Cashless payment: The future in tourism sector?

Credit: ra2studio – Shutterstock.com

New technologies always try to enhance customer’s experience with more efficient, faster and easier processes. One of them is cashless solution which is growing more and more since few years ago especially in tourism sector. Everything is done by many companies to create a centralized tool to pay, to chat, to order. Tourism and event sectors offers a lot of opportunities to develop technologies like cashless.

This article speaks about one French start-up called PayinTech who developed a new payment method including new technology in order to give a better and more secure solution to pay. Their concept is mainly based around one bracelet that people have during a business event, their vacation in a hotel or even during a sport event such as football game. They can directly pay with their bracelet by putting it in front of a terminal or a scanner. They have the freedom to put the amount of money they want and they don’t need to bring cash.

PayinTech is one of the first companies who believed in this product and they launched it in 2013. Today, they already have important customers in the tourism and hotel sectors such as the famous HellFfest festival, Val-d’Isère ski resort, Pierre & Vacances and Center Parcs. One month ago, they revealed that a second fundraising campaign was done and they gathered more than 4 million euros. It’s a great success for this start-up because since the first fundraising campaign in 2017, they doubled the size of the company. Even if this process has been approved by many companies, some consumers have a little negative review about it. For example, you have decided to put 20€ on the bracelet for your football game (to buy beers, chips or jersey in the shop) but at the end, it remains 10€. What would you do? Spend your 10€ or ask to give you back your 10€. Most of the time, you will buy another product to finish your credit on your bracelet. Some consumer thinks that this type of payment would tend to push for consumption.

However this new method of payment can be very useful especially in the tourism sector for example in aquatic parks, camping or resorts. Customers will have an easiest solution to pay and they can feel more comfortable without thinking of going back to take their money. The main objective is to simplify customer’s experience. As PayinTech already created, they can also centralized different features on your bracelet. If you spend your vacation in a resort, you can gather your room key, money and it will be easier for check in and check out. More and more sector could use this concept in the future. MICE is one attractive market because this method can be implemented in order to reduce the waiting time during registration or food point.

This solution could be useful both for companies and customers. As we saw previously, the main characteristics for users are ease of use and security. Moreover, it will help companies to improve the customer experience by delivering them a better service and also by collecting data about their behaviour. As it can be linked with management software, it can be very beneficial for companies.

Would you use this type of payment?

Antoine Gagneux and Laura Baptiste

Cuny D. (2018, February 12). Paiement cashless: la startup PayinTech lève 4,5 millions d'euros. Retrieved from https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/banques-finance/paiement-cashless-la-startup-payintech-leve-4-5-millions-d-euros-768155.html

Flying on the IT wave

Since several years, new technologies are invading our daily lives: you can do almost everything thanks to the Internet. This trend has no limit and you can now enjoy the best technologies during your trips. Indeed, airlines are working on implementing their planes and all services they provide to their clients. More precisely, these companies are focus on the customer experience which is today at the heart of the matter. According to Eugénie Audebert, business experience manager at Air France, the French Airline places “clients’ expectations at the heart of [its] measures” (Bain Thouverez, 2014). Consequently, new technologies are airlines’ best allies.

            Airbus, a leading European aircraft manufacturer; is working on the planes of the future and it uses new technologies and IT to solve chronic dysfunctions highlighted by passengers. One of the most important problems to manage are technical ones because they often lead to delays. However, technological tools will allow to predict breakdowns and consequently to take measures ahead to prevent difficulties for passengers or planes immobilization (Morich, 2016).

            New technologies will also help to improve the clients’ experience on board and so to win their loyalty. Air France is renewing and improving the business class: passengers will enjoy a larger screen, “more than 200 movies and 150 TV guides” and more entertainment (Bain Thouverez, 2014).

Since the beginning of 2017, XL Airways, a French airline, has worked with French start-ups to increase the range of services on board in order to attract more clients. For a price of €9.95, passengers can have access to the XL Cloud, “an entertainment system” (Simon, 2017), with their smartphones, tablets or laptops. Nevertheless, the company does not stop its improvement there! Indeed, passengers can also rent an iPad on board for €15 allowing an access to the XL Cloud Premium. Like the icing on the cake, travellers can finally rent the Skylights for the same price than an iPad: “immersive cinema glasses specially conceived for in-flight use” (Simon, 2017).

