1. Redefining
Digital CX
In Online Tourism

2. 2
Digital Customer Engagement, A Critical Success Factor
Marketing in the travel sector centers around
selling dreams to customers. Brands from this
sector promise a complete change of scenery.
The marketing campaigns rely on digital and
modern content that is heavily shared on social
media. This includes videos filmed by drones and
virtual reality. Brands aim to be creative to attract
prospective travelers. To attract and convert their
digital audience into customers, brands from the
travel sector now rely on eCommerce. The term
‘‘eTourism’’ is widely used and this proves that this
industry is embedded in global eCommerce. In fact,
the market opportunity is significant. In 2015, the
largest share of online travel sales2
was conducted
in North America. The U.S. alone generated around
168 billion U.S. dollars through mobile and desktop
travel sales3
.
Consumer Engagement To Meet Customers’ Expectations
When prospective travelers see the beautiful promises made by brands, they have a need for reassurance. They
won’t finalize their purchase if they are not confident in achieving a satisfactory experience. The consumer needs
information about the leisure and business travel services for almost every travel product: air, hotel, car, and cruise
along with terms of payment and insurance procedures.
Relationships between travel brands and their customers are heavily based on trust. If a company cannot respond
to a problem encountered by a customer while traveling, the brand risks losing the travelers’ trust. This has a direct
impact on customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and repeat purchases. This is a significant barrier for online tourism.
Consumers are online, and they buy online. Market players from the travel sector, e-commerce sites, and reviews
sites, are becoming progressively aware of the importance of real-time, personalized authentic advice on digital
channels. Digital transformation is driving the need for business leaders to gain better insight into how their customers
use digital channels.
Digital customer engagement is a critical success factor for market players in the travel sector: digital solutions need
to be built around customer engagement to provide an optimal and omnichannel customer experience. While the
boundaries between physical and digital trade are increasingly blurred, brands understand they have to offer the best
possible customer engagement tools. In this white paper, we will highlight these tools: among them, conversational
marketing aims to bring back a human touch to the heart of the customer experience. iAdvize’s activity is historically
linked to the travel sector. We work with more than 70 brands from this sector to make their customer experiences
authentic.
Direct spending by resident and international travelers in the U.S.
averaged $2.8 billion a day, $118.2 million an hour, $2.0 million a
minute and $32,800 a second.
TOP 10 SOURCE MARKETS
SPEND ($M)
United States of America
Germany
France
Australia
Spain
Italy
Irish Republic
Netherlands
Norway
Canada
3,292
1,819
1,744
1,542
1,169
1,072
1,057
930
693
6881
1
Conversion from British pounds to US dollars based on their value on Oct 24, 2018 14:54 UTC
2
Statista, graph entitled “Distribution of digital travel sales worldwide from 2014 to 2020, by region”, July 2016. See full graph here
3
Statista, graph entitled “Digital travel sales in the United-States from 2014 to 2020, by channel (in billion U.S. dolalrs), June 2017.

3. 3
S U M M A R Y In this white paper, you will discover best practices on using online customer engagement
in the travel sector and optimizing your strategy to become efficient in this sector.
P A R T 1
Characteristics Of
the Travel Sector
p.4
Millennials, An Important
Consumer Segment
The Changing Consumer
Expectations
iAdvize Customers From
the Travel Sector
p.9
P A R T 2
Digital CX
eTourism
Seasonality In The
Customer Journey
On-site Contact Channels
The Challenge Of Mobile
Tourism
Success story
p.16
P A R T 3
Social Media and
Conversational
Marketing
The Value Add of Social
Media
Facebook Messenger, The
New Customer Service
p.19
P A R T 4
The Community’s
Contribution To the
Tourism Customer
Experience
Let Passionate Travelers
Speak For Your Brand
Focus On the Sharing
Economy
Connected Travelers
Expect Digital, Authentic,
Personalized Customer
Engagement

