Travel - Microsoft Industry Blogs http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/industry/blog/manufacturing-and-mobility/travel/ Fri, 11 Oct 2024 16:22:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/industry/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element-32x32.png Travel - Microsoft Industry Blogs http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/industry/blog/manufacturing-and-mobility/travel/ 32 32 AI solutions and data platforms for the aviation industry http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/industry/blog/manufacturing-and-mobility/2024/10/09/ai-solutions-and-data-platforms-for-the-aviation-industry/ Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:00:00 +0000 The aviation industry is entering a new era: airlines and airports worldwide are on the brink of transformation, driven by the power of generative AI.

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Introducing a new industry reference architecture for airlines and airports

The aviation industry is entering a new era: airlines and airports worldwide are on the brink of transformation, driven by the power of generative AI. This powerful technology is creating new value at every stage of the aviation ecosystem, revolutionizing the way we fly and operate. From personalized travel offers to instant responses for customer service requests, AI is enhancing every step of your journey, making travel smoother and more personalized than ever before.

Generative AI is also transforming the core operations of airlines and airports. Research shows that up to 35% of flight delays can be reduced through AI-powered decision-making—saving time, reducing stress, and increasing safety for both travelers and staff.1

AI is also reshaping the workforce. With streamlined tasks and smarter tools, staff can dedicate more time to enhancing the passenger experience—both on the ground and in the air. AI-powered personalization can increase revenue per passenger by 10 to 15%. At the same time, intelligent AI chatbots can reduce customer service costs by up to 30%, creating significant value for both airlines and airports.2

This is the future of aviation. AI is not just a tool—it’s a revolution, creating value across the entire industry. Microsoft has developed a new industry reference architecture enabling AI for a seamless traveler journey, efficient airline operations, and enhanced airport operations. 

Seamless traveler journey

The experience begins the moment a traveler considers a trip. They can interact with an AI-powered mobile app to explore options, book flights, and receive personalized recommendations. Throughout their journey, the app serves as a digital assistant, providing real-time updates on flight status, gate changes, and the weather at the destination. At the airport, travelers can navigate through a touchless experience, from check-in to security, using biometric identification and e-boarding passes on their mobile devices. The app continues to assist by guiding them to their gate, offering lounge access, and updating any travel alerts.

Once on board, the digital assistant ensures a comfortable experience by allowing travelers to control in-flight entertainment, order food and items from the onboard shop, and adjust seating preferences through their mobile device. The journey concludes with the app facilitating a smooth arrival process, including customs and baggage claim guidance, and arranging for ground transportation. Throughout this journey, AI and machine learning algorithms work behind the scenes to anticipate needs, offer timely assistance, and personalize the travel experience.

Air India passengers, for example, now get answers to all their questions from planning to arrival at their fingertips. Their AI.g virtual assistant, powered by Microsoft AI services, quickly proposes a travel itinerary for passengers, finds answers about check-in options and flight status, recommends the best food options, finds the next business lounge or helps with lost luggage. Another example is Saudia Airlines. The flag carrier of Saudi Arabia developed an AI-powered travel companion for their passengers using Microsoft technology to enable travel-related services like: planning and booking, refund management, and exploring new destinations.

Efficient airline operations

AI working on data platforms enhances efficiency and customer experience across various segments of the airline value chain.

  • In aircraft handling, AI-powered predictive maintenance can forecast potential issues before they occur, minimizing downtime and ensuring timely operations. Ground support equipment can be optimized using AI algorithms to streamline processes and reduce delays.
  • In ground operations, AI can manage complex logistics, from baggage handling to fuel management, by analyzing vast amounts of data to optimize workflows and resource allocation. This leads to smoother operations and can significantly reduce turnaround times for aircraft.
  • Flight operations benefit from AI through advanced analytics that can assist in route planning, weather forecasting, and fuel consumption optimization. By leveraging historical data and real-time inputs, AI can provide pilots and flight planners with insights that lead to safer and more cost-effective flights.
  • For marketing and sales, AI enables personalized customer experiences by analyzing customer data to tailor offerings and promotions. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and revenue as airlines can offer the right product to the right customer at the right time.
  • In customer support, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants provide around the clock support, handling inquiries and resolving issues promptly. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also frees up human agents to deal with more complex queries, enhancing overall service quality.

