The prospect of TikTok's 170 million users in the United States being barred from the site could have far-reaching ramifications for travel companies that seek to build brand recognition among travelers through the site's wildly popular short videos.
Financial figures from Expedia Group, Booking Holdings, Airbnb and Trip.com Group - four of the largest online travel agencies in the world - show the companies spent a record amount of money to promote their brands and attract customers in 2023, as pent-up demand from the pandemic is still driving spending.
Social media plays a complicated role in the fame game. It can be used to publicize good information about where to go and how to behave but can also be used to spread information about overrun destinations or undesirable behaviors.
Measuring the return on investment from influencer marketing is challenging, and PhocusWright research shows 55% of travelers favor recommendations from loved ones when seeking inspiration on social media about where to go.
According to Phocuswright's latest travel research report GenAI and Emerging Tech Use Among Travelers, nearly half of travelers would be comfortable in a chatbot interaction where they provide their trip preferences and the AI platform offers a range of recommendations.
Record online direct bookings drive hotel innovation by making guest data more accessible, a trend that could boost business - but only if hotels continue to push forward on increasing digitalization.
Personalization, artificial intelligence and conversational commerce can unlock new opportunities for travel and hospitality companies.
With 2023 in our rear view, travel industry experts are now focused on the year ahead. 2024 is poised to be exciting and potentially disruptive on the heels of 2023?s wave-makers including the rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence and increasing demand for experiential travel, among others trends. As we do at the start of each year, we have asked some of our trusted sources for their take on the year ahead.
For years, hospitality executives have been talking about how their apps are a critical part of their loyalty and guest engagement strategies during all stages of booking, staying and departing. In an era when everyone lives on their phones, it\'s no surprise. And as mobile applications have become increasingly important, they\'ve evolved.
For those of you not keeping up, ChatGPT at the end of 2022 gave us a computer that can understand and generate English. Not just English, but human language in general. On the face of it, that can seem like a small step. It’s not. Yes, it struggles with facts and up-to-date data, but that part is solvable and often not as critical as you’d think. If that wasn’t revolutionary enough for you, the next shift is generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) going multi-modal.