An unconventional reception
Every time we travel more, much more. According to World Tourism Organization international tourist arrivals increased by 4.4% in 2015, reaching 1,184 million , which represents about 50 million more tourists than in 2014. 2016 , the Confidence Index of the organization expects a global growth of 4%.
Emerging markets or destinations that are getting progressively cheaper are the two main reasons behind this increase. And of course, everything (or almost everything) already happens online , where an increasingly demanding consumer knows what he wants and asks for it. To give it to them, tourist companies have made the personalization its workhorse, making use of technology, and more specifically of artificial intelligence and the information provided by big data , to build experiences tailored to each traveler. Because the traveler, more and more connected, more and more educated and more and more capricious (I want it now or I don't want it), seeks to live experiences.
THEY KNOW YOU BETTER THAN YOUR MOTHER
"Companies work to offer packages of experiences that adjust to the characteristics of the traveler," explains Douglas Green, Regional Director for Spain of Saber Travel Network. To do this, they build a 360º profile of each client With the information obtained from their data, they know what the user is doing at all times and can anticipate what they may need. "It is essential that all these results be in real time to justify the transfer of so much personal data," he adds. When it comes to "so much personal data", the figure is impressive: a normal traveler generates 1 Terabyte of data per year.
Armed with our smartphones and wearables we receive information about our trip in real time, when we need it. In fact, the Internet of Things makes our day to day serves to build our future trip . “Information stored in my personal appliances can be passed on to hotels to, for example, have the same fridge in your hotel as you have in your home,” explains Joakim Everstim, chief innovation officer at Saber Travel Networks.
Mother's Love
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, A REALITY
If we add to this knowledge of the user the artificial intelligence of the machines, the result is a traveler between cottons, who can enjoy what he likes the most when he feels like it. "The technology is here, people just need to want to use it," says Everstin.
In this sense, Mercè Gamell, consulting analyst at Nelmia Robotics Insight, talks about its current implementation. "Robots can improve people's work, improving their capabilities. In the case of tourism, they will be used to improve experiences." Thus, for example, "in airports they will assume hospitality functions, they accompany you where you want to go; there is a cruise with a bionic bar in which you design your own cocktail through a tablet, a robot prepares it for you and then you can share it with other clients," he says. In the case of hotels, "They already work as buttons. They take small errands to your room, they are ordered from reception, they get along with the elevator and they do the quality survey." This is the case of the Henn-na which, located in Nagasaki, is the first hotel in which robots work.
Room Service
THE HOTEL OF THE FUTURE
Within the framework of FiturTech, it was possible to visit what will be the hotel of the future. initiative, the ITH Travelinmotion by Emotion Experience , is a project developed by the Instituto Tecnológico Hotelero and the sensory marketing company Emotion Experience with the aim of transmit the sensations that the guest will be able to experience in hotels in a few years.
"Dazzle, overwhelm with what technology can offer you today. We want the tourist to realize how the world is changing and for him to see what he can feel thanks to technology " , explains Álvaro Carrillo de Albornoz, General Director of ITH.
The hotel of the future will allow you check-in before arrival to avoid waiting, it will have technology such as Bitcom (a kind of Bluetooth that monitor customers' mobile devices to control the flow of people and, in this way, not only offer them the best at all times, but also optimize resources), you will have virtual windows in interior rooms so that no customer is left without the landscape they want to enjoy and will appeal to the senses. Sensations, many sensations. how about a bath in the jacuzzi with the perfect combination of music and images to ensure maximum relaxation? And all this with the possibility of controlling it from your mobile.
However, Carrillo de Albornoz warns: it must be done well so that the client does not perceive it as an intrusion. "You have to use the part of the technology that best suits the type of product you have and who your customers are and what they want to use." And it is that humane treatment must be maintained.
Sensations and personalization, keys to the hotel of the future
TOWARDS SMART SEARCH ENGINES
Sonia Pacheco, CEO of HotelYou, is clear: artificial intelligence goes beyond the robots we have seen in movies, it has to do with machines being able to understand you. And in that they are in HotelYou, an intelligent hotel search engine that allows travelers to search in their own words for the type of hotel they want.
"Current search engines continue to be a large database in which you cannot put what you want, but rather discriminate by fields," explains Pacheco. In the end, the user has no choice but to investigate among the results presented to see if any of them meets the specificities that he wants.
For this reason, HotelYou wants the user can request what he wants in his own words and that the search engine gives him only and exclusively a list with the hotels that meet those characteristics. "That's complex because language has nuances and richness that computers can't understand. HotelYou is developing a system to understand what the customer wants."
It is an innovative and complex process in which, in addition to artificial intelligence, semantics is involved. Thus, they are currently in beta phase, which means that the delivery of results is not immediate. They are working with establishments in ** Madrid, Ibiza and Formentera ** that include from five-star hotels to low cost. The most curious searches that people do? Hotel with a lot of glamor and art, cool hotel, hotels for celiacs, hotels to have New Year's Eve dinner...
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