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THR teams up with global technology services provider WIZELINE to accelerate the digital transformation and recovery of the European tourism industry
Barcelona-based tourism consultancy firm THR Tourism Industry Advisors (part of the International Tourism Group, ITG), and global technology services provider Wizeline, have today announced a strategic alliance joining top talent from Tourism and Technology to accelerate the digital transformation of tourism destinations and businesses in Europe and around the World.
The European tourism industry is the largest and most successful in the world, and accounts for almost half of global tourism revenue and 9% of jobs in Europe. The EU and all its member states are all clear that technology is the key to "future proofing" the tourism industry and have designated unprecedented funding to the recovery of the industry through digital transformation. But in an industry that is made up of a relatively few large corporations, over 3 million SMEs (small and medium sized businesses) and the active participation of public administration at every level, innovative transformation is a complicated process. THR and Wizeline, each leaders in their respective fields, have joined forces to address a more agile and effective response to a situation that calls for a profound understanding of the challenges facing the industry and the strategic thinking and talent to conceive, design, build and deploy technological solutions to these challenges in the shortest time possible.
The analysis, strategic planning and project management will come from THR, a world-class strategic consultancy firm specializing exclusively in the tourism industry. THR has successfully carried out over 1,100 projects for tourism management, marketing, and investment in 70+ countries.
Wizeline will provide the technological consultancy and development services needed to solve the challenges and realize the opportunities identified by THR's analysis. Wizeline, founded in 2014, focuses on developing and retaining the best global talent, providing free training through its Academy, which creates quality teams that deliver real business outcomes and that customers enjoy working with. Today, Wizeline is one of the fastest growing technology services providers in the world, with nearshore delivery locations in Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Announcing this unique alliance, Christopher Pomeroy, Executive President of THR, explained its importance: "THR has been advising the public and private sectors for 40 years and never before has there been the sense of urgency for transformative innovation that we are experiencing since the pandemic hit European tourism. We are working on recovery strategies and digital transformation plans with the whole industry, from policy makers and destination managers to associations, investors and private businesses. These plans need to be implemented in the shortest time possible and to do this we need a highly efficient and highly skilled workforce of literally thousands of engineers. Wizeline is a global leader at accelerating time to market and by working seamlessly together we can drastically reduce the cost and the time needed to transform and relaunch the tourism industry”.
THR and Wizeline are envisioning together their first large scale project for the digital transformation of the Spanish tourism industry by facilitating the digital connections between businesses and products from every sub-sector of tourism and all of the global distributors of travel. This platform will bring a paradigm shift in the role of destination management organizations in delivering data-led digital marketing campaigns with bookable products.