Its Scientists Are Mining the Big Data Lodes: Orlando-based Tourico Holidays announced on May 25 that it has formed an elite team of computer scientists at its technical and research company, Travel Global Systems (TGS), that is dedicated exclusively to a new data mining effort which is intended to identify the origin and cause of shifts in travel booking behavior, and provide insights that enable distributors to optimize their marketing and sales. The data mining initiative will examine over 200 million travel searches generated daily by Tourico—and cross-reference it with travel market data available from nSight and other sources for a comprehensive analysis of industry trends.
“Our system sees billions of searches each week—providing massive piles of data on all different types of travel offerings –from air and hotel, to cruises and vacation homes,” said Einat Aviv, the data mining team leader for TGS who has undergraduate and graduate degrees in statistics and methodology and statistics, respectively, from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “By combining this intelligence with the data that’s currently available in the travel ecosystem, we’re able to capture a 360-degree-view of the industry—and gain a much better understanding of supplier trends and client demand. To our knowledge, this type of effort has been unprecedented in our sector of travel.”
How it Will Work: Tourico won’t be selling the big data or any of its 50 or so business intelligence modules. Rather, a company spokesman told the Inbound Report, the new data mining program will ultimately allow Tourico to customize its travel solutions for clients and partners, helping them build individual product offers based on regional travel trends, booking behaviors, and customer profiles. “By tailoring its offerings –including hotel, air, car rental, attractions, and more—Tourico’s partners and agents can improve conversion rates and significantly enhance bottom-line revenues,” the spokesman said.
For example, he explained, “Our top clients in China increased searches to Phuket, Bangkok and Singapore X 1,000 year-over-year since 2015. Tourico’s data mining team is working to better understand the exact preferences of those top clients and create a ‘target list’ to fit their needs. Combining Tourico’s proprietary data with external travel data will help the wholesaler tailor its offerings to these Chinese clients—and help them increase their bookings. Also, as the business intelligence modules predict a growing demand in certain Chinese cities, Tourico will work to increase their supplier contracts there, to meet the demand and further increase bookings. “
The data mining initiative also provides Tourico with better insight into “the global travel ecosystem,” allowing the operator to better predict upcoming changes and which suppliers they should contract.
The Tourico database processes over 200 million searches per day and the new data mining team is combining their proprietary information with external travel sources. The company says that it “is the first and only company in the space to utilize big data to steer the business.”
“This new initiative is huge for our business – and our industry,” said Aviv, who is leading a team of 10 scientists in the data mining project., adding, “this is the beginning of a new chapter in travel intelligence – and the first page turns today.”
