Context and Intent: Reducing User Effort to Search and Find the Perfect Trip in the Travel Industry

People are actually more likely to make bad decisions, be less happy, or worse, exit the process completely when faced with too much choice. An unhappy guest or one that didn’t convert is an outcome that isn’t appealing to those of us selling or providing the travel service. This phenomenon is known as decision paralysis and if you have never listened to Barry Schwartz’ TED talk on The Paradox of Choice you should take a look.

Funnily enough, the traditional ‘offline’ travel agent  copes with this issue really well. They know their clients, they ask the right questions and they make bespoke suggestions based on their experience and knowledge. To  that, a traveler’s intent can change depending on their trip so it isn’t a case of each trip having the same requirements  even when the traveler is the same. Travelers are also combining business and leisure together into a single trip meaning that intent can even change across that single  trip. This is why the offline agent is some what bucking the trend against everything being online and many  travelers are returning to this channel; we even see the digital native millennium looking for a human input in their travel decisions.

Some travel technology companies such as Lola are  looking to bring that offline personal service online, connecting travelers to agents via instant-messaging where  the move online is still about a human contact. For others  however, along with many other industries, all the talk is centred on AI, big data for individual personalization,  and natural language processing. Even Lola looks to provide ts agents with AI tools behind the scenes to give them greater ability to find the perfect trip.

Siri and Ask Google are already using natural  language processing and predictive analytics to help  us with day-to-day tasks and the move to using similar tools in travel is well underway. IBM’s Watson super computer can come up with trip-planning advice using  cognitive analytics on social data (e.g. reviews) to find  out what hotel or destination will appeal to different  travelers.  Watson even grows smarter by its  elf through machine learning as it analyses more and more data.  And  Google are doing something similar with Deep Mind.

Companies like Wayblazer are using Watson to provide services to the travel industry to help the traveler make better and easier decisions and help travel companies  navigate these complex technical solutions and improve conversion. Ultimately,we will focus on every traveler as an individual and no longer as segments.  This really is the age then of true personalization. For the traveler  it will appear you have a sixth sense where you can start to anticipate what they might want and act on it  creating a story that is unique to them with relevant  choice and the right content, images and descriptions to improve conversion. 

If you are in the travel industry you are likely aware of  these AI and personalization discussions. But  irrespective of your industry, reducing decision paralysis through  simple techniques like better sort order algorithms, small  levels of content personalization, or that less choice can actually increase conversion in a world where we place heavier burdens on users by adding more and more data are the 2017's trends that you won’t be able to ignore.