End of airport Check-In desks?

It has traditionally been the first port of call for passengers jetting away on holiday but the airport check-in desk could soon be resigned to the history books.

From April 30th, the airline will ask travelers with checked luggage to use bag-drop only desks. Ryanair made a similar move in 2009 and currently charges those who don't check in online a fee of £70 at the airport to print out boarding passes. EasyJet said it is unlikely to charge passengers and, for the near future at least, would ensure a limited check-in service at the airport is still available.

This story shows the next step in managing information, technology has increased so much over the last few years that there is less need for customer facing roles. Could this result in more jobs being lost within the industry which is already suffering? I believe that the next step for EasyJet will be having automated bag drop. One of the aspects of travel that staff have a trouble with is customers going over the weight limit for their luggage. If airlines were to introduce an automated bag drop, it would be impossible to let any customer get away without paying. The bags would not be accepted which would results in the customers not being able to go through to security without paying. This system would work very well within this industry as all customers would have to meet the criteria or pay. I hope this aspect of travel will be introduced into the industry within the near future. 

Travel Apps

In today's generation technology is used everyday all over the world. Individuals are becoming reliant on technology to guide them through a process, and this is very true within the travel industry. A large number of apps have been created, whether these guide an individual on how to fight jet lag, all the way through to language translation. Below are some of the most recent Business Travel Apps:

BlackBerry Travel App 10:
The BlackBerry Travel app was only realised yesterday for BlackBerry 10 devices, giving Z10 owners the ability to plan, book, manage and share their travel arrangements on the move. 

It has been stated that most of planning a trip now comes down to the price. Many new services, such as Google Flight, have filters that help users find the cheapest day, time or location to fly out from. BlackBerry Travel is no different, as it now offers a “Price Alert” service that notifies you if there’s a cheaper price for the hotel room you've booked. Likewise, if there’s a similar room in a different hotel, but at a cheaper price, or a far better room for only slightly more, it’s possible to cancel the original booking and re-order from within the app.

Weatherpro App:
An intuitive app offering weather reports for well over two million geographical locations, feeding in everything from cloud formations and atmospheric pressure to wind speed and humidity, all in enough detail to leave Michael Fish clammy-palmed with excitement. It’s also accurate to the point of clairvoyance, so if you’re travelling to Berlin and it predicts rain, pack your best umbrella.
Available on iPhone (£2.49), Android (£1.99) and Windows Phone (£2.29)




Air Sharing App:
In the cut-throat world of business, time is money, making a seven-hour trans-Atlantic flight a lot of wonga indeed. Thankfully, just because your laptop’s packed away, doesn't mean you can’t keep your eyes on the prize. Essentially, this (admittedly pricey) app turns your iPhone into a wireless hard drive, allowing you to quickly and easily load it up with documents at the airport, then browse and amend on the move throughout your trip.
Available on iPhone (£6.99) and iPad (£6.99) 

Galileo

Galileo traces back to 1971 when United Airlines created its first computer reservation system, named Apollo. During the late 1980's and early 1990's a large quantity of airline tickets were sold through travel agents. Flights by the airline who owned the reservation system were the first ones that travel agents and customers would see. Due to the success and high market demands of both Sabre and Apollo systems, Worldspan and Galileo were created.  

Galileo was formed in 1987 by nine European carriers, these were:

• British Airways
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
• Alitalia
• Swissair
• Austrian Airline
• Olympic
• Sabena
• Air Portugal
• Aer Lingus.

How does it work?

Understanding the System

Within this industry there are a number of different systems which are used worldwide, by both travel agents and tour operators. A number of these systems i have already mentioned in my previous posts, but i will go on to talk about these in more depth. Along with the Global Distribution Systems, there is another system called Viewdata. 

What is Viewdata?
Viewdata is a booking system which was created in the late 1970's and early 1980's to make it easier for travel consultants to check the availability of holidays and to place bookings. It proved to be a huge success and travel consultants up and down the country started to use it. Viewdata soon got the reputation to be the trade's favourite booking system. It was so successful because it was simple to use, and it did exactly what it said it would do: look up holidays and complete bookings. 

But it was not long til travel consultants found faults with the system. in the early 1980's a large number of travel consultants were using different systems and changing to all have one system created a lot of fuss and confusion. Some travel agents did not want to move over to Viewdata as they had the reassurance and security of the system they had already been using. It was proved by a small number of travel agents that they could not handle more than one system, all of the systems are very different in the way they book holidays and this caused upset throughout the travel industry. Once again a solution had to be created...

