Paul Richer is Senior Partner of Genesys, a management consultancy specialising in providing advice on technology for the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. Genesys has built a worldwide reputation for its knowledge and experience of new system procurement, online technology and strategies including website audits and online booking systems, reviewing and formulating companies’ IT strategies and more. Clients include many of the best known names in travel. Paul has co-authored several reports examining the impact of technology on the distribution of travel, including “Distribution Technology in the Travel Industry” originally published by Financial Times Retail and “Marketing Destinations Online – Strategies for the Information Age” published by the World Tourism Organisation. He has presented at and chaired many online travel conferences, is regularly quoted in the press and has also been invited to make several appearances on television to debate the subject. Prior to founding Genesys in 1994, Paul was Business Development Director of Finite Group plc and Head of the Group’s IT strategy consultancy. He holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management, is a Fellow of the Institute of Travel & Tourism and Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. More information at http://www.genesys.net/
I was at a conference the other day and, whilst awaiting the first speaker’s presentation, I was chatting with the lady next to me. I am not sure how it ... Read more
I quite often give presentations explaining the characteristics of our future consumers – Generations Y and Z when actually, they are just about all grown up now. Gen Y were ... Read more
Quite a few years ago (pre-Internet) I was commissioned to carry out a feasibility study for a large telecommunications organisation. The idea was to test the concept of an electronic ... Read more
This year at WTM London I will be running a Genesys Session called Must Have Web Technologies for 2019. I see travel as an information industry. When a purchase is ... Read more
Catalysed by the recent hive of activity surrounding General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a few strands of thought from the past and present have come together in my mind to ... Read more
The news that Etihad passengers will be able to communicate with the airline via WhatsApp got me thinking about my own messaging apps. I use quite a few. On my ... Read more
After writing my blog last month about customer relationship management moving on, I have to ask the question: “Are airline loyalty schemes still living in the dark ages?” Loyalty schemes ... Read more
A week or so ago I saw a demonstration of one of the better CRM systems, specifically designed for travel companies. What impressed me is how sophisticated customer relationship management has ... Read more
One of the seminar sessions I am running at this year’s Arabian Travel Market is called Smart Tourism 2020. I do work within both the tourism and travel industries and ... Read more
I have been doing some research for a presentation I will be giving next month. I am going to be talking about our future customers – Generation Z. They were ... Read more
I don’t know about you but I have been to quite a few presentations on blockchain and read plenty of articles on the subject. I now think I understand what ... Read more
I will be running a new seminar at this year’s Arabian Travel Market. I am calling it Smart Tourism. The ‘smart’ concept has reached almost everything around us. I have ... Read more
Expedia has carried out a research study in partnership with The Center for Generational Kinetics. The study is called ‘Generations on the Move – A deep dive into multi-generational travel ... Read more
Some interesting news from Hitwise. Part 3 of their Cyber Week 2017 report showed increased travel purchase activity during Black Friday in November. As we all know, January has traditionally ... Read more
At World Travel Market London this year, I ran a Summit called Future Digital Thinking. I split this into 2 two hour sessions, the first focusing on the hospitality sector ... Read more
It wasn’t the best of times, it was the worst of times, it wasn’t the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it wasn’t the epoch of belief, ... Read more
A recent study by Carlson Wagonlit Travel has discovered that business travellers tend to take four technology devices with them on trips. The survey of more than 1,900 business travellers ... Read more
In the last month, I was invited by an airline to contribute to a strategy day. A few external experts such as myself had been invited along to the strategy ... Read more
The Data Protection Act 1998 is old news. Taking over is the General Data Protection Regulation. The Regulation will harmonise data privacy laws across Europe. It will protect EU citizens’ ... Read more
Many opinions have been written about the technology issue that affected BA and the way in which the airline handled the situation. It must be one of the worst PR ... Read more
A week or so ago I was chairing this year’s Eyefortravel Europe conference. All of the important subjects of the day were discussed, including mobile, data, personalisation, disruptive technology, artificial ... Read more
A news story in the UK press ran a couple of weeks ago about Term-time holidays: Supreme Court rules father must pay fine for taking daughter out of school. John ... Read more
In the early days of the Internet, we tried to forecast how it would change the way travel was sold. A common prediction was that the Internet would cause travel ... Read more
Mentioned in the news over the last few days is the London Science Museum’s Robot exhibition. It will be exploring the 500-year quest to recreate ourselves in mechanistic form. On display will ... Read more
I have worked with many travel companies across the years, helping them to buy new systems. It is very important to buy the system that will best suit your business. ... Read more
I often mention that travel is an information product. When it is purchased it is no more than information on a computer hard drive. It doesn’t physically exist. Not only ... Read more