Lufthansa, for example, developed the one data platform built on Microsoft Azure to provide self-service applications and leverage cognitive AI services like image and speech recognition.

“Leveraging Microsoft Azure’s robust cloud capabilities, we’ve transformed Lufthansa’s operations with a unified data platform. This innovation empowers us to optimize every aspect of our service, from ground operations to in-flight experiences, ensuring punctuality and safety across our global network—continuing to use AI will help us advance to the level.”

Ganesh Swaminathan, Head of Platforms, Lufthansa Group Digital Hangar

American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, is using Azure as its preferred cloud platform. Their team members now use the ConnectMe app for the latest crew information while the airline is using AI to reduce taxi time and turn times at gates.

Enhanced airport operations

Generative AI and data platforms also play a pivotal role in enhancing airport operations, catering to the needs of tens of thousands of passengers daily. Airports can optimize their critical infrastructure management, such as energy, water, and climate control. The integration of AI into security and emergency services significantly enhances their capabilities, providing a safer and more secure environment for travelers. Connected transportation systems such as buses and trains benefit from predictive analytics and real-time data processing capabilities, leading to improved scheduling and passenger flow management.

In the realm of commerce, which encompasses retail stores and restaurants within the airport, generative AI and data platforms offer valuable insights into consumer behavior, enabling businesses to tailor their services and inventory to meet the dynamic needs of passengers.

The logistics and supply chains for cargo, fuel, and baggage are also transformed by these technologies, with AI-powered systems facilitating better tracking, forecasting, and management of resources. This results in a more streamlined and cost-effective operation, reducing delays and enhancing the overall passenger experience. Fraport has introduced FraportGPT, an example of an employee-facing app powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to streamline internal processes.

“Fraport’s company GPT app, powered by Generative AI, has been a resounding success, swiftly adopted by our team. It’s not just streamlined our processes; it’s accelerated skill acquisition, empowering our employees to master new competencies with unprecedented speed.”

Christian Wrobel, Chief Data Architect, Fraport AG

Together with Microsoft, Miami International Airport (MIA) has developed a centralized data hub environment, known as the Common Data Environment (CDE), to store, manage, and share business data, apps, and business process flows. This is crucial for breaking down data silos and ensuring data accessibility for analysis and helps unlocking additional value from generative AI.

“By integrating various data sources, including on-premises, cloud, and edge environments, we provide a unified and scalable platform for data management. This is the basis, and together with our partner Microsoft we will now be able to leverage advanced technologies such as AI, machine learning, and IoT to gain insights, make data-driven decisions, and drive innovation.”

Maurice Jenkins, Chief Innovation Officer, Miami International Airport

The overarching reference architecture and partners

Our common architecture for airports and airlines is built among core elements with the ultimate goal to create AI-enhanced experiences for everyone, from passengers to ground personnel: the creation of user-facing applications, data storage and analytics, and data ingestion and integration of existing data systems.

The AI-enhanced experiences are tailored to each user group.

  • For passengers, it is all about a smooth journey from origin to destination, with plenty of time to enjoy travel with retail, entertainment, and restaurant offers.
  • Ground staff and customer service focus on making the passenger experience smooth, even when something goes wrong.
  • Pilots and crew members require support for coordination, communication, and the reduction of their management overload.
  • For technicians, it is about knowing where to go next, reducing cognitive workload for maintenance and repair tasks, and automating documentation.
  • Terminal managers require support to manage traffic, ensure security, and provide travel comfort.
  • For airside operators, it is about managing baggage, refueling, and safety.

