The Online Mixed With Offline Cruise Revolution

Will the online revolution in Travel eventually lead to the demise of the Travel Agent? Some may argue that the days when consumers would go to their local travel agency to book a weekend getaway or annual vacation are long gone. With the Millennial generation now making up such a significant portion of the population, more and more people now use the internet to research and book travel. Ease and accessibility via mobile devices are critical whether your customers start their research and shopping using their mobile device and complete their booking with a travel agent, or research, shop, and book online.

In 2018, almost half of all global travel will be booked online. During the same period, Cruise Lines International Association projects that 27.2 million people will take a cruise. And despite huge advances in online automation, most will complete their booking using an offline method. It is estimated that just less than 20% of all cruise revenue was booked online last year, indicating that booking a cruise is primarily still an offline process. While this may appear to be the case on the surface, the truth is that in today's connected world, it is likely that the majority of these Consumers spent hours online researching and planning their cruise vacation before completing the transaction with a travel agent or cruise line sales representative. This trend clearly highlights a need to integrate online research with the offline expertise of a travel professional. With mobile devices enabling consumers to be online anywhere at any time, today's cruise booking software needs to be mobile ready.

As technology evolves, unique offers like shipboard credits, etc. as part of the availability display will be incorporated into the process and provide options for agents and consumers to "pick the perk" that best meets their needs. Ultimately this is intended to identify the true value of a booking beyond the cabin to the total value of the cruise experience. Big data analytics will continue to drive mass customization targeting specific offers to traveler segments leading to greater adoption. This will lead to the onboard experience influenced by information gathered during the planning and booking process with packaging an essential tool for cruise line resellers generating incremental revenue and enhanced experiences for customers.

Today, it is clear that traditional travel agents need cruise booking software that integrates and standardizes multiple cruise content and captures and controls the user interface for the customer and travel agent. The goal needs to simplify the experience for the consumer and improve the efficiency of the online and offline process. Cruise planning and research will continue to grow online, and the key to this evolution is a next-generation platform that connects the online and offline worlds into a seamless user experience.

Finding cruise booking software with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Travel Technology Solutions Help Drive Travel and Tourism

Travel & Tourism is an important economic activity in most countries around the world and helps to produce prosperity across the globe. Tourism brings people from different cultures closer together, creates jobs and helps drive the export of goods and services. When you consider the impact that the travel industry has on commerce across the board, it's no surprise that travel technology solutions have been pioneers in online commerce.

The travel industry is estimated to account for about 10%+ of global GDP and nearly one (1) out of every ten (10) jobs worldwide and last year was one of the strongest years of worldwide growth in nearly a decade thanks to strong consumer spending. But Travel & Tourism's total contribution to the world's economy goes deeper than the money spent during a trip. In addition to the obvious expense for products such as airline tickets, hotel accommodations, cruise vacations or ground transportation, the industry provides significant indirect benefits to other industries. Consumer spending on local entertainment or attractions, food & beverage services as well as retail spending before and during a trip can all be considered the result of travel and tourism. Even companies developing travel technology solutions owe their existence in part to this important and exciting industry.

All signs indicate that consumers will continue to use their smartphones as more and more as they become constantly connected to social media. If you're not making your product available on all channels you are potentially surrendering your customers to the competition. As a result, mobile ready travel technology solutions are becoming increasingly important for any travel business looking to reach these customers. People are not only using today's mobile devices to interact with each other, but they are also using these devices to make a significant number of purchases online. Some consumers may use various different devices as they research and eventually purchase products online. For instance, many consumers may start their initial research using their smartphone, but then switch to a Laptop to complete the purchase. Others will choose to use their handheld device exclusively and access a mobile booking engine to complete their purchase. Either way, your business needs to be ready to serve these customers on the device they choose to use.

Today's state of the art travel technology solutions can take full advantage of the easy access to content and powerful features that an online booking engine offers combined with the ease and mobility of using a smartphone. The competitive online market also requires agency owners have the flexibility to quickly and easily control a product's selling price based on a wide range of criteria including travel or booking dates, supplier or class of service.

Finding an online booking solution with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's consumer where and how they shop for travel can be just as important. If you're not making your product available on certain channels, then you are surrendering your customers to the competition.

Travel Agent Software Can Extend Your Reach

The travel industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past few decades and advances in technology have helped fuel this expansion. Some of us are old enough to remember the days when airline reservations were stored in a flight book and airline reservation agents would work the phones to assist travel agents as well as a few consumers with their travel arrangements. As technology evolved, the complicated formats to input "pre-paid ticket" information were replaced by electronic tickets and the airlines practically did away with paper tickets all together. Transformational changes have occurred throughout each of the travel verticals. As more people travel more frequently the need for hotel accommodations and ground transportation also increases.

