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travel selling efforts have become integrated in
a more robust way into Google’s wider suite of
technology tools. TRAVELERS WANT

Want to track that affordable flight to Paris for MORE CONTROL
your anniversary in six months? Want to remem-
ber that hipster coffee shop in Austin for your OVER THEIR TRIPS
next visit? Now you can do it seamlessly inside
Google’s ecosystem with proactive notifications
from Google services. THAN EVER BEFORE,
AND NEW DIGITAL
TripAdvisor launched a social networking platform
to allow users to save and then book elements
of a vacation when they are ready to travel. TOOLS ALLOW THEM
Enabling travelers to choose, instead of pushing
them offers and deals they don’t want, will soon TO CO-CREATE A
become the new normal for smart travel brands.
TRIP WITHIN THE
Travelers no longer have to spend hours before
a trip pricing out activities or manipulating the STRUCTURE OF THE
timing of their trip for the best experience; they
can now do so via the same apps they’ve used
throughout the planning process, pulling from APPS AND SERVICES ONE BIG
options they’ve already saved to their account.
THEY ALREADY USE.
Global hotel brands are also getting into the
game, with a slightly different calculus behind
their strategies. A major problem faced by
hotel and flight providers is frequency of use by global airlines are reaping a financial windfall WELCOME
customers; most people travel a couple times a by charging fees, an even bigger opportunity
year, and many never travel. is to become more deeply integrated into the
wider trip booking and planning experience for
So how do you encourage existing customers to customers.
visit your platform more often while attracting Announcing the all-new
those who don’t travel to your travel brand? By Travel companies face a major challenge as they
building a platform with relevant products for concoct marketing efforts to educate travelers VisitDallas Experience Center.
locals in addition to travelers. Local residents also about the options available to them in a world
eat at restaurants, need on-demand deliveries of where the boundaries between travel sectors A revolutionary addition to Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas,
purchases, and crave unique local experiences are breaking down. blending best-in-class customer service with
showing them the parts of their city they have mixed-reality technology to immerse visitors and residents in a
never seen. The coming changes will also flatten the ecosys- personalized journey through Dallas.
tem, allowing smaller providers of experiences
AccorHotels’ AccorLocal program is the f irst and services to compete against enormous legacy
example of what these platforms will look like, companies retooling on the fly to capitalize on
using the company’s hotels and local connections a future defined by co-creation. As companies
as a services platform for Parisians. Why not book like Amazon and Uber have shown, consumers
a spa treatment at a hotel, then follow it up with value convenience and affordability above all else.
dinner at the property’s best restaurant?
The wise, empowered consumer of the future
Airlines, too, have moved to sell better seats, will choose the travel services that suit them
lounge access, and in-destination experiences best instead of incumbents. Control is power,
in more integrated ways than ever before. While and travelers want more.

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