Different user groups require different backend applications and data sources. The user-facing applications layer describes some of the common front-end experiences that can be built using Microsoft services.

  • End users require mobile and web applications built using services such as Azure API Management, Azure App Service and Azure Functions. Developers create AI-powered user experiences leveraging services such as Azure OpenAI Service. These applications can be deployed in Azure tenants and can scale to millions of users.
  • Business users leverage Dynamics 365 (Customer Service, Finance, Project Operations, and Customer Insights) to manage business operations, such as claims, promotions, and ticketing. Dynamics 365 has built-in custom agents for many common business use cases such as customer service, sales, finance, field service, and customer insights.
  • Front line workers are fully integrated in the business with customized workflows and automated operations with custom AI, tailored to their needs and the ergonomics of their workplaces—wherever fixed terminals, mobile devices, or augmented reality. Microsoft Copilot Studio facilitates the creation of custom AI agents to support their work. Power Apps enables the creation of custom user interfaces, while Power Automate enables the creation of business workflows.
  • With Microsoft 365 Copilot, employees can collaborate and communicate using Microsoft products such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook.

The operation of airports and airlines generates large amounts of data. The data storage and analytics layer describes how to securely store business data to support operations and create insights.

  • Microsoft Dataverse is a scalable data platform that securely stores and manage business data. The data model is a structure framework that organizes data in tables with relationships. It is possible to use industry models to harmonize and integrate business data across multiple applications.
  • Microsoft Fabric is an end-to-end data and analytics platform that includes real-time analytics capabilities. OneLake is a unified logical data lake that centralizes and simplifies data management, with multiple analytical engines and workspaces. Fabric enables organizations to process and analyze data for timely insights and decision making.

Airports and airlines are established businesses. It is important to integrate existing data systems, such as connected assets as well as existing systems. Messaging services on Azure enables connectivity to assets and devices using standardized communication protocols such as Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) with Azure Event Grid, or data streams like Apache Kafka using Azure Event Hubs. Serverless solutions like Azure Functions provide compute to process messages.

We’re also proud to collaborate with leading partners driving innovation in aviation.

  • Amadeus and Microsoft have formed a global strategic partnership that harnesses cloud technology to innovate and explore new products and solutions and create smoother travel experiences.
  • SAP deployments on Azure provide robust cloud solutions tailored to customer needs.
  • Our partnership with SITA, and their SITA Mission Control solution, helps duty personnel anticipate and respond to real-time changes during flight operations.
  • We also integrate independent software vendors (ISVs), such as SmartKargo, PROS, and Satavia, to contribute to a smarter, more connected aviation ecosystem.

Creating frontline worker experiences

Frontline worker experiences are highly customized to the task and require constant adaptation. The power of low-code platforms like Power Apps and Copilot Studio significantly reduce the time to value, allowing for rapid development and deployment of tailored solutions. These platforms enable the integration of multiple data sources, such as location-based services, logistical information from Dynamics 365, and documentation search. Additionally, task support is enhanced through the use of knowledge graphs and manuals, while collaboration and information regarding connected assets are seamlessly incorporated.

Overcoming the challenges of using AI in aviation

While the potential of AI in aviation is immense, there are key challenges: defining the most valuable AI use cases, setting up cloud infrastructure, organizing the data estate, and minimizing costs during development, testing, and deployment phases.

Microsoft addresses the challenges of AI in aviation by working closely with partners, establishing a framework for responsible and trusted AI principles, and leveraging its comprehensive suite of tools and services. It helps define valuable AI use cases through collaborative workshops and industry-specific solutions. Azure provides scalable cloud infrastructure, while Microsoft Dataverse and OneLake streamline data management. Cost efficiency is achieved through optimized development, testing, and deployment processes. Additionally, Microsoft provides extensive training programs to equip employees with necessary AI skills and collaborates with regulatory bodies to ensure compliance with legal frameworks governing AI usage.

