 Welcome to another episode of Tourism Matters, brought to you by the UP Asian Institute of Tourism and TV UP. We aim to explore the many aspects of tourism and how it affects our lives. This episode, we'll look into the following aspects of technological advances as far as e-commerce, online travel agencies, and the use of Web 1.0 to Web 4.0 is concerned. The different sectors of the tourism industry now use softwares for booking, storing information, pricing, consumer monitoring among others. Hotels use software on guest preferences, monitoring, bookings, and pricing. Artificial intelligence and robots are used instead of human interaction and as an alternative to providing customer service. Attempts to use social media have been under rise too with various platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. In this episode, we will look at the technology and how it has reshaped consumer behavior using the online platform, which is now collectively known as e-Tourism. We have invited practitioners to shed light on how technology is used in tourism. We have invited UPB as tourism graduates, Maria Clarissa Clavo de las Amas, Director for Revenue Management and Marketing for Rucksacko Asia Hospitality, and also the Revenue and Marketing Consultant for several hospitality properties. We also have Sherri Ann Fayane, Senior Business Development Manager of Cloop.com, a booking platform offering quality travel and tourism products with a best-priced guarantee. I've been in the industry for 25 years, worked as a hotelier, but maybe I've spent seven of it in e-commerce companies. I've worked with Group 1 Philippines, I've worked with Agoda in 2008, I've worked with Direct Wid hotels, which is the number one provider of booking engines for hotels. I guess that's where I would be coming from. And coupled with my experience as a hotelier. Well, I'm quite lucky to be starting my career in the online industry. I started with an OTA right away after graduation as an Asian brand, which basically offers both B2C and B2B options of bookings for our consumers. And then right after asiatravel.com, I transferred to booking, which is a more international company. And then as of this day, I am with Cloop, which is basically an in-destination travel bookings platform. In terms of technology and e-commerce, I would say that Philippine will be at par with the availability of whatever technology is available in the industry. This is because most of the e-commerce companies now are multi-international multi-companies, meaning they're from abroad. But as to how frequently our market use it is, differs. But expertise and trust of the platforms is still growing. So in terms of technology, it is available as to whether we are using it, not as much as the rest of the world. So if we are to assess right now where we are here in the local marketplace in terms of use of technology and e-commerce and travel and tourism, I would say we are right where Southeast Asian market are today. At the change of all this, at the advancements of technology and ease of e-commerce, the consumer is at the center of all of this. In the tourism industry, the major advantages of using technology is seamless processes. When you have a technology in place, especially for hoteliers, where one information from the market flows directly into your process or small system of a hotel, it gives you efficiently, it gives you enough information to make the right decisions. It should help hotelier understand the market and respond to it as quickly as possible. But again, the disadvantages is that it requires a lot of investment on the end of the hotel years. So that is where one of the challenge is coming from. Another challenge is the hoteliers we have now are not as comfortable as mentioned before with using technology. And we haven't really taken the opportunity to understand the technology and its implication to our processes. We haven't had a formal sit-down with this e-commerce company to tell us what will work for us in detailed terms. Usually it's just, hi, hello, this is our platform, this is what it does. But not so much on what it can do. So hoteliers remain hesitant to fully use technology and the platforms that are available now in the industry. New Age Traveler right now basically wants three things when they go to a destination. So this is gain experience, gain value, and gain learning while they are experiencing the local culture. So in order to achieve all of these three, the common advantage that we see in using technology is that they can do all of this in the destination and in the very last minute while they are on the go. So case in point, if we are looking at booking a certain accommodation from 10 years ago, we will call a travel agency or we will call the destination itself and look for an unavailable accommodation that we can book on the preferred date of travel. It will take time for us to confirm Avis to a destination. Fast forward to five years ago, maybe now we can do our own booking of flights, our own booking of accommodations in the click of our fingers. If we are to do the same thing this year right there and here today, I will just have to get my mobile phone, I'll just have to get my smartphone. I will be able to book my flight, I will just get my credit card and I will be able to check what are the available activities that I will do in the destination. So as we can see, the consumer is very powerful. We all have these advantages from technology. Everything