ZUMATA

Our aim is to make travel personal again


ZUMATA is a data company that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to provide other companies a set of tools that maximize sales from hotel bookings. We are proud to be the only hotel distribution partner of IBM Watson.

ZUMATA began in year 2010, as a B2B travel technology company that consolidated dozens of hotel suppliers and delivered hotel pricing, availability, and static content to online travel agencies. As a result of the data we have accumulated, we are progressing to apply artificial intelligence to deliver a premium content set, provide the most relevant search results, and facilitate customer service.

ZUMATA’s cutting edge travel technology and consolidated hotel inventory represents over 400,000 properties globally from a large number of suppliers. Accurate mapping and significant supplier overlap allows our partners to achieve lower cost prices, decrease reliance upon any single supplier, and optimize customer conversions.

Whether our partners utilize our custom-made websites that support air, cars, hotels and activities, or if they leverage our powerful hotel API directly, they’ll realize enormous technical savings, operational savings, and dramatically decrease their time to market while also increasing their profit simultaneously.

ZUMATA delivers best-in-class services for corporate travel, reward and loyalty players, travel marketplaces, GDS’s, and just about any form of online and offline travel agent.
Company Details:
190 Middle Road
#11-04A Fortune Centre
Singapore 188979
Contact at Digi.travel
Josh Ziegler
Chief Executive Officer
Website:
www.zumata.com
Interview
Josh Ziegler

Josh Ziegler
Chief Executive Officer

What is the biggest trend in digital technology which will affect the travel & hospitality industry in the following years?

Without question, the explosion of data and the ability to harness it and leverage it for insights will have profound impacts for many years to come.  We’re only at the very beginning of this transformation, yet impressive results are already being seen.  Companies that are able to employ technologies surrounding machine learning and more broadly artificial intelligence, will quickly become leaders.  These techniques can be used to improve the user experience which leads to higher conversions, greater loyalty, lower customer churn, and can even reduce operating costs.  The benefits are simply too strong to ignore, and those who do not keep pace will quickly be left behind.

What is the most important challenge travel & hospitality professional will face in the digital era?

Lack of internal technology competencies and resources is something most travel and hospitality professionals fail to admit.  Worse still, many are not actively seeking a solutions provider who can help them with the deep technical understanding required to secure, manage, or utilize the data they either have available or should be collecting.   The speed of change is increasing daily, and absent a plan and taking action today, the businesses that do not embrace a digital mindset will cease to operate and these same travel & hospitality professionals will be seeking new employment absent the skillset of the modern age.

What solutions are you planning to present to the Digi.travel delegates and what issues these solutions solve?

I will start with a high level intro to the various technologies that form the wider category of artificial intelligence.  I’ll continue into describing some current use-cases in the travel and hospitality industry to demonstrate how companies are deploying these technologies to solve some of their most pressing problems.  This will include topics surrounding enhancing the customer experience through the entire customer journey.  Starting with data aggregation, search results and personalization, as well as customer service automation.  Lastly, I’ll discuss simple ways that the audience can begin to use these technologies.