Moving forward with generative AI in aviation

Taking advantage of generative AI requires a pragmatic approach, where existing solutions are combined with new capabilities and partner solutions. Correctly identifying the use cases with the highest priority and impact is critical for success.

Visit Microsoft for travel and transportation or contact our team to learn more and take the next step in your AI journey.

“We’re excited to introduce our new reference architecture for the aviation industry, built on Azure’s cloud capabilities and advanced AI tools. What truly makes this effort stand out is our collaboration with leading aviation partners. Together with our partners, we’re shaping the future of the aviation industry.”

Julie Shainock, Managing Director Travel & Transportation Industry, Microsoft

“Microsoft’s Industry Solutions team is ready to help you deliver and implement AI-driven solutions across your organization: From a first [proof of concept] POC to full-scale rollouts, we are dedicated to providing the expertise you need to ensure a smooth and successful deployment.”

Eric Chaniot, General Manager of AI Industry Solutions, Microsoft

“At Microsoft Cloud for Industries, we are committed to empowering our partners with proven patterns and comprehensive enablement resources. By leveraging our industry-specific solutions and collaborative approach, we help partners accelerate innovation, streamline operations, and deliver exceptional value so that their customers can achieve more.”

Monica Ugwi, General Manager Cloud for Industries, Manufacturing & Mobility, Microsoft


1Worldmetrics: AI in the Airline Industry, 2024.

2The economic potential of generative AI, McKinsey & Co., 2023.

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The metaverse: An evolution in transportation, travel, and hospitality http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/industry/blog/manufacturing-and-mobility/2022/11/29/the-metaverse-an-evolution-in-transportation-travel-and-hospitality/ Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:30:00 +0000 We have only begun to scratch the surface of possibilities with the metaverse. It will continue to be an evolving platform that will dramatically change the way we interact with the world around us.

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The amount of hype around the metaverse is overwhelming

It has been 30 years since author Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi novel Snow Crash appeared and the term metaverse was coined. During that timeframe, we have seen the launch of online networks that embody many of the metaverse’s most important concepts, without ever using the term.

The rebranding of Facebook to Meta in October 2021 significantly increased metaverse conversation, and the hype has been driven by a variety of technology players preemptively claiming to be metaverse companies or to be creating a metaverse.

Metaverse is one of the latest technology buzzwords to hit the headlines. What is it and will it revolutionize everything? The answer is yes, no, and maybe. Is it simply the latest phase in the evolution of business transformation? Certainly, the metaverse expands the traditional notion of an ecosystem into a 21st-century virtual business, social, and collaborative interaction space.

Accelerate the future of mobility

Microsoft accelerates the transformation of automotive, mobility, and transportation by improving productivity, operations, innovation, and customer experience.

Image of car and icons

I hope to shed a bit of light and stimulate conversation about this latest evolution of the internet.

What is the metaverse?

According to Matthew Ball—venture capitalist and author—the metaverse is a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments.1

We see it as a set of technologies that allow for persistent digital representation, connected to aspects of the real world. Meta means, “beyond,” and verse means “universe.” Together, the metaverse refers to a virtual world parallel to the real world that can be experienced more completely with technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). These virtual worlds will connect to a social system and fully functioning economy in which data, digital goods, content, and intellectual property (IP) can pass, and individual users, organizations, and companies can create content and goods to ensure that the metaverse continues to expand and evolve.

In 2014, Microsoft acquired Mojang Studios, which launched Minecraft, for $2.5 billion (about $8 per person in the United States) and over time, made virtual reality versions available on Oculus Rift, PlayStation, and Microsoft HoloLens.

The beauty of Minecraft is that like Lego blocks, it offers infinite possibilities within an infinite digital space to allow anyone to create their own metaverse. With over 130 million monthly users, Minecraft is but one early example of the metaverse impacting our daily lives.

