The sector's dinosaurs were all caught off guard by the tsunami caused by GAFA and try by all their means to continue to exist with a great deal of support from communications in all directions in a cacophonous and inventive register. They all want to participate and get a piece of the cake. In their concern for visibility and to remain active, they venture towards new businesses. Nonetheless, let's be rational: trying to imitate others doesn't necessarily mean being innovative. Perhaps it is best to stick to one's trade and do it well, because what's left when you go away from your knowhow and skills to operate in unknown and even hostile territories?

One might wonder about the strategies adopted by tourism professionals. For example, carriers that also offer accommodations, leisure, transfers, car rentals and even packages in addition to their core business. But did they focus on the experience they offer their customers during the trips they offer, whether by train or plane? Have we really asked ourselves the right questions? Have we made the right decisions? Our doubts are raised when we think about punctuality, whether it is trains or flights, or about the professionalism of navigation crews for certain services. Let's not forget the cleanliness of certain unavoidable spaces during 4 hours of journey or the quality of the food service as well as the conformity and quality of products. As for the value for money, it has long since been forgotten in favor of yield management, which, rather than managing rates according to demand, has led to a galloping inflation of prices. How is it possible that a trip from Paris to the Côte d'Azur in full summer costs the same as a flight Paris-New York? What is true for transporters is true for all sectors of hotel tourism.

If we look at all these aspects, it is clear that the customer experience can be unforgettable, but not in the right sense of the word. As Winston Churchill said, "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." In the end, it is the customer who chooses.
The tourism, transport and hotel industry with the hotel industry in the lead, maintained its margins by inflating its rates instead of improving productivity. Companies that have been in an oligopolistic situation for a long time have developed a Malthusian method for controlling supply, with the complicity of the conservative government, which wanted to preserve its companies, focused on their needs and gains, while remaining completely disinterested in the expectations and needs of their customers. A few years later, the bill is high for both the customer and the operator, who did not anticipate the benefic arrival of the GAFAs and collaborative strategies. It makes it possible to correct the excesses that must be eliminated in order to get back onto healthy and profitable footing for everyone. End the inflation of prices that no longer correspond to customers' wallets, offer qualitative and differentiating products: this is how we will move forward.

The evolution of the market shows us that the new generations alone are in a position to offer products that really break away from the existing offer. The market shares of this supply are eroding slowly but surely in favor of newcomers, simply because it no longer meets customer expectations and is unable to reinvent itself. If the market does not resist erosion, it is precisely because the products cannot withstand the pressure. If the liberalization of bus lines, carpooling and AirBnB has taken off so fast, it is because the products available no longer meet expectations and must be reformed.

Many suffer from blank sheet anxiety; they are paralyzed by the comfort in which they have evolved for decades and are unable to see the precarity of their position on the world stage where Priceline , owner of Booking.com, is valued at more than 90 billion dollars against 43.4 billion dollars for Marriott, the number 1 which operates more than 1.1 million rooms worldwide. Warren Buffet clearly summed it up: "When you're in a hole, it's best to stop digging."

So what should we do, keep making noise with our mouths hoping to hide the void and lack of ambition of some, or start from scratch? Rupture does not wait, it has already largely reshaped the sector and redistributed the cards. Maybe it's time to pass some of the revenue through profit and loss to give the industry a breath of fresh air and blow a little oxygen back into our little world. In a few years, let's check back to see the results of the strategies each has chosen.

Georges Panayotis
Chairman & CEO
+33 (0) 1 56 56 87 87
Hospitality ON

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