EyeforTravel Smart Travel Data Summit North America 2017 ... · EyeforTravel’s Smart Travel Data Summit North America, held in Atlanta on February 22 and 23, was on hand to answer

EyeforTravel Smart Travel Data Summit North America 2017 Round-up

By Amy Wenk

About EyeforTravel

We bring together everyone in the travel industry, from small tech start-ups to international hotel brands, to form a community working towards a smarter and more connected travel industry.

Our mission is to be the place our industry goes to share knowledge and data so that travel and tech brands can work collaboratively to create the perfect experience for the modern traveler.

We do this through our network of global events, our digital content, and our knowledge hub - EyeforTravel On Demand.

Our ValuesWe believe the industry must focus on a business and distribution model that always puts the customer at the center and produces great products. However, to deliver an outstanding travel experience, the strength, skills, and resources of all partners in the value chain must be respected and understood.

At EyeforTravel we believe the industry can achieve this goal by focusing on a business model that combines customer insight with great product and, most impor-tantly, places the traveler experience at its core.

At our core we aim to enable the above by valuing impartiality, independent thought, openness and cooperation. We hope that these qualities allow us to foster dialogue, guide business decisions, build partnerships and conduct thorough research directly with the industry.

These principles have guided us since 1997 and will continue to keep us at the forefront of the industry as a vibrant travel community for many more years to come.

AB

OU

T EYEFORTR

AVEL

Our ServicesOur events are the heart of EyeforTravel. These draw in experts from every part of the travel industry to give thought provoking presentations and engage in discussions. It is our aim that every attendee takes back something new that can help their business to improve. This might be in the fields of consumer research, data insights, technological trends, or marketing and revenue management techniques.

Alongside this we provide our community with commen-tary, reports, white papers, webinars and other valuable expert-driven content. All of this can be accessed through one place - the On Demand subscription service.

We are always expanding the content we create, so please get in touch if you want to write an article for us, create a white paper or webinar, or feature in our podcast.

EyeforTravel in Numbers ■ 70,000+ database contacts

■ 2,500+ annual event attendees

■ 100,000+ monthly online reach

■ 1,000+ online conference presentations

www.eyefortravel.com SMART TRAVEL DATA SUMMIT NORTH AMERICA, POST-CONFERENCE REPORT | 2

CON

TENTS

Contents


Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.Strategies to Optimize Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.1 Data is the New Natural Resource. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.2 Be the Geeks that Can Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.3 Strategic Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.4 The Tauck Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2 Cutting-Edge Revenue Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.1 Harness New Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.2 Smash Down Revenue Management Silos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.3 Discount with Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3 Personalize and Predict your Customers Every Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.1 Data Brings Clarity to Chaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.2 Driving Customer Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4 What’s Next for Data Analytics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4.1 Insight, Not Just Pretty Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4.2 Elementary, My Dear Watson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

SMART TRAVEL DATA SUMMIT NORTH AMERICA, POST-CONFERENCE REPORT | 4

Introduction

Travel companies are diving into a sea of data to boost to their brands and drive revenue. New information is flowing fast, and the most innovative companies are those absorbing tons of data to optimize their business and marketing decisions. However, how do you collect, sort and analyze vast amounts of knowledge into something usable?

EyeforTravel’s Smart Travel Data Summit North America, held in Atlanta on February 22 and 23, was on hand to answer this question through strategies such as improving analytical skill sets, personalizing guest profiles and powering up data-driven decisions.

Speakers included executives from hospitality giants Hilton Worldwide, InterContinental Hotels Group, Choice Hotels, Wyndham Worldwide, Accor Hotels, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, and La Quinta Inns and Suites.

INTRO

DU

CTIO

N

www.eyefortravel.com

Improving Travel Data“What’s a year it’s been,” EyeforTravel’s Global Conference Producer Leo Langford said to kick off the Summit. “I think if you’ve learned anything from 2016 it’s that business, politics and life are all very unpredictable and there’s an ever-growing need for better data, better analytics and sounder predictions.”

Langford shared a poll from the Summit’s sister event in Europe (the Smart Travel Data Summit 2016) showing what travel executives see as a game changer for the industry. The majority (78%) said data-driven personali-zation, followed by Application Programming Interface (API)-led distribution partnerships (14%).

“Despite revolutionary developments like block-chain and conversational commerce … there is still a consensus that data-driven personalization is king,” he said. “From cutting-edge revenue management, to marketing that can predict the customer’s every move,

What do you think is going to be the game changer in our industry?