4. 4
P A R T 1
Characteristics Of
the Travel Sector
Travel brands still aspire to meet high expectations
set by non-travel brands… But what exactly are these
expectations? Authenticity, personalized experiences,
removal of friction, and on-demand functionality.
Travel plans require extensive research and careful comparison. To do that,
consumers will use different types of services and, therefore, call upon several
service providers: housing, transportation, leisure activities and other relevant
providers. The purchase is carefully considered and can take time. And in parallel,
consumers spend a lot of this time online; this way, they can get more information,
faster. Social networks, blogs, eCommerce websites are all helping consumers build
their project and influence their decisions. Therefore, it is crucial for brands to be
present during every step of the customer journey.
Travel brands still aspire to meet high expectations set by non-travel brands. But what
exactly are these expectations? Authenticity, personalized experiences, removal of
friction, and on-demand functionality4
.
4
Deloitte, 2017 Travel and Hospitality Industry Outlook, page 6, 2017. Read the full report here

5. 5
PART 1 / CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRAVEL SECTOR
Consumers want a change of scenery
and to completely ‘‘switch off from the
world’’
With the emergence of new technologies and innovative
services (couch surfing, carpooling...), cost differentials for
certain services have been widening. Still, a price reduction
cannot involve a declining quality of customer service. When
consumers are traveling, they have to be able to contact their
service provider or use one of their services (geo-location, local
good plans....). In this context, digital channels are so often
used by consumers that brands have to include them in their
customer strategy. They especially need to think about the
mobile experience and its useful applications, responsive
eCommerce websites or messaging apps. A mobile experience
provides many possibilities to consumers and, therefore, to
brands.
Customer service, as the name suggests, aims to establish
recurring contact with customers. A travel experience cannot
disappoint in terms of customer service.
Millennials, An Important Consumer Segment

6. 6
PART 1 / CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRAVEL SECTOR
An immersive experience
Going on vacation is a way to escape the daily life.
Therefore, it remains an exceptional experience to
escape and dream. Among the selection criteria for a
successful trip, online shoppers choose authenticity.
The trend for 60 million traveling households is to spend
less on leisure travel. “Millennials, on the other hand, are
likely to spend more. They spent $4,594 on vacations
in the past 12 months with an average of $1,312 on
each vacation. For this generation “travel experiences
aren’t the same as those of their predecessors, but
rather involve more adventure and the desire for
more customization. “ This consumer group is willing
to reward travel companies capable of providing
recommendations of trips that create authentic and
memorable experiences. Brands continuing to offer an
undifferentiated customer experience risk losing out to
competitors providing a ‘wow customer experience”5
.
Startups like Airbnb and HomeExchange understood
this need and now offer travelers accommodation in
houses belonging to locals. This experience immerses
visitors in the daily life of the local population. This
trend is also found in customer engagement, with the
use of community messaging.
These new accommodation trends reflect the
diminishing confidence in traditional companies,
that may have forgotten about the human dimension
of tourism because they focused more on the more
lucrative aspect. Fortunately, advancements in digital
technologies are succeeding in bringing back a human
and authentic experience at the heart of customer
engagement, especially in the travel sector.
5
Millennial Marketing, The Millennial Brief on Travel Lodging, October 2016. Download the full report here

7. 7
Connected trendsetters
Disloyal, unpredictable, in a rush: the terms used to
describe consumers can scare off brands. This is especially
the case for the travel sector, where the offers are plentiful
and the last-minute purchases common. It gives consumers
the opportunity to meticulously compare prices and offers
making consumers unpredictable. Yet, because they are
interconnected, it offers brands significant opportunities to
anticipate consumer behavior.
The right omnichannel tools (CRM, conversational
platforms...) enable brands to efficiently collect data from
different customer service channels. This way, brands can
contact their prospects in a personalized and conversational
way. The best way to engage with consumers at any stage
of their customer journey is to initiate a conversation with
them after having understood their expectations. Still, in
order for the exchange to be efficient, you have to engage
them at the opportune time to get their attention.
Consumer trends are changing fast. Consumers decide
where, when and how they want to interact with brands. Your
prospects use different channels according to technological
innovations and fashion trends. Therefore, they might be
expecting brands to be present on channels they are not
even aware of. Instagram is a good example. Instagram is
a photo and video-sharing social networking service seen
as an application teenagers use to exchange photos and
videos. But now, brands are fighting for visibility on the app.
Brands need to keep an open mind, observe their customers
and try to understand what they are expecting.
High expectations and low loyalty
towards brands
High customer service expectations inevitably creates a
few disappointed customers. In the travel industry, most
of them won’t hesitate to change their service provider if
they are not satisfied. This is why technology is essential
to provide authentic conversational experience to diminish
disappointment and limit the negative impact on customer
service. Brands need to have a human vision of today’s
digital customer engagement in order to show their
customers and prospects that they care about them.
The Changing Consumer Expectations
PART 1 / CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRAVEL SECTOR