            The airline industry has quickly understood the importance of IT to make their passengers loyal and has undertaken service improvements before, during and after the flight. Forgotten the times when there was only one screen for thirty travellers in the planes, you can now surf on the Internet during the flight, chose a movie and watch it through virtual reality glasses. This investment is important for the companies but passengers must also put some money up to have access to these services. All in all, competitivity is harder so airlines have to place client experience at the heart of their strategies to succeed.

http://www.tourmag.com/Air-France-investit-dans-la-technologie-pour-renouveler-la-gamme-de-ses-sieges-d-avions_a67004.html

http://future.arte.tv/fr/aviation/quoi-ressemblera-lavion-du-futur

http://www.mediaphore.com/2017/02/nouvelles-technologies-embarquent-vols-xl-airways/

Restaurant and Technology in 2017 - Back in the saddle

 

Since the beginning of the year, many new technologies have been created and have become now part of our everyday life. One of them is called the Internet of Things (IoT) which is the fact that Internet is related to the things and the places of the physical world. It implies the exchange and the sharing of information and data via the Internet network. It is considered to be the next evolution of Internet : the Web 3.0. More than that, there are more and more wearable devices that people are using in order to enhance their technology experience. But what about the experience they get at a restaurant? Does these new technologies can be used in this industry? And more important, can we still considered the customer’s experience despite all of it?

The restaurant industry have been completely redesigned in 2017 from different point of views, as well as all the processes from the booking to the payment mode.

The first one is the kitchen automation which improve the business performance by making the meal’s order process easier and faster. It is possible thanks to ConnectSmart Kitchen or Kitchen iQ for example, which help the cooks organizing their work according to the time preparation and the ingredients needed, on separate screens so that each chef can focus on their specific orders.

Another benefit is about checking in real time the cook time and knowing which dishes are the most cost-effective.

The second one is about the management of the staff, usually practising under pressure with pretty bad working conditions. Technology can be a good way to improve their motivation and enhance their productivity at work. Perkbox for instance provides some benefits to reward the employees which will impact their happiness at work. A better communication and a better control of the staff’s shifts are also good ways to improve the workforce’s management (Planday system). It is all about controlling and empowering the employees.

Last but not least, the third improvement is to manage the operations. Trail, a clever digital tool allowing to organize the administration of the workload and the tasks, has also a positive ecological impact on the use of paper.

 

 

The important thing is that nowadays all these technologies are cheaper than they were in the past. And as we are moving forward, more and more companies will use those to be more effective and optimize the service. The overall customer experience will be enhanced if the whole process within a restaurant is improved. The digital customer journey includes seven steps : skipping the queue thanks to an app which allows them to check waiting times and make reservations; getting seated while receiving a text with the available tables; ordering food via the Connectsmart Kitchen platform; preparing orders with an overview of the nutrition information and possible food allergies; the status of the table through automated alerts; the seamless mobile payment according to their spendings habits; and finally reporting the data of the customer (trends, preferences) to improve the future marketing campaigns.

 

Written by Clémence Duvent & Lauriane Amand 

 

 

References: 

Chomka, S. (Feb 2017). Back in the saddle. Restaurant Magazine - William Reed Business Media.

http://www.call-systems.pl/uploads/2/3/0/5/23055648/__5483747_orig.jpg

https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=restaurant+technology

 

 

Amazing hologram during your event !

Everybody has already heard about holograms, especially thanks to the viral video of Mister Mélenchon's hologram during one of his meeting (http://www.lepoint.fr, 2017).

But what is exactly a hologram?

A hologram is a three-dimensional and free-standing image created with photographic projection. People do not require screen nor glasses to be able these see the 3D pictures (Rouse, 2005).

It has been several years now, that some industries have understood the potential of this kind of an appealing attraction: the television industry, the movie industry, the marketing and digital retail industries, as well as the advertisement and event industries have adopt this new trend (Gazeau, 2013).

It has now become common to attend events using holograms to entertain customers. It is especially the case during music concerts, fashion shows and product launches.

People are fed up with conventional presentations and feel the need to interact with the product, to observe it and to try it. Holograms offer them the possibility to discover a more tactile interaction with the product or show. This new kind of dynamic event can really impress people and give them the will to buy the product (http://www.sxsevents.co.uk, 2017).

