Travel Symposium

Focus on the digital future of tourism

On October 19, the Travel Industry Club (TIC), in cooperation with Accenture, hosted the Travel Technology Symposium on "Customer Experience: today's digital opportunities become tomorrow's standard" in Kronberg, Hesse.

With this year's event, the business club [or verein, but not an association] has once again succeeded in bringing together stakeholders from far beyond the traditional tourism industry. From Microsoft and Google [DB Systel unfortunately cancelled in the morning] to start-ups and universities, a broad spectrum was once again represented at the Accenture Campus in Kronberg to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI and digitalization in a value-oriented manner.

The event kicked off with a keynote speech by Kirsten Feld-Türkis and Alex Moseman from Prophet, a Berlin-based consultancy dedicated to transformation. Under the title "CX management of the future - new relevance of customer experience", Feld-Türkis outlined a transformative revolution in customer experience (CX). CX will become the centerpiece of corporate strategy, with decisions based on customer understanding and data, she explained. A better understanding of customer needs and behaviour is at the heart of optimizing the customer experience. Digitalization plays a decisive role in this. A thesis that also played a role in the following panel, in which Alex Moseman, Jörg Malang from DER Touristik and Tom Fecke from Sabre discussed the digitalization of customer touchpoints and its impact on the industry.

The impact of artificial intelligence on the industry is a hot topic in the tourism industry. Michael Masa from Microsoft addressed this topic in his presentation. He emphasized the role of generative AI systems that enable personalized bookings, more effective marketing, automated booking processes and robot-assisted customer service. Masa also emphasized that generative AI systems could contribute between 2.6 and 4.4 billion dollars annually to the global economy. This high value is reflected above all in key areas such as customer service, marketing, software development and research. The ability to create personalized offers, strengthen travel loyalty and optimize processes such as maintenance, document management and translations are just a few examples of how AI can increase value creation in the tourism industry.

Henrike Lewerenz from Google spoke on the topic of "AI in Travel - and the expectations of the evolving travelers". AI is the next best change and will have an impact on everything. Analytical and predictive AI is optimizing the world around us. Gen AI in the tourism industry is generating and optimizing content, breaking down barriers to conversation, and automating and improving processes.

Another focus of the symposium was the topic of sustainability, also with a view to digitalization and AI. Michael Stober from Landgut Stober in Brandenburg, which has been named Europe's greenest hotel and is a member of the Brandenburg Sustainability Platform, spoke on the topic of the "European Green Deal".

Also committed to sustainability is the start-up NeedNect Solutions, which records guests' individual wishes in advance of their arrival, thereby significantly reducing the consumption of resources.

It offers hotels and travelers a SaaS platform for a transparent exchange. NeedNect increases the ability to plan in hotels and harmonizes supply and demand. The start-up combines the two topics of "individualization" and "sustainability" in the hotel industry, as a personalized stay is expected in the premium segment of the hotel industry in particular.

Start-ups in particular are enriching the tourism industry with new ideas and solutions. One example of this is Wependio. The start-up from Austria wants to revolutionize the way people plan, book and experience trips using AI, among other things. The platform not only offers deals for flights and accommodation, but also creates a social community in which travelers can network, share their experiences and discover new destinations. The TIC is convinced that such innovative approaches show how start-ups can make a significant contribution to the transformation of the travel industry and shape the future of tourism.