According to GlobalData research, over 81% of travel companies have already invested in cloud computing technologies, and the rest plan on doing so in the next 3 years. Cloud computing technologies have surely simplified the operations and helped them enhance their productivity significantly. Cloud technologies have been adopted by almost all types of industries – even the travel industry.
In the current slowdown in economic conditions, cloud technologies can help travel and tourism organizations significantly in cutting down their operational costs and providing their customers with an exquisite travel experience. Especially in times of the pandemic, cloud and IT services have helped the travel industry (which has been affected the most) considerably.
Accelerating the travel industry’s service delivery
From the prices of the flight to ancillary services, things change rapidly in the travel industry. And with so many competitors out there, losing a customer’s attention is easy. As customers can find information related to travel destinations, hotels, and flights is available free of cost on so many websites, speed is the key to winning your customers.
Adopting the cloud keeps your travel business ahead of the competition, as it gives you the ability to provide customers with the latest information before someone else does. Cloud technologies increase the responsiveness and speed of your website and apps by working on things like the page rendering process and download time.
Moreover, customers change their habits quite rapidly in the travel and tourism industry. They desire instant services at the tap of their fingers. Using a cloud solution that is regularly updated keeps your infrastructure up-to-date. When your infrastructure is updated, you are on your toes and ready to adapt quickly to the changing customer requirements.
The dynamic nature of the travel industry
The travel and tourism industry is very dynamic, not just in terms of flight/hotel rates but also sales. Naturally, the sales increase during “seasons” and it goes down notably during the “off-season”. When travel companies still use on-premise infrastructure, they will have to pay for the bandwidth they did not even use during the off-season. It is not just about the money, it also takes a lot to maintain the on-premise infrastructure.
Cloud computing solutions and services give travel companies the flexibility of paying-as-they-go. The company can scale up its usage in minutes when it needs more bandwidth and can cut down on redundant services when you do not need them. Opting for cloud computing solutions helps you save a large amount of money and effort.
Offering personalized customer experience
Providing a positive customer experience is at the heart of the travel and tourism industry. Happy customers translate to customer retention as well as organizational growth. Cloud computing solutions can help travel companies enhance user satisfaction and increase customer retention. It enables travel agencies to give the customers access to their travel itineraries and content.
The existing customers’ information can be used by the agencies to provide them with more personalized and customized experiences. Using that information, agencies can extend exciting offers, discounts, and travel recommendations based on customer behavior as well as searches of the customers.
Mobile & remote access
Today, smartphones have become a huge source of app and website traffic. With people being so used to their smartphones, travel businesses cannot expect to thrive if their services are not mobile-friendly. Cloud computing services take care of this issue by allowing easy mobile access to users. It does not just make it more convenient for customers but also for the employees.
Cloud solutions enable remote access to the data for the staff when they’re working remotely or on a holiday or a business trip. With remote and hybrid working now becoming a part of the new normal, cloud computing enables efficient business functioning without having the staff in the office.
Security, backup & disaster management
With massive amounts of data and information comes great responsibility. Securing the data of its valuable customers is at the heart of every travel organization. With cloud computing services, you can rest assured that the data of your customer is secure. The encryption policy of cloud services is much more efficient and reliable than any on-premise infrastructure. Moreover, with cloud services, you don’t need to invest any additional time and money into securing your data. This gives you more time and other resources to focus on your travel agency’s quality of services and products.
Moreover, even if a long-term power outage or natural disaster takes place, you will not have to worry about losing access to your data. This is because cloud computing service providers save backups of your data in multiple safe locations. Ultimately, this results in lesser downtime and speedy recovery of data. This disaster management is more than enough to say that cloud computing is the present as well as the future of the travel industry.
GoDgtl offers cutting-edge managed cloud computing services for disruptive travel industry players like you. View our services here.
Source
[1] GlobalData (2020) “How cloud computing is shaping the future of the travel industry” [Online] Available from: https://store.globaldata.com/report/gdtt-tr-s046–cloud-computing-in-travel-and-tourism-thematic-research/ [Accessed December 2021]