Aussies spend $16.4bn each year on online travel purchases
Technology minus change equals failure. Pretty simple formula, right? Well, a lot of people get it wrong.
And that’s a dangerous place to be, according to finder.com.au Editor-in-Chief, Angus Kidman, who spoke at the Travel DAZE conference in Sydney yesterday.
“Tech minus change equals failure,” he repeated, like a mantra.
“No matter what industry you’re in, we’re rubbish at acknowledging the impact technology will have on us.”
Kidman told the audience that a lot of people tend to try and ride out the change, or make slight alterations and hope it’s good enough.
But, he insisted, it’s not good enough.
“New threats are coming all the time, and technology is always going to threaten your business,” Kidman said.
“We can’t afford to sit around and wait to see what happens.
”Travel is actually the single biggest retail sector online at the moment.”
Kidman shared stats that show Aussies spend $16.4 billion on travel products online per year.
“On top of that, 47 per cent of Australians aim to only buy travel when it’s on sale,” Kidman added.
“They’re not interested in the experience otherwise.
“That attitude and consumer vision makes it really tough to turn a profit, but that’s not the biggest threat to the travel industry.
“The biggest threat is that all our customers are really, really stupid,” he claimed, quite outrageously.
Kidman revealed that the most popular passwords in 2017 were among some of the simplest and easy to hack:
- 123456
- qwerty
- password
“They’re easy customers to market to but they can also stuff things up,” he said.
And who do you think they’re going to want in their corner when they stuff things up, Kidman asked the audience?
A travel agent.
Travel agents are still the best way to feel secure when you’re booking travel, and if the feedback at the event yesterday was anything to go by, travel agents will always have your back when things stuff up.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
Angus Kidman finder.com.au travel agent Travel DAZELatest News
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