Topic concept
To assess whether your website is mobile-friendly, ask yourself the following questions:
How fast does your website load on a mobile device? Imagine that you are a potential customer. Would you be satisfied with your experience?It is undeniable that Covid-19 age marks a before and after in society. Industries such as tourismthe touristic one, felt pushed to reinvent their business model and to speed up its digitisation process. A solution that makes possible to optimise all kinds of resources and to create sustainable supply chains to favour the accomplishment of the sustainable development targets fixed by Agenda 2030.
Digitisation is beside the new technologies implementation, are two keys sides to ensure the industry surviving, as they contribute to reinforce the safety in travels, to improve the guest experience and to promote sustainability and efficiency. Two values more in vogue than ever, so it is not strange that more and more tourism providers arewere looking towards a future that is respectful ofwith the environment.
What is digitalisation in tourism?
Digitalisation is defined as the use of digital technologies to manage and grow a business, which as well as selling goods and services online, includes the gathering and interpreting of big data which can help develop new activities or change existing activities. Post-COVID, embedding digitalisation will help tourism businesses to be more agile and resilient moving forward.
The rapid pace of innovations in IT over the past decade, often referred to as the Digital Revolution, has completely changed the way businesses operate. Tourism was one of the first sectors to embrace digitalisation by selling flights and hotel rooms online. The rise of OTAs (online travel agents) is one of the most dramatic examples of the digital transformation of distribution channels in the tourism sector.
OTAs are technologically advanced e-commerce platforms and have captured an estimated 40% of the total global travel market. The largest OTAs are aggregator websites like Booking.com and Expedia, which offer price comparisons and booking facilities across a range of suppliers. OTAs that specialise in selling trips, tours and experiences are another growth area and include Viator, a Tripadvisor company, and GetYourGuide.
Consumer demand for digital services across the tourism sector has also grown fast. It is estimated that more than 90% of tourists now research their holidays online. Searching online using a mobile device is becoming increasingly common, especially with younger consumers aged 18 to 34, who are twice as likely to discover travel destinations via mobile than tourists aged 35 and over.
They consult a variety of sources that include destination websites, tour operators, influencer websites, travel blogs, travel media and social media. As mobile-friendly websites increasingly become the norm, bookings by mobile device are also rising and in 2018, before the pandemic, Holiday Hypermarket (part of TUI) reported a 15% to 20% increase in mobile bookings in the first quarter of the year.