Tourism in the Middle East is rapidly evolving and expanding as the region’s population becomes more digitally adept. The proliferation of smartphones and increasing consumer confidence in finding their own path to purchase online means that in order to appeal to modern ME travellers’ needs and preferences, service providers are going to have to take developing digital trends into account.
With that in mind, we expect the following three technology trends to feature heavily in the ongoing evolution of the ME travel industry in 2016:
Leveraging Mobile as a Sales and Services Channel
The Middle East is rapidly becoming a “Mobile First” region as mobile and smartphone penetration rates push mobile internet interactions. According to data from Northwestern University in Qatar, Harris Interactive and the Pan Arab Research Center (PARC), 93% of internet users across Lebanon, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Egypt went online via mobile phone in 2015. By comparison, only 73% did so via a desktop or laptop computer.
So while it was acceptable for ME travel companies to view mobile as an optional channel a few years ago, this is certainly no longer the case. Not only are there more consumers researching holiday options and products via mobile, increasingly they are completing their booking or purchase through their mobile device too.
This means that travel operators will have to ensure that they offer a fully optimised mobile experience for their customers. Additionally, it will have to be completely consistent with the experience their customers get via other channels. Loading times, accuracy of information, compatibility with all device types and platforms, these elements are all “must haves”.
The Adoption of Cloud-Computing Solutions
Rapidly changing consumer preferences require agile, adaptive digital offerings, which in turn means that we expect more ME travel operators to turn towards cloud-based web solutions in order to build the digital experience that their customers want to see.
Cloud-based solutions give larger travel companies the ability to incorporate new services and features without having to work around existing ICT legacy issues, which translates into a more responsive digital offering. For smaller travel operators, the cloud has the benefit of not requiring large investments in terms of development time and/or budget.
A cloud-based solution offers regular and automatic enhancements in terms of features and back-end functionality. Such solutions contain a centralised system that offers new components frequently, keeping the operator’s site safe, secure and up to date without sacrificing the ability to make changes of their own.
The Evolution of Sharing Economy Services
The sharing economy – best represented in this case by the likes of AirBnB – is a growing international phenomenon as the internet allows people to engage in peer-to-peer-based sharing of access to goods and services (properties, vehicles, etc). AirBnB has already had a phenomenal impact on the global travel industry and this can be felt in the way that more travel sites are integrating “shareconomy” services into their offering.
Currently there remain some challenges in this area. For example, the APIs (Application Programming Interface) of some sharing economy services are underdeveloped and in some cases there is no API platform to work with at all. We expect that this is going to rapidly change as the shareconomy trend develops and more consumers demonstrate their desire to see such services become easily accessible via well-known travel sites.
CEM Connect 