8. 8
9.6%
CONVERSION RATE FOR
VISITORS SUPPORTED VIA
MESSAGING
93%
SATISFACTION RATE FOR
VISITORS WHO RECEIVED
SUPPORT7
1 - 11 MIN
AVERAGE HANDLING TIME
FOR A CONVERSATION VIA
MESSAGING
$1,268
AVERAGE BASKET VALUE
FOR VISITORS ASSISTED IN
REAL-TIME6
+70
IADVIZE CUSTOMERS IN
THE TRAVEL SECTOR
PART 1 / CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRAVEL SECTOR
iAdvize Customers From the Travel Sector
6
Conversion from Euros to US dollars based on their value on Oct 25, 2018 08:40 UTC
7
iAdvize data, 2016-2018

9. 9
P A R T 2
Digital CX
eTourism
8
Google Data, U.S., Mar. 2016. Read the full article from Think with Google here
9
Fuel Travel and Flip.to, 2017 Travel Website Behavior Study. The study, based on over 2,000 trave-
ler surveys, you can download it here
94%OF LEISURE
TRAVELERS SWITCH
BETWEEN DEVICES AS
THEY PLAN OR BOOK
A TRIP8
4WEBSITES VISITED BY
ONLINE SHOPPERS…9

10. 10
Seasonality In The Customer Journey
PART 2 / DIGITAL CX ETOURISM
Remain flexible to meet the
seasonal demand
There are considerable seasonal peaks in the travel
sector: this characteristic requires market players
to be particularly agile both in human resources and
technology. It is especially true for tour operators and
hotels: there is a seasonal peak between February and
March, before the summer holidays. The preparation
for the summer season is more important in terms of
volume than for the winter season.
This seasonality means that brands have to resize their
customer service team to face a temporary increase in
demand. They have a less costly option: they can rely on
the complementary relation between their professional
customer service and a community of brand advocates
or independent agents.
A buying journey with a multitude
of touch points
On average, buyers consult four websites before
booking a trip10
. Peers are usually involved in the
inspiration phase via friends and family, word of mouth,
communities and inspirational websites such as blogs,
lifestyle media or social media focused on visuals such
as Instagram. The research phase relies on search
engines, expert advice given on forums and directly at
regional or local tourist offices. Consumers also search
for the best price and compare offers on search
engines, using online agencies or service providers,
but also via comparison and review sites.
It’s important for market players to know their customer
journey to put the right drivers of growth at different
steps of the client’s journey. For example, during the
inspiration phase, a social media listening tool can help
brands to detect potential prospects and address them
a personalized content. During the consulting phase,
offering to put visitors in contact with an expert or a
brand advocate enable visitors to have an authentic
and reassuring view of the product.
The comparison phase is crucial since right after that,
visitors finalize their purchase. Booking a trip is an
emotionally and financially involving purchase. Thus,
visitors expect a very responsive customer service,
personalized, authentic customer engagement with
availability 24/7.
THE SEASONALITY OF SALES ACHIEVED AFTER REAL-TIME CONTACT IN THE TRAVEL SECTOR
10
Fuel Travel and Flip.to, 2017 Travel Website Behavior Study. The study, based on over 2,000 traveler surveys, you can download it here

11. 11
On-site Contact Channels
100% of our customers use live chat
All online travel websites have chosen to use live chat and make it the central element
of acquisition and reassurance. All websites have their unique browsing issues. As a
result, engagement specialists at iAdvize conceive personalized targeting strategies
with brands according to the goals they want to achieve. Still, several strategic
engagement zones are common to all the market players from the travel sector:
- Return to the homepage: on a long buying cycle, visitors usually convert after the
second or third website visit. Therefore, it is crucial for brands to target visitors who
return to the website directly via the homepage.
- Search engines are particularly strategic in the travel sector. Visitors use them
considerably. Therefore, brands need to offer support to customers who encounter
difficulties while using the search engine.
- Thematic landing pages: pages providing offers organized by themes are extremely
popular with visitors. If these pages enter the selection phase, it implies that buyers
are more advanced in their decision process.
- The checkout funnel: in the travel sector, the check-out funnel is a complex area.
The objective is to assist visitors in this process and help them if they encounter
problems. Amongst the market players that use the iAdvize solution, 23% of targeting
rules focus on the checkout funnel.
STRATEGIC ZONES
TYPICAL SEGMENTATION
PART 2 / DIGITAL CX ETOURISM

