The Long Tail of Travel
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Loading ...As a technologist with a focus on tourism and travel technologies I have had the opportunity to work with SME tour operators for some time. For most savvy operators, the opportunity to use new technologies to increase their exposure and bookings is ever present. For some, however, the perceived reality of implementing such a solution is simply too remote, too expensive, and too complex. In actuality there is an ever growing list of systems that can be used for this purpose.
There is a huge opportunity to move these disparate providers onto the Internet. The challenge is that many of them are not yet mentally ready to take the leap. For many it is outside their area of expertise and the perceived cost of making such a leap is too high for them to risk. The reality is that the costs are very small when compared to traditional marketing and sales initiatives. The difficulty is that there is a lack of knowledge amongst most tour operators. We experienced this in the last six months as we targeted sme tour operators in our region. The concept of using a new technology to distribute their product was enticing, but the unknowns were simple to numerous for them to make a commitment.
So how do we reach the long tail? My feeling is that it is going to take a combination of increasing exposure to these new technologies and a systematic focus on educating sme operators about systems and benefits of these tools. Thanks in part to new hardware, infrastructure, and greater capacity, we don’t have to worry about educating users on the benefits of the Internet and we can focus strictly on the benefits of specific applications and tools. It will undoubtedly take a longer time to convert the long tail then we first anticipated, but at the very least, the leading edge of the tail will steadily grow as more and more of the sme operators become more sophisticated.
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