Instagram Debuts Full-Screen Ads In Stories: an opportunity for the tourism industry?

Instagram is a hot and trendy social media. Created in 2010 it is mainly useful to share pictures and video with your network, but shortly it is also become an efficient tool in the Tourism and Travel industries.

The pros of this free application are that is it downloadable from all the mobile devices and can be translated into several languages. This means that this application can be broadcasted from all around the globe.

Nowadays, the Tourism and Travel industries companies are more and more supporters of the use of Digital Marketing tools which include POEM (Paid Owned Earned) media, such as Instagram. They are powerful means to reach millions people for low cost, and high potential revenues.

Instagram launched its own analytics tool “Insight”, which enable the companies using it to get an overview of what’s really happening on the web. They can get all the impression from their audience and check the number of views on their official website. They can of course still post content (posts, pictures and video) in order to enhance their product.

As this application is pretty young and for free to download, it allows to reach people easily and very fast. Through the participation of all the users, it is a good way to share and broadcast all the information, through all the other social media by the same way.

The participative tourism is a good way for Travel Destination be advertised through the use of hashtag and @ by Instagram followers.

People can see the attraction of the destination if there are lots of contents, if lots of people have been there and raise their awareness by the pictures of what the tourists experienced.

When Instagram launched the stories, it has “become a mainstream expression tool," said James Quarles, the Instagram's VP of business. Indeed, businesses are seeing the stories as a new opportunity to deepen the relationship between a business and a person. For tourism businesses, it is a good way for communicating on their destination and strengthening their brand image.

With the launch of the full-screen ads in people stories, businesses can reach 150 million daily users. The ads in stories can include photos, videos and they are labeled as sponsored. Advertisers and businesses would be able to create videos or slideshows of pictures of maximum 15 seconds that will be seen when Instagram users will watch stories.

According to an Instagram study, one-third of the most-viewed stories are made by businesses and around three-quarters of Instagram users follow a business on the app. By consequence, the ads in stories give a use opportunity for businesses to influence their targets. For the tourism industry, it becomes a new opportunity to communicate on their destination, gives Instagram users the desire to visit those places and make them dream at any time.

The global head of social marketing and content at Airbnb said that “by creating and publishing experience-driven stories, we can truly captivate and reach travelers wishing to book aspirational trips on Airbnb" and mention the fact that Instagram Stories engages their community to be part of an adventure.

Instagram is now experimenting ads with around 30 clients, including General Motors, Nike, Asos, Yoox, Netflix and Airbnb. 

Here is an example of Airbnb ads in a story

 

We can ask Instagram users if the Ads tool damage their experience when watching a story...

By Lauriane Amand & Clémence Duvent

References:

http://thinkdigital.travel/opinion/new-instagram-ad-tools-work-well-with-influencers/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2017/01/11/instagram-debuts-full-screen-ads-in-stories/#16002af02f43

http://www.traveller.com.au/how-tourism-australia-dominated-instagram-335a9

http://thinkdigital.travel/trends/more-examples-instagram/

http://mashable.com/2017/01/11/instagram-stories-ads/#_8qZEERgCkqp

https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/11/instagram-stories-hits-150m-daily-users-launches-skippable-ads/

The advantage & challenge in IT on Tourism & Hospitality Industry

This is an information era, who mastered the resources, mastered the data, who would be winner. In Tourism & Hospitality Industry, there are four mainly technologies that they are using:

Internet:

This is an amazing door, you can find almost all the information that you want, and as for the Tourism & Hospitality Industry, they can publish their own brands, specific products or pictures on their own website, or even use social media, like facebook, blogs, twiter etc, to promote themselves, also can improve their total revenues.

Reservation Systems:

There are a large amount of the people who reserve tourism products or hotels directly on Internet. With the benefit of IT, Tourism & Hospitality industry can build their own website to let clients reserve directly, or either cooperate with OTAs, like Booking.com, Expedia etc, to get more sales. As for the company, they can use pricing strategy to update the price in all the reservation systems, as for the clients, it’s also easy for them to compare among several companies, to search the one best for them.

Computer Systems:

This technology is mainly for big companies, they have a system to combine all the branches, to integrate all the resources to make the work more efficiency. For example, chain hotels, they need this system to collect and keep all their customers’ information together to do the further data analysis, to build new development strategies.

