SMART TELEVISIONS: A NEW TOOL HELPING TOURISM

Since its creation, television is always improving its capacities from black and white images towards colors or from a very big size to small flat screen. Today, the television is doing one more revolution. Revealed in September 2012 by the blog elixnet, smart TV applications are presented as a real “hybrid” tool enabling tourism companies to reach people in their living-room.

What is exactly this new tool? Elixnet blog defined it as “the integration of the Internet into modern television sets that can support third-party applications”. The website Veille Tourism go further explaining that smart television is combining television, internet and mobile apps offering access to these several functions. Internet connected TV are more and more famous in the United States and by 2016, 2/3 of North American people are expected to own this kind of TV (Veille Tourism). This tool enables a direct interaction with tourism companies such as travel agencies, hotels, tourism offices, car rentals and plane companies. People just have to click on the screen when they see an interesting advertising and they directly get access to the corresponding internet page. Bookings are expected to be more important because of this direct access avoiding people to put on their computer and search a page on the Internet that can definitely demotivate them to act.                                                                                                

In September 2012, Belgrade Tourism Office has launched a touristic guide of the city through Samsung smart TV presenting all the best hotels, restaurants, bars and shops of Belgrade. One more example is the SNCF e-tourism app launched last October presenting France and Europe through videos of the destinations. Moreover, destinations such as Serbia took the opportunity to create an application called “Serbia from the heart” developed with the known photographer Ivan Strahinjić. This tool enables customers to access pictures and videos of the country made to promote the potential of Serbia and attract tourists. The app is also useful to organize a trip because ideas night out are listed as well as hotels location (itespresso). Smart televisions are also increasing their presence in hotels enabling people to listen to the music, go on the internet, read newspapers, stay connected through social media and play online games.

On the side of travel agencies, the creation of Smart TV applications can bring several advantages. Indeed, travel agencies can create funny commercial video clips, customers can therefore be aware of the destination without leaving their house. The agency can also involve the customers into the destination by doing videos about cuisines or hotels but also by creating play-by-play broadcasts which can reveal the beauty of a country and of the resting places. A funnier thing to do will be to create games around the destination which will sensitize the customer while having fun (Elinext).

Smart television is creating a new relationship between companies and customers as well as a direct access to tourism offers. The increasing demand of internet connected televisions is about to change the way we book a trip. Tourism companies, if they want to remain competitive, will have to be present on these smart televisions to have a chance to be more visible as well as increase their marketing and web marketing efforts to attract people on their pages. Video clips, online games and animations need to be adapted to the channel, and the website also has to be optimized for television.  

As seen with the example of Serbia, Smart televisions can help a country to promote a destination with pictures or videos. The main difference between the television and the Smart TV is that the viewer will have the choice to look at the pictures anytime and would not be constrained to look at all the advertisings while waiting for his favorite movie. Moreover, with this new technology, destinations have the opportunity to put a lot of content on their applications without paying a lot of money contrary to the advertisings on TV. Customers can leave some comments and advices for future travelers which enable the company to understand their customers' needs and propose adapted products/services. Thanks to those Smart TVs, consumers have now the entire control of their televisions. 

                                                            (Source : Elinext, 2012)

Key words : smart television, samsung, tv app development, customer smart tv application, smart tv apps for travel agency, connected tv apps, tv app developer, tv app development, tourism apps, hotel, car rental, destination marketing.

Aline Hartog & Lisa Viano.

Webography:

http://www.elinext.com/app-developers-can-help-travel-agencies

http://veilletourisme.ca/2013/01/16/reserver-son-voyage-en-direct-a-la-tele/

http://www.itespresso.fr/voyages-sncf-part-assaut-tv-connectee-57859.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0lIrEhNoh0

Events Apps - Gimmick or Powerful tool ?

The use of mobile devices is very well spread. For event planners, this can be practical to reach attendees. Indeed, schedule and information can be communicated instantly. Moreover, applications can allow networking between participants in a more effective and rapid way. According to their name "mobile devices" are mobile. People can have all the details they need on an event, anywhere. Geo localization is also possible and is a great tool for event planners to know where people are using the apps (work, home?). Tracking can be put in place and give feedback on where and when people are visiting the applications. The effectiveness of the tool can be then analyzed and improved.

