Nilüfer Durukal, Managing Partner of Talya Bilişim, emphasizes that tourism is undergoing a significant transformation, with the all-inclusive system that has been customary for decades giving way to boutique hotel management. She states, "A smaller-scale, personalized, differentiated service approach is coming. This is a situation that will affect all dynamics of the sector. As in every business, three concepts remain most important in hotels: 1. Cost control 2. Sales profitability 3. Customer satisfaction (Repeat Guests)." At this point, technology and digital transformation come to our aid. Digital transformation means producing products and services using digital tools. The tourism sector has correctly understood digitalization and is implementing it rapidly. "Digital Change and Transformation" has become one of the most focused topics in the tourism sector in recent years. An important point here is which digital technologies can be used in tourism. Nilüfer Durukal, Managing Partner of Talya Bilişim, states, "Our top priority should be to reduce IT department costs through the advantages provided by web technologies and cloud computing." She provides the following information: "All our systems should be able to communicate with each other so that data is entered at a single point, allowing us to receive very detailed reports from different perspectives. By leveraging artificial intelligence, we can increase profitability in sales. As you know, profitability is now prioritized over occupancy. Hotels prefer to sell at a higher price with 90% occupancy rather than being 100% full. The guest profile is also changing accordingly. More conscious tourists who spend more money are arriving." Digitalization offers every opportunity to plan, implement, and analyze every moment of the long business process in tourism, such as pre-reservation marketing activities, pricing, online reservation processes, accommodation experience, and post-accommodation CRM and customer relations. Elektraweb, offered by Talya Bilişim, enables managing a hotel digitally in all departments—from front office to accounting, room and floor services to restaurant, connections to international sales channels like Booking and Expedia, and personnel and spa management. While doing this, it facilitates the efficient use of resources and controls stock and waste management. It also reduces hotel costs, providing savings. According to Nilüfer Durukal, Managing Partner of Talya Bilişim, with the more active use of artificial intelligence applications, important progress has been made in data interpretation and action-taking processes. In short, "Digital Transformation" returns to the tourism sector as cost savings, increased reservations, error reduction, remarkable speed, and high customer satisfaction.
Digitalization is our best supporter. Planning and monitoring every moment of a touristic activity digitally end-to-end means eliminating the "human error" factor. However, the key phrase here is eliminating "human error," not "human." Dystopian perspectives create great fears that machines will replace humans. Nilüfer Durukal emphasizes that she does not agree with this: "Turkey’s tourism increases its level of digitalization every year due to reasons such as the pandemic, legal obligations, competition with the global market, etc. Compared to 10 years ago, the way all tourism businesses operate—from hotels to agencies, from restaurants to entertainment venues—has 'changed the era.' However, a brief research will reveal that the tourism sector is in great search of human resources. There are many reasons for this: whether you call it the pandemic, lack of vision, or economic deadlocks. But my conclusion is this; the acceleration of digitalization does not mean less need for human resources, it means a change in the "quality" of that need."
Digital literacy is exemplified by Durukal: "Today, when hiring a housekeeping staff member, a basic level of 'digital literacy' is expected. Some may find this strange. However, for hotels that use web-based digital business management systems, this is a necessity. Because the staff is expected to perform room cleanliness/dirty status, minibar information, and fault notifications via their own mobile phones or internet-enabled devices, to follow assigned tasks, and even to create new work orders. The same applies to service staff, technical service workers, and kitchen teams. Why are 'Call Centers' still the favorite of businesses in reservation processes where digitalization is very effective? Because the center of tourism is human."
To shape the future, according to Durukal, if we talk about the future of tourism, we need to mention the changing guest profile: senior tourism, health tourism, religious tourism, solo travel, and increasing time spent online; every day more guests plan and purchase all stages of their vacation online. So how well can our systems keep up with this change? How well do we know our guests, and how quickly can we do this? Durukal’s answer is: "We need to eliminate the lack of vision that thinks CRM is just sending birthday greeting messages from our lives. Digitalization must bring a professional perspective. We must update all tourism education with a modern and technology-based approach. I am sure we will see the effects of this mindset not only in tourism but in every moment of our lives. Because a properly trained tourism professional will internalize concepts like sustainability, green tourism, and service quality and enter the sector accordingly. Their economic and environmental contributions to their destinations will be undeniable."
Regarding support for education, Durukal explains that software companies like Talya Bilişim, which play a crucial role in the digitalization process of the tourism sector, have important responsibilities. Therefore, Talya Bilişim provides the Elektraweb Hotel Program free of charge to 193 universities, vocational schools, and high schools that offer tourism education. They also intensely share knowledge with educators who write textbooks.
