Travel Industry CMOs: 3 ACTION items to embrace the changing markets.

As a CMO in online travel industry, you may be wondering how you can embrace quick-changing trends in the digital and mobile era in order to stand out in this competitive industry. As a graduate student of digital marketing at Medill IMC, Northwestern University, I have found two articles that providing some useful insight into the trends in the travel technology and some marketing strategies.

In 9 Things That Matter in Travel Technology in 2016, Jessica Labaire talks about the future of travel technology. The evolution of personalization and use of data continues. Virtual reality and artificial intelligence is gaining steam. Desktop as a priority is so yesterday. Connected, end-to-end travel experiences still need some work. Users want to be known, recognized and assisted now more than ever, and travel companies must pay closer attention to customer preferences.

The other article, Increasing Traveler Engagement One Game at a Time, written by Noah Tratt (Global Senior VP of Expedia), talks about how to combine gamification with tech travel markets. Gamification represents the fusion of trends in tech travel markets. All different kinds of people at various life stages are engaging with gamification. Games have become a key way to raise awareness with new audiences and bring back repeat customers.

As a graduate student of digital marketing at Medill IMC, here are three steps that CMOs in online travel industry should take to embrace the quick-changing trends:

• Move quickly - Follow the update trends of the whole industry, such as gamification, mobile, loT, AI and any aspect that customers concern.
•  Embrace big data ---- Improve the use of data mining and making travelers’ end-to-end experience more integrated.
• Think customers----- Always consider customers’ need, offer good personalization and engage with more customers by gamification.

So next time, when you think about how to react rapidly in the moving digital travel industry, think about these insights and you will do very well.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Bingche Huang is a master candidate in the Integrated Marketing Communication program at Medill School of Journalism in Northwestern University, specializing in the marketing analytics and digital marketing. She would like to pursue her career as a marketing analyst in the travel, financial or Internet industries. You can connect with her on Linkedin or follow her on Twitter.