Travel agents remain an important part of the travel industry and have been evolving the way that they interact with suppliers and customers along with the rest of the industry. Travel agent software such as airline booking engines, hotel booking engines and even cruise booking engines were launched years ago and have been evolving ever since. The transition to online commerce has been crucial for many agencies to remain in business. The online booking engines available today provide agents or their customers the ability to book just about anything online including an airline seat, a hotel room or even a cruise vacation.

With just a few clicks of a mouse, today's travel agent software can access the information that agents or their consumers shopping online need to research which particular hotel meets an individual's needs best. Hotel searches can be narrowed to a specific neighborhood within a city, the hotel star rating or price range. You can even research whether a hotel property has banquet facilities, a restaurant or room service. Air travel searches can be specific to an airline, time of day or even class of service. Online searches for cruise vacations can be specific to a Sailing region, such as Alaska, a specific cruise line or cruise ship and even by the length of the cruise. High resolution photographs of a cruise ship's public spaces as well as sample cabin photos are complimented by detailed descriptions and integrated into the booking engine to help agents and customers when deciding what suits their needs the best. Users can even select which seating time they prefer for dinner, choose their bed configuration preference and even alert the cruise line of a special occasion such as a passenger's birthday.

Like many businesses, consolidation has forced many travel agencies to merge or join forces with other agencies forming new agency affiliate relationships. The ability for a host agency to share their travel agent software with affiliated agencies or agents quickly and easily can be a powerful tool. As agencies form new alliances, many still want to maintain their individual brand name with their customers, so many offer the ability to customize the header, footer and fonts to match the branding.

Choosing a travel agent software with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

A Travel Booking Engine Should Combine Components Easily

Many agents face a complexity of issues and challenges when building vacation packages often making it a time consuming process. Coordinating the various elements such as cruise departure times, flight arrival times, travel distance & time between cruise port and airport (which will vary greatly by Port) can be quite complex with some itineraries. Easy access to local hotel content for any pre or post cruise stay requirements or requests is often a challenge, especially when it involves using different systems or applications. All the elements of a cruise vacation package require precise coordination to ensure a seamless experience for the traveler. Unfortunately, in many cases travel agents are using different methods, applications or devices to research and book each of these package components. Some operations are even set up using product line experts where several agents are involved to complete the booking. A cruise expert will complete the cruise booking before passing it to an Airline expert for the flight arrangements and then a Hotel expert to add any hotel accommodations required.

Today's travel booking engine needs to be designed to allow both agents and consumers to price as well as package Cruises, Airlines, Hotels and other travel products in real time. Many have introduced dynamic packaging modules that take full advantage of their existing connections with various travel suppliers using a client's specific ID with suppliers such as cruise lines as well as airlines, various hotel content sources and even travel Insurance providers. It streamlines the process to book a complete cruise vacation by dynamically combining a cruise itinerary with air and hotel arrangements into a single package. By taking the guesswork out of the equation, agents can serve their customers more efficiently and eliminate errors while reducing the time and effort to complete a package booking. These applications are so simple to use that today's online consumer can even quickly and easily build their own unique package when the booking engine is connected to their travel agent's consumer website.

A dynamic and innovative rules engine can allow clients to drive efficiencies in the sales process by automatically delivering the proper marketing message to agents & consumer users with the ability to preset business rules and adjust a product's selling price using a wide variety of filters. Today's travel booking engine needs to be mobile ready to serve today's consumer and includes other features for traditional B2B and B2C selling channels. There are even a Custom Packaging options available that allow the Travel Agent to price multiple products, bundle them into a package and sell them as packages easily online. By taking the guesswork out of the equation, agents can serve their customers more efficiently and eliminate errors while reducing the time and effort to complete a Package booking.

Choosing a travel booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Does Your Flight Reservation System Offer Enough Options?

There is no doubt that airlines have been a driving force in the growth of the travel industry. Not only have airlines been able to change people's behavior by making flying as common as other modes of transportation, but the people they transport need a place to stay, a way to get around while at their destination and something to eat just to name a few things. Airlines, hotels, car rental companies, even cruise lines to a degree have an interdependent relationship with each other and share customers.

As the flight networks grew, it was not long before the airlines began strategic marketing partnerships with car rental companies and hotels. So, it's only logical that a flight reservation system be seamlessly integrated with these other travel components. Today's online travel booking engines are a result of years of technological evolution and have helped travel suppliers expand their business and become early pioneers in the online revolution.

As the online marketplace became increasingly competitive, innovative business rules engines were developed for today's flight reservation systems to allow business owners to drive efficiencies in the sales process by automatically delivering the proper marketing message to agents as well as consumers. Powerful revenue management tools available with today's travel booking engines can provide online travel retailers the ability to quickly and easily preset business rules and adjust a product's selling price. Both are critical tools needed to remain competitive in today's rapidly changing online marketplace.

The custom packaging options available allow the travel agent to price multiple products such as Cruise, Air & Hotel and bundle them into a package to sell as packages online. And there are even dynamic packaging tools that can combine a cruise itinerary with airline and hotel arrangements. By taking the guesswork out of the equation, agents can serve their customers more efficiently and eliminate errors while reducing the time and effort to complete a booking.

