Five Tech Solutions for the Travel and Tourism Industry
