By Ryan Falkenberg, 03 September 2024 – Originally published by IT Online.
Tourism is vital to the South African economy, accounting for 8,2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 9,2% of employment, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
By 2030, the sector’s contribution to GDP is expected to increase to 10,4%, with the number of people employed set to grow by more than 500 000.
While that kind of growth is undoubtedly impressive, South Africa is competing against an increasing number of countries trying to cement themselves as tourism destinations of choice. It is also a long-haul destination from most big tourist markets and has to counter that and fears around crime and safety.
In other words, no organisation or business within the sector can afford to throw up any roadblocks to would-be travellers. In fact, they should be doing everything in their power to ensure that any visitor’s experience is as smooth and seamless as possible. Here, technology has an important role to play.
Tech has already changed travel in many ways. Flights, hotels, rental cars, and destination experiences can be booked in seconds. Navigating a new city no longer means carrying maps and traveller guides – all the information you need is on your smartphone. Similarly, ride-sharing apps mean that you no longer have to research reputable cab companies.
There is, however, significant scope for growth. Travellers should, for instance, have helpful and contextual messages pushed to them throughout the engagement journey from their airlines, accommodation providers, and even tour group operators. At least one local airline already does this well, right down to WhatsApping you the number of the baggage carousel to pick up your luggage from as you land.
Hotels and restaurants can provide similar levels of helpful and contextual information, confirming bookings or even suggesting nearby sightseeing opportunities. The fact that these messages are automated doesn’t matter, as long as they’re helpful. They also mean that travellers don’t simply arrive at a South African destination only to never hear from any of their providers again.
As useful as those pre-emptive messages are, organisations within the travel sector should also be able to answer queries from existing and prospective travellers with the same level of helpfulness and contextually relevant answers.
Big hotel groups and airlines might be able to do so by expanding their contact centres, but even for them, that would be an incredibly costly exercise. Instead, businesses and organisations of all sizes can achieve the same level of automation they do with their pre-emptive messages by making use of virtual agents.
Virtual agents can help travellers with their queries in line with their contextual wants and needs. That ability is especially important when issues hit a lot of people at once. During the global Crowdstrike outage in July, for instance, many airlines around the globe were affected.
How useful would it have been if travellers were able to call or message their airline and instantly get an update on the situation as well as personalised suggestions for alternative travel arrangements? Or even better, have very specific queries and requests handled immediately.
That’s not something you can scale up a contact centre to deal with in a few days, never mind hours. With the right virtual agent offering, you can scale with demand instantly.
Crucially, technologies such as virtual agents aren’t “just around the corner”. They’re here today and South African businesses and organisations in the tourism sector can use them to not only gain an edge over their competitors but also to ensure that South Africa retains its place on the global tourism map and keeps growing visitor numbers.