Decizium / YourTour: interview with Emmanuel Guisset
Decizium team launches their "YourTour's trip engine technology" , a new step for the mass-customization of travel packages and itineraries.
They have a stand at ITB (hall 6.1, stand 141). I suggest you contact them and make a appointment and business!
Emmanuel Guisset tell us more about Decizium and the YourTour technology.
> Emmanuel, can you tell some information about you and the Decizium team.
Well, Decizium started in 2005 after 10 years of R&D in collaboration with the Polytechnic Faculty of Mons. Last year, we received some private and public investments and since then we've been working on improving our technology, business development and creating a B2C website.
As far I am concerned, after receiving my international business degree, I traveled quite a lot and completed a few internships abroad until Decizium allowed me to stay in the travel world and be part of a new exciting challenge: changing the way Internet users buy travel packages.
Currently, Decizium, located in Belgium employs a young international team of 10.
>Can you give us some outline about your goals with YOUR TOUR!
We have spent years developing our YourTour system, under which it is no longer necessary for tourists to make a trade-off between a tailor-made holiday where he/she might need to wait days before obtaining a first trip proposition, and a pre-packaged offer that is not tuned to his/her wishes but that is immediately available. The system makes possible what seemed to be impossible: the mass-customization of travel packages and itineraries.
YourTour's trip engine technology allows travel companies to go much further than the currently available packaging solutions by taking into account the appropriate on-site activities for the tourist and automatically arranging it all (transportation, accommodations and activities) in a coherent way, using multiple criteria.
This results in a comprehensive and detailed travel itinerary, accommodating the restrictions imposed by the tourist (trip duration, areas to visit, travel budget, etc.) and respecting the tourist's compromise between the various costs (for transportation, accommodations and activities) and the appeal of the trip (quality of the activities, hotel comfort level, etc.).
In addition, we are currently developing a B2C website that will allow tourists to build and book their customized self drive trip in France in a few clicks. Indeed, we feel it was necessary to have something online to reach better the B2B market. You'll have to wait until it's online to learn more…
> Tourism is a people business and a destination experience with personal encounters. Do you think the community can leverage a destination or a product thanks a web site and tools like YOUR TOUR?
Yes indeed, in our B2C website www.yourtour.com we take that into account and benefit from collective wisdom. For example, if a user interested in golf gives bad feedback about a golf course then the our system is less likely to use that golf course in future packages.
>Who will use your services ? Do you have a target audience ?
Hotel chains, tour-operators and online travel agents. YourTour can also be a great tool for travel guides and tourism offices to promote a country or a region in a different way.
For example, hotel chains will be able to use our technology to propose individualized trips to their clients who plan to stay exclusively, or mostly, at the chain's properties.
Indeed, a study on customized products, carried out by Hotel Magazine, mentions that hotels realize that the key to their growth lies in individualizing package deals. By offering a customized experience, hotels build brand loyalty, lengthen stays, and may increase their rates.
The current solution is to design custom-made trips by hand, which requires a considerable amount of time. With the help of our technology, a hotel chain can offer the same level of service at a much lower cost and a much faster response, even available for last minute departures.
> Can you give us some Practical Applications examples for Your Tour?
We recently signed a contract with a Belgian tour operator, Best Tours, whose aim is to decrease the manual work involved in creating personalized packages for Thailand and to improve the response time when replying to their clients with a personalized offer.
Another tour operator, Transeurope will soon be using YourTour technology on their own website, so their customers can create their own personalized tours online for trips to the south of Spain.
>Internet is going faster and we talk now about Web 2.0 and Travel 2.0. What do you think about this evolution in the tourism & hotel market place ?
Social media and User Generated Content are the big trends for Travel 2.0 ?
YourTour surfs on these trends! YourTour users can also participate by adding and reviewing attractions and hotels.
> Where are you in ITB?
We are in hall 6.1, stand 141. Come and visit us and get the chance to see a sneak preview of YourTour technology!
>What are your tastes for:
>Travel destination:
In Europe, my favorite cities are definitely Lisbon and San Sebastian.
Elsewhere, I am big fan of Latin America ( Brazil, Costa Rica and Ecuador are my favorites and let's say that my dream is to go to hard-to-access destinations, such as a small group of islands lost in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Andaman Islands.
As for business travel, well its not as fun but I can't wait to discover Berlin.
>Hotel :
For business, I definitely choose Best Western's hotels.
For private travel, well I don't stay usually in hotels, I prefer to stay with locals. Above all, traveling is about meeting different people.
>Business:
Start-up companies rule!!
>You have the micro!
Keep your eyes open in June 2008, we are planning to push our YOUR TOUR technology online with www.yourtour.com.
As for B2B, we are looking for early adopters…
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Thanks Emmanuel, I can't wait to see your demonstration.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:00 am
Désolé, mais impossible d’entrer sur le site de YOURTOUR. Demande répétitive du mot de passe!!!