Attendees to EyeforTravel’s Europe Smart Travel Data Summit firmly put data-driven personalization as the top game-changer to the industry

2%

5%

14%

78%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Conversational Commerce

Blockchain technology

API-led distribution partnerships

Data driven personalisation

INTRO

DU

CTIO

N


Another talk showed how API-led strategic partnerships can create more insight into customer preferences.

“Personalization is top,” said Emre Mangir, head of partnerships for Mozio, an airport transfer search and booking engine. “Don’t fall into the big data trap.”

The real barrier, he said, is not fully understanding your customer. So, design your system with input and output in mind. “To get to personalization, you need to understand customer, which is impossible without the end-to-end journey,” Mangir said. Partner with other companies that share your strategy. They may collect data on a different part of the travel journey.

Other speakers offered pricing and marketing strat-egies, such as how to track the true cost of acquiring customers and how to best engage guests to grow brand loyalty.

“We’ve got all these different places where people can book us,” said Josh Henegar, corporate revenue director for independent hotel company 1859 Historic Hotels. “What we are trying to do is factor in cost of acquisition in every booking that we get.”

Henegar shared some concerns about online travel agencies such as Expedia. “It’s exhausting to play the Online Travel Agency (OTA) game. It’s selective, biased and increasingly unclear what the rules are… We need to educate the guest and remind them that direct is best.”

to unbeatable travel products, data has taken the center stage in facilitating this process.”

Advances in technology mean bigger and better data sets and analysis tools are becoming available to the travel industry. In an age where customers crave the best experiences it’s crucial that each business pushes forward to create new systems and adopt best practices. Travel companies must know their guests and personalize their experience or others will do so at their expense.

Disruptors Abound Just think, the world’s largest taxi company, Uber, owns no vehicles. The world’s largest accommodation company, Airbnb, owns no real estate.

“Things have changed dramatically in the last two or three years,” said PJ Abhishek, senior vice president of revenue management and consumer analytics for RCI/Wyndham Worldwide. “We are definitely in a very critical part of the journey.”

Speakers at the Summit shared how to harness new talent and improve analytic skill-sets. There was talk about breaking down silos in the workplace and integrating revenue management into all aspects of the business.

“Real-life innovation is happening in the industry,” said Kelly McGuire, vice president of advanced analytics for Wyndham Worldwide.

“It’s this high-tech stuff that’s going to enable hospitality to keep innovating and keep delivering on its customer experiences,” she said. “The trick is to do it in a way that the customer still feels like they are being treated as an individual, and it’s not some creepy stalker-computer that’s making decisions. It’s going to be fun to watch. There are going to be some funny mistakes before we get it right.”

Making Data AccessibleThe Summit also touched on the latest visualization techniques and other cutting-edge technology, such as IBM’s supercomputer, Watson.

Above all, when it comes to technology it is paramount to make systems user-friendly, said expert data scientists. If it’s slow, people won’t use it. “Users expect pages to load in two seconds on your site, and after three seconds, up to 40% of users will abandon your site,” said Daniel Capizzi, manager of data visualization for Choice Hotels.

1

STRATEg

IES TO O

PTIMIzE D

ATA


Strategies to Optimize Data

Today, about 80% of all data is unstructured, said Steven Pinchuk of IBM’s Advanced Analytics Center of Competence. That means traditional computers can’t process most of what’s out there.

“Data is the new natural resource,” Pinchuk said.

Insightful travel companies are learning how to funnel broad knowledge into something small and valuable, as the potential rewards are high. Take Paris-based

1.1 Data is the New Natural ResourceGiven that 90% of the world’s data was created in the past two years, businesses need a strong strategy to sort the mountains of new information.

“We are swimming in data,” said Angelo Sasso, senior director of business analytics and customer insights for The Leading Hotels of the World. “It’s daunting. The amount of data we are gathering today is massive.”

Optimize Customer Journey & Lifecycle

Maximize Integrated Marketing

Impact

Elevate Sales & RM

Performance

Increase Operational

Efficiency

360-DegreePerformance

with DataScience

Fabrice Otano of Accor Hotels emphasized that the key to his company achieving 2-5% higher RevPAR than competitors was its integrated data approach

STRATEg

IES TO O

PTIMIzE D

ATA


This focused data about customer preferences will drive more loyalty and money to a brand, said Martin Stolfa, vice president of commercial services analytics for Hilton Worldwide.