The metaverse: An evolution of the internet

The metaverse will not fundamentally replace the internet, but instead, build upon and iteratively transform it. It is a logical evolution of the internet. Just like fixed-line internet ushered in the age of personal computing and mobile internet increased the proliferation of content and access to the internet, the metaverse will place everyone inside a “virtual” version of the internet on a continuous basis. It will enable us to constantly be “within” the internet, creating more immediate experiences.

Technology is extending the imagination boundary

From a technical standpoint, the building blocks of the metaverse, VR, AR, AI, and blockchain are rapidly evolving. VR enables the use of computer simulation to generate a three-dimensional space of the virtual world, and a way to provide the user the visual and other sensory stimulation to feel as if they are in the real world.

Identity and the economic system will leverage blockchain technology to establish credibility. As a distributed database or ledger shared among computer network nodes, blockchain guarantees the accuracy and security of a record of data without the need for a trusted third party.

To ensure the plurality of the metaverse, edge computing technology is needed to ensure a consistent experience for all users.

Metaverse use cases

A quick web search for metaverse shows increased mentions across the entire mobility sector. Microsoft is also active in this space by supporting both the consumer and industrial metaverse. A recent announcement mentioned how Microsoft and Meta are partnering to deliver immersive experiences for the future of work and play. And, at the Microsoft Ignite conference in September, examples of current industrial metaverse applications were shared, like Kawasaki Heavy Industries demonstrating metaverse enabling collaborative spaces for engineers, service technicians, and frontline workers utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT), digital twins, and mixed reality.

Metaverse in automotive

We see the convergence of digital and physical worlds evolving in the automotive industry in areas including virtual vehicle design and physical production, led by real-time collaboration on engineering design and materials.

In manufacturing and supply chain operations, the metaverse and digital twin models are enabling rapid production processes that require significantly less physical testing, improving efficiency. This results in reduced risk and improved quality control with detailed, physics-based designs to shrink the margin of error for production. A metaverse-based digital twin can also be used to streamline and optimize supply chain management, from product design through procurement, manufacturing, and inventory.

With vehicle sales, the metaverse is bridging the gap between the dealership and customers opting for online purchasing. 2D and 3D solutions in this space are offering virtual viewing of vehicles, test drives, and explanations of complex technology features to create a more fluid customer journey and buying experience for consumers.

Opportunities to enhance the in-car customer experience are also being explored. Entertainment, gaming, and productivity are all potential opportunities that can engage vehicle occupants where appropriate. When it comes to service, the metaverse is accelerating the upskill of existing technicians and enabling remote virtual diagnostics and repair of vehicles. This touchless, frictionless approach will result in greater customer satisfaction to improved customer retention.

Metaverse in transportation

While some argue that the metaverse will enable more satisfying virtual social interaction and therefore less need for physical mobility, others look towards a more efficient multi-modal mobility future.

The metaverse will enable intelligently networked, constantly evolving, and integrated multi-modal transportation networks. By leveraging digital twins of physical infrastructure like airports and major roadway systems, all the way down to transit infrastructure, the coordination of transporting people and goods will improve dramatically. With AI automation dynamically creating less friction between origins, stops, and destinations, travelers will plan and execute journeys across multiple transportation modes in an increasingly more cost-effective and efficient manner as these services become part of the larger metaverse network.

Metaverse in travel and hospitality

While the metaverse cannot replace travel, it can enable the travel industry to provide enhanced experiences and the opportunity to engage with the customer more deeply with new and unexpected adventures.

The metaverse will help the hospitality business meet evolving guest expectations. In the area of pre-travel planning, a virtual concierge can enable travelers to take virtual, three-dimensional walkthroughs of hotel room options, airport terminals, destinations, and attractions. The objective will be to provide travelers with options and a clear idea of what they might expect when they visit their destination. This will enhance the booking experience, improve guest satisfaction, and increase booking volume.

Status—where are we now?