 

Adam Parry is an editor at Event Industry News. He wrote an article on Event Apps where he highlights that many organizers are still hesitant concerning the use of applications to enhance their event. Is it worth it? Are they just an extra expense? Do they improve attendees’ engagement and thus generate revenue? How do they really work and how can it be useful?

Adam Parry decided to ask readers what they did not know about apps and then ask Peter Keep (working at Propeller Mobile which provides Event apps for example) to answer them.

For those who thought that their audience was not using mobile devices, the reality is that ownership is still growing and smartphones are not disappearing. During Christmas, five tablets are sold every second. For those who are not yet equipped, they will soon be; they will then be looking for things to do on it. Apps are there to fulfill people and to entertain them mostly.

Event planners do not always know what to put in apps. Peter Keep says that it depends on the type of objectives they want to reach. Is it informative, interactive? Anything can be found on an event app as the maps of the venue, the speakers’ biographies, and the detailed program of the day or the exhibitor information. Networking but also downloading presentations or business cards sharing are also possible. Those features are up to the client and are supposed to enhance the attendee’s experience in the event. The goal is to allow the participant to remember his experience thanks to a useful application. Another useful tool is to link the application to social media. Indeed, a direct link to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn provides a simple way to share information with our personal and professional network.

Mobile apps are powerful tools according to Peter Keep. Indeed, contrary to internet, there is no spam filter to block the communication. Sponsors are visible and are not blocked. Plus, notifications are visible on the smartphones, on the applications’ icons, to show that updates are available. Curiosity will lead the attendees to click on it to see what it is.

Peter Keep suggests that the application should be ready three to four weeks before the event.  It has to be complete by then because if it is not the case, users will be discouraged to come back and won’t even try the app again. Propeller Mobile usually needs one month to develop an app. It can be still useful after the event if there is a networking function. Indeed, registration will be needed and attendees will be connected. A community is then created for at least a year (the approximate lifetime of an app of this kind). The content remains a real issue and has to be taken into account for the app to be successful and perennial.

 

Event apps, to be effective, have to be complete, made of relevant topics and easy to use. If not, the objectives are not sure to be reached. The interest is that it is possible to track the number of people using the app and to get more detailed statistics about it. A good application has to be useful before, during and after the event. Before the event, the aim is to inform; during the event, the aim is to provide data and after the event the aim is the networking process. It can be associated with websites or social media to improve the strength of the communication.

Solenne ANNOUSSAMY & Juliette COURTY-GARNIER

 

Key words: event apps, Propeller Mobile, Peter Keep, Adam Parry, Event Industry News, IT

 

More info: http://www.eventindustrynews.co.uk/2013/01/event-apps-gimmick-or-powerful-tool/#sthash.dKmjcPFP.dpbs

Graph Search: A new lease of life in the tourism industry?

You have probably heard of the new social search engine launched by Facebook, few days ago. It is called “Graph Search”. The article written by Philippe Fabry from Atout France and published on etourisme.info (January 16^th, 2013) describes this new tool. Besides, it also explains the different impacts it could have on the tourism industry. Please find the link below.

Facebook was looking for a new feature to reassure its investors. It appeared that its advertising model was not profitable enough. That is why on January 15th 2013, Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Graph Search. For the moment, only a limited beta version is available on the English-speaking Facebook. 

How does it work?

It enables members to do a research on a subset of content, as on Google. It focuses on interests, place, people and pictures. The tool gives them a number of answers depending on their profile and friends’ network. To be clearer, here is an example. If a member searches for “my colleagues living in San Francisco” (Fabry P. (January 16^th, 2013) Facebook lance Graph Search, son moteur de recherché social, etourisme.info), he will see pictures of his colleagues who live there appear.

Moreover, when members would not find an answer in the internal website of Facebook, they will be redirected on Bing. It puts Facebook in direct competition with Google.

What could be the impacts on travel?

