| | 8 TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY TECH OUTLOOKJULY - AUGUST 2022THE 4 THEMES DRIVING TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLDBy Vineeth Purushothaman, Regional Director, Commercial Planning & Distribution EMEA, Wyndham Hotels & ResortsThe Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted and, in many cases, accelerated evolving trends. Once past the initial shocks, we have seen in a resilience in our industry that has surprised many. And adapting with agility to pre-existing needs as well as new demands have been key to this.With consumer behaviour and business imperatives being key drivers for technology deployment and adoption, here are four themes that heavily influence a hotel's commercial success - and thereby also the evolution of technology to support it.1 - Need for Actionable IntelligenceAs an industry, we have never been short of data, but actionable information and utilisation across organisations at all levels have been limited. The shocks of the pandemic and its after-effects accelerated the need for quicker and more impactful decisions ­ and for use of data to be democratized and more accessible.IN MYOPINIONVineeth PurushothamanAt Wyndham, we had implemented a structure that drives a holistic omni-channel approach to maximise commercial impact. And within this structure, a dedicated commercial planning team unifies and helps accelerate the efforts of the sales, marketing, revenue and distribution teams. This allowed us to introduce a range of tools that not only provided this intelligence but also to help drive adoption at all levels. We used Tableau to develop targeted reporting to identify opportunities within specific hotels and regions. A strategic partnership with OTA Insight for their BI tool allowed both central teams and property level teams to have more granular insights on booking patterns, lead times and source markets. Although initially almost all travel was domestic leisure, we have
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