“Look now at how unstructured big data is enabling us to shape, especially in the personalization space, the quality of our offering,” he said. “It’s happening now. It’s the Internet of everything. It’s going to power more and more of the decision proposition. “

1.2 Be the geeks that Can SpeakIt can be tough to turn the tide and become a data-driven company.

The biggest challenge, said 52% of people in an EyeforTravel survey, is when commercial and data teams don’t work together.

“Without good communication, your analytic strategy falls flat,” said Kelly McGuire, vice president of advanced analytics for Wyndham Worldwide.

McGuire offered three high-level strategies to put data into action.

Firstly, she advises developing a guiding philosophy for what the analytics will accomplish. She suggested developing data that’s not just reactive, or measuring the past, but predictive, allowing a company to evolve and survive for the future.

“As you become better at this, it enables a different kind of decision making in the organization,” McGuire said.

Next, she said, companies must explain their data with analogies and storytelling to make it relevant to workers.

Lastly, analytics should be described in business language and tied to an action. “Be the geeks that can speak,” she said.

hotel operator Accor Hotels. Chief data officer Fabrice Otaño said it outperforms other hotels with 3-5% higher RevPAR (revenue per available room) due to its dynamic occupancy, pricing and channel optimization, which integrate artificial intelligence.

Otaño said Accor is leveraging a massive “data lake” to boost its data capabilities and fuel up net revenue. Accor, which includes hotel brands Mercure, Novotel and Sofitel, says its data lake is at the heart of its collec-tive intelligence, shared between hotel, business and revenue managers, data scientists and business analysts.

Data science, Otaño noted, allows Accor to be more predictive — increasing operational efficiency, elevating sales and revenue management perfor-mance, maximizing integrated marketing impact, and optimizing customer journey and lifecycle.

“Small data is greater than big data,” said Scott Garner, president of data and analytics for ADARA, which collects global travel data. He said that every day people are creating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. That’s enough to fill 10 million blu-ray discs, which if stacked would be the height of four Eiffel Towers.

Garner spoke about the value of its “data co-op,” where information comes in real time about a person’s search history, bookings and loyalty data to provide a more complete customer view. ADARA compiles data from more than hundred partners and then computes a “Traveler Value Score”, which gives its clients visibility into a traveler’s true revenue potential.

90% of the world’s data was created in the past two years

20% can be understood by traditional computers

Key Drivers for an Effective Data Strategy

Senior managment

buy-In

Right teams and roles created

Right technology

Data management

STRATEg

IES TO O

PTIMIzE D

ATA


come to the house”. Pulling in more data from more sources improves insight, he explained.

“At each customer touch point across the travel journey, you are seeing the customer in a different way,” Mangir said. “Their interaction with one brand may be very different. Understanding customer preferences is key to that sort of holy grail of personalization. To get to personalization, we really need to understand the customer and that’s impossible without understanding their end-to-end journey.”

1.4 The Tauck StoryTravel companies are at different stages of adopting analytics strategies.

“In the history of analytics, there weren’t always a lot of good, commercially available systems,” said Kelly McGuire of Wyndham Worldwide. “And if there were, they were expensive. Those who could invest first got ahead in that sense.”

But, that’s changing as technology advances.

“Now, between the cloud, maturity of industries and some automation, the solutions are becoming more accessible to smaller and smaller companies, so they can build that level of analytic maturity further down the size chain,” said McGuire.

Small companies can be more nimble, she said. “A lot of the bigger players are hampered by legacy and don’t move as fast. It’s like turning the Titanic.”

An example of a turnaround came from Tauck, a fourth-generation family business that started as a New England motor-coach tour company in 1925. Today, the upscale travel operator offers guided tours and cruises across the globe.

Stolfa believes the key is curiosity and having people who want to engage in business and understand the scope of commercial operations.

And he also stressed the importance of accurate data. Hilton’s data lake has sensors that track its progress. If the light is green, data is coming through correctly. “Everything can be killed when data is not accurate,” Stolfa said. “That creates doubts and that spreads like wildfire.”

1.3 Strategic PartnershipsTravel companies are partnering to create powerful customer databases to know exactly what their customers want – and how to sell it to them.

Companies are producing highly personalized profiles. It’s especially important for the hospitality industry, where some companies only provide a portion of a person’s trip.

“It’s an outdated notion to talk about owning a customer, when the customer really owns the experi-ence,” said Emre Mangir of Mozio. “You can provide touch points along the way.”

Mangir said companies including Salesforce, Concur and TripAdvisor have developed successful platforms that allow them to collect and share data across industries. “It’s made them incredibly resilient,” he said.