Regarding tourism, Facebook members will have the possibility to look for every aspect of trips of their friends and family: hotels, restaurants, attractions, specific destination, sports, special event and pictures of them. For example, they could search for “hotels that my friends went to in Paris” or “Tourist attractions in Spain visited by my friends” etc.

We know that recommendation from friends and relatives is a frequent motivation in the tourism industry. If you know that your brother went to this specific hotel in Miami and that his experience there was amazing, you will definitely book this hotel for your future trip in Miami. Recommendation from friends and family is stronger and more efficient than those from an unknown internet user that you can find on recommendations’ websites.

This article is interesting as it allows internet users to be more familiar with Facebook’s new tool. It seems to be a powerful research feature. “People use search engines to answer questions,” Zuckerberg says. “But we can answer a set of questions that no one else can really answer. All those other services are indexing primarily public information, and stuff in Facebook isn’t out there in the world — it’s stuff that people share.” (Levy S. (January 15^th, 2013) Facebook’s Bold, Compelling and Scary Engine of Discovery: The Inside Story of Graph Search, wired.com)

In addition, people will enjoy having advice from friends and family that they trust, without having to disturb them by email. It could also validate their choice of going to a particular place. For instance, you would like to invite your parents to a new restaurant but are not sure if the dishes are of good quality.  If you saw that your cousin posted a comment when she went to this restaurant 2 months ago saying “Wonderful time with family at this original restaurant – Loved the home-made lasagna!”, you will go there.

However, it is important to note that this information was already available on Facebook. This new search bar will only make research easier. Indeed, without this tool, how could you do to find who from your 400 friends has been to Thailand? It will take hours to find the right people.

Privacy is another issue that Facebook has to manage. In order to work, internet users have to trust Facebook. Otherwise, members will not put their private information such as photos or places they went to. If they think that this tool is reliable, they will enjoy putting information which may help their friends afterwards. Therefore, privacy parameters should be clearly defined and members have to know how to use them.

Would it revolutionize the tourism industry? It seems that Graph Search will have more impacts at regional level rather than internationally. Indeed, local attractions (restaurants, museums…) will probably be more impacted.

                                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD951tHz38g

                                                                     Coralie DEGUERVILLE, Alyssa KIEFFER, Lou MICHEL

Article from:  

http://www.etourisme.info/facebook-lance-graph-search-son-moteur-de-recherche-social
Other information:

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/01/the-inside-story-of-graph-search-facebooks-weapon-to-challenge-google/all/

http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2013/01/16/6347/facebook-graph-search-the-experts-view.html

Picture from:

http://protechgeek.com/introducing-graph-search-on-facebook/

EVENTFUL FOR IPHONE

Is it Saturday night and you don’t know what to do?

Now you can use the application for iPhone and iPod touch that allows to find the most exciting events in your town and in all over the world.

Jordan Glazier, the CEO of Eventful said in an interview that “Through its vast event-search capabilities and extensive integration with the iPhone, Eventful answers the needs of planning anyone’s social life, by enabling users to find things to do and friends to do them with, at any time and in any place”.

Through this application, it is possible to search for events, to buy tickets for events and also to see what your friends are interested in doing, thanks’ to the possibility to copy events from the Eventful Calendar to the Calendar application on the iPhone, to be always informed about your favourite performers.

The application is composed by five sections that can help the users to find what they need.

The first section is “Search”, that allows to find events, venues, performers or other users, in order to facilitate the organization of users’ free time.

The second section is the “Featured Pages”, through with users can obtain a selection of the most interesting events, related to their interests or location.

Another one is named “Track” that tracks all the events in users’ watch list and in their friends’ watch list. Moreover it indicates all upcoming events by customers’ favourite performers and location.

“Demand” is the section through with it is possible to demand users’ favourite performers to come in their city and to see the other demands throughout the world.

At last, but not the least there is the “Profile” section that enables to view and to edit users’ Eventful profile and to see the other profile and all the several comments about each event.

Eventful can show million of events to choose from and the tour dates for over 130.000 performers. Moreover it can suggest all the venues near the users.

