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Andy's top five take out points from ITT Conference 2018

June 2018

1. PA Consulting presented some great insight from recent research they'd carried out into the holiday experience with the most interesting being that holiday sentiment drops by around 20% at the evaluation & comparison stage of the journey. Whilst it's not that unexpected to be slightly deflated when it comes to researching it does highlight that if you can make the experience of researching a booking a holiday easier and less painful, there is a great chance to stand out!
   
2. They also highlighted the hidden perils of TripAdvisor. If a venue or destination finds itself top of the list then at that point it becomes the 'go to' for that area and stops diversity for that town or region. This can sometimes lead to too much demand and overcrowding in places where space is at a premium e.g. historic towns in the UK like Cambridge or Bath. It's a potentially negative loop of reinforcement that destinations need to be aware of when it comes to destination marketing. One example highlighted that Venice welcomed 125k visitors this Easter when it has a theoretical capacity of only 20k and left numerous tourists disappointed at overcrowding and lack of facilities.
3. Edward Lucas from the Economist gave us a macro view of the travel & tourism sector highlighting that it is growing faster and stronger than most other sectors of the UK economy. Whilst this is great news, it does again highlight the skills gap in the sector and that, as emphasised in other events Adido have attended, more must be done to promote the merits of a career in the sector to those leaving & still in education.
4. The two big trends in the sector in the coming years are creating a responsible supply chain and making better use of technology. The Blue Planet episode highlighting the impact of plastics on our world, along with many other high profile eco news pieces, means that all tourism businesses need to work harder to understand their whole supply chain and find ways to reduce their environmental & social impact. Coupled with this, better use of technology across all areas is also a focus with many companies relying on very old technology for booking systems, customer management and data security all leading to new entrants offering a better experience across the board. Travel companies face large investments in both infrastructure and skills in order to keep up with customer expectations in the coming years.
5. We learned that you are TEN times more likely to die from a coconut falling on your head and killing you than being killed by a shark! Beware the coconuts!