TRAVEL COMPANIES and airlines will soon be expected to tailor offers to each customer and technology already exists to allow this, according to Cormac Whelan, chief executive of Datalex.

Mr Whelan said the industry was rapidly evolving to become retail and merchandise-focused and companies needed to learn how to better add value to a customer’s journey.

“A journey is not the flight from A to B but every step taken from you leaving your house until you get back home. At every point these companies can bring value, leveraging their technology systems and using it as an opportunity.”

Datalex offers a retail distribution platform to travel-focused companies, with clients including Aer Lingus, Trailfinders and US airline United.

Mr Whelan said these companies could learn a lot from retail chains like WalMart and Tesco, especially when it came to offering the right product to the right customer at the right time.

“That sophisticated approach is hard to pull off but it can help upsell and add value; a customer is not going to pay $20 to pay for a lounge pass three weeks before a flight but they might do so if they get a message on the day of the flight itself,” he said.

This kind of analysis would become increasingly important in the years ahead, he said, with previous and present information being used to work out what extra services a customer might want.

He said an online booking system like this should be able to, for example, identify when it was being used by a business flier and offer them a suitable hotel room.

Mr Whelan was speaking following a conference organised by his company, which brought together representatives from travel giants such as Delta and Expedia as well as some of Datalex’s own competitors.

He accepted that the likes of airlines were traditionally “risk-averse creatures” and some were moving slower than they should. Others, however, were showing significant signs of a new approach based on the hires being made at management level.

“Some airlines are starting to hire people from retailers; they’re no longer just hiring traditional airline people.

“The brand is becoming increasingly important and I’ve long been saying if you want to learn how to retail and merchandise, you need to look to other industries.”