12. 12
Call generates highly qualified contacts
Half of the market players from the tourism and transport industries that use the
iAdvize solution (call, web-callback or automatic call-back) generate highly qualified
contacts. Compared to chat, the advantage of web-callback is that it eliminates
unnecessary questions. This channel is successful because it’s free and immediate. It
enables brands to reduce the visitor’s waiting time and promote a ‘‘customer centric’’
dimension while traditional phone calls place visitors in a position of demand.
The call meeting option enables brands to plan an automatic callback at the time
and date chosen by customers. This tool is useful for targeting visitors when agents
are not connected: this way, agents don’t miss an opportunity to transform visitors
into customers. Call meeting proves particularly relevant for brands with a target
audience in different time zones.
On high-traffic websites, it is not possible to offer Call to all visitors. These websites
have to focus on visitors with high-added value: those who are in the purchase phase
and. For example, behavioral targeting can enable brands only to provide the call
solution to visitors that have already filled their basket with items and those who
spend an amount of time on the validation page. This is an example of a simple
targeting rule. More complex scenarios based on criteria related to the visitor’s
profile, their browsing behavior and the industry’s constraints are usually required.
Globally, websites that use a call solution deploy it with a strategic logic: visitors can
choose to use the tool or not according to their buying journey.
32%
contacts generated
thanks to Call
(immediate or call
meeting)
+5%
average shopping
cart of visitors
supported by call or
messaging
9%
sales achieved
thanks to call-
meeting11
PART 2 / DIGITAL CX ETOURISM
On-site Contact Channels
11
iAdvize data extracted on customers from the travel sector who use the Call feature, 2016

13. 13
The Challenge Of Mobile Tourism
Improve mobile conversion
In the summer of 2017, holiday purchases are estimated
to account for 40% of mobile purchases13
. Market
players from the travel sector are trying to provide
a multi-device experience. For example, Air France
allows visitors to start their reservation on mobile and
finish it on another device. But it’s difficult for brands
to optimize conversion on mobile. Consumers prefer to
finalize their purchase on their desktop computer. Also,
trips are usually group purchases: visitors convert with
their fellow travelers.
According to KPMG, users perceive mobile as a
vector of development that enables brands to attract
a young target audience. Like Google (see below),
KPMG recommends that brands work on their mobile
conversion funnel while capitalizing on real-time touch
points like live chat and Call.
As for the engagement strategy, mobile needs to have
different targeting rules: users read less content on
mobile than on desktop, thus the targeting strategy
needs to be more open, to catch the visitors’ eye as
soon as he/she arrives on the website. Adding a fixed
button to a menu bar has as much potential as using a
floating button. It’s important to think about proactive
engagement: visitors feel it’s less intrusive than on
desktops.
3 tips from Google to optimize
your mobile strategy:
Improve your product pages on mobile
and optimize the display speed to improve
desktop conversion.
Measure multi-device conversions to
track cross-devices and analyze the buying
journey to see at which point mobile inter-
vened.
Implement customer service to improve
the mobile transformation rate. A part of
the population doesn’t want a quote over
the phone and needs to be reassured. Cus-
tomer service is a must-have in the travel
sector: it’s possible to generate qualified
contacts as soon as visitors arrive on the
advert. Digital players have to communicate
with customer service and benefit from mo-
bile behaviors12
.
MOBILE USE IN THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
73%
31%
Inspiration
88%
27%
research
81%
14%
Booking
57%
50%
Traveling
63%
37%
Post traveling
PART 2 / DIGITAL CX ETOURISM
12
Think with Google, May 2016
13
eMarketer, Mobile Drives Growth of Online Travel Bookings, June 21, 2018. Read the full article here