is at the tip of our fingers. It would, you know, given that I've worked with many online companies, this is an opportunity that we're missing out. The hoteliers are really missing out if we don't take time to understand and use them. Now looking from an industry practitioner from Cloak alone, advantages, yes, as a business entity, this is very advantage. The feedback loop is super fast. If you create a specific product for a certain market, for a certain brand, definitely you will get feedback right away from consumers. You can do A.B. testing, you can improve your product right away, you can slush us off or you can multiply it a lot more. Another advantage would be reaching out on smaller players in a destination. Let's say, for example, in the case of Batanes, where basically we have smaller players, tour operators. Internet is really intermittent. Maybe in terms of booking, it's a little bit advanced when we do in Facebook, social media. But Cloak comes in in the sense that we give the technology to suppliers to really check their bookings using a platform that is basically at the tip of their mobile phones as well. So in the past, maybe working with somebody as a supplier would entail them doing pen and paper bookings. But Cloak comes in in the sense that we give them the technology that they may work on more efficiently and sell their products on a wider, on a more global audience. But all of this also comes with disadvantages. Unfortunately, the internet has not crime-proofed itself yet as of today. So we still have cyber crimes. Basically, in Cloak, I can identify two major disadvantages that the company is facing, one of which would be fraud payments. There are instances when a customer will use another person's credit card to book a certain accommodation or a certain activity. That would be very stressful from the part of the business entity. It also affects customer experience. And eventually, since feedback is very fast as well, we get bad reviews. Another thing would be information theft, identity theft. So when the sensitive information are stolen, so it is really important as an online platform to have all these security checks in place to ensure that positive customer experience will still be valuable at the end of the day. Changes and innovations we are expecting in the near future. For example, in Japan, it says that robots are already in place, replacing customer service. We can also expect rooms that will cater based on your preferences. For example, if you're a returning guest, the hotel can store your preferences. And when you enter your room, it will be set on the temperature that you like. The lighting, I don't know how you would call it, level of lighting. So the capacity of e-commerce to store data, which will help customer service, is available already in some countries. So we are looking at this kind of technologies where although it is technology, when you say technology, it usually means less of personalization. But that concept of storing data based on your preferences is actually a personalization concept. If we look at the emerging innovations that we are expecting in the near future, again, I would go back to the statement that customer is the center of everything. So I would say motivations of travel will be a very big thing for consumers and suppliers alike to consider in the next years in the industry, one of which would be solo travel. Basically, traveling solo is not anymore a taboo right now. Anyone can go anywhere, pick off their bucket list, and just enjoy the time on their own. Another one would be the yearning of millennials, basically to engage in experiences that are sustainable. There is this call right now among every one of us to engage in more meaningful travels, experiencing the local culture, and not basically being just a tourist in a certain destination. We become locals ourselves. So this would entail suppliers to prove and offer products right there and then where this yearning will be really offered to our millennials. Another one would be on the side of Bleacher. It has been happening, I guess, in the past two years, but this will eventually continue so much as a lot of startups and internet and services companies are booming nowadays. So I myself, whenever I am in a destination for business travel, in my own time, if I can squeeze in some leisure activities, I would definitely do, or extend for two or three days just to experience the place after all the business engagements are done. The impact of this technological innovation to consumer, they will require higher efficiency. They expect more. They want to have the comfort of personalized service from people and the efficiency coming from technologies and its platforms. Other impacts may be quicker decision making of which platform to use, which product to buy, because all of this will be at the tip of their hand when they need information. They want to know something about an information or want to know something about the service of a hotel, service of a company. They can easily look for it and they can easily review it, especially now that even the, I mean, all kind of service are reviewed. And this is made possible because of technological advances that allows people to share at real time. In terms of IT solutions for tourism and travel, other than those motivations for travelers to go from one place to another, technological advancements are really soaring up high still and is expected to improve more on in the coming