This application that is available for free, will help everyone to better plan their free time, sharing tips and comments with friends and fans of user’s favourite performers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fFNaSsKa3s

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_July_10/ai_n27907295/

Key words: application, iPhone, iPod touch, events, performers, free time

Barbara Esposito, Francesca Nocerino, Carmine Andrea D'Orsi.

The new era in hospitality industry

Mobility is playing an increasingly important role in the hospitality industry both for distribution and operation. By 2015, over two billion people should have a Smart phone, according to a report from the firm Parks Associates. Those days, mobile device strategies are growing and diversified and tourists are already very active in research and hotel bookings.

Mobility is used at all stages. Indeed, according to a study by PhoCusWright, 68% of leisure travelers and 71% of business travelers shopped or purchased travel products using a mobile device in the last year. Among these visitors, half have conducts research to a hotel. One quarter of leisure travelers and a third of business travelers have booked with a mobile device.

Mobile technologies, as well as other distribution channels, are used before the departure, either for research or reservations. Indeed, large proportions of travelers are using their mobile device before the trip and while in transit. People often have a limit with their access to Mobile Web because of high user fees when traveling internationally so Wifi zones are very helpful for the used of mobile technologies.

For distribution in the hospitality industry, most major hotel chains have a mobile application which the principal use is the distribution, but where there are also retention strategies. With the application, users can also find information about services offered by the hotel. According to us, it is a competitive aspect to create a mobile application for a hotel. The application of the W chain is an example of application that stands out. To get you in the mood for a W stay, the app streams music created by famous DJs in Ibiza and gives you an option to listen to it at the moment or to purchase it on iTunes. The IPhone app enables the users to book a room, order room service, send a message through the app to request what ever you want and view special offers. Indeed, like demonstrated by Schaal, “if you select an Insider section of the app, there are options to “Order In” room service 24/7 and charge it to your room; an “I Need” tab to request towels, bedding and bath products; an “Anything Else” section for sending special requests or questions to hotel staff; and a “Treat Youself or Someone Else” button for pre-ordering things like chocolate-covered strawberries and sparkling wine1.” We love this application because it combines pleasure and utility.

Source: http://www.tnooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/W2.jpg 

There is many other example of application for distribution. HotelTonight, the king of the principle of the last minute, proposes an application that shows offers of the day, at prices up to 70% off. In the event industry, QDelegate offers a solution for communication between hoteliers, event organizers, convention and participants. The application facilitates the planning of the event and the communication logistics during the meeting.

Mobility also creates a change in customer’s services. Due to mobile devices, some changes are present in the hospitality industry like the arrival of payment by a mobile device and automatic currency conversion, the emergence of virtual concierge, the substation of key hotel rooms for smart phones, room service from client’s smartphone which allows the client to be served anywhere in the hotel, to name only a few. A change that we think is interesting is the return of printed promotional materials, which allow the customer to scan a QR code to discover the news of the establishment and activities to do in the area. Mobile devices also allow hotels to change their installation of systems to control thermostats and lighting because the clients can control it with their smartphone. It is a good sustainable strategy in our point of view. There is also an application created by Lodgenet that turns your smartphone into a remote control in the hotel room. This application is very popular and is used in already 500,000 hotel chains like Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Starwood, IHG and Fairmount. The application can also be modified by the hotel and add a section on the facilities and surroundings can be add. The customers can also get their bill, settle the bill, order and have touristic information with the app.

Instead of developing their own mobile application, managers can adhere to customized solution like InHotelApp. It allows the hotelier to provide practical information to its clients, without the need to have Internet access, which is very useful in our point of view because we don’t always have access to Internet or Wifi.

To conclude, we think that most changes related to mobile device will be easily integrated in the hospitality industry but some of them will represent a challenge. The industry needs to adapt its offer to the customer’s need and those days, it is all about new technologies.

Key words: mobile device, hospitality industry, mobile application, smartphone

Source: LEVASSEUR, Maite (2012). Levee du rideau sur la mobilite dans lindustrie hoteliere: Acte 1, April 5, 2012, from Reseau de veille: http://veilletourisme.ca/2012/04/05/levee-du-rideau-sur-la-mobilite-dans-lindustrie-hoteliere-acte-1/