Another World Travel Market has come and gone. I held my Genesys Digital Transformation Summit there on the Tuesday. The seminar room was completely full and we all heard some ... Read more
Once again, I have organised a couple of the technology/digital travel events at World Travel Market this year. I have been doing this for quite a few years. I am ... Read more
I like to think that I am online savvy, so when my wife suggested we have a short break in Iceland, my first thought was to get on the web ... Read more
It was shocking to read about the recent demise of LowCost Travel Group last month. Just take a look at the Administrator’s message on the Group’s website. Under the heading, ... Read more
At the beginning of the month I ran the first of my Genesys Happiest Minds Executive Series seminars in partnership with Happiest Minds. The idea is that we will hold ... Read more
Last week I was moderating Travel Technology Initiative’s Summer Forum that I organised. The subject was Revenue Management. I called the Forum ‘Money for Nothing.’ My thinking was that this ... Read more
I founded Genesys over 21 years ago. Back then, the Internet and the digital world that we know today were simply unheard of. Tim Berners-Lee had already conceived the idea ... Read more
Disruption is the buzzword of our times. It is being powered by forward-thinking entrepreneurs who have the vision and tenacity to make their dreams come true. They are seeing opportunities ... Read more
TripAdvisor is the largest travel site on Earth. Its statistics are staggering. In Q3 2015, it reported reaching 350 million unique monthly visitors. It has more than 290 million reviews ... Read more
At this time of year, it is always fun to try and predict what significant happenings are going to take place in the coming twelve months. Thankfully, no one bothers ... Read more
I have recently been exposed to revenue management. At the beginning of the month, I attended a Revenue Management and Pricing International (RMAPI) event. Watching the presentations and listening to ... Read more
I had a busy few days at World Travel Market at the beginning of this month. On Monday, I was moderating the WTM Travel Innovation Summit in Association with TTI ... Read more
The world is inexorably moving away from broadcast television. In days of old, viewers across the country would sit down together in their millions to watch the most popular TV ... Read more
Did you read the latest Ashley Madison byline? Before the data breach it was “Life is short. Have an affair.” I think it now reads, “Life is going to be ... Read more
You know you are doing a good job when other players in your marketplace start attacking you. So, for example, the Daily Telegraph headline last month, “Courtney Love attacked by ... Read more
Over the next few weeks, I will be organising Travel Technology Initiative’s Autumn conference. The title of the event is Digital Transformation. This has got me thinking about what does ... Read more
This week I am chairing a Forum I have organised for Travel Technology Initiative and the European Tourism Association. I have called the event The Hotel Distribution Revolution. The online ... Read more
We have lift off! The Apple Watch has launched and may finally take wearables into orbit. The big question, though, is will it become as an essential electronic accessory as ... Read more
A study recently completed by the University of Derby concludes that some people have become addicted to their smartphones, ie. they have become physically and mentally dependent on their devices. ... Read more
Who remembers the old days, when air travel was fun and exciting, when you didn’t need to buy a Business or First Class ticket to make the trip bearable? Sadly, ... Read more
Expedia has just purchased Travelocity from Sabre for $280 million in cash. This comes after Sabre’s recent sale of lastminute.com to Bravofly Rumbo for $120 million. Following the Travelocity deal, ... Read more
The major online travel agencies, Expedia and Priceline’s Booking.com, seem to have the travel market sewn up, sucking in customers like celestial black holes. Their large market shares are driven ... Read more
At WTM last week, I was running my Genesys Sessions seminar programme on the Tuesday. I had three speakers in each session covering the subjects of mobile, search engines, big ... Read more
After 10 years plus, I am putting my hobby website, travelfromHere.com, up for sale. Take a look and you will see that it is a very straightforward directory of websites ... Read more
Image: Dilbert Some news in the last few days has reminded me of one of the subjects I was addressing at my World Travel Market seminar back in 2010. The ... Read more
Image: TepWireless I make no apologies for getting back to the subject of mobile. It is simply the most important issue that is affecting travel right now. It is vital ... Read more
At the beginning of June, I organised the recent Distribution Best Practice Forum for Travel Technology Initiative – www.tti.org. (TTI will be partnering with WTM to bring you the WTM ... Read more
There is one area of travel that technology has yet to tackle well. We are getting there but I don’t think that it is yet good enough. Pre-Internet when travel ... Read more
Nucleus, the brand, digital and intellectual property consultancy has been regularly surveying its clients since 2011, tracking the growth in mobile web browsing. The company’s latest survey highlights the continued ... Read more
This year World Travel Market will be celebrating its 35th event. I thought it might be interesting to write a retrospective on how the technology exhibited at WTM has changed ... Read more
This is a tale about the storyfication of travel. Once upon a time there was an industry called Travel. It sold holidays to People. People were happy. Travel would tell ... Read more
2014 is set to be the year of the tablet. These user friendly devices are expected to make the long-expected jump to global acceptance. Recent figures show that 47.6 million ... Read more