The flight reservation system you choose needs to be able to provide your travel business the access the airline content your customers need at the price they are looking for. It needs to include business rules capability for you to easily promote and offer special targeted promotions. The best solutions provide the ability to define business rules based on the date booked, dates travelled, airline, flight number and even the type of airfare used. Value add offers such as free travel insurance or other merchandising opportunities can be included right in the availability display in some cases, alerting customers to where they will find the best value in addition to lowest price. And most of all, it needs to be easy to use and mobile ready to meet the demands of today's consumer.

Finding a flight reservation system with the right combination of options for your travel business can be an important and critical decision for your business. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach your customers when and how they shop for travel can be just as important.

A Cruise Booking Engine Should Be Flexible

Currently the process to research, plan and book a cruise generally takes a long time and involves multiple steps. The initial research is sometimes started online by many consumers using a mobile device, talking with friends and family or seeking advice from a traditional travel agent. Additional research about particular a cruise line or itinerary may also be performed online by checking cruise review sites or other social media. And as a new generation of travelers considers a cruise for their vacation, their path to purchase will become increasingly complex with consumers naturally moving across different devices, sites and channels.

When it comes to booking the cruise, some consumers may prefer to book by phone or online with the specific cruise line. Due to their familiarity with cruising, past North American cruise customers are more likely to book using an online cruise booking engine than the first-time cruiser. A cruise holiday package can be is a significant expense for most, especially those going on longer cruises or high-end cruise lines. Generally, the higher the price tag, the more likely the customer will contact a travel agent or the cruise line directly before making their final purchase. A traveler who is purchasing a $30,000 cruise package will likely need reassurance that they are getting the proper value for their money, even if they are a repeat cruiser.

One of the most difficult challenges faced when launching a cruise booking engine is the complexity associated with cruise content. Access to live availability and pricing is critical to ensure the most up to date information is being provided. Cruise sellers need to be able to access and control content for each individual cruise line including the ability to bias the display and promote preferred suppliers if they wish. One key feature necessary for successful online shopping and bookings is the ability to compare prices and itineraries across multiple cruise lines. However, this can be a complicated effort considering the different ship specific content and configurations which differ dramatically across ships and cruise lines. And these differences continue to grow as cruise lines build larger ships with their own unique design, features and attractions. Integrating a cruise booking engine with detailed descriptions, deck plans, cabin photos combined with links to media rich files and videos becomes increasingly important to help with the research and shopping process.

Cruise lines offer consumers special perks such as onboard spending credits, value add offers and special discounts which can also make it difficult to easily identify the best value for the individual customer's needs. Business Management tools need to include the ability for a business owner to quickly and easily mark up or mark down a product's selling price and the ability to include marketing messages in the availability display to highlight value ad offers and special discounts.

Choosing a cruise booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Travel Booking Solutions Offer Many Features

Travel booking solutions have come a long way over the past decade. Flexible and customizable, many of today's applications are easily customized to support a business' own unique brand identity and selling style. In some instance, the booking engine is hosted by a technology provider, however they are able to customize the header, footer as well as the look and feel to provide a seamless online experience for Users. While others offer fully customized applications for the business owner looking to design their own booking solution. Either could be good options for your business depending upon your requirements, so it is always best to check out several different options and the associated costs that are available.

And with different consumers using so many different methods to shop and purchase just about everything, travel booking solutions need to easily manage multiple selling channels using a single application. For example, as Millennials become the largest segment of consumers, you need to make sure your travel booking solution is ready to serve this generation's travel needs with a mobile ready booking engine. Online booking engines should be designed to easily set up additional users and affiliated websites in order to help your business compete and grow. Whether a customer books directly with a travel agent (B2B) -or- they prefer to shop and book online (B2C), your online booking solution needs to provide the ability to service them quickly and easily.

Travel booking solutions need to be secure and accurate and use a scalable online booking platform that will allow your business to expand. Applications should be designed to meet the demands of suppliers, traditional and online travel agencies as well as the end User. Real-Time connectivity with suppliers is always preferable as it ensures the most accurate and up to the minute schedules, availability and pricing are used. And if you are looking to expand your business to include international markets, many of today's travel solutions are designed to meet the unique requirements of global markets and can easily handle multiple currencies as well as be quickly translated into multiple languages.

And to effectively compete in today's online marketplace, you'll need business management tools to provide the controls required to easily manage your offering to customers. Revenue Management tools should include the ability to quickly mark up or discount a product's selling price using a wide range of criteria including supplier, travel dates, booking dates, class of service and more. Display biasing capabilities and the ability to highlight value add offers in the availability display can give business owners full control of what their customers see while Robust reporting tools allow for quick and easy business tracking.

Today's travel booking solutions can provide any size agency the technology needed to compete with Large Online Travel Agencies and strengthen Customer relationships by expanding the products and services offered. Choosing a booking solution with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.