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How much we all love to travel we could realise last year. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, we had to face many restrictions such as a travel ban and lockdown. Fortunately, in 2021 everything is beginning to go back to “new” old reality, it’s a good time to look around and realise how significantly the travel industry transformed during the last decades. Let’s look at a few main trends that revolutionized tourism.

Personalized tourist experience

All travellers are different – one would prefer a cheap hostel with an amazing view, another would choose an expensive hotel in the city centre. That’s why the personalization trends needed to influence also travel industry.  Big Data and AI help to provide customized bundles of travel products and the surveys show that customers are able to pay more for such packages based on their preferences. Big data analysis can show which destinations, types of accommodation, airlines or snacks travellers prefer. Moreover, thanks to the use of mobile data, personalized emails and notifications can be sent to maintain high engagement.

Mobile connectivity is a must

Have you ever experienced sleeping in a hotel room without Wi-Fi or mobile Internet coverage? What a nightmare! Not only accessibility to high-speed wi-fi has become a standard for tourist places, but some of them offer special mobile packs including power banks and selfie sticks. Mobile apps are also gaining popularity and almost all travellers can’t imagine using at least one of the –Google Travel, TripAdvisor, Booking or Airbnb are only a few examples.

Rating and reviews

Would you go to a restaurant in a foreign city without checking its Google rating? Have you ever checked top attractions in the city you were currently visiting? Or maybe you had a chance to post a review of the hotel you really liked? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, it means you were a part of the reviews and rating social network. Its capabilities not only help customers find the best choices but are also really insightful for businesses that can understand travellers needs and expectations. As the result, they know which elements need improvement and how to maximize customer experience.

How will the travel industry transform in the future? Will AI and virtual reality revolutionize the way we think about tourism? Let’s realize, that change has begun and in the nearest future, we can expect even more to happen.

References:

1. Digital transformation in travel industry. (2020, July 29). Adamo Digital. https://adamodigital.com/blog/how-digital-transformation-affect-the-travel-and-tourism-industry/
2. Zamiatina, A. (2021). Top 7 digital transformation trends in the travel industry. Blog Datumize. https://blog.datumize.com/top-7-digital-transformation-trends-in-the-travel-industry
3. Pham, L. (2021, May 7). 5 Trends of Digital transformation in travel and tourism industry 2021. Magenest – Run Your ECommerce Store with Ease! https://magenest.com/en/digital-transformation-in-travel/

No ratings yet. Digital transformation is a process that touches and reshapes every industry. Although we usually think about more obvious examples like music streaming (Spotify, Apple Music), taxi (Uber, Bolt), TV and video streaming (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video) or banking (Revolut and other digital banks), digital technologies disrupts also sports industry. In this blog article, I will focus on the subject of new, disruptive technologies in one of the most popular, and the most broadly watched sport disciplines – football.

Digital football experience
It is clear to see that more and more digital natives, that means people who grown up with smartphones and tablets in their hands are now becoming the biggest share of football fans. Their behaviour differs, as they require a full and high-quality digital experience. They are able to buy tickets online, but also instead of going to the stadium, a great share of them may prefer to watch football sports competitions online. However, the sport experienced is not limited to 90-minutes of the match. Fans are in constant contact with their favourite clubs via social media, consuming video clips or discussing with other team supporters etc. There are also special club mobile apps that help fans to be updated all the time.

Commercial use of data

With such intense interaction, the clubs are able to collect an immense amount of customer data, especially about their fans. It might enable them to work on a more personalized experience – what digital natives truly expect. Part of English clubs does think about introducing dynamic pricing solutions enabling them to maximize their profit. Many of the top-leagues clubs have already started working on multi-platform data-analysis tools that help them to enhance the user experience by targeting proper content and purchase offers. The future of the club-fans interaction lays in “hyper-targeting” that will bring user engagement to a higher than ever level.

How to win using data analysis

Anyhow, digital transformation in football doesn’t impact only the commercial level, but it also strongly influence the club’s sports competitiveness. Special systems are used by coaches to evaluate players and team performance and seek strategy enhancement. Furthermore, some special microwave systems, advanced biometrical kinetics and position measurement technologies help to track players and ball position in real-time The top sports clubs not only measure footballers behaviours on the football pitch but also day daily activities, nutrition and sleep habits or even psychological states. It is later used to improve individual and group training sessions and even to avoid injuries.

To sum up, the world of football is changing rapidly. Clubs are in need to excel in data analysis to still be competitive. They will use it not only at the sports leagues and tournaments but also to economically compete with digitally-enabled rivals.

References:

1. M. Beetz, B. Kirchlechner and M. Lames, “Computerized real-time analysis of football games,” in IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 33-39, July-Sept. 2005, doi: 10.1109/MPRV.2005.53.

2. PwC, “Football’s Digital Transformation. Growth opportunities for football clubs in the digital age”, 2014