Industry told to get ready for the ‘you know me’ society
The travel industry needs to get itself ready for the ‘you know me’ society, delegates at the ABTA Convention were told.
Trends expert Thimon de Jong said the younger generation are already demanding more personalised and customised products and services and their expectations are growing.
In return for this, Millennials are happy to share more data with companies and will be prepared to share even more personal information in the future.
"There will be a shift where customers are actually saying to you ‘come on, I want you to use my data more’. They will say ‘ask me for my consent and I’ll be happy to give you a little bit more information, as long as you give me something in return’," he said.
"Are you ready for that?"
De Jong said travel companies should make use of the technology currently available, pointing to profiling websites such as crystalknows.com, which uses digital data to create personality information.
He said in the future travel companies will even be able to digitally assess the mood of their potential customers, knowing when they are stressed and in need of a holiday.
"It’s definitely the next stage. We will see customisation based on an emotion at a certain time," he explained.
News from The Travel Convention sponsored by Hertz UK
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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