"Digitization is not just about aesthetic changes," a roundtable with Destinia, Viajes Carrefour, Bahía Príncipe, Carlson Rezidor, The Cocktail, and InterMundial

Digital strategy leaders from Destinia, Viajes Carrefour, Bahía Príncipe, The Cocktail, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, and InterMundial participated in the "Successful Digital Strategies in Tourism" roundtable at FITUR.

The InterMundial Group stand at FITUR (stand 10E04) hosted the "Successful Digital Strategies in Tourism" roundtable this afternoon. The panel featured digital strategy leaders from Viajes Carrefour, Bahía Príncipe, The Cocktail, and Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, and was co-organized by Grupo InterMundial, Destinia, and The Cocktail.

"We live in a hyper-connected and hyper-digitized world, and tourism has been and must continue to be a champion of technological innovation," said Manuel López, CEO of InterMundial Group. "The digital department has become the most important part of any company."

The roundtable was moderated by Ricardo Fernández (Destinia) and featured: José Ignacio Albaladejo, Strategy Director at The Cocktail; José Rivera, Director of Viajes Carrefour; Juan Campins Crespi, Corporate E-commerce & Direct Sales Director at Bahía Príncipe (Grupo Piñero); Raúl Alvarez, Director of E-commerce & Mobile Product Development at Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group; and Manuel López, CEO of InterMundial Group.

"Digitization is not about making aesthetic changes, but about transforming your value proposition so that it is adapted to the experience the customer expects to have with you," began José Rivera, General Manager of Viajes Carrefour. "We must be able to look the customer in the eye and respond to what they are asking of us."

"The customer experience must be relevant," continued Raúl Álvarez, Director of E-commerce & Mobile Product Development at Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. "In addition to analyzing the 2% of users who convert, we must analyze the other 98% who abandon the purchase process."

All the speakers highlighted the central role the customer has assumed in recent years and the importance of measuring everything: both successes and failures. Furthermore, they all agreed on the importance of having an internal team to optimize digitization processes.

"Customer service must be multiplied by 100% in these times," commented José Ignacio Albaladejo, Strategy Director at The Cocktail. "We have to put the customer at the center of everything," noted Juan Campins Crespi, Corporate E-commerce & Direct Sales Director at Bahía Príncipe (Grupo Piñero).

Intermediation and the sharing economy

The highlight of the debate came when discussing intermediation. "The distribution paradigm is changing," noted Rivera. "We can talk about co-ownership, since even in what we consider direct sales via the Internet, there is some form of intermediation."

"The difference between being intermediated or not is the knowledge we have of the customer and the profitability we derive from them," pointed out Albaladejo.

Sharing economy business models, such as Airbnb, were also discussed. "We must pay attention to the sharing economy and see what we can learn to adapt it to our business model," noted Campins Crespi. "The best thing about these companies is their immediacy of response."

For his part, Manuel López, CEO of InterMundial, pointed out that "we are all intermediaries, even the sharing economy platforms."

InterMundial, official risk advisor for FITUR

InterMundial, a broker specializing in travel insurance, provides assistance insurance to exhibitors and visitors at FITUR 2016. In collaboration with Arag, InterMundial serves as the official risk advisor for the fair.