Mozio, too, has improved its product by developing a user interface that interacts with other companies, pulling in new data points. It helps to streamline their digital platform and improve user experience.

“It starts with your API,” Mangir said. “How do you want people to access your product? How are we communi-cating with the outside world?”

Mangir told travel companies not to fear collaboration with others and to build systems that “pave roads to

The Top Questions from the Summit

1: Is there such a thing as bad data?

2: How can smaller hotels make their data savvy?

3: Is the customer’s travel journey part of your consideration? How do you align this with the

view of lifecycle management?

STRATEg

IES TO O

PTIMIzE D

ATA


When Vinny Licht, CIO of Tauck, joined the company 15 years ago, he said, “What I saw was legacy systems and obsolete technology. We had a lot of issues.”

So, about three years ago, Tauck brought in new talent to merge revenue management and information technology: Jon Franco, senior manager of reporting and analytics, and Sue Verrochi, business analytics manager.

“We walked into a world of multiple data sources and multiple delivery methods,” Verrochi explained. And there were a host of barriers, from legacy thinking to high costs, inexperience and the perception that control would be lost, she said.

Immediate goals included developing a single source of truth, reducing duplication efforts, ensuring data quality and obtaining more intuitive tools.

Over time, the hope was to teach Tauck to drive more decisions with data.

Among its successes, the team created a new executive dashboard, a more advanced booking system and streamlined customer comments.

“The barriers are no longer what they once were,” Licht said. “We figured out our way as we went.”

McGuire said of Tauck’s journey: “They hit on a good piece of technology, a couple of key resources and kind of ran with it.”

Cutting-Edge Revenue Management

2

CUTTIN

g-ED

gE REV

ENU

E M

AN

Ag

EMEN

T


2.2 Smash Down Revenue Management Silos

A big challenge to fully realizing the power of revenue management is that many companies fail to integrate it across the company.

“I know a lot of organizations tend to filter out or box revenue management into a separate component of the business,” said Robert Goad, director of revenue management for La Quinta Inns and Suites. “For us at La Quinta, we’ve really taken an effort to integrate revenue management across all components of the business.”

He reported there are daily and weekly interactions with marketing and sales teams. In addition, revenue management is also actively involved in decisions related to e-commerce distribution and strategy.

“It ensures we are all cross-communicating,” Goad said.

Jeffrey Roy from family-owned tour operator Collette Vacations explained why, in recent years, the company went through a big reorganization of its revenue management and pricing team.

“We used to have pieces of this team reporting to all different areas of the business,” said Roy, vice president of revenue management and pricing for Collette. “One pricing team reported under our COO. Another part of pricing team reported to product development. The inventory management team reported to the CFO. Competitive intelligence was sitting in marketing. So for us, being siloed was natural because we were set up that way. What you ended up with was a lot of competing interests in the organization.”

Collette came up with a new reporting structure where revenue management now works alongside the CFO, in conjunction with marketing and sales teams. It gave

2.1 Harness New TalentOver the past four decades, the travel marketplace and revenue management systems have become increas-ingly complex, said Emmanuel Carrier, a data science consultant who works with Delta Airlines.

But today, many revenue management departments operate the same as 20 to 30 years ago. There is a large pool of analysts. And numerous manual adjustments are still made to system recommendations.

“As systems get increasingly complex, the gap grows between system sophistication and human analyst understanding of system’s recommendations,” Carrier said.

He suggested evolving the role and profile of the revenue management analyst. Although it’s common today, the next generation of analysts shouldn’t be recent college grads, but have advanced degrees. Too many analysts lack technical skills, Carrier said.

He also suggested companies offer a flexible career path between revenue management systems and market management. The best workers blend both analytical skills and commercial expertise.

“It’s going to get more and more complex,” Carrier developed. “It’s going to become even more granular. It’s harder and harder for human analysts.”

“As systems get increasingly complex, the gap grows between system sophistication and human analyst understanding of system’s recommendations,”

Emmanuel Carrier, Data Science Consul-tant, Delta Airlines.


CUTTIN

G-ED

GE REV

ENU

E M

AN

AG

EMEN

T

In this environment, “the strategy is not ‘how do you grow’, because that’s naïve,” Wu said. “The strategy is ‘how do you lose the least’.”

She suggested staying calm and avoiding going down the rabbit hole of discounts. “My new motto with my marketing team is ‘discount with purpose’,” Wu said. “Every discount we offer has to be a marketing strategy.”

