Travel and Hospitality Executive Conversations: A look back at 2020, a look ahead

This is typically a time to reflect back on the year that was. That is particularly true this year, and especially for the travel and hospitality industry. As much as any industry (if not more so), global travel and hospitality organizations have been deeply impacted by the effects of the current global pandemic. Subsequent restrictions have severely limited guests’ ability to travel to, stay, eat or experience what they want, when they want. As a result, many of these organizations have been forced to rethink how they conduct business during this unprecedented time.

This year to help put things in perspective we have the benefit of re-reading the AWS Travel and Hospitality blog series, Executive Conversations, which featured insights from some of the most influential leaders in the industry. Looking back on these conversations — many with CEOs — provides not only important lessons from the year that was, but also insights and optimism for the year ahead.

In a year marked by the impacts of COVID-19, travel and hospitality organizations have shown resiliency by discovering new ways to incorporate technological solutions while staying relentlessly focused on their customers. Below, are excerpts from our Executive Conversations series in which over a dozen travel and hospitality leaders describe how technology is making their organizations more resilient. In these discussions, industry leaders discuss how they have been guiding their respective organizations through this challenging time, and provide details on what they have done to adjust to new ways of doing business as they cater to changing guest requirements. You can read each executive’s responses on the AWS Travel and Hospitality blog but in aggregate, several common themes and insights emerged from these incredible thought-leaders.

GETTING TRAVELERS WHERE THEY NEED TO GO

Bonny Simi, President, JetBlue Ventures

Finding new ways to accommodate changing flyer needs has been a challenge for companies focused on air travel, such as JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV), the capital venture arm of JetBlue Airways. JTV’s focus is on invest in and partner with early stage technology startups improving the future of travel, transportation, and hospitality. As Bonny Simi, President of JTV, said, “We have been placing a placing a greater emphasis on contactless technology solutions, we’ve continued to maintain our focus on sustainable travel.” As a result, Simi continued, JTV is always looking, “to find the latest and greatest technology to ensure the airline’s success.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), is a global interest that works with governments around the world to ensure safe and sustainable air and freight travel. IATA Director General and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, spoke about how innovative AWS solutions have enable airlines to maintain consistent high availability in a rapidly changing world.

“Our world was turned upside down almost overnight as countries went their own way in dealing with COVID-19,” de Juniac said. “For example, all sorts of red tape and regulations sprang up around moving crews and aircraft around the world. Getting governments to react rapidly and flexibly to the situation became imperative so that our member airlines could conduct repatriation flights, or bring vitally needed PPE into countries that had locked their borders or closed their airports, or were requiring extended quarantines for flight crews that would make it impossible for them to operate the return flight.”

“Even more impressive,” he continued, “all this was accomplished during a period when virtually our entire organization was working remotely – and we have people in over 50 countries! So that’s a credit to our great team, but also the excellent support from AWS in terms of our cloud connectivity. The other thing is how important our website [also hosted by AWS] became in terms of sharing critical information with our members other parts of the value chain, as we had to dispense with in-person meetings.”

RESTAURANTS AND ONLINE SERVICES ARE KEEPING FOOD ON THE TABLE

Lisa Ingram, CEO, White Castle

Around the world, those working in the food services industry have been particularly hard hit by COVID-19. This has caused some to close their kitchens and bars permanently, though many others have persevered.

White Castle CEO, Lisa Ingram, spoke about their focus on optimizing the customer experience continue even during challenging times. “We’ve focused on our mobile app and a brand-new customer loyalty program we call “Craver Nation,”” she said.

“I believe that the trends around customization and personalization will continue in our industry and in many other industries. If you think about food, healthcare, education, shopping, or even nonprofit work, those that will be successful will be the ones who figure out how to make each interaction memorable and personal for each individual consumer, client, or patient. That is what we are focused on with our technology focus and our continued memorable moment focus.”

Savneet Singh, President and CEO of Partech (PAR), a company which creates customizable restaurant point of sale systems, explained how his organization how technology is crucial during this time. “Everything we do aligns to using technology to get out of the way. We like to think that in hospitality, it should be food, people, and nothing in between. We look at COVID as having just accelerated that. I can’t imagine there’s a restaurant organization today where technology is not at the forefront. If it’s not priority number one, then its priority number two.”

Debby Soo, CEO of OpenTable, also spoke of the need for her organization to rally to help the industry at this time. “Recognizing the struggle for the restaurant industry is far from over, we recently extended our Open Door Pricing through March 2021 which waives our subscription and cover fees to help restaurants reopen,” she said.

“We moved extremely quickly to adjust to the current operating environment in support of our partners,” Soo continued. “Our product team also moved

quickly – launching eight products and even more resources in just six months in direct response to COVID-19 – to create a quick and easy way for restaurants to efficiently track their costs and revenue.”

STREAMLINING THE PROCESS OF BOOKING TRAVEL

Online travel services have long been appreciated for their convenience, although the importance of booking travel arrangements remotely has never been more crucial than now. Online travel services working with AWS have been adapt to these changing needs rapidly.

Axel Hefer, Managing Director and CEO of Trivago, spelled out how an agile approach to enhancing the customer experience has benefitted trivago in these challenging times. “Technology is central to our identity and we are leveraging this to continually adapt our product for what the traveler of tomorrow will look for,” he said. “Technology and data are the only means by which we can identify these new traveler trends and make the right adjustment to the product.”

