Experience-based Travel

Abstract

Two broad-based think tanks, sponsored by the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH&RA), examined the future of information technology in the hospitality industry. A chief theme emerging from the think tanks is that the successful hospitality purveyor of the future will be the one that can use technology to meet the customer's needs on the customer's terms. That means supplying disparate information relating to the customer's travel desires and being able to do so instantaneously—whenever the guest decides to make the inquiry. While hospitality firms will not be able to count on blind loyalty, they will be able to use technology to learn enough about their customers to continually meet their changing needs and desires. Since customers will be able to find nearly any kind of information via the internet, intermediaries will need to develop ways of packaging information to make it more valuable to customers. Likewise, destination-based companies will have to assemble a portfolio of potential experiences and match those to the experiences desired by a customer. All of this will require not only technology, but excellently trained employees who know how to use the technology to add value to the customer's travel experience. Lacking that value-added feature, hospitality purveyors risk being relegated to commodity providers competing only on price-a gloomy scenario that can be avoided with judicious application of information systems.