Mobile Communications:

At the beginning, computer is the main tool for us to do advertisement or marketing. Later, people prefer to use tablet or telephone to search, to do a reservation and to communicate, so nowadays in Tourism & Hospitality Industry, they also have three versions of there website, covering all the potential customers.

Finally, even there are lots of advantages of IT in Tourism & Hospitality, but we have to mention that it’s just an intermediate tool, to link between your company and customers, compared with traditional ways, we can make more benefits, more efficiency with advanced IT. However, we don’t have enough opportunities to communicate with clients face to face or by telephone, to build a trust and a long-term loyalty relationship with them. So in the future, with the development and innovation of IT, we should also pay more attention to build the relationship with our clients.

SHIYI WEI

YUAN ZHANG

Technological innovation upend the tourism industry

  RongjiaHu&KeZhao

It is firmly convinced that the technology plays an important even vital role in the travel and tourism industry. Nowadays, in our daily life, the innovation of technology facilitates the global transaction of information, shortens the physical distance  and makes it easier to connect people from all over the world. Recently I’ve read an article that talked about the new digital technology overturned the tourism industry. In this article, it mentioned several technologies, such as biometric baggage, cloud passport, personalised travel, spontaneous travel apps and virtual reality travel. We take an example of biometric baggage solutions and cloud passports, there is no need for tourists to take the paper passport, the airport can use the biometric technology to identify the tourist, and in the meanwhile they also use the biometric technology to chase the location of the baggage, this kind of technology is already used in some organizations such as Dutch airline KLM and Dubai International Airport.It decrease the risk of loss of passport and baggage and enhance the security and efficiency of transport.

Passport is regarded as a necessary ID document when people go abroad for any kind of activities, especially for travellers, they may not go anywhere without their passports with them.However, the paradoxical aspect is that we even worry about the lost of our valuables when we have them with us.So cloud passport seems a good news for all the outbound travellers since the physical passport is no longer on the must-list of traveling items. It means IT industry again help tourism industry eliminate a trouble thing. According to the data from the DFAT that 38718 passports [1] are reported lost during 2014 to 2015, which means the government has to solve the problem for instance making a new passport.In short, the cloud passport cuts down on the tourist’s concern about the loss of the passport  and also decreases the workload of the tourism department.The article also refers to the biometric baggage solution, which is a new self-service of check-in luggage. People go to the kiosk to print baggage claim tag and drop their luggages on the belt instead of manual service, for example, Air New zealand installed its first biometric enabled self-service bag drop in 2015 [2]. Both of the cloud passport and the biometric baggage solution are supposed to improve the passengers’ experience and make boarding service more efficient and convenient. As an indispensable part of tourism, the facilitation of transportation service  also rises people’s desire for traveling and promotes the development of tourism in reverse. Moreover, the paper also mentioned the virtual reality experience in hospitality which is a means to increase in-room spending. The implementation of new technology in any process of traveling can have a butterfly effect on the other industries such as food and beverage, entertainment industries since they are complementary to each other.

I never had the experience of these new technology mentioned above, but personally I like the concept of cloud passport because it is quite useful, we would never be worried about boarding or shopping in duty free shops without paper passport. However, I have read about some experiences of self-service luggage check-in from the article “<<Bag drop issues>>: automated luggage systems drop the ball”[3], which indicates some disadvantages of the automated service. People who use the self-service machine tend to save the queuing time somehow but even meet more difficulties, they may find it is not an easy procedure without clear instruction. From the point view of first-class passengers, automated service should not be the one and only choice in the airport even though it is convenient because more paid air ticket should have more considerable service. It may not the resonant idea for everyone but at least it should be taken into consideration. All in all, IT definitely shortens the running cost somehow for tourism industry and improves the travellers’ experience but it lengthens the distance between the customer and the staff. What do you think about an airport in completely silence without any conversation between each other because we do everything with automated machine.

To summarize, just like the Colliers International said in the article, "Like the rest of the world, the travel industry is adapting to our highly digitised lives and this is presenting huge opportunities for innovative thinkers to pioneer new solutions."  We still need technological innovations to ensure that the whole tourism industry keep the path of the changing world, and also we need to think that whether every innovation is really positive for people’s life.

