Garri Kasparow in den Jahren 1996 und 1997, gibt es seit Jahrzehnten. Keine davon hat allerdings das Interesse von Investor:innen und großen Tech-Firmen so sehr geweckt wie die aktuelle, die durch die Veröffentlichung von OpenAIs ChatGPT, das auf dem Sprachmodell GPT basiert, losgetreten wurde.
Kritiker:innen sehen in dieser Art von Künstlicher Intelligenz wenig mehr als "stochastische Papageien", die Worte nach Wahrscheinlichkeiten zusammensetzen, während KI-Evangelist:innen ChatGPT als ersten großen Schritt hin zu einer echten "Allgemeinen Künstlichen Intelligenz", die die selben kognitiven Fähigkeiten wie ein Mensch besitzen soll. Diese Entwicklung voranzutreiben lassen sich Firmen und Risikokapitalgeber einiges kosten.
Erfolgreiche Marketingstrategien für digitale Kanäle entwickeln und umsetzen – praxisnahe Ausbildung im blended Learning Format
Das CAS HES-SO in Digital Marketing (Tourismusmarketing) vermittelt theoretische Grundlagen des Digital Marketings und bietet den Teilnehmenden aus Marketing und Tourismus die Möglichkeit, diese in der eigenen Unternehmung oder Destination praktisch anzuwenden. Mittels aktuellen Best-Practice-Beispielen und unter Einbezug von Fachexperten aus der Tourismus- und Marketingbranche ist diese Weiterbildung sehr praxisbezogen.
Kombinierte Ausbildung für Führungskräfte in der digitalen Welt
Das CAS HES-SO in Digital Marketing kann mit dem CAS Digital Leadership der Fernfachhochschule Schweiz (FFHS) zu einem DAS in Digital Marketing and Leadership kombiniert werden. Weitere Informationen zur kombinierten Weiterbildung finden Sie unter DAS Digital Marketing and Leadership.
Travel metasearch companies used to be among the hottest things in travel. But in recent years, some leading players have struggled.
Google announced a slate of travel updates this week that place it squarely in the travel planning process and give it a lot more insight into purchasing intent in the travel sector.
Key takeaways
The updates, currently available only in English within the U.S. for users enrolled in Search Labs, utilize content from various websites and user-submitted details on Google;
Users can request personalized trip itineraries, such as "plan a three-day historical trip to Philadelphia," receiving suggestions for attractions, dining, and accommodations;
Itineraries are informational only, with no option for direct booking. Users can export finalized itineraries to Gmail, Docs, or Maps;
Google has not disclosed wider rollout plans but continues to explore AI applications across different domains.
La collecte de données offre de nouvelles perspectives pour le tourisme. Un livre blanc détaille des pistes pour en faire bon usage.
La protection de la vie privée se situe au coeur de la thématique du Big Data.
Le 20 mars 2024, UniDistance Suisse et la HES-SO Valais-Wallis ont organisé une conférence publique à Sierre sur le thème «Vers un tourisme axé sur les données», avec pour objectif de présenter comment des sources de données alternatives et le Big Data peuvent redéfinir la compréhension et la gestion du tourisme en Valais. Un livre blanc, établi conjointement par des chercheurs et chercheuses des deux institutions, a été présenté. Le projet est soutenu par le Canton du Valais.
Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy is testing a search with artificial intelligence tool to help match travelers with the best home and destination.
The search with AI tool is in a test phase initially and was developed in partnership with Publicis Sapient. It is based on natural language search with users describing what they want from their vacation.
Its development is also part of a wider technology transformation for the hotel giant, which seeks to create more personalized travel experiences.
Bien que l’IA soit perçue comme une avancée technologique majeure, les Français appellent à une approche régulée et éthique.
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