‘Disorganised data’ a barrier but travel firms set to put cash into analytics

Delegates have been attending HotelBeds’ annual MarketHub Americas event in Mexico. Continue reading →

Travel companies are faced with the challenge of dealing with a “disorganised data infrastructure” as more money is set to be pumped into big data within the travel industry.

More than 500 delegates at bedbank Hotelbeds’ annual MarketHub Americas event in Mexico this week were asked about the role of big data in their businesses, and 64% said they their companies will “significantly increase” spending on data and analytics.

Participants in the survey expect data analytics will help them increase annual revenues over the next five years, with 33% thinking it will increase annual revenues by 30-50% and 17% thinking it will increase annual revenues by more than 50%.

But the majority of delegates polled said that one of the biggest challenges they face is a “disorganised data infrastructure” – making it difficult to interpret the big data they’ve acquired.

Off the back of the results, Hotelbeds has produced a list of the top five questions travel companies should be asking their technology providers about data analytics:

1. What are the main areas where you think Big Data could generate value for my company?
2. What is your information strategy? How can you help me get the most out of the data that my clients, employees and suppliers generate?
3. What data does your technology generate that can help my company become more efficient – and will you share it with me?
4. How will your technology handle information scalability in the future?
5. What level of security do you offer for the information that your technology generates? How do you ensure that level of security?

Álvaro de Nicolas, chief information officer at Hotelbeds Group, said: “Feedback from our clients has consistently shown that data analytics – in particular how to leverage it to produce growth in revenues – is one of their topmost concerns and that´s why this year we decided upon the ´Powered by data. Driven by people´ theme.

“While each travel company has its own specific needs and challenges, we´ve noticed similar recurrent themes which can be broken down into five areas.”