14. 14
Marmara is a brand of the TUI France group, a 100%
branch of the TUI Travel PLC, the leading multinational
tour operator. Present throughout France via a network
of agencies, today, Marmara is the emblematic brand of
TUI France’s global tourism activity.
The ibbü experts chatting for Marmara get a percentage of the sales they generate. Online visitors can chat in real-time
with these experts and ask any questions they might have about the Marmara holidays.
Thanks to this service, visitors benefit from a premium experience as this support is authentic, instantaneous and available
24/7 from people who are familiar with the brand and love it. As they start browsing the website, they can experience the
friendly atmosphere they will find in the resorts. The average satisfaction rate with ibbü chats is 90%, a conversation
lasting on average 15 minutes.
DELIVER A
PREMIUM
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
The Challenge
HOW HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE CHATTING FOR TUI BEEN SO FAR?
90%
global satisfaction rate
after a chat with an ibbü
expert
$500K
turnover generated with ibbü
in just 1 month
15 MIN.
average handle time
between a visitor and a ibbü
expert
PART 2 / DIGITAL CX ETOURISM
N°1 FRENCH PROVIDER OF
RESORT HOLIDAYS
+140 RESORTS AND
DESTINATIONS IN 2016
5 IBBÜ EXPERTS PASSIONATE
ABOUT MARMARA

15. 15
The ibbü conversations transform into average basket
values and conversion rate that are above the website
norm: the turnover generated by contact increased by
33%. Within one month, the ibbü service generated an
additional turnover of US$500,000. In addition, ibbü’s
on-demand business model (payment per contact or
performance-based) means that brands can reduce
their customer service costs and vary the type of service
provided.
When it comes to recruiting the ibbü experts, iAdvize
takes care of selecting, training and nurturing the
candidates. A questionnaire was used to assess their
level of expertise and language skills as well as their
sales instinct. Marmara decided to share this value
creation: the experts receive a percentage of the sales
they generate. On average they make US$300 a week.
They chat when they have some free time, from their
desktop or the ibbü mobile application. Some do this
alongside another job.
« In the context of the TUI brand and website launch in
September 2016, we are going to extend this service
across all products « adds Olivier Roche, Chief Digital
Officer, TUI France.
How has your experience chatting for tui been so far?
It’s a great experience! I heard about the start-up ibbü on social media and I was curious. I signed up so
I could boost my income. I’ve been chatting from the mobile application, at work, at home and even on
public transport. Now, I have my routine, I log in at 5.30 pm and log out at the end of the evening, nearly
ever day.
What kind of questions do you answer?
They vary a lot. People are polite, respectful and they are happy when they get an answer to their question.
Sometimes it’s not so busy ;) It’s true that ibbü is a source of income but it’s also interesting chatting with customers.
That’s why I do it, the contact with the online shoppers is great!
2 QUESTIONS FOR
OISSIM, IBBÜ EXPERT FOR TUI
PART 2 / DIGITAL CX ETOURISM
‘‘We don’t give the ibbü experts a script. this means they have spontaneous
discussions, based on their own personal experiences. visitors really like this.’’
Olivier Roche, TUI France

16. 16
P A R T 3
Social Media and
Conversational
Marketing
Four International market players from the travel sector use the iAdvize platform
with their social media and messaging accounts. Among them, Nemea and
OUI-sncf.com discuss how they use our conversational marketing platform on
a daily basis, with different customer service channels and different objectives.

