The travel industry suffered a huge setback due to the pandemic-induced lockdown in the last two years. But things started to look up with the resumption of international travel and 2022 might just compensate for all the travel loss the industry had to face. As per research by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to the Indian economy could go beyond the pre-pandemic levels in 2022, with a year-on-year growth of 20.7%. But much of it will be driven by technology.

The Global Industry Analysts Inc (GIA) report 2022, suggests that the global travel technologies market will reach $12.5  billion by 2026. Many travel companies took the impasse during the pandemic as a time to rejig their digitization processes. Amit Madhan, President & Global Head, IT & eBusiness, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd and SOTC told TOI that they used the pandemic to transform into a 100% digital company. 

Such vast possibilities for digitisation in the sector will also give rise to innovations. Sabre Corporation has found a unique way to do the same. Their many employee engagement activities have helped them with several client concerns. Activities like BlitzCode (A 3-day hackathon at Sabre’s Global Capability Center, Bengaluru conducted every year to solve key business challenges facing the travel industry), Big Pitch (A platform where employees present business concepts to the leadership) and others have been introduced to encourage employees to invent programs or solutions to solve critical problems. 

The outcome

Highlighting one instance where an employee’s idea was converted into a product, Rency Mathew, People Leader, South Asia, Global Capability Centre, Sabre Corporation recalls, “Very often, Travel Arrangers (TA) in the corporate world struggle to compete with offline channels. They often face the need for a more user-friendly Travel Arranger (TA) portal that has additional features and is more intuitive. To give our customers the best-in-class experience, Team Himalaya – a participant team in Blitzcode came up with TAD 2.0 (Travel Arranger Desktop).” Read More

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This interview featuring Rency Mathew was featured on All Things Talent publication