Driving operational efficiency through continued investment in technology has been tipped as one of the major themes for delegates and exhibitors at Travel Technology Europe 2010.
‘Operational efficiency’ in focus at Travel Technology Show
Driving operational efficiency through continued investment in technology has been tipped as one of the major themes for delegates and exhibitors at Travel Technology Europe 2010.
Although the recession has seen a retraction of investment in large scale technology projects, add on solutions to existing technologies have remained in high demand.
Neil Simpson, Travel Technology Europe director, said: “The current economic climate has caused agents and tour operators to really focus on operational efficiency.
“In surveys the British public has shown its determination to continue travelling but the consumer is putting so much pressure on firms in terms of price.
“Some companies were supplying holidays for more than they were selling them for but they are now leaner, meaner and fitter. They have had to make hard decisions and cut their cloth accordingly.”
Jonas Sprenger, online marketing manager at Pixell Daten and Design, winner of the Travel Technology Shows Innovation Award last year said: “The buzzword at the moment is ‘crisis’ so everybody is looking for strategies to keep business running.
“Instead of a scattergun approach, everybody is interested in efficient marketing campaigns.”
However there has been a call this year for visitors and exhibitors to be more realistic.
Andy Keeley, director of sales at Intuitive, said: “I often see a lot of time wasted because suppliers want to get as many leads as possible so will oversell to a potentially less technological trade visitor that has high aspirations.”
Simpson said firms know how important getting their technology right was after the last recession, when many of today’s leading retailers emerged.
So he said as the economy starts to emerge out of this latest recession it was more important than ever that firms have the confidence that they are choosing the right partners and investing in the right solutions.