Thanks to this technology, companies can showcase their products in the venue of their choice, while all attendees can go around the picture and discover it in every shape and form ! (http://www.sxsevents.co.uk, 2017).

Holograms programers can also make image of real people appear: imagine your boss is not able to physically attend your massive event because he is busy at the other side of the planet: instead of offering your customer a 2D videoconference, why don't you make your boss appear on stage, talking and moving, like the real thing? This could also be done with celebrities! 

However be careful ! Holograms cannot totally replace real people ! 

Even better: in order to interact with your attendees, why not organising a game to engage your attendees around holograms ?

Languages would also not be a problem anymore as programers can decide which language can be spoken (http://prsonas.com, 2016).

We can say that holograms are THE event in the event: people are attracted to this added-value technology and companies can be sure to leave a big impression on their visitors (http://www.3demotion.net, 2015). Indeed, as this impressive technology is not well-know by people yet (except in science-fiction movies), they do not know how it is implemented and this mystery is extremely exciting.

We understood that holograms can be a good tool to revive today's events and provide to attendees a brand new experience they will talk about for years !

Go for it !

References:

L'hologramme bluffant de Jean-Luc Mélenchon (2017). Retrieved from:

http://www.lepoint.fr/presidentielle/l-hologramme-bluffant-de-jean-luc-melenchon-05-02-2017-2102605_3121.php

Hologram definition (2005). Retrieved from:

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/hologram

Gazeau, C. (2013). De la Transparence à l’Immatériel : l’Emergence des Hologrammes. Retrieved from:

https://christophegazeau.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/de-la-transparence-a-limmateriel-lemergence-des-hologrammes/

3D émotion (2015). Retrieved from:

http://www.3demotion.net/project/hologramme-scenographie/

SXS Events (2017). Holox Holography. Retrieved from:

http://www.sxsevents.co.uk/services/holox

PRSONAS (2016). 7 Great Ways to Use Holograms for Event Marketing. Retrieved from:

http://prsonas.com/holograms-for-event-marketing/

New useful event apps

In the event industry the use of technology is increasing. From meetings to exhibitions, event planner are using new technology to attract more people and to interact with them. Mobile applications for example have and will transform how events are managed.

More than 300 mobile event applications are available online. Event professionals have many choices regarding their conferences or events. They can find simple applications like an agenda or advanced one to create audience engagement during a conference.

Corbin Ball, international speaker, consultant and an expert when it comes to technology is reviewing in his article six new applications related to the event industry:

• ·       InitLive
• ·       ATIV Software
• ·       BlueStone Nexus
• ·       Listly
• ·       Conferences.io
• ·       Eventbase

InitLive for example is really attractive and easy to use (see videobelow). This cloud-based application helps event managers manage staff and volunteers. They can see checking and last minute schedule or even communicate with everyone before, during and after the event. The product is not on the market yet but has already been tested with a reasonable pricing. As a student you can get 25% discount.

All of these events tools are created to help meeting professionals to have a more effective event. Indeed professional applications have strong features with a wide range of tools and design.

Before the event, event managers can use those applications to obtain a quick and efficient registration check-in procedure. During a conference, with applications like ATIV Software and Conference.io attendees can now interact with a speaker, ask questions, vote for question and receive all the slides with notes. Regarding the Networking as it is an important goal when organising an event, applications like eventbase or BlueStone Nexus is helping delegates to create a network with other delegates. BlueStone Nexus is using the mobile phone to capture business card information in order to create an exchange between professionals. Eventbase is using the Beacons technology which is the new must have in the event industry. This app can put in your area of interest and know who is around you from 1 to 5 meters. The delegates receive a notification when a delegate share the same interest. This encourage people to meet and talk to each other.

These applications are just a few of many great other applications. They bring people together, add simplicity and fun in the event industry. They are the future! Don’t be afraid to use them!

Camille Salomon & Anthony Calzi

Sources:

http://www.corbinball.com/article2/36-mobile-and-wireless-technology/178-six-novel-and-useful-event-apps
http://www.initlive.com/

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Guest in the City – the Airbnb of the leisure industry?

Guest in the City is a collaborative platform allowing French or foreign tourists to book meals and activities with French locals (cooking class, wine tasting, guided tours…). The objective is to offer a friendlier kind of tourism and authentic experiences with locals. People from different nationalities can meet and share their culture and way of living.

