[ad_1]
In October 2020, Robin Lawther assumed the role of managing Expedia’s Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP). He worked at Expedia for eight years, always on the B2B side, but as the pandemic raged on, Lowther recalled that it was “a disaster” for the company and the travel industry as a whole.
Despite the instability at the time, Mr. Lowther, now vice president of Expedia TAAP, still saw promise in Expedia’s business unit serving travel advisors.
“We’ve always looked at this business and thought, ‘Actually, this business should be bigger,'” Lowther said. “We’ve always thought this had a lot of potential, but up until that point we hadn’t made the necessary investments in a truly worthwhile business.”
Now, Expedia (No. 2 on Travel Weekly’s 2023 Power List) is looking to change that. Over the past year, Lowther said the company has increased its investment in TAAP, both in staff and technology. He called this year the technology’s “founding year,” with many features expected to be released in 2024.
Expedia Group’s overall B2B business has continued to grow in recent years. This segment primarily consists of Expedia Partner Solutions and TAAP is included under it.
Expedia CEO Peter Kahn said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call in November that B2B revenue for the quarter was up 26% from a year earlier.
“Whether in core technology, AI and machine learning applications, or services, we are driven by the benefits that improvements to our platform bring to B2B businesses, as well as our continued focus on our target markets, and we are confident that B2B will continue to grow in the future. We look forward to continued enhancements, “and payments,” Khan said.
Currently, TAAP’s booking platform for advisors is similar to what consumers see on Expedia.com, Lowther said.
“It’s been great so far, but it’s reaching its limits,” he said. “Advisors are similar to consumers in the way they shop. [on the site], but it’s also different. We have to realize that we need to build more on top of that. ”
This includes a new user interface and new payment features that will be rolled out this year. Lowther said TAAP is also examining the consumer booking experience to consider what features and functionality could benefit advisors.
That could also include generative AI. Expedia has been an early adopter of this technology, which allows you to create content such as text and images. For example, Expedia’s ChatGPT integration helps users plan their travel itineraries by asking questions in natural language.
But is generative AI right for travel advisors in the context of TAAP?
“We’re still on the fence about TAAP and figuring out exactly where we want to go,” Lowther said. “Obviously there’s a question of how that relates to the role of an advisor. A lot of times clients come to them for that, and that’s often where their expertise lies.”
However, Lawson said TAAP is investigating the role of generative AI as a complementary tool that could be useful.
TAAP is used by more than 35,000 travel agents and 100,000 advisors in approximately 30 markets. Lowther said 2023 was “phenomenal” in terms of growth, especially in the United States.
Mr Lowther said its users ranged from leisure institutions to corporate agencies, and the range of agents was “attractive”. Some high-end clients spend more than $40,000 per booking. Some focus on niche corporate travel, such as media or sports.
Especially in the US, many of TAAP’s users are advisors who have just joined the industry in the past five years.
TAAP focuses on consumer demand for travel advisors. Lowther pointed to recent ASTA research showing that more consumers are looking to use agents to plan their trips.
And TAAP continues to invest in serving its communities.
“We know this is a very important part of the travel community and the past few years have shown that it has been incredibly resilient and we are starting to see even more demand. “We’re working hard,” Lowther said. “This is just part of the business and we will continue to support and focus more and more on it.”
[ad_2]
Source link