He also detailed specific steps they have taken, explaining, “We had to stop all global marketing activity to preserve cash and not promote traveling when it would not be right to travel. Second, we had to protect our employees and moved to a fully remote setup – as a company that is basically run globally out of one office, heavily relying on unstructured, informal communication a huge challenge. Thirdly, we had to adjust our focus and organizational setup to prepare for the new normal in travel.”

The result, he said, is that, “By end of April, we had completed our new organizational structure and shifted our focus on more local travel. We are now seeing the crisis as a catalyst to constantly reassess how we adapt and go to market with our product, what will be the new needs of the customer and the new normal of travel for a period of time.”

As Marco Corradino, CEO of lm Group, has realized the benefits on added flexibility  AWS has enabled for his company. “We are migrating a piece of our platform, which was previously in an “on-premise” solution, to AWS,” Corradino said.” Before that infrastructure was a fixed cost, now it is in an elastic environment where we only pay for what we use. In a time when things need to be more flexible, these are the kind of decisions we’re looking at as a business.”

Along these lines, Corradino envisions an expansion of his organization’s AWS environment. “Working with AWS on operational efficiency is at the heart of supporting this adaption to a new way of working,” he said. “We have to ensure our digital properties are built to help our customers with their newfound needs. This might involve different segments of the market. Our dynamic packaging can throw up millions of holiday permutations in minutes … So tech will now support the customer in finding the best solution, which currently is the flexibility of booking and potentially rebooking.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by, Jim Davidson Chief Product Officer of Accelya, which serves more than 25 of the world’s major airlines and supports over 300 technical partners globally. His company has been forced to find new ways to overcome challenges that stem from COVID-19. “Our biggest challenges are plummeting revenues, pressure on cash, and prolonged uncertainty,” he said.” Almost overnight, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc with the global airline business, and the financial pain for airlines cannot be overstated, but our solutions can help airlines drive cost savings and operational efficiencies has stood us in good stead during these difficult times.”

This has led to an increased focused on modernization. “I believe that digital transformation is the future of all traditional industries, including the airlines,” Davidson said. “Technology allows companies to replace legacy processes that no longer make sense, drive costs from the business, and boost efficiency. For example, technology can enable travelers to self-service their itineraries online, regardless of where the tickets were initially purchased.”

It has also enabled them to generate new ways of creating revenue and increased flexibility, because, as Davidson said, “Technology will enable airlines to better adjust to the “new normal” and take advantage of new opportunities.”

EASING TRAVELER CONERNS OVER WHERE TO STAY

In the end, the majority of those still travelling still need to find a place to stay when the reach their destination. As a result, many hotels and lodging organizations have adapted to meet changing needs.

Chris Nasetta, President and CEO of Hilton, details how their hotels have prioritized optimizing the guest experiences. “In the years leading up to this crisis, we invested in our award-winning Hilton Honors app and Digital Key, which enable guests to check in, select their room, and open their door all with the app,” he said. “This has been incredibly helpful as we adjusted to our new reality – we already had the infrastructure in place to support contactless experiences and our guests were familiar with using it.”

He also explained how Hilton’s ongoing commitment to innovation through technology for all parties involved, saying,” Going forward, we’ll continue investing in this technology and other innovations designed to support the experiences our guests are looking for – while enabling our Team Members to focus on what they do best: delivering exceptional hospitality.”

Arne Sorenson, President and CEO of Marriott International, stated his company’s commitment to both guest and team member health and safety. He explained, “The team has put in place a Commitment to Cleanliness program designed to meet head-on the many health and safety challenges presented by COVID-19. As part of that program, we rolled out the Marriott Global Cleanliness Council, which consists of experts in food and water safety, hygiene and infection prevention, and hotel operations.”

Arne Sorenson, CEO, Marriott International

Innovative solutions have helped accelerate this increased focus on health and safety. “We are using technology extensively during this period on everything from supporting data-driven marketing to deploying new technology like electrostatic sprayers to enhance the cleaning of our hotels,” Sorenson said. “I think the sweet spot right now is when technology can be used to help customers more easily navigate traveling during a pandemic.”

The CEO of Choice Hotels International, Pat Pacious echoed these sentiments around cleanliness and contactless being increasingly important to guests. “One example of how we’re using technology to aid in the recovery is by altering the hotel arrival experience, which will have a positive impact for everyone,” he said. Guests can use an Amazon Fire tablet to view and confirm the details of their stay, meaning no one will have to share a pen or pass a paper back and forth. We’re piloting this system right now. Another example, at our upscale Cambria Hotels brand, guests can limit their interactions with hotel staff by using the Cambria Contactless Concierge Service, a text messaging service for housekeeping requests, to-go food orders, meeting room requests, and more.”

SUSTAINING TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY BUSINESS GROWTH THROUGH INNOVATION

As detailed above, these travel and hospitality industry leaders have confronted the challenges presented by the global pandemic by developing innovative new solutions. Some solutions are brand new as a response to COVID-19, while some are from projects started years ago that have found a new relevance – and many are built on AWS. Each organization’s ability to quickly adjust to the evolving needs of guests has been enabled by increasing flexibility and personalization, while prioritizing the health and safety of all concerned parties. And while born out of a very specific and dramatic disruption, these innovations will impact and improve the way we fly, stay, eat and experience our world in the years to come.

It was inspiring to reflect back on the contributions to the AWS Executive Conversations series and we are grateful for all who have contributed. We invite everyone to read each response in more detail. While we can’t predict the future, we do know AWS, along with our partners, will be there to help customers build for what’s next in the new year and beyond.

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