travel tech insights

Mobile apps and mobile technology is no longer a trend or fad in today’s travel industry; rather, mobile is a mind-set, or a concrete manner in which customers engage with the travel industry. This is particularly true for corporate travelers who not only are constantly connected to the world via mobile devices, but also demand the highest levels of precision, accuracy, and responsiveness from travel companies as so much of their day-to-day interactions are based on the efficiency of getting from one place to another on time and in good order.

The numbers surrounding the emergence and staying-power of mobile capabilities don’t lie. A recent survey found that more than 60 percent of business travelers indicated a robust, efficient mobile platform was a key driver in a successful travel program. In addition, travelers have come to expect constant connectivity from the travel industry, with nearly 90 percent of respondents indicating they expect Wi-Fi access at hotels, airports, and other common areas within the travel industry.  

The digital revolution in today’s travel industry has been a truly disruptive force in the way travel agencies source bookings, packages, and products and position these travel options for customers. Whether through the development of mobile apps, online marketing campaigns or platforms, or intelligent, integrated travel ERP or booking engines, travel agents have embraced technology and ideas many industry experts speculated would not arrive in earnest for years to come.

This poses the question: Has the future of travel agents already arrived? Have travel agents adopted and incorporated technologies and strategies in such a way that the future of the traditional travel agent is now? It’s an interesting question when you take into account where many analysts believe where the travel industry will be by 2020. The development of new markets, continued push for faster, more powerful technology, and an ever-crowding field of industry players are key indicators as to what the future of travel might resemble. Yet, even so, many of today’s travel agents are already much ahead of the curve in terms of realizing this future and leveraging current technology and strategy to bring 2020 closer to 2017.

Think about the idea of ordering food at a restaurant. Diners usually have two options: full meals with
side dishes or a la carte, whereby customers can order individual items to create their own meal. Most restaurants offer both to increase the flexibility of their menu offerings and provide diners with the most options possible. This menu structure also allows restaurants to leverage more of their inventory of ingredients for overall sales, as well as create different pricing structures based on the availability and seasonality of ingredients like fruits and vegetables.

The same concept is true in today’s travel industry when it comes to how travel companies position ancillary services in a B2B platform and more widespread distribution network. Ancillary services can mean a variety of things such as meal supplements, city tours, spa and wellness services, entertainment opportunities, and other guided or curated activities. Just like how restaurants deploy different price points to sell items on the menu versus a la carte, travel companies have a variety of strategies to help facilitate these ancillary services and position them to customers at the right time to optimize overall bookings.

In a recent entry, we recounted 2016 by looking at some of the biggest trends and storylines of the last year in order to get a glimpse of where the travel industry may be headed in the next 12 months. While many of these narratives are compelling in that they paint a portrait of a complex global industry poised for continued growth, they fail in some sense to show just how impactful 2016 was in terms of hard figures. To put it bluntly, numbers matter and numbers don’t lie, especially in today’s travel landscape where travel companies must work harder than ever before to remain competitive and viable.

Whether you’re discussing the total number of dollars spent globally on inbound travel or the percentage of millennial travelers entering the market for the first time, 2016 presents some fascinating statistics that travel companies and tour operators should pay close attention to as they ramp up for the coming year. Because so much of the travel industry relies on actionable data, these year-end figures and projections perhaps reveal more of the story of 2016 than the trends and stories themselves.

Travel agencies and mobile apps. These two concepts might seem to represent two very different time periods in the travel industry. The old and the new. The traditional and the state-of-the-art. Yet, today’s travel agencies would be well-advised to not only understand the value mobile travel apps can provide, but also embrace and adopt them as part of their operational platform.

Rather than being suspect of mobile apps as an alternative to the traditional travel agent, agencies should view mobile apps as an important tool to reach today’s younger traveler where they spend most of their time - online and connected to their smartphones. As travel agencies have to work harder to remain competitive in a global, connected marketplace, mobile apps provide agencies a direct line to travelers by cutting through much of the noise other travel companies can’t avoid by failing to adopt a mobile app strategy.