Data will drive innovation

DURING last year’s Summit,
a key outcome was the issue
around data collection in
the aviation industry. In her
opening address this year,
June Crawford, Barsa ceo, said
there were too many sources
of data for the travel industry,
and the data being collected
was not being used to its full
potential.
As an example, Matthys
Serfontein of SITA pointed
out the “mountains” of data
collected by the travel industry,
and the need for the airline
industry to take advantage of
this. “We can start to predict
people’s behaviour, which
can inform development of
consumer-driven technology.”
Mary Shilleto, outgoing ceo
of Thompsons Travel, said it
was crucial for the industry
to be quicker in dealing with
data. “We talk about all this
data that we are slow in
mining – we should be doing
this first and foremost where
we can be predictive about
our customers’ movements.”
She stressed that the industry
generated this data but did not
do enough with it.
June urged the audience to
use the information collected
to create disruptive innovation.
This is the idea of giving
people something they want
before they know they want
it. “Technology is changing
how customers interact with
brands. We have to adapt to
avoid being left behind by nontraditional competitors.”
Michi Messner, vice
chairman of Barsa and
regional manager in Africa
of Qantas, named the likes
of Uber, Airbnb and even
Google as the non-traditional
competitors the travel industry
had to contend with, thanks to
advances in technology.