The website has been launch in October 2015 by Frank & Véronique Prabel, co-founder of Guest in the City. They decided to develop this project because they found that it is not always easy to meet the locals when travelling. Guest in the City offers a connection between the tourists and the hosts wishing to share their passions or welcome people at their places.  

 Source: http://www.guestinthecity.com/

Everybody can become a member of the Guest in the City community. You can be a French tourist but also an inhabitant of a neighborhood wishing to book and share an activities or dinner with a host staying in your area. In the future the platform would like to expand to the BtoB market and attract cultural or sportive event manager looking for new places, rooms or activities for their events.

But how does it work?  
The tourists or users of the platform can book their activities and pay the price fixed by the hosts directly on the site.

Source: http://www.guestinthecity.com/

Guest in the City takes a commission of 15% on the amount paid by the customers as the service fees but the hosts do not need to pay to publish a post. Each host is selected and validated by the team of Guest in the City to create a community in which tourists and users of the platform can trust and to assure the quality of the services offered. All the posts are available in French and English to increase the number of potential bookings.

100 posts are now available on the platform (April 2016). The objective of the team of Guest in the City is to reach 300 posts by the end of 2016 and more than 1,000 post by the end of 2017.

Surfing on the “collaborative economy” wave, this new start up offers an easy way to give a new dimension to our travels. Useful for both international and national travellers this concept allows travellers to be closer to locals and to discover more about the habits of the place they are visiting. For now, the start up is only starting to work and focus mostly on France but can easily expand to be used for other countries and offer more activities. 

Lucile BESSON & Léa MARET

Sources:

http://www.tourmag.com/Guest-in-the-City-veut-devenir-le-Airbnb-du-loisir_a79811.html

http://www.guestinthecity.com/fr/

http://bonjouridee.com/guestinthecity/

The role of IT on sharing economy in the tourism sector

“Sharing Economy” is a frequently used expression nowadays, which can be defined as “peer-to-peer-based sharing of access to goods and services”. This new way of consuming is also a major trend within the tourism sector. It was revolutionized by the sharing economy in several ways: hospitality is affected by the sharing of individuals’ lodge; Destination Marketing Organization’s traditional offices and brochures are not enough anymore to provide information… Restaurants, car rentals, travel agencies face a new competition coming from individuals or small companies. But these competitors are not the ones you meet in real life: their growth is strongly linked to the increasing place of IT in business. Social media, websites, online communities gave birth to a whole range of services and new kind of companies which competes the traditional tourism industry.

Sharing Economy, a globalized and connected world (© Octo Talks blog)

AirBnb is one of the most recognised one. This website provides an international list of individuals lodging, from a villa to a sofa, everywhere around the world. It is a serious competitor of the hospitality industry and in some countries, legal conflicts are opposing them. Airbnb could not have become what it is now without the emergence of internet. Their competitive advantage was their product: untraditional lodging by the inhabitants. But their relation to IT was also one of the reasons of their success: at the beginning, their online presence allowed travellers from all over the world to book different lodging when and where they wanted, contrarily to traditional hotels which were not at this step of development. The hospitality industry catches up thanks to Online Travel Agencies like Booking or Expedia.

Hospitality is not the only sector concerned by the online sharing economy growth. For example, Shutterbee is a website where people can create travel books, where they record their travel tips, recommendations about destinations… This site, like traveller’s blogs or Facebook pages and groups could have endangered Destination Marketing Organizations which were relying more on bureau and brochures than on the emerging internet. But at last they became an example for the DMO which are now most of the time active on Social Media, with complete websites, like Visit Norway or 100% pure New Zealand. They actually took advantages of both sharing economy and IT by involving visitors and locals in the development of the destination. 

(© Nightswapping blog)

 We assume that what made the success of sharing economy companies may be that they were the first to understand the capital place of IT in consumers’ lives. While traditional tourism companies continued to work as before with premises, providing information through brochures, phone and writing booking, others understood that IT may be the future of business and they launched their concepts with the help of IT. When they became successful, the competition understood that it was time to evolve and join the internet revolution but the sharing-economy was already 3 steps ahead. The apparition of new competitors of another kind seems to have revolutionized the market by endangering traditional tourism industries and thus encouraging them to change their way of doing business.

