As the digital world evolves rapidly, organisations depend more than ever on strong IT systems and solutions to stay competitive and fuel innovation. However, a challenge most companies face are the shortage and high wages for these skilled IT talents. This shortage is caused by several factors like high demand for IT skills, specialised roles, and constant global competition. As a result, many businesses face project delays, high costs, and inefficiencies when trying to complete large IT projects.

In an industry where accuracy and effectiveness are crucial, the growing deficiency in ticketing skills among travel professionals is becoming a significantly growing issue. As the travel landscape evolves and customer expectations soar, the gap in ticketing proficiency threatens to undermine the effectiveness and competitiveness of travel agents.

The travel industry is a dynamic and fast-paced sector, and one essential aspect of Travel Agency operations is fare auditing—the process of reviewing contract rates and fares to ensure correct fares are loaded into the GDS. Whilst simple, fare monitoring and audit is crucial and aids to prevent unnoticed loss for both Travel Agencies and the end-clients.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the global travel and tourism industry suffered a loss of 62 million jobs and $4.5 trillion in GDP in 2020 due to the pandemic. The pandemic has forced travel agencies to rethink their business models and strategies – with many having to shut down or lay off employees, and those that survived faced a highly uncertain and competitive market.

The pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the global travel and tourism sector and its repercussions are still being felt. According to a Statista report, over 50 million travel jobs have been lost globally during the span of the pandemic. Now as we see restrictions being lifted gradually since mid 2022, demand surge has in turn created severe travel chaos in various countries – as seen in major cities such as London and the United States.

The surge of the COVID-19 outbreak for the past 2 years has led to a continued global rise in inflation, staffing shortages and widespread disruption of the global economy. Yet, the outsourcing industry has so far proved to be resilient in times of turmoil. According to a Statista report, the BPO industry is projected to reach US$330 billion by the end of year. This includes a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.69%, leading to a market volume of US$450 billion by 2027.

There is still a month left before we enter 2023, but the warnings of incoming economic downturns are already coming in thick and fast. According to KPMG’s latest CEO survey, 86% of top executives believe there will be an economic recession in the next 12 months. This is indicated by the tightening of monetary policy in 54 countries, rising interest rates and inflation for these past few months – not to mention the Russia Ukraine war and COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing.

As the Travel & Aviation industry is returning back to its pre-pandemic levels, revenue and profit maximisation opportunities in the industry are on the rise. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) projects industry-wide revenue this year could result in a 54.5% increase from last year and fulfil 93.3% of the 2019 level, the last full year before Covid. Meanwhile, costs will be 44% lower year over year. According to a recent report from McKinsey & Co, the aviation industry has a massive opportunity in the years ahead with a projected value of $440.6 billion by 2030.

Organisations are constantly relying on emerging technologies to help drive strategy and growth whilst enabling them to work more efficiently in numerous ways. Finding the right software solution often comes as one of the most important stress points in organisations.

With the surge of travel demand since the lifting of most countries’ pandemic restrictions, the severe chaos in the aviation sector is undeniable and inevitable. According to FlightAware tracking data, airports around the world were already tallying more than 10,000 flight delays and 1,700 cancellations. Nearly four in five travellers (79%) who have taken an overnight trip outside their local area this year, according to a new Bankrate.com survey, have experienced at least one travel-related issue. Issues currently faced by customers and aviation providers include high prices (57%), long waits (29%), poor customer service (27%), hard-to-find availability (26%), lost money due to cancelled or disrupted plans (14%) or something else (4%).