Empowering Travel Agents with Data-Driven Insights
Commercialising Travelport's data to deliver distinctive competitive advantage and new revenue streams.
The global travel platform worked with Beyond to build, test, and launch an AI driven market and consumer insights platform for travel agents.
3mths
implementation
500bn
rows of data
250+
agencies
1500+
users
Data Commercialisation at Travelport
Travelport - a leader in travel commerce with a presence in over 180 countries and connecting over 70,000 travel providers - operates at the heart of the global travel industry, facilitating transactions for flights, hotels, car hire, and experiences. In a market characterised by fierce competition and constant margin pressure, Travelport aimed to leverage its extensive data to offer travel agents a decisive competitive edge.
This ambition led to the exploration of new revenue streams and the strategic utilisation of data analytics to unlock hidden value within Travelport's diverse data sets.
Travelport embarked on an ambitious project with Beyond to create a cutting-edge, agent-facing competitive insights platform. This initiative aimed at unlocking the immense value hidden within Travelport's extensive data repositories, enabling travel agents to gain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market.
The solution, launched in an impressively short timeframe, has been widely adopted, contributing to significant revenue gains for agents and demonstrating the transformative power of data-driven insights in the travel industry.
Navigating Travelport’s challenges
In the face of intensifying competition and constant margin pressure, Travelport recognised the imperative to innovate.
The travel industry's landscape was shifting, with agencies needing more than just access to traditional travel management services; they required better market intelligence and actionable insights to navigate and thrive in an increasingly complex market.
To address this challenge, Travelport envisioned leveraging its comprehensive data, covering a broad spectrum of travel-related transactions, to empower its agents. With the strategic goal of unlocking new revenue streams and enhancing service offerings, Travelport partnered with Beyond.
Together, we set out to design and implement a data-driven solution that would arm Travelport's agents with unparalleled market insights, fuelling growth and competitive advantage.
Solution Design
The partnership between Travelport and Beyond marked the beginning of an intensive strategy and solution design phase.
In the strategy phase comprehensive market research and direct engagement with travel agencies were pivotal. These efforts were aimed at understanding the nuanced challenges and strategic goals within the competitive landscape of the travel industry.
The project's ambition was not just to analyse the existing 150 billion rows of search data from 70,000 travel agencies and 1.6 billion rows of industry booking data but to synthesise this information into a coherent, intuitive, and actionable dashboard.
This solution was to be delivered as a managed service, providing Travelport's agents with real-time insights into market movements, performance metrics, and trends specific to their operations.
The Travel Agency Proposition
“We chose Beyond because their solution could handle our huge, complex data sets, it would meet the needs of our travel agency clients and their approach would get us to market fast.”
Guido Verweij
Senior Director, Global Business Development and Commercial Strategy, Travelport
Solution Development
The implementation was a complex, multi-faceted process, beginning with the meticulous gathering and organisation of vast datasets from Travelport's global operations. This initial phase involved sorting through 150 billion rows of search data from 70,000 travel agencies and 1.6 billion rows of booking data, to distil key insights into market trends and consumer behaviour.
Using our hackathon approach to compress the timeframes, a comprehensive set of measures was developed to enable personalised benchmarks for each travel agency, ensuring that the insights provided were not only relevant but actionable.
To manage and process this amount of data efficiently, the solution was developed in the cloud, leveraging the AWS technology set. This cloud-based approach facilitated the agile development and deployment of the dashboard, allowing the team to move from concept to launch within an impressively tight timeframe of just three months.
The use of AWS ensured that the dashboard could handle the dynamic and continuously growing datasets, providing travel agencies with up-to-date insights and benchmarks tailored to their specific needs and market positioning.
Hackathons were used to compress timeframes in the solution design phase
Using Market Data and Machine Learning we could uncover who the traveller is…
And provide Traveller Personas that drive greater personalisation…
Implementation and Testing
The initial version of Travelport's dashboard was developed and deployed within an ambitious three-month timeframe, targeting a swift launch to a select group of travel agencies.
This rapid development cycle was strategic, aiming to test the platform's design, evaluate the onboarding process for clients, and assess the usability of the data visualisations.
The quick rollout of version 1 allowed for immediate feedback from early users, which was crucial for refining the dashboard's features and enhancing its overall effectiveness.
This approach ensured that the solution not only met the immediate needs of travel agencies but was also poised for continuous improvement based on real-world use and user insights.
“Whenever there’s a problem, the team meets or exceeds those challenges.“
Head of Data Products, Travelport
Key Features
Travel businesses access and investigate their markets using our Quick&Easy™ platform
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Set up time – 24 hours
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Training required – 0 hours
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Automated peer groups
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Multi-view for each business unit
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Power filtering and root cause analysis
Machine Learning/AI Outputs Made Available to Agents
Key Features
Machine learning algorithms are trained to optimise demand generation activity for each agent
1. Identify destination to market
2. Select travel period
3. Optimise message timing and price based on market wide intelligence
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Travel Agency Impact
Resecentrum Gruppen (RCG), a premier Scandinavian travel agency has leveraged Travelport Competitive Insights (TCI) to significantly enhance its marketing strategies and, consequently, its revenue.
By using TCI's in-depth market data, RCG has been able to identify trending routes and destinations, tailoring their marketing campaigns to align with traveller interests and demands. This targeted approach has led to a noteworthy 15% revenue growth, as highlighted by CEO Per Mohseni, who attributes this success to the valuable insights provided by TCI.
Furthermore, TCI has empowered RCG in supplier negotiations, offering a detailed view of the agency's sales share per airline, which was previously unattainable. This newfound clarity has not only strengthened RCG's negotiating stance but has also ensured more advantageous deals for the company and its clientele.
3
months
implementation
500bn
rows of data
250+
agencies
1500+
users
“The best product Travelport have developed.”
MEA Sales Lead, Dubai
Lessons Learned
Interested in becoming a data driven organisation like Travelport?
Let's discuss how our tailored solutions can empower your decisions and drive your success. Contact us today to explore the possibilities.
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Why Choose Beyond?
Expertise
Our team of seasoned consultants has decades of combined experience in data strategy and consulting. We bring deep industry knowledge and hands on experience to every engagement.
Customised Solutions
We provide tailored solutions that fit with where you are on your data journey to address your unique data needs and challenges, ensuring a perfect fit for your organisation.
Value-Driven Approach
Our focus is on delivering real value through our services. We work to identify opportunities for cost savings, revenue generation, and process improvements.
End-to-End Support
We are with you every step of the way, from initial assessment to implementation and beyond. We are committed to your success.
Examples Of Our Work