17. 17
The Value Add of Social Media
PART 3 / SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING
Attract and engage: the first step
towards conversational marketing
In the travel sector, consumers like to use digital solutions,
especially social networks. This way, brands can benefit from these
massive audiences to attract potential customers thanks to visual
and engaging content. On social networks such as Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram, engagement is measured through likes,
comments, shares and mentions.
The travel sector is perfect for sharing photos. Photos on
Instagram consistently foster the most engagement across almost
all industries. Postings on Instagram has a high social media
engagement rate of 4.21% compared to Facebook and Twitter,
0.07% and 0.03%, respectively14
. Specifically, the hotel and resort
segment according to the RapidIQ 2018 Benchmark Survey15
shows this sector has among the highest engagement across the
three popular social media sites. Being able to attract customers
to your services is the first step of the client journey.
To captivate a growing audience, it’s important to produce regular
content and build a team dedicated to nurturing your social media
accounts. You also need to focus on popular topics and local
themes: it’s easier to catch your users’ attention that way. They will
feel more involved and encouraged to act.
Customer service and reactivity
When it comes to social customer service, Twitter is the preferred
channel. Consumers are looking for fast answers and they copy
their personal habits when they interact with brands. The changing
consumers’ expectations are having an impact on brands
engagement strategies. When a customer or prospective buyer
asks a question online, consumers expect a quick answer from
brands, just as they would expect from a friend. Further, a majority
(84%) of consumers expect companies to respond within 24 hours
after posting on social media16
, Brands have an imperative to offer
real-time, personalized customer engagement in order to remain
relevant and competitive.
14
Statistics compiled and designed by Invesp, 2015. Find full sources and Invesp’s infographic here
15
Rival IQ, 2018 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, September 2018. Answers were given by a representative sample of national and international companies in each industry
by selecting 150 companies at random from each industry from our database of over 150,000 companies. Read the full report here
16
Spidermarketing, The Omnichannel Evolution of Customer Experience, June 2016. The research was conducted by Spidermarketing for Altitude and surveyed 3,000 customers
surveyed in Europe and Latin America. Download the full report here
4.21%
Media Engagement
Rate
0.07%
Media Engagement
Rate
0.03%
Media Engagement
Rate

18. 18
Facebook Messenger, The New Customer Service
Consumers now use multiple social networks on a daily
basis: Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram... They
use them to communicate with friends and family, share
pictures, keep updated with news or find inspiration.
Consumers now want a customer experience that is
human, conversational, intuitive and that is in line with
their lifestyle and the way they use these platforms. The
ubiquity challenge is a difficult challenge for brands.
They need to be able to respond to customers who want
to communicate via all channels in real-time, at any time.
Messenger: more than 800
million users worldwide
Messenger users will receive a notification and find
all their journey information in the Messenger app:
schedules, coach number, seat number, e-ticket.
They can also contact transport companies’ customer
service by asking questions directly in the Messenger
conversation. This way, they have all their journey info
in one place; the interaction is fast, smooth and simple.
For example, visitors can ask how to renew their 12/25
railcard via Messenger. An agent can send them a link
enabling them to update their railcard and help them
throughout the process. In addition to being a customer
care channel, Messenger also enables brands to
create engagement and generate additional sales.
One platform for all conversations
From a customer service perspective, all real-time
contacts can be centralized in the same platform:
agents receive messages from Messenger directly
within the iAdvize conversational marketing platform,
in the same as they receive questions coming from
the website chat, web callback or video chat. This way,
the same team can be mobilized to answer questions
coming from these different channels. Agents benefit
from a conversational display and can provide the same
quality of service and be as fast as they are on other
touch points. Thanks to the reporting interface, your
customer service team can easily view and analyze past
conversations and measure performance through key
indicators (revenue generated after chat or Messenger
conversations, occupancy rate, response time, average
handling time...). Therefore, your customer service
team benefits from a global real-time customer service
management via the iAdvize platform and can compare
the impact of their actions on different channels.
What does the future hold for
Messenger?
With more than 1.2 billion monthly active users17
and strong growth, Messenger will be increasingly
important in how brands engage with their
customers. You can seize this opportunity and offer
an innovative customer experience, unique and
helpful for customers who want real conversations.
PART 3 / SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING
17
David Marcus, Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook, April 12, 2017. See the full article on Facebook

19. 19
P A R T 4
The Community’s
Contribution
To the Tourism
Customer
Experience
90% SATISFACTION RATE
AFTER A CONVERSATION VIA MESSAGING WITH A BRAND ADVOCATE
IN THE TRAVEL SECTOR USING IADVIZE18
18
iAdvize data, 2016