Scot Hornick from the Professional Pricing Society shared strategies for competing in an oversupplied market. “Know the real competitive pricing environ-ment. You may think you know it, but be sure you know it,” Hornick said. “There’s a lot of crazy stuff people do when supply is abundant and customers are scarce.”

Even with a relatively simple price structure, pricing dynamics can be rapid and stealthy. Make sure to have a robust competitive intelligence function. “A lot of times we think price transparency is pretty much a given in the travel industry, but it can really be a myth,” Hornick commented.

He advised to know how and when your biggest competitors matter. And then, play the game. “You really have got to apply game theory to revenue management.”

everyone more accountability, he suggested, and the company more flexibility to test concepts.

“It’s all about growing and being profitable,” Roy said. “That’s the key. You have to collaborate and share information and have open conversations about it.”

Cynthia Paynter, director of revenue management, talent and education for Accor Hotels, said training programs could help tear down silos between departments.

“Every role plays a role in revenue management,” she claimed. “Everyone is on a revenue generation journey at the hotel. They are all part of same team to drive growth and process.”

2.3 Discount with PurposeIt’s a competitive marketplace for hospitality companies, especially when others offer deep discounts.

Be sure to “discount with purpose”, said Angela Wu, director of revenue management for the W New York Downtown hotel. She’s had to navigate a tough market at the 217-room hotel that is located across from the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

“This is an area that has gone through serious rejuvenation over the past five years at least,” Wu said. Since December 2014, the number of hotel rooms in a half-mile radius has nearly doubled.

“This is an extreme supply-growth case,” she said. “The highest growth of new jobs in the area is coming from the hotel segment.”

The expansion caused New York City to see its first RevPAR (revenue per available room) decline in 2015 during the non-recession period driven by decreases in average daily rates.

“Everyone is on a revenue generation journey at the hotel. They are all part of same team to drive growth and process.”

Cynthia Paynter, Director of Revenue Management, Talent and Education, Accor Hotels

“There’s a lot of crazy stuff people do when supply is abundant and customers are scarce”

Dr. Scot Hornick, the Professional Pricing Society

Personalize and Predict your Customers Every Move

3

PERSON

ALIzE A

ND

PREDIC

T YOU

R CU

STOM

ERS EVERY M

OV

E


“For us, it’s a guest-driven culture,” commented Donald O’Grady, vice president of technology for Kimpton. “For us to be successful as a company, we need to make sure our guest satisfaction is better than anybody else’s.”

Using data visualization software Tableau, data is shared across a property in real time. It’s especially useful for conflict resolution. For example, when a hotel guest reaches out to the support desk about trouble connecting to the Internet, an email is immediately sent to the front desk and they call to ensure it was fixed.

“Sometimes having a problem and solving it correctly is almost better than not having a problem at all,” O’Grady points out. “It shows we are paying attention and care.”

Kimpton also rewards its guests who promote its properties across social media sites such as Twitter. For example, a guest who tweets positively about one of its hotels or restaurants will earn Kimpton “Karma”

3.1 Data Brings Clarity to ChaosExecutives from Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants shared the innovative ways that they use data to boost their guest experience — an important factor for the company that operates more than 65 hotels and 75 restaurants.

Heather Richer, vice president of revenue management and distribution for Kimpton, explained the headwinds facing the hospitality industry. They include the rising influence of third-party operators, from OpenTable to Expedia, the growing trend toward a sharing economy, and the additional supply entering the market.

“People are more willing to pay for experiences than things,” Richer said. “There’s this shift happening.”

So, Kimpton has focused its efforts on creating personalized experiences for its guests, even knowing what magazine or drink a person prefers. Property level empowerment is at the root at what Kimpton is trying to accomplish, Richer said.

What’s the main goal of your data strategy?

At both Smart Travel Data events in Europe and North America, attendees agreed that driving revenue growth was the main objective of the data strategy

71%

12%

5%

12%

54%

19%

19%

8%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Drive Revenue

Create Loyal Customers

Produce Better Products

Market Better

EyeforTravel Smart Travel Data Summit North America 2017 EyeforTravel Smart Travel Data Summit 2016


PERSON

ALIZE A

ND

PREDIC

T YOU

R CU

STOM

ERS EVERY M

OV

E

points. It’s one of the company’s “surprise and delight” techniques, said O’Grady.

Data-smart companies are beefing up loyalty programs because they recognize the lifetime value of a customer. Loyal customers have a customer value that is 2.5 times higher, said Fabrice Otaño, chief data officer for Accor Hotels.

