Technology is always evolving. Sometimes this is in the shape of new products and at other times it’s just a step change taking place, which has a marked impact on the way the travel industry conducts business.
New products are things like the online booking systems, the first viewdata-masking selling systems and dynamic packaging.
I believe we are about to have another step change. This will come in the form of a true comparative holiday search for travel agents, across all product sources, combined with rich content to provide agents with a vastly improved selling environment – comparable to anything available to consumers online.
In the technology world we like to give these step changes names, and I’ve christened this ‘Dynamic Packaging 2.0’.
A true comparative search is an important step forward. This is because consumers don’t care about clever use of technology – all they really want is a good match with their holiday requirements.
Dynamic Packaging 2.0 will offer a search across pre-packaged holidays and those created dynamically in real-time. It will provide agents with a complete comparison and offer add-to-favourites features that make it easier to shortlist and compare from the vast array of holiday options on offer, via a single enquiry.
In Dynamic Packaging 2.0, enhanced search will be combined with much richer content in the form of maps, video and audio – all designed to support the sales process and transform the computer on a retail travel counter from an ordering point to an interactive selling environment.