Article:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/technology/digital-savvy-holidaymakers-upend-travel-tourism-trade

References:

[1]http://www.gq.com.au/entertainment/tech/7+facts+you+need+to+know+about+the+cloud+passport,39973

[2]http://www.futuretravelexperience.com/2015/12/air-new-zealand-launches-biometric-enabled-self-bag-drop/

[3]https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2016/01/23/bag-drop-issues-automated-luggage-systems-drop-the-ball/#comments

Sky Boy plunges its users into an overlapped reality experience

Four years ago, two French entrepreneurs, Vincent Burgevin et François Xavier Goemaere, decided to launch the start-up Sky Boy, developing an overlapped reality technology.  This patented technology allows to add virtual images or videos to a real environment. By positioning his smartphone or tablet in front of him, the user becomes immersed in a specific action that takes place exactly where he is. To create this overlapped reality, the company realises some short 360° films and grades them with the GPS coordinates to give a perfect impression of reality when used. Unlike the augmented reality, this technology has a better quality, it is easier to use and cheaper. 

In 2016, Sky Boy was elected best start-up of the year at the international tourism fair and is now one of the incubated start-ups at Welcome City Lab, which is the first incubator dedicated to tourism and innovation. The start-up consists now of 4 entrepreneurs specialized in audio-visual, digital, cultural and touristic industry.  They registered a patent to exploit overlapped reality so Sky Boy is the only company able to offer experiences based on this new technology.

Sky Boy can cover a large range of sectors: historic places, cultural sites, retail, event, and so on. The estimated market for leisure and tourism reaches 176 Million euros, and 124 Million euros for the retail industry.

Offering an immersive experience on a touristic place has always been a driving force to increase visitors. Thanks to overlapped reality, these experiences are willing to create a huge buzz.

The first significate experience in a museum had been initiated by the Australian government, where Sky Boy launched an experience based on Madam Thuillier story. 100 years ago, this farmer from Vignacourt welcomed Australian soldiers she used to photograph thanks to an uncommon appliance. Thus, Sky Boy brought this moment back to life by settling 4 spots of overlapped reality in the exact place where those photos were taken in black and white.

Sky Boy had also worked on the event sector, through an experience with Lagardère Sport during the Euro 2016 of football, on the Champs de Mars fan zone in Paris. When they pointed out their smartphone at the right place, supporters had the opportunity to watch a private concert or to enjoy stand-uppers sketches.

Not to mention overlapped reality can make moving easier for visitors within a place thanks to the use of a pre-made visit route. In this way, technology enables to highlight heritage, offering people the opportunity to discover historical places by a dynamic and immersive way.

Overlapped reality seems to have many advantages to attract its users as it is first an amazing emotion vehicle for people. This magic experience can even be easily shared with friends and relatives through social networks for example so it is not anymore an individual experience. Sky Boy is also a big progress for touristic places as it participates to the growth of the value chain of a place and thus increase its attractivity. Thanks to 360° videos the quality of images is perfect and both users and partners can be totally satisfied by the experience. So let’s try it and share your experience!

Camille GARINET - Tanguy VILLIAME

References: http://www.realite-virtuelle.com/sky-boy-realite-superposee-14-12

http://www.sky-boy.com/

The launch of ‘Cloud SIM’ will create a new travel product market in tourism industry in 2017

Written by LI Kaixian and WANG Yutong

 

(Source of pictures: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cloudsimapp.vtl)

The launch of the new mobile application ‘Cloud SIM’ create a blockbuster in the travel market. Users now can run and manage maximum 5 telephone numbers on their smartphone. The development of this app is based on the technology VoIP and a local access option, which enables calls to be made through a local number instead of consuming data.

‘Cloud SIM’ can bring travelers a series of benefits, especially for business travelers. First, this app allows users to originate and receive phone calls and messages when they are taking a plane, which brings much more fun for them during the long journey on flights. At the same time, users can download this app on their iPad or tablet in order to enjoy the same service. Secondly, for those businessmen who have to make business calls during their holiday, this app enables them to call without bringing extra phones on vacation. What’s more, compared to calling rates out of UK, the app users enjoy a more profitable price (only 1p per minute) when whey call UK numbers from abroad. Business travelers can save a lot from avoiding a sky-high phone bill after they go back.

