SINGAPORE—Zumata, a travel technology company, unveiled its new cognitive-enabled travel distribution platform that integrates IBM Watson services to improve the online hotel booking experience for customers and travel services companies.
At the opening of the IBM Watson Centre Marina Bay, a new business incubator and research facility in Singapore, Zumata launched its new platform designed to provide personalized hotel recommendations that can be accessed via any device and integrated into applications such as Facebook, or linked to travel suppliers’ online services. The platform uses a combination of Watson APIs including AlchemyLanguage, Visual Recognition and Retrieve & Rank.
Using data and images aggregated from more than 60 global hotel providers and social media reviews, the Zumata platform is driven by destination and date. By tapping into Watson, the platform enables travelers to ask questions in natural language and receive recommendations based on publicly available information, from social media reviews to written and visual content provided by hotel operators.
For example, a customer might type “I need a luxury hotel in Sydney with a view of the opera house, an indoor pool and free WiFi.” Results returned will display images of the hotel view, amenities and sentiments about the hotel from other traveler’s online reviews. The system learns with each interaction and can become more customized to each user over time.
During their travels, customers can also seek support from Zumata’s intelligent agent. Travelers can ask questions or make changes to their bookings in natural language, and the agent can answer and take action upon their requests from any device in real time.
Zumata also plans to continue expanding its reach across North America and other global markets by partnering with DHISCO, a hospitality distribution company.