years. We have VR, virtual reality and augmented reality right now. It's very cheap from a supplier's perspective. Once, for example, you can already show your product to a certain or to a potential customer right there and there, just through VR. Ganwer the days when we would say that tourism as a product is something that you would experience once you are already in the destination. Somehow, technology has lessened the gap of managing the customer's expectations prior to your travel versus your travel itself on the destination. This has been made possible by technology nowadays. One more thing would be Internet of Things. You go to your airport, you go to your terminal. You don't need to bring your printed out boarding pass. You just have your smartphone. You have the QR code. You don't have to queue up the airline counter because you definitely, whenever you have the access or connection to the Internet, you can just confirm your flight time, select your seat plan, even add on your meals and flight meals in just a click of a finger. Another example of Internet of Things would be, yeah, smart hotels, small hotel room accommodations. I was in Jensen last month. I called the concierge. I wanted a cup of coffee. In just a matter of minutes, somebody knocked on my door. When I opened it, a robot was there with my coffee. So, yes, it is exciting how, at this age, these things are happening. What more can we imagine in the next 10, 15 years for travel? Maybe we can have this theme park, what do you say, a theme park, a global community wherein you are in the Philippines, but you can eventually experience what is it like, how cold it is in the Arctic, or how cold it is in Alaska, or the sunny Hawaii, something like that. So, technology has made the world a little bit smaller. And on a more positive thing, it has made travel more inclusive. So, gone were the days when traveling is a form of luxury. You dress up, you go to your airport, board your airline. Now, everyone can have the chance to experience another culture, hear another language, and taste another cuisine because traveling has been much cheaper. The advancements of having alternative payment options. So, travel is not just for those with credit cards. Now, you can have, for Philippines, we have G-Cash. You have Paymaya. You can do 7-11 payments for your flights. So, it has made traveling more inclusive. During my time, which is many years ago, we only had PMS, Property Management System, which is sometimes used only for reservation and sometimes for housekeeping. But for now, it is important that all sections of a technology is used for it to be efficient, for it to provide 100% return ROI. Each of its features had to be used. So, the emerging IT solutions is... No, I'm sorry, but for example, in my current company, we just partnered with Jubo. The Jubo is a PMS. It's a booking engine. It's a channel manager system. Reviews, rate tracker, all in one. So, it provides us the big picture. It also provides us the small picture for our operational concerns while keeping us trapped, keeping the market industry trends in track with external information that are coming from our booking engine, from our channel manager system. So, I think this is the solution that companies need to look at. The thing now is big data. That's what you call it, the information that you get from the market. And hoteliers are looking for ways on how to generate this big data on a budget to be cost efficient. You have to look for ways to have the IT solutions or IT processes that will allow you to make decisions as quickly as possible and provide a seamless service to your consumer. And if I will to say, if I were to say if e-commerce will replace traditional selling, I wouldn't use the word replace. Maybe it's more of enhance. E-commerce will enhance traditional selling. It's basically just a hybrid of both because at the end of the day, there will still be that target market that would look for a human touch in terms of experiencing, in planning, and purchasing the product. So, a while ago, my colleague said that this has been a topic since 2008 and now we are in 2018. So, yes, definitely. It's really not an issue of a new technology replacing the other, but it's really more of complementing what we have currently now. And at the end of everything, travel has become more accessible to anyone nowadays. As to whether e-commerce will replace traditional selling, they have been saying that since 2008. It's now 2019. And the travel agency personalized service remains to be a factor or an industry in tourism. So, as to that question, I don't think traditional selling will ever go out of fashion, as you would say it. But they need to, well, we need to reinvent how to do our selling so that we can utilize whatever technology is available at the moment to optimize our revenue opportunities. Thank you very much, Ms. Kherisa Delos-Ama and Ms. Sherry Anfaljarme, for enlightening us on e-tourism, its advantages and impacts to businesses. Technology and e-commerce are here to stay. With its personalization, ubiquity, instantaneity, low costs and interactivity, consumers are lured to purchase tourism products online. Companies that adapt to the trends in technology should be careful with its negative impacts. Businesses who can adapt and maximize its strengths and advantages will go a long way. Those who can't, don't and want may become irrelevant. Let us use technology as a complementary tool to maximize our travel experience.