TUI collaborates with Mobi to implement machine learning in cutting-edge digital operations platform
- Machine learning to enhance automated transfer platform
- Upgrade will increase efficiency, help reduce CO2 emissions
- TUI app to provide live vehicle tracking, transfer timing and notifications
- Platform launched this month in Mallorca, with further key destinations to be added throughout 2022
TUI Group, one of the world’s leading tourism groups, is implementing machine learning for its global shared-transfer operations platform in collaboration with Mobi Systems, a Boston based startup using advanced techniques to optimise scheduling. This continues TUI’s investment in digital platform capabilities and is part of a major upgrade to its operations system - increasing efficiency, enhancing service and supporting sustainable development.
In 2019, TUI sold over 31 million transfers, transporting customers between airports, hotels and points of interest in destinations around the world. Shared transfer scheduling is automated through TUI’s global transfer operations platform, but this will now be enhanced through additional machine learning capabilities.
The transfer platform will leverage different integrations to source real-time data for flights, traffic, weather, vehicle inventory and customer bookings – the key variables that influence transfer schedules. Through streaming this data to Mobi, its machine learning technology can continuously calculate the most efficient transfer plans in real time, updating schedules instantly and automatically as circumstances change. In addition to substantial time savings due to the increased speed of the transfer platform, machine learning will also significantly reduce operation costs and help cut CO2 emissions through greater vehicle optimisation and more efficient transfer routing.
“Integrating new technologies, such as machine learning, helps ensure we deliver the best customer experience through having a faster, more stable and more accurate platform,” Said Peter Ulwahn, Chief Digital Officer of TUI Musement, the Tours & Activities division of TUI Group. “Our transfer scheduling is already automated, but with Mobi it will be faster – what previously took hours can be done in seconds - and it will continue to become even more efficient. The huge advantage of this system is that it can scale to schedule the millions of transfers we manage, while also enabling us to deliver a personalised customer experience.”
“Every vertical leader in travel and hospitality wants to provide cutting edge technology and service to their operations teams and customers, but very few are able to go from RFP to integrated and deployed solution in a matter of months,” Added Anne Jaffe, Mobi Systems CEO. “The TUI team is tremendously technically adept and collaborative, which has produced an online planning solution that will start strong and continue to improve every day it is online.”
Through working with Mobi, the TUI app will also be upgraded to include live vehicle tracking, expected arrival/departure times, and instant notifications of changes to a transfer plan. These features will complement existing functionality, such as advance information on timing and pick-up location of all transfers. All processes are GDPR compliant, and no personal data is held in the system. The machine learning technology was tested during 2021 and is being launched in Palma de Mallorca in January 2022, with the rollout to continue in key Mediterranean destinations in the coming months.
Notes to Editor
A transfer sale refers to an individual transfer place sold to one customer on any ground transportation vehicle.
A ‘shared transfer’ is a transfer with multiple customers from different parties travelling together, such as a bus transfer.
About TUI Musement
TUI Musement is a global Tours & Activities business that combines a highly curated product portfolio, scalable digital platforms and in-destination service by local teams, to source, develop, distribute and deliver products in three categories:
• Experiences: Excursions, activities & attraction tickets
• Transfers: Between airports, hotels and ports
• Tours: Multi-day itineraries encompassing flights, hotels, experiences and transfers
Available in all major beach and city destinations, products are sourced from leading travel businesses or developed in-house by TUI teams, including the TUI Collection, the flagship experiences portfolio of TUI Group, and National Geographic Day Tours, unique and immersive small group guided experiences.
Products are distributed to customers, including the 20+ million TUI customers, through TUI websites and apps – such as the Tours & Activities dedicated TUI Musement app, as well as in-destination local teams and B2B partners, including some of the world's leading OTAs, tour operators, airlines, hotels, travel agencies and cruise lines. TUI Musement is one of the major growth areas of the TUI Group and employs approximately 7,000 people worldwide.
About TUI Group
The TUI Group is one of the world's leading tourism groups and operates worldwide. The Group is headquartered in Germany. TUI shares are listed in the MDAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and in the regulated market of the Lower Saxony Stock Exchange in Hanover. TUI Group offers its 20 million customers integrated services from a single source and forms the entire tourism value chain under one roof. The Group owns over 400 hotels and resorts with premium brands such as RIU, TUI Blue and Robinson and 17 cruise ships, ranging from the MS Europa and MS Europa 2 in the luxury class and expedition ships in the HANSEATIC class to the Mein Schiff fleet of TUI Cruises and cruise ships operated by Marella Cruises in the UK. The Group also includes Europe's leading tour operator brands and online marketing platforms, for example for hotel-only or flight-only offers, five airlines with more than 130 modern medium- and long-haul aircraft and around 1,200 travel agencies. In addition to expanding its core business with hotels and cruises via successful joint ventures and activities in vacation destinations, TUI is increasingly focusing on the expansion of digital platforms. The Group is transforming itself into a global tourism platform company.
Global responsibility for sustainable economic, environmental and social action is at the heart of our corporate culture. With projects in 25 countries, the TUI Care Foundation initiated by TUI focuses on the positive effects of tourism, on education and training and on strengthening environmental and social standards. In this way, it supports the development of vacation destinations. The globally active TUI Care Foundation initiates projects that create new opportunities for the next generation.
About Mobi Systems
Mobi collaborates with clients in the travel, transport, and hospitality sector to solve industry transforming, profit margin generating, market share capturing digital solutions through our B2B technology platform. Our aim is to help our supplier customers deliver digital experiences that are as nuanced, sophisticated, and welcoming as the ships, planes, properties, theme parks and / or hotels they own. We sit invisibly behind our clients’ web and mobile customer facing applications. Mobi delivers three core capabilities through its Agent Platform: 1) a spatial, temporally specific profile for the customer that interprets what each individual wants, when they want it, where they want it and how much they want to pay, 2) next generation digital functionality to support responsive, individualized itinerary planning and booking that maximizes lifetime value and guest satisfaction and 3) an asset optimization layer that ensures the right customer has access to the right services at the right time. Mobi’s platform is licensed by clients for use globally. The company is headquartered in Somerville, MA.
