Big data: the next big thing

Mohammed Zafran The use of Big Data is the latest, most transformative development in the travel and tourism industry, according to experts Technology is changing the way people travel and how travel agents market destinations and services to travellers, said Tini Sevak Vice President for Audiences and Data at CNN International.

She was speaking at the event titled ‘UNWTO Tourism Tech Adventures: Big Data Solutions in Tourism’ yesterday. The event held at the Art Rotana Hotel in Amwaj Islands was organised by the World Tourism Organisation in collaboration with the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority.

In her talk, she encouraged travel agents and hoteliers to adapt to the changing market and incorporate the latest technologies such as big data, virtual reality (VR) and the Internet of Things (IOT).

According to her, big data alone has a huge potential to change the way the tourism sector works. “Big Data is a label for capturing, collecting, storing and visualizing of information. The volume and speed at which technology has grown means that we need to make use of technology to make sense of it,” she said adding that today with the use of big data “we have the ability to understand the entire thought process of the travellers, the decisions that they make, how they make them etc.”

Elaborating on the latest trends in the sector she said, “One of the trends now is that people want to travel exotic places, what we never considered as destinations 20 years ago are now attractive options.” “The second trend is that people always want to share their experience when they travel with the use of social media, they want to go to the places which make the best photos so that they can post it on social media. In other words, they want to go to the most ‘Instagram worthy’ places.