Adapting to new world order – Ramsumesh Menon, CEO, Go Gosaibi Travel – Bahrain

Ramsumesh Menon reiterated, “over the past months we have been going through many changes but we have also seen the emergence of a different kind of audience. Some fight old systems whilst another school of thought accept change, prudent people know how to adapt for new scenarios.” He further stated the relevance between a travel agent and OTA spaces although he runs a typical Travel Management Company with more offline services as well as processors are digitalized. He mentioned that technology can be relevant as today there is ample information available over the internet. “Travellers are exposed to so much information through the internet. If you are looking at ICAO guidelines there are more than five stages of the recovery process with normalized operations. Many airports have adapted touchless solutions such as Bangalore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and Heathrow. Digital integration to smartphone applications is one of the key drivers to ascertain authorization to travel, PCR tests, or information on vaccination. IATA travel pass used by Etihad, Emirates, and other airlines will be another new way for authorization. Augmented reality and AI will provide a new journey as a customer experience. Never has there been a period where the travel agent has become important in terms of disseminating information, giving the right advice, etc. Travel agents can use technology to enable the services to make it seamless and efficient to enable the processes but never can the human factors cease to exist, it will remain.”