Travel Industry Poised to Leverage Voice Tech to Massive Financial Benefit

Empowering consumers to book their travel was a positive shift for everyone. 24-hour access, research, and reservation management are all the norm now. And yet over 50% of online travel agents are seeing an increase in the number of clients[1], partly driven by Millennials.

 So why shift back to travel agent bookings? While there is no firm answer from current research, the ability for the consumer to converse about their needs and intentions will certainly be in the mix. In the early days of travel booking, customers relied heavily on agent knowledge of booking systems and destinations to bring an itinerary together for them. Modern tools put this capability in the hands of the consumer, but it takes time and seemingly endless data entry, clicks, taps, or swipes. The ease of talking about what you want to do was removed.

 But with modern voice capabilities, travel brands can bring back this elegant user interface to their customer journey. Consider the following: 

• About 91% of consumers are more willing to consume products by brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations.[2]
• 52% of voice-activated speaker owners would like info on deals and promotions
• 38% want access to customer service or support
• Coming out of the pandemic, most hotels are shifting to a ‘smart hotel’ model to maximize customer access to services
• According to aMcKinsey report[3], artificial intelligence in tourism has the capacity to generate as much as a staggering $400B in value
• 79% of hoteliers named voice-enabled technology as having the greatest potential in the near future[4]
• 72% of guests are more likely to return to a property with helpful technology[5]
• 48% of consumers have used a voice assistant to check flight status or buy a plane ticket[6]

 Any one of these market observations would be enough for travel brands to explore a voice user interface for their web or mobile experiences, but combined, they tell a compelling story of usage, adoption, and, most importantly: expectation.

 With the average human able to speak 200 words a minute but only type 50 words a minute, the efficiency offered by a voice user interface is staggering. Combine that with conversational AI technology, and the feeling is closer to a curated travel agent experience than filling out forms and seeing results.

 Travel brands from airlines to hotels can bring a more natural and immersive experience to their existing digital tools like web and mobile, even their telephony systems with Voicify. Voicify brings ASR, TTS, personalization, integration, and multi-turn capabilities to existing tools with ease and elegance. Contact us to learn more.

 [1] https://financesonline.com/hospitality-trends/

[2] Making it personal. (2018). Accenture.

[3] https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/artificial-intelligence/notes-from-the-ai-frontier-applications-and-value-of-deep-learning

[4] https://hospitalitytech.com/2019-lodging-technology-study-hotels-gear-age-augmented-authenticity

[5] https://hospitalitytech.com/lodging-tech-study-2020

[6] https://www.adweek.com/digital/why-brands-in-these-3-categories-need-to-prepare-for-the-voice-era/

About Voicify 

Voicify, LLC is the world’s only end-to-end solution for creating, managing, and optimizing enterprise-owned voice assistants. Our platform enables brands to create highly engaging and personalized voice experiences that can be automatically deployed to web and mobile products and services and a broad array of voice platforms, including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IVR telephony systems, and more. 

Learn more at www.voicify.com.

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