Dirk Ebbighausen Luxair

How has the evolving online travel market impacted your role?

Generally speaking, people working in online travel have developed from being some sort of oddballs to highly sought-after experts when it comes to driving business for travel companies. When I started in this field in the early 2000s, online was an afterthought for travel sales activities. Today, online is the starting point. Even more than that, it feels as if digital is suddenly seen as the savior of the travel business altogether. Unfortunately, in a lot of organizations, this perception is coming rather late in the game, and at a time where “traditional” travel companies have long been passed left and right by the so-called “non-traditional” players.

        "Digital has become much more than internet sales. It is a mindset.

Also, brick-and-mortar travel organizations have not necessarily adapted their ways of working, while at the same time, customer expectations and behavior have changed dramatically. Online, or “Digital”, as it is commonly referred to nowadays, has become much more than internet sales. It is a mindset. Of course, a functioning eCommerce operation is the basis for digital success, but in the big picture, it is about customer centricity, which requires a different organizational setup, new production processes and much more.

For my role, this means two things: internally, I need to emphasize the need to move away from producing what they think their customer wants, and hoping that someone will buy it, to producing what customers actually want, and to offering it to them where they want to buy it. 

Externally, from the customer point of view, I need to identify what it is that customers actually want, when, and where, which has become easier and more complex at the same time due to the large amounts of data available. In a nutshell, my role has evolved from being a pure online sales and marketing guy, managing a channel, to a change manager, responsible for much more complex structures.

The same as the last 12 months, and the last few years, trying to keep up with the rapidly changing environment and driving successful digital travel programs;)

Jokes aside: we have defined a digital roadmap and are now implementing a series of projects with the aim of ultimately being more customer-focused, serving relevant, personalized offers and information at the various touch points throughout the entire customer journey, and across all relevant sales channels.

The only way to properly do so is data-based, and while there is a lot of information out there concerning customer behavior (i.e. the famous “research online, purchase offline” studies), we need to identify the information truly relevant to us. We do have a lot of data, but we need to structure it, validate the quality, enrich it, and come to the right conclusions. This will be a key topic for the next couple of months.

Why is the ‘Connect’ such an important model for the senior digital travel community in Europe?

It will be my first “Connect”, but I am looking forward to sharing experiences with seasoned professionals from my line of work.
What has been the highlight of your career so far and how has digital been a part of it? 

My personal highlight is definitely that I was able to work in the industry in multiple markets on three different continents, with different maturity levels when it comes to digital – in terms of technical infrastructure, but also mindset of the people I worked with, and proving that digital is a sustainable channel for travel sales. first “Connect”, but I am looking forward to sharing experiences with seasoned professionals from my line of work.

If you want to share experiences with Dirk in person, then contact us about attending Digital Travel Connect this November.

70 senior-level decision makers from the biggest companies will join us for this exclusive VIP gathering. Shouldn't you be there too?