New technology responds to rising demand for customized travel plans

New technology responds to rising demand for customized travel plans

2023-07-30

Tourism is changing. The end of the pandemic has accelerated trends for personalized, unique travel experiences. The one-size-fits-all tours of the past are fast losing favor with the younger generation. But for travel agencies, organizing a personalized tour is a big ask. That means rising demand for digital tools to facilitate the complex, unique plans travelers want. Today we meet one tech company which heard the call, creating a digital program to streamline customized tour bookings.

Since global borders reopened, international travel is booming – and so is demand for private experiences at destinations and connection with local culture. Now a tech company has developed a system for that niche, enabling travel agents to easily take highly personalized bookings.

Yang Ching-tang
Travel technology industry
Compared to the big tour groups of the past, customized travel certainly is better at meeting each traveler’s image of their trip, or their hopes and expectations. So we want to provide digital tools and digital solutions for travel companies, so they have a chance to align with the market here.

Entering the system, you open a new request, and search for itinerary options. At the end, a cost estimate is produced, and before long, a customized booking is complete.

Chang Ya-lin
Software engineer
Having to make bookings at many hotels and destinations and things like that actually really adds to the workload of the tour operators. Using this system, it can produce a booking form automatically, very fast, after you’ve created an itinerary.

Traditionally, part of a travel agent’s job is to manually complete booking forms, and phone up each business on the itinerary to confirm costs and details. But at least half of that work is skipped with this system, with imports elements from a database. It can take a half or just a third of the time to complete.

Lien Pei-ling
Travel agency
Copying it down manually can take five or 10 minutes or even more. But the system produces it with one click in two or three seconds.

Yang Ching-tang
Travel technology industry
We can create more junctures for change in the market. Another thing is, from now on for the traveler every journey can be meaningful, because they took part in designing the itinerary.

The pandemic has accelerated digitalization of the travel industry. Formulaic tours are no longer good enough for the generation that has a smartphone at its fingertips 24/7. The age of personalized travel is here.

看準客製化旅遊商機旅遊業推科技訂單系統

2023-07-30

疫後報復性旅遊持續發燒，經過幾年空窗期後，今年旅遊也出現新趨勢，旅客聚焦深度旅遊和客製化旅行，數位應用成了業界最大痛點，有科技公司看準需求和商機，開發系統讓旅行社能快速完成客製化訂單，比起傳統流程，人力不但能減少一半，時間也縮短2到3倍。

隨著各國邊境解封，海外旅遊大爆發，同時也出現新趨勢，旅遊不再只是走馬看花，旅客開始追求私房景點和在地體驗，看準這個商機，有科技公司開發系統，讓業者輕鬆完成客製化訂單。

[[旅遊科技業者楊景棠]]
“比起以前的傳統大團，的確客製化是比較能夠滿足每一個旅客對於，旅行的想像或者是說期望，所以我們希望可以提供數位的工具數位的方法，數位的解法給旅行同業，讓他們有機會可以跟市場這邊來做接軌。

點開系統，建立需求單，接著搜尋行程，最後進行成本估算，快速生成客製化訂單。

[[軟體工程師張雅琳]
“需要訂購大量的飯店、景點，這些東西其實是增加操團人員的工作量，利用這套系統，它可以非常快速的在你建完這個行程之後，它就自動產生了預訂單。”

人工輸入訂單，再打電話一一向供應商確認細節和價格，這是傳統的作業流程的一部份，透過系統導入元件資料庫，至少可以節省一半的人力，時間也能縮短2到3倍。

[[旅行社財務長連珮伶]]
“1個人工繕打的時間，可能需要花掉5分鐘，甚至是10分鐘以上，但系統一鍵下去，其實2秒鐘3秒鐘就產出了。”

[[旅遊科技業者楊景棠]]
“可以讓市場有更多的契機去做轉變，再來就是說，對於旅客來講，我每一趟流程每一趟旅程，從此它都有意義，因為流程是我參與設計的。”

疫情加速數位化，人手一機的世代，套裝行程再也無法滿足旅客，數位轉型也成了未來趨勢。

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This is Kim Yang, a Taiwanese-Australian indie folk singer-songwriter. Many of her songs are about human vulnerability and strength. The song "Brave" hopes to inspire people to say "no" and not be afraid to set healthy boundaries.

Kim Yang
Singer-songwriter
"Brave" is a song that I wrote after I had a mental meltdown. As an emerging artist, I had to say yes to a lot of things, a lot of jobs even though I did not want to do them at all. I guess I just tried so hard to get my name out there. I wrote this song after a mental meltdown, and I realized that I really need to be brave enough to say "no," to look after myself. I hope that people can do that too, especially for young women in any industry, really.

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Kim Yang
Singer-songwriter
To be honest, my parents were kind of reserved about me doing music full-time. At the time, when I told them about doing music full-time, they were really shocked. They were like, "How are you going to feed yourself? Do you have enough money?" I love Taiwan and I love my parents. Sometimes there are a bit of cultural differences. I probably learned a lot from Australia as well. This song "Fantasy" is really about me fantasizing about a bit more love and validation from my parents for me to be a musician.

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Kim Yang
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When I was in my late 20s, I had some regret I guess because I used to be on a TV show back in Taiwan here. It is called "Super Idol 3." I almost got a contract but I didn’t accept the recording contract. There was always "what ifs" in my life. What if tried? What if I give it a go? I did give it a go in my late 20s. Now, I have been performing since 2017. I got my own band, my own shows, sellout shows, and played in music festivals in Australia as well.

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Kim Yang
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A little young girl she saw me on the TV show and she wrote me an email. I knew she was really sick. She had chemotherapy. Her mom wrote an email for her saying "Hey, my daughter really loved your music. Can you keep doing more music?" At that time, I gave up music after the TV show because I think I was only 19 or 20 because I got sad being criticized because once you get your name out there, there is always different noise. I was frustrated with the music. I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t respond until three years later, but that email address became disconnected. I never knew how she is, whether she was still there or not and whether she recovered from chemotherapy. I also wrote a song to thank her.

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a dentist scans the patient’s mouth with a tiny camera. In real time, a 3D model appears on the computer screen. These days, a set of dentures can be made in one day. Dentists work with dental technicians to immediately 3D print the new dentures in the clinic.

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Voice of Hsieh Yi-hsun
CAD/CAM engineer
The teeth which are cut for us by the machine are about 80% finished. Then they need to be worked on in post by the technician.

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Some older people may be infirm, and it’s inconvenient for them to come into the clinic. We can now complete the dentures for them in one day. Traditionally, for example, there might be issues with the fitting and we would have to send the dentures back to the technicians.

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