20. 20
Let Passionate Travelers Speak For Your Brand
PART 4 / THE COMMUNITY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE TOURISM CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
In the travel sector, the sharing
economy is omnipresent
House swap, shared transportation, tourist visits: all
tourist activities go through community-based services.
That’s why many companies, even the ones whose
activity doesn’t rely on the sharing economy, choose to
offer community messaging to their visitors: visitors can
talk to brand advocates, who are experts in the brand’s
products or services. Alone or in addition to professional
chat, community messaging focuses on understanding
the visitor’s needs. It also addresses the high authenticity
expectation, a significant issue in the travel sector.
Put enthusiasts in contact with
visitors looking for authentic
opinions
Community messaging facilitates the exchange of
passion. Independent experts, thanks to their previous
experience, can successfully advise visitors looking for
advice. In the travel sector, independent experts can talk
about their experiences with visitors: good locations,
accommodation, transport... The objective is to reassure
future customers that they will have a good time in their
journey. Visitors looking for a complete change of scenery
want to make sure they’ll get the best experience and
won’tsufferanyinconvenience.Independentexperts,who
lived a similar experience to the one sought by visitors,
can complement the experience of professional agents,
allowing the latter to focus their advice on financing
options, insurance... The professional model and the
community one are totally complementary and separable.
A personalized experience
Since they are looking for a personalized experience,
travelers supported by independent experts can project
themselves in their future vacation destination. They
foresee activities they want to do. Their choices are not
limited to a product brochure, as they get good planning
advicewhichtheywillputintopracticeduringtheirjourney.

21. 21
Focus On the Sharing Economy
A global leader in home exchange, the HomeExchange
platform recently worked to develop their community
messaging solution. The start-up chose iAdvize, the
conversational marketing platform, to help them with
this project. Their objective is to optimize customer
experience and the relationship between users to
create a qualified and autonomous community.
An innovative service for user
interaction
By choosing the iAdvize community messaging solution,
HomeExchangewantedtheirtooltoevolvewhilekeeping
the history of their previous activities. The platform
values their qualified users by giving them a voice.
HomeExchange develops a genuinely independent and
friendly service of mutual assistance. Charles-Edouard
Girard, the Executive Chairman of HomeExchange
explains this choice: “Nowadays, users are constantly
looking for their peers’ advice and experiences to make
a decision about a product or service. Therefore, it
seemed essential for us to create a service dedicated
to our community’s opinion. Our primary challenge is to
reassure new users who are not completely confident in
the concept.“
A tool that brings the community
together
HomeExchange has decided to implement the iAdvize
community messaging solution because it is in line with
the brands’ core values. The tool also brings a strong
identity dimension. Beyond practical issues, web users
can exchange experiences with a community that shares
their values: hospitality, confidence, and freedom. These
interactions instill confidence and benevolence towards
a concept of Home Exchange.
Brand advocates and the
community help to develop the
HomeExchange platform
In addition to improving the user experience, community
messaging also supports HomeExchange users through
advice given by their brand advocates, the ‘‘GuestStars’’.
Brand advocates are often the first contact for new
members: they offer information and guide them during
their first interactions on the website. This way they
are true service ambassadors: “We work closely with
our brand advocates who give us precious feedback
to constantly improve the platform”, says Alice Lorenz,
Chief Member Happiness at HomeExchange.
PART 4 / THE COMMUNITY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE TOURISM CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

22. 22
C O N C L U S I O N
Connected Travelers Expect Digital,
Authentic, Personalized Customer
Engagement
Before, during and after their vacation, travelers are
constantly connected. No matter the device consumers
use, market players from the travel sector need always
to be visible and available on digital channels.
Consumers no longer want top-down communication.
They decide when and on which channels they want
to communicate with brands. The content brands
publish, if useful and inspiring, is only one step in the
customer journey. Online customers want to be able
to react to the content brands publish: it’s mostly an
excuse to initiate a conversation with brands and get
the information they need.
There are a lot of digital challenges for market players
in the travel sector: their target audience is familiar
with digital channels and therefore, very demanding.
Consumers expect efficient and personalized
customer service via online customer experience and
mobile devices.
At the same time, consumers are increasingly looking
for advice from their peers. Thus, brands need to
mobilize independent experts to address this demand.
This investment will have a high impact in the long run,
and any communication campaign cannot match it.
Conversational marketing platforms were developed to
provide all these opportunities at the same time. They
offer an interface for brands to manage their activity
and measure ROI. The platform includes all customer
service channels in real-time (Messaging, Call, Voice,
Social). Your customers are everywhere, and you have
to use the right tools to show them you understand
their expectations.

23. iAdvize is a conversational platform that allows more than
1,500 brands worldwide to make their customer experience
authentic. iAdvize connects customers or prospects in need
of advice with experts who are available 24/7 via real-time
messaging. Over 1500 brands such as Disney, Nespresso,
BMW, L'Oreal, and Louis Vuitton have deployed iAdvize to
increase conversion rates by 10x and lifetime value by 2x.