As I have shared, there are several examples of actual metaverse scenarios impacting the industry today. There are also many opportunities yet to be explored as the technology is still in its initial stages. As these examples continue to develop, we see metaverse experiences classified as industrial or consumer metaverse, further defining the intended applications. In either application, removing walled gardens is important to ensure continued growth and adoption. This means that the metaverse will require a mutually agreed-upon set of underlying standards that make it possible for people to live, work, and play in the metaverse together and to move between different instances with persistent digital identities and profiles.

Other key elements will include the creator economy, universally accepted rules of behavior, recognition of digital currencies and a means of converting them into real-world currencies, digital object ownership rights, security standards and processes, and Web 3.0.

Web 3.0 and the metaverse

In Web 1.0, internet browsers connected everyone online. Web 2.0 extended this connectivity and has revolutionized the availability, speed, and access to information and transformed the way we connect and interact with people and the world around us.

Web 3.0 is known as the next generation of the internet. It will introduce new capabilities such as blockchain with aspirations to become more equitable, transparent, and decentralized, concentrating the power (and data) in the hands of users, instead of entities. It will analyze, understand, intelligently integrate, and interpret information to provide users with an enhanced, hyper-personalized, and interactive experience.

While Web 3.0 is focused on who will own and control tomorrow’s decentralized internet, the metaverse is focused on new ways in which users will experience the internet of the future. Web 3.0 and the metaverse complement each other, with Web 3.0 serving as the basis for connectivity in the metaverse, and the creator economy in the metaverse supplementing the vision of Web 3.0.

What’s next

We have only begun to scratch the surface of possibilities with the metaverse. It will continue to be an evolving platform that will dramatically change the way we interact with the world around us. From an industrial metaverse or consumer metaverse point of view, we see growing interest, application, and exploration of metaverse capabilities in the broader mobility industry, and with adjacent industries like retail, banking and insurance, and energy as well. The future may well be shaped by the visions created within the metaverse today.

Accelerate the future of mobility

Microsoft accelerates the transformation of automotive, mobility, and transportation by improving productivity, operations, innovation, and customer experience.

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1Framework for the Metaverse, The Metaverse Primer, MatthewBall.vc.

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Tackling the digital future of travel with Microsoft and WTTC http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/industry/blog/manufacturing-and-mobility/2022/05/02/tackling-the-digital-future-of-travel-with-microsoft-and-wttc/ Mon, 02 May 2022 15:00:00 +0000 Welcoming travelers back while still absorbing the shockwaves of COVID-19 has spurred a digital evolution for the travel and tourism industry. A rapid move to the cloud offers new ways of reaching customers—and introduces new risks. Travel and tourism organizations hold sensitive customer information, in addition to proprietary business data. People are eager to once

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Welcoming travelers back while still absorbing the shockwaves of COVID-19 has spurred a digital evolution for the travel and tourism industry. A rapid move to the cloud offers new ways of reaching customers—and introduces new risks. Travel and tourism organizations hold sensitive customer information, in addition to proprietary business data. People are eager to once again move freely across the planet, but they’re asked to share more of their personal information, heightening the industry’s focus on cybersecurity.  

From anywhere and on any device, travelers can book every step of a globe-spanning trip with flights, lodging, cruises, trains, and other providers. This represents a vast and diverse cyber ecosystem, where resilience is essential at every level. The industry includes booking platforms, insurance carriers, payment providers, loyalty programs, and others, all of which exchange sensitive data. Nearly all these need to confirm consumer identity, making every transaction and database a vulnerability. 

Against this rapid growth in the digital ecosystem, COVID-19 and high staff turnover have left travel and tourism organizations more resource-constrained than ever. Digitization and increased data sharing have opened vast opportunities, but also exposed new vulnerabilities. The move to the cloud requires new expertise for already overwhelmed IT teams.