“We know the value of those positive hits,” he said. “We are doing lots of things to track the total value of the customer. That lifetime value is important.”

3.2 Driving Customer EngagementCustomer engagement is key to identifying and winning high-potential frequent travelers. However, engagement can be messy. There are a ton of messages and many places to present them.

“We waste a lot of marketing spend on people who aren’t going to be loyal to brand,” said Jerry Joyce, senior vice president of new business development for Wiland, a direct marketing technology company. People have unique transactional footprints that companies can target, he noted.

Companies must ensure that each customer sees consistent and influential messages, explained Jim Sprigg, director of database marketing and analytics for InterContinental Hotels Group. To better engage its customers, IHG tracked their reaction to a series of new promotions. In 2010, IHG launched bundled offers that tailor special offers to a guest’s travel history, and it has been growing these ever since.

“Not only could we decide for each customer which offers they saw, but we could actually vary the terms and conditions,” Sprigg said. IHG based the bundles on data it collected, such as the number of nights the customer typically stays and which hotel brands they frequent. One campaign was geared toward changing the perception of Holiday Inn after a big brand relaunch.

“The key is it’s highly personalized,” Sprigg commented. “The offer you get, the terms and conditions, are personalized to each individual based on what we know about them and how we are predicting they are going to respond. We continue to improve over time. It’s become a fixture at IHG.”

What’s Next for Data Analytics?

4

WH

AT’S NEX

T FOR D

ATA

AN

ALY

TICS?


Steven Pinchuk, lead customer intelligence and revenue management at IBM and chairman at the Summit said that “Watson” is a new kind of decision support. “Watson is not one thing,” he explained. “Watson is a series of APIs for different things that use cognitive computing. It’s the ability not just to tabulate, which was [developed] many years ago, not just to do inputs and outputs of data, but to absorb information and understand it.”

Watson can take huge amounts of data and find patterns, he said. It can understand, reason and learn.

“Watson actually has gone through med school, law school, learned the tax codes in the U.S.,” Pinchuk said. “It can read at thousands of pages a minute. And, it retains all these while our brains would get overloaded.”

Already, more than 80,000 developers and entrepre-neurs are building cognitive solutions on the Watson Developer Cloud.

Hospitality companies are also employing the technology. That includes Hilton Worldwide, which developed “Connie,” the first cognitive hotel concierge.

“You can talk to Connie,” Pinchuk said. “Connie will respond. Connie will read your facial expressions. Connie will understand the tone in your voice and whether you are happy or sad. It will adapt to customers. What Connie could also do is understand all of your inventory, rates, policies – everything about the hotel – and answer questions.”

Hilton and IBM are currently trialing Connie and hope that it can help to not only serve the guests with in-hotel services, but also to suggest attractions and activities in the vicinity of the property by accessing a database provided by partner WayBlazer.

4.1 Insight, Not Just Pretty PicturesWith so much data, one of the keys to unlocking its value is how you visually organize it.

“Visualization helps us off-load cognitive effort to our perceptual systems,” said Alex Endert, a professor of visual analytics and data visualization at Georgia Tech. At Georgia Tech’s visualization lab, Endert conducts research on how to best display and organize data so that a range of users can glean powerful insights.

“The user’s expertise has to match the interface complexity,” Endert said. “How do we take complex data analytics with visualization and simplify the user interface to promote usability? It’s unfair in the field to expect people to be properly trained data scientists.”

Daniel Capizzi, manager of data visualization for Choice Hotels, suggested it is more than just creating beautiful data. It’s about providing clear insight. “It’s easy to get carried away,” he said. “But, the goal of data visualization is to drive business decisions.”

You must ensure the data tells the truth, Capizzi said. Keep scales honest and mark clear labels. Use color and shape consistently. Know your audience. And, keep things simple. “Making simple visualizations and allowing drill down capabilities, you can see the model result and test it out.”

4.2 Elementary, My Dear WatsonTo truly unlock the value of the vast quantities of data that already exists, let alone the amount that is to be created in the next few years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is required. Furthermore, it is going to have to be increasingly sophisticated at taking in disparate inputs, producing meaningful outputs and learning from the process. One example of the growth in AI technologies to analyze and interpret data in the travel sector is IBM’s Watson.

Documents

EyeforTravel Smart Travel Data Summit North America 2017 ... · EyeforTravel’s Smart Travel Data Summit North America, held in Atlanta on February 22 and 23, was on hand to answer