Even though travel agents and consultants all around the world were talking about how fantastic Viewdata was there was always going to be some flaws. Travel experts questioned whether this was the beginning of the end, and whether the travel industry could cope with the demands from customers, and the unfamiliarity with the system. On the other hand this system did allow operators to distribute holidays over the internet  something they struggled to do before. 


I looked at Viewdata's website and discovered that they are soon to be bringing out a new and improved system to offer the travel industry. It states that 'Viewdata remains the tool used for booking 98% of the traditional package holiday and charter flights'. It goes on to explain how Viewdata understand that in today's world consumers have better sales tools then the trade but there new and improved Viewdata brings all these tools together. They are able to display hotel photographs, and in depth descriptions of both the hotel, airline, surrounding area etc. 

I believe this is a very risky procedure for Viewdata to carry out, the reason for this being that it will have cost them as a company a lot of many to produce, and now there are many high established global distribution systems out there, will it really take off and be number one. 

http://www.viewdataplus.com/

Global Distribution System

With 60 million people in the UK going on holiday a year, a method had to be created to control every aspect of a holiday. It has to be able to control the number of people booking, along with the different aspects each individual wanted to incorporate, this could be from a hotel, all the way through to a mode of transport. 

The major market force in online travel bookings is currently the Global Distribution Systems also known as GDS. There are a number of systems which are used, these include: Galileo, Sabre, Travel-Port, Amadeus along with many others. When GDS was first created in the late 1980's it was used for airline reservations. Since then the demands within the travel and tourism industry have increased dramatically, resulting in many GDS systems expanding further. In recent years aspects such as car hire have been introduced and this has worked very well. For travel agents who are using this system it makes it easier for not only themselves but also for their client as they can book all of the extras the client may want through one system. 

With GDS being live 24/7 it means the availability that is showing is correct providing a better service for the customer. 

Changes:

With all technology there will become a time when an aspect will need to be changed or improved. With the Global Distribution Systems a change was paramount. When the systems were first created the industry professionals who used them were highly skilled, and as the industry has developed these individuals do not have to be as skilled or qualified, resulting in the system needing to be clearer and more user friendly. To this day the system has been changed and has proved to be a huge success. Industry professionals are now able to write all details in full and then this will be de-coded by the system used. An example of this being:

• LHR - London Heathrow
• LAS - Las Vegas
• CPT - Cape Town

I personally believe GDS is a fantastic product which has been created, like all software over time more changes will have to be made. GDS has recently started to book hotel rooms, which is slowly but surely starting to take off. A number of the Global Distribution Systems book hotel rooms for Brooklands Hotel where i work, and in the last year i have sign an increase in the amount of reservations being booked through this method. I hope that this system will carry on increasing what it can sell for clients. I personally feel that systems like these make the travel and tourism industry one step ahead of other industries. 

Information and Communication

Information Technology and Tourism are two of the most dynamic motivators of the emerging economy. With this in mind it is important that the methods that are produced are used effectively and correctly to produce the best results possible. 

The travel and tourism industry is one of the largest industries in the world. It employees 1.4 million people within the UK. This industry is made up of 180,000 businesses. It has recently been discovered that more school leavers begin their careers in tourism and hospitality than any other industry. (UK Labour Force Survey 2008).

With such high statistics being produced on a yearly basis, it is clear that the tourism industry is not one that will collapse. There may be parts of the industry which are not in high demand or needed as much as others but the demand for major aspects will always be high. This industry creates fantastic opportunity's for customers all over the world, the activities which can now be booked are vast, along with the countries where airlines can now fly too. With opportunities continually being created, the growth of under developed regions is able to expand positively  providing these countries with the chance to improve there tourism methods, and produce a more stable economy. 

The internet has played an important part within the development of the travel and tourism industry in the last ten years, a number of undiscovered countries have been placed on the map due to the discovery and recognition of these. It is essential that the tourism and information technology industries work closely together. Both of these industries rely on one another for a smooth running, if one of these industries was to pull out the other would fail or drop dramatically. There is currently a strong relationship between them, resulting in new methods being created on a regular basis. 

Introduction

Within the travel and tourism industry it is essential that information is managed correctly, whether this is keeping customers information confidential, or making sure that a flight is not over booked. There are a number of procedures which have been put in place to make sure that these demands are met. 

Throughout this blog i am going to talk about  methods which are used, as well as methods which could be introduced within the future. It is important to remember that technology is changing constantly, and with the travel and tourism industry being fast paced the needs of both customers and staff have to be met, or more importantly exceeded.