As the travel and tourism sector looks ahead, Microsoft partnered with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) to develop a white paper, Codes to Resilience: Cyber Resilience in Travel & Tourism, to help plan for a more resilient future. Drawing on insights from industry leaders across the globe, Julie Shainock, Global Leader, Travel and Tourism, and Shane O’Flaherty, Global Director of Travel and Transport, co-authored a white paper with the WTTC to share the most recent understanding of cyber-resilience for the industry. 

Together, Microsoft and WTTC are committed to equipping the travel and tourism industry for an increasingly digital future, grounded in security and resilience. 

Evolving pressures and new challenges 

The white paper, “Codes to Resilience: Cyber Resilience in Travel & Tourism,” identifies the key challenges travel and tourism organizations should be thinking about and offers best practices for preventing and detecting cybercrime as it has become more complex in recent years. 

Globally, the industry saw a sharp increase in digital security breaches from 2015 to 2019, at higher costs. The risks are familiar: phishing, ransomware, malware, and identity theft are common attacks. What’s new is the widening variety of vulnerabilities—not just in the various data systems and connections that have proliferated, but also with IoT-connected devices.

Travel and tourism organizations have a complex security environment because their employees are working across the globe. The shift to hybrid work has made this environment even more challenging, and workers more susceptible to cybersecurity breaches.  

With the workforce challenges of COVID-19, many travel and tourism organizations need to defend against more vulnerabilities with reduced IT and security teams. As Alain Simon of Amadeus says in the paper, “the issue is not a problem of budget, but a problem with resources.” 

An added dimension for a sector that operates globally is legal and regulatory compliance. Each country or region determines its own legislation around privacy, critical infrastructure, and supply chain security. For example, the European Union has implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Australia has the Privacy Act, and various states in the United States have different privacy laws—making compliance of utmost importance.  

Highlighting best practices 

People are eager to travel again, but COVID-19 has required travelers to disclose more sensitive information than ever, such as their health status, often accessed from smartphone apps and QR codes—solutions that could become compromised and risky. It’s important to make customers feel safe—and that requires new digital safeguards in every organization.

At the Microsoft Security Response Center, our experts in the Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations Center partnered with Julie Shainock and Shane O’Flaherty from our travel and tourism team to provide the latest best practices for ensuring cyber resilience across the industry.  

With decades of experience safeguarding IT software and systems across the globe, Microsoft is at the forefront of cyber resilience. Working every day with partners in the customer, developer, and government communities, we’re continually developing new technologies and practices to stay ahead of cybercriminals.  

Those best practices are detailed in the white paper, tailored to the unique environment and challenges of the industry. For example, it’s no surprise that with such high travel and tourism worker turnover in recent years, staff education is key. Cybercriminals are always adapting their attacks, and training ensures staff know how to identify and avoid security breaches. Training is imperative for organizations of any size, and how much should depend on employees’ level of access to sensitive data.  

Another practice outlined in the paper is applying a Zero Trust approach to access within a given organization. IT leaders should be open with employees and customers about new security measures and data collection needs. Explain why policies are changing, what this information will be used for, and how long it will be kept. 

The evolving vulnerabilities of hybrid work and IoT devices also require updates to organizational standards. Security protocols, including employee cyber hygiene, need to extend beyond the physical workplace. Organizations need the technology to provide protection anytime, anywhere, and anyplace. 

With travel resurgent, customers expect to digitally share more sensitive information with more organizations, but they also expect that information is kept safe. The travel and tourism sector’s global reach and distributed nature require an approach that not only protects against attacks but also prioritizes resilience. This requires understanding the nature of cyber risk. 

Customers are excited for travel to fully reopen, and the industry is eager to welcome them. With continued collaboration, innovation, and compliance, the industry can enable them to move freely around the world, safely and securely. 

Learn more 

Download the white paper “Codes to Resilience: Cyber Resilience in Travel & Tourism” for the latest cybersecurity issues and best practices for the industry. 

Read more about the work of the Systems Security and Privacy team at the Microsoft Research Lab in Redmond.  

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