How travel industry can benefit from Web Scraping?
The travel and hospitality industry is not as it once used to be. Not so long ago we saw travel as a luxury that only a few could experience and hospitality as some fancy word that those lucky few used. A strong global economy, increasing consumer purchasing power, and digital innovation have all incited record growth in the travel and hospitality industry.
Looking back a decade, things like Airbnb, Trip advisor, and OTAs (Online Travel Agency) weren’t really a thing. Now, it’s hard to imagine how tedious planning a trip was like back then without all these tools and to assist us.
The travel and hospitality industry has had so many amazing transformations in the past but the most notable one being its shift from a somewhat non-technical base to a significantly technical one where data plays a vital role. While initially tourism industry primarily focused on assisting in planning, providing logistics, and booking elements on a trip, innovations in technology have made it possible for consumers to make use of online travel planners to find the right service and package for their travel plans directly without ever having to contact the travel agencies.
This is a good thing! and a clear indication that the tourism industry is growing and travel services are gaining popularity. While this presents a lot of opportunities for the service sector, it also means stiff competition.
Catching up with the latest trends in the market and keeping a close eye on customer preferences, their travel history, has become more important than ever. So, how can companies working in the travel and hospitality sector go about tracking so much data from so many sources in such a dynamic industry where the needs of the customer change every second? Through one of the most popular and tested methods for gathering these data from the world-wide-web known as web scraping.
Web scraping is a process of collecting information you need from the sea of information available on the internet and putting it in front of you in a well-structured form for your perusal. It’s a fast, efficient, and accurate way to collect the required data which would otherwise take you weeks or even months to gather. From tracking offers, prices, and availability and comparing them to getting data on customer reviews and feedback for your peace of mind, web scraping services can do all that for you. It’s one of the ways you can remain relevant in the ever-evolving service industry, whatever niche you are in- be it a hotel, a travel agency, a holiday home, an airline company, or just someone who wants to rent out their home while you enjoy your vacation.
But, just like a hotel needs an experienced concierge to take care of it and its guests, scraping the internet for data relevant to you and your business needs an experienced service provider as well; service providers that has the team and the means to do the web scraping for you.
So how exactly does a web scraping service benefit your travel and hospitality business? Besides extracting a great deal of your targeted customer data for you it can help you keep track of your competitors, which we all have to agree is an integral part of any business and not just tourism. As Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese general once said “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. Perhaps not that intense, but it does help to know your competitors and how they are operating and adapt your own business accordingly. Price tracking (especially of those competitors), market analysis, customers’ travel patterns, and tracking industry trends are a few of the many benefits you will get from adopting a web scraping service.
Now more than ever the need for the travel and hospitality industry to adapt to this brutally competitive environment has emerged. The pandemic that erupted in early 2019 left the travel sector in ruins and it’s not going to be an easy recovery . Web Scraping will help you stay ahead of the curve by collecting a huge amount of data from the sources of your choice, analyze it and deliver it to you in a format that’s straightforward and convenient for you.
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