Into your coat, off to the travel agency, and out again with the booking confirmation in your pocket: that's how travelling was done for a long time. And it can still work like that - well, it can. "We are in the middle of a transformation towards Travel Agency 4.0," summarises Andreas Heimann, Chief Sales Officer responsible for DER Travel and Tourism's own travel agencies and online sales.

Andreas Heimann There is a clear strategy behind this. Andreas Heimann: "We want to be present throughout people's entire customer journey. And in our industry too, this is now a symbiosis of online and offline. Many customers want more flexible consultation times and models and plan their travel online. However, they still greatly appreciate the advice they receive from our travel experts. So it's about intelligently combining online and offline by offering our expertise wherever the customer is looking for it. We have created a digital platform for this with reise-spezialisten.com, for example, and also offer advice on dertour.com via Web2Expert. In addition to our own formats, we are also present on Facebook and Instagram with travel stories. "

According to Andreas Heimann, the successes prove that the strategy is working: "Revenue is now also being generated from the new channels. So we can also measure our success in figures."

In order to continue to successfully organise the sales mix, the digital offerings are being successively expanded. Take reise-spezialisten.com, for example: when the Dertour travel agencies launched the customer advice platform in February 2021, the logic was clear: "We wanted to build a kind of directory - modelled on the doctor rating and booking portal Jameda. In other words, the customer goes to the site and searches for a travel specialist for their specific requirements. For example, for a yoga holiday to South Africa. The specialist is then displayed and you can get in touch," explains Benjamin Kraut, Vice President Marketing.

The idea was a good one, he still thinks. "But unfortunately it didn't quite work because: The customer is looking for a specialist, but the focus is still initially on the holiday."
Benjamin Kraut After various UX (user experience) tests - with the support of colleagues from REWE digital, among others - the team decided to change the logic. "We have now developed digital holiday planning on reise-spezialisten.com. First, customers go through a kind of funnel and answer questions: who are you travelling with, when do you want to go, where do you want to go, etc.? Based on the answers, an algorithm is used to select the specialist who best matches all these holiday wishes and criteria. Customers can then get in touch at the touch of a button - via chat, video call, phone or email. This way, we give customers all the options they need to get advice."

Benjamin Kraut is delighted that the new logic is working: "We now have a significantly higher conversion (number of visitors to a website in relation to the number of transactions, editor's note) on the site."

Another new feature has been available on reise-spezialisten.com since the beginning of the year: each customer receives their own offer on a personalised landing page, which consists of various modules. Benjamin Kraut: "This could be the South Africa round trip with the corresponding flights, with the lodge, with the helicopter flight over Cape Town and so on. In other words, every customer receives a customised offer, which we then present to them in digital form. This is an in-house development that we created for reise-spezialisten.com."

The second major topic for the digital team at DER Reisebüros is artificial intelligence (AI). "We have a lot of enquiries that are very similar. For example, someone wants to spend two weeks in the Canary Islands and is looking for a 4-star hotel. We no longer process such enquiries ourselves, but pass them on to the AI. The AI responds based on the enquiry - with the name, address, etc. It uses the text to analyse what the customer wants and then sends a few offers that can be booked directly online to the customer," explains Alexander Breitkreutz, Vice President IT.

And what happens if customers would rather have something else than what the AI has offered? "That works too. If the customer replies that they would prefer something in the 5-star range or on a different beach - the AI can deal with this, adapts the offers and sends them out again," explains Alexander Breitkreutz.

Are flesh-and-blood travel consultants still necessary at all? Alexander Breitkreutz: "Absolutely! Firstly, there are always questions that AI can't answer. At the latest when customers write: Okay, I'd like to book now, please give me a call! Of course, the AI can't do that. But questions about entry regulations or coronavirus rules can be answered by the AI, and that takes the pressure off employees."
Alexander Breitkreutz The two digital managers summarise that AI, when used and understood correctly, is definitely a help for colleagues in the travel agency: "AI can take a lot of work off our hands. Since the beginning of the year, we have had a new process for reactivating inactive customers, and we also rely on AI for this. This means that we automatically analyse the customer's travel history - what they have booked in the past, when and in what constellation. From this, our system calculates the best time to contact the customer again. We feed this information to our specialists at the counter on a daily basis. This allows them to contact customers when they are most likely to book. The AI continues to learn and improve through the analyses and the resulting bookings."

For Alexander Breitkreutz and Benjamin Kraut, it is precisely this mix that makes the difference: "The customers have AI-supported advice that switches back and forth to personal advice depending on the situation. The employees in charge have the process under control and can intervene at any time. It's also important not to forget: Many customers also call from time to time - the telephone number and email address of the travel experts are listed in the offer. Customers should always have all the options and be able to decide for themselves how to contact us."

And this is perhaps more important today than ever before, adds Benjamin Kraut: "The urge for advice and security has increased enormously due to coronavirus. I believe there is something of a renaissance of travel agencies - regardless of what digitalisation can do in the meantime. After all, our absolute USP (unique selling point, the ed.) in travel agencies is people and personalised advice!"