The target market of ‘Cloud SIM’ is those people who travel a lot for business. It provides this group of people with less phone call cost and more convenience. By capturing the value this app, companies in tourism industries can provide better service for travelers. Taking airlines companies as an example, Emirates provide customers with in-flight WiFi, which enables Cloud SIM users to call and send messages in flights at 35,000 feet high.

On the other hand, according to the prediction of the tourism trends in 2017 by Theodore Koumelis, new technology will help increase travel product sales in the world. Recently, this new application is exploring the availabilities and possibilities in the tourism industry by working with travel agencies. This app provides travelers a holiday package which solves all smartphone problems during holidays at once. Besides, for those people who worry about missing important business calls during their flight will be the main consumers in this kind of travel product. Moreover, the launch of the app will stimulate the tourism industry to create a new travel product market in the tourism industry in 2017.


                                             

                                                                                                                          

Sources:

https://www.traveldailynews.com/post/make-and-receive-calls-in-flight-at-35000ft-high-with-the-new-cloud-sim-app

https://www.traveldailynews.com/post/what-will-be-the-tourism-trends-for-2017

TOURISM GO ! 

Everyone has heard about Pokemon GO ! , the famous augmented-reality (AR) game using real-world spots as a playground. People can download the game as an app on their smartphone and start catching Pokemons on the street in order to become the master of the game.

The game came out on July 2016 and has concerned more than 500 million of users in the world. The fondness is undeniable as you can see in the video, and still in the news.

But what is the link with tourism?

Tourism and hospitality industries have seen in this game a new opportunity to change the way people are travelling. Indeed, gamers tend to accommodate their travelling schedule to the game: in fact, Pokemons are scattered around the world so that hunters need to travel in different cities and countries to have the chance to catch a “rare Pokemon”. Consequence: they started choosing their destination according to which Pokemon will be available there.

Cities have noted this revolutionary trend and started using this worldwide game to sell themselves and try to attract more visitors. They quickly became vast playgrounds, and visits on several places all over the world have incredibly increased, as Pokemons' locations highlight the cities' heritages. For example the city of Caen organized a photo contest with Pokemons in order for tourists to visit the four main monuments of the town.

This kind of games are bound to make the tourism industry thrive in a new funny and exciting way.

People want to have fun! Traditional tourist trails are not enough anymore. The new generation is looking for something which will enable them to learn while having fun.

We are talking about a new kind of experimental marketing here. It has become one of the new big trends in tourism and event: for the first time, people could remember visiting places without being completely aware of it, as they are often absorbed by the game.

Moreover, some restaurants, pubs and shops took advantage of the game's tricks to install more Pokemons inside their shops and attract more customers. Pokemon Go has become a real communication tool. For instance, the hotel Radisson Blu in Toulouse shared about their Pokemons on social media and set up a special discount to each customer coming back with a picture of Pokemon taken inside the hotel.

Tourism and hospitality industries are not the only one taking notes of this trend.

The Event industry is also starting to surf on this new wave of AR game concept. Indeed some firms already offer the possibility for event companies to federate its teams through a special app.

Let's introduce Yucca Gamification !

http://yucca-gamification.com/evenements/eventgame/

This company offers several services for tourism, hospitality and event industries. Regarding events, they have created “Event'Game”, which is a solution to create technological experiences during the event. It consists in solving mysteries in teams, including geo-localisation, videos and AR.

This augmented-reality version of tourism and event is considered as a technological advance. We can guess that it will be popularized soon enough. The tourism, hospitality and event industries have already adopted this trend and use its benefits plenty.

However, AR is already disputed. Issues such as sharing data, property law, confusion between reality and fiction, and so on, have been raised. Is it the start of a fictional world, where people would only interact between each other through technology? Would traditional team building activities be more effective and congenial in the end? Would you rather explore the world with your phone than with your own eyes?

It is a fact the AR is revolutionary first of all in terms of research work, but also in our subject in term of thrill, discoveries and sensations. Yet, our world still has a long way to go to completely accept AR, stepping back seems to be impossible though.

References: 

http://yucca-gamification.com/evenements/eventgame/

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2016/08/game/ 

http://www.liberation.fr/futurs/2016/08/25/pokemon-go-les-debats-augmentes-de-la-realite_1474696