Last Wednesday, April 22, Voxel held the baVel Digital Summit, with the participation of Claudia Posada, CCO at MTS Globe; Àlex Gisbert, Founder and CEO at Fastpayhotels; Gaspar Llabrés, Credit & Insurance Senior Director at Melià Hotels International; and Héctor Martín, VP of Global Sales at Voxel Group, as a moderator.
During the online talk, the speakers explained how their companies are facing the current situation and the planned scenarios to recover from the global crisis of COVID-19 pandemic.
Professionals agree on a trust crisis in the industry, not only from a consumer side but also from the main actors of the value chain. As Gaspar Llabrés said, “flexibility is the first step to gain trust”; flexibility in prices and payment methods and in services, that will need to change.
On this line, Àlex Gisbert assured that “companies that survive will be the ones that will adapt their prices to the new reality”, as the purchasing power of the clients will decrease and occupation will recover before the price, as it happened during the financial crisis in 2008.
Procedures and habits of the Travel industry
Regarding the procedures of the industry, Claudia Posada assured that most of the companies management habits will change, “The advance of the Tour Operators will be highly reduced” in favour of the pre-paid in high volume transactions.
As regards the administrative procedures, Llabrés said that the automation of processes, good management of the information and the reconciliation processes will be essential. On this matter, Gisbert assured that the industry will reinvent and new players will appear, especially technological ones. Llabrés added that the new technology partners will have to be standardized by the HTNG, in order to succeed in the Touristic Industry.
The Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) is a non-profit organization responsible for the Technology standards for the travel industry. Currently, the HTNG is developing the communication standards to ease the interconnection between Voxel’s Payment Manager and its financial partners, such as PSPs, PMSs, CRSs, Channel Managers and booking engines. The aim is to introduce and normalize new low-cost payment methods to assist the industry players.
Eventually, when asked about Spain’s capability to recover international tourists, Posada affirmed that “it won’t depend on the destiny, but on the clients’ experience lived in their origin countries” and assured that sun and beach destinations in Spain will still continue to be a solid offer.
The first session of the baVel Digital Summit counted with more than a hundred live attendees. These series of online debates want to contribute and help recover companies of the tourism and hospitality industries from the current situation in both sectors. Next sessions are scheduled for the first week of May and will focus on the Hospitality sector and the HORECA channel in Spain and the Dominican Republic.
The baVel Digital Summit is the online version of the consolidated baVel Summits (Travel and Procurement) that are held in Barcelona in Autumn.