Sharing economy seems to cause some dangers in matters of security, certifications, leaks of taxes, job uncertainty, lack of qualification… But it is sure that coupled to IT it had an impact on the travellers’ lives and on the whole sector. Thirty years ago, no one would have thought we would organize our holidays through a machine, paying with our credit card without talking to anyone during the process, going to holiday by a car belonging to a stranger, and sleeping in someone else’s bed!

So how do you see the travel industry in 30 years?

Emilie Mika and Agnès Trucco

Sources :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharing_economy

http://www.smartertravel.com/blogs/today-in-travel/how-the-sharing-economy-opens-new-doors-for-travelers.html?id=17950800

https://shutterbee.com/

http://journalistsresource.org/studies/economics/business/airbnb-lyft-uber-bike-share-sharing-economy-research-roundup

How Big Data And Analytics Are Changing Hotels And The Hospitality Industry

© shutterstock_217868887

    Travels needs and expectations are ever changing and evolving. With an industry that caters to millions a day, the hospitality and hotel industry continue to require ways to keep up with shifting customer demands in order to keep up with expectations and satisfy their clients. Bernard Marr, a Forbes contributor, talks about how Big Data and Analytics can and do play a large role in helping the hospitality industry to predict customer demand and shifting trends.

      Big data is a new step for the hospitality industry, though one they can adapt to with ease, as with today’s technology there is now an infinite ‘volume and variety’ of data available. As Marr points out, from reservation to check out customers will leave a data trail through their stay and analysts are starting to understand the importance of turning ‘data into actionable insights’.

   

     One of the first ways that analytics and Big Data have aided the hospitality industry is helping them to observe their customers and identify clients that will give them ‘a higher life time value’. Marr identifies two types of hotel clientele – those whose stay will be simple and hassle free and second, those who will spend a lot of money on fine dining, entertainment, sports activities and spa treatments. Observing clients allows hotels to help meet the needs of the each of their segments separately. Those that tend to stay for a short amount of time (business travels) tend to return if the hotel meets all their requirements, creating a higher lifetime value.

    Big Data and analytics is leading the hospitality industry to help improve their marketing reach and yield/revenue management. With the new technological age, hotels (and others in the hospitality industry) must be aware of changing technology that can help them ‘roll with the times’, in order to identify modern customer demand. Hotels must change with the times in order to properly satisfy and attract the modern business and leisure traveler.

    An American hotel chain, Red Roof Inn is an example of the positive use of an analytics system. In the winter of 2013/2014 they had experienced a 10% increase in business after running a new marketing campaign. The company realized the value of having a hotel near an airport. The hotel’s marketing and analytics team worked together, using public database and weather reports, and found out that a large percentage of airline passengers use mobile devices to search for nearby hotel when their flights were cancelled. After discovering this the company held a marketing campaign which was targeted at mobile using passengers.

    Denihan Hospitality, another American hotel brand uses Big Data not just for marketing but in the physical operation of their properties by putting analytics in the hands of their front of house staff. “Armed with dashboards on their smartphones” front of house staff was able to predict guests needs and desires in advance, such as restaurant meals, concierge services or outside activities. Housekeeping staff were able to receive ‘real-time updates’ on whether certain rooms would require an extra pillow or who was more likely to room service for a midnight snack.

    With large data collections which can identify customer segments, the hospitality industry can better coordinate itself to optimize its room occupancy and revenue. Marriott uses analytics and Big data to observe (Unstructured and semi-structured datasets) weather reports and local events schedules that are use to determine the demand and value for “each individual room throughout the year”. It enables Marriot to precisely optimize their room prices. As Marr states this is “vital in an age where customers are used to saving pennies by scanning price comparison services for the best deals.”

    Marr states that once the hospitality gets use to analytics that there will be a large increase in innovation that ‘should result in more satisfying stays for us as customers’. We firmly believe that this new and ever increasing analytics technology is the future, for helping not just the hospitality industry but every industry in staying a step ahead of changing trends and client expectation in order to boost sales and revenue.

                                                                                                                                                                                            Alexa Bailey and Sakshi Bheda

Article reviewed: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/01/26/how-big-data-and-analytics-changing-hotels-and-the-hospitality-industry/#2fcfb8b64b39