Travel reservations and the Internet are no longer inseparable, such as accommodation reservations for travel and business trips, and tour reservations for important trips with family and friends. Data science course London looks into Japan’s largest travel agency, JTB to know more about data science marketing.

JTB, the largest travel agency in Japan, was one of the first in the industry to start full-scale Internet sales in 1998 and is still supported by many customers, but the company uses data to promote digital marketing. Is it unfolding? We interviewed Mr. Akihito Fukuda, General Manager of Data Science Central, JTB Web Sales Department.

How Science is Used in the Travel Industry

Data Science Marketing: Decoding the customer’s context from the data

First, let’s summarize what an organization called Data Science Central is like. The organization manages integrated data centered on the data infrastructure developed based on the Arm Treasure Data CDP of treasure data, customer analysis using that data, and planning of specific marketing measures based on that analysis. According to Mr. Fukuda, it was launched in April 2018, in which the cycle of execution is circulated within one organization.

“We used to analyze data, but we were only able to collect and aggregate various data within the company, and we were only able to extract and aggregate data. We built a solid customer understanding system. Data Science Central, which integrates customer analysis and execution from the database infrastructure, was launched in an attempt to create an organization that holds the largest amount of accommodation inventory in the industry and is a JTB targeting a deep and wide market. I’m just trying to find out what kind of One-to-One communication is appropriate. “(Mr. Fukuda)

This Data Science Central is not only focused on the customer journey of the customer but it is also characterized by understanding the structure of the customer. In general, data marketing in BtoC seeks out communication hints in the customer journey by unraveling interests from contact points and analyzing the examination process leading to purchasing. However, JTB’s main purpose is to discover the customer’s awareness and preference for travel from the huge amount of data and to systematically understand the characteristics of the customer. It is the task of finding a characteristic customer “context” from a huge amount of transactions.

JTB Digital Marketing in General

In general digital marketing, people who are interested in traveling in Hawaii find out from the data what kind of attributes they have and what kind of media they are in contact with, and think about an approach. However, JTB analyzes customers based on the idea that even people who want to go to Hawaii have different needs. As a result, beginners traveling to Hawaii have a conspicuous need for “a hotel with an ocean view”, and experienced travelers have a conspicuous need for “emphasis on access to activities”. Regardless of their attributes, they are trying to face customers by changing the context of communication according to different needs.

“It doesn’t make sense to cut by age and attributes, and I want to segment with the required quality of travel,” (Mr. Fukuda).

According to Fukuda, in such data analysis, it is important not to simply read the data mathematically, but to imagine the story behind the data. He also says that he is trying to build a team that emphasizes such points at Data Science Central.

“When you look at numbers, some people get caught up in it and try to look at things technically, but if you gather people who are good at imagining the other side of the data and understanding and interpreting it, women will unintentionally each I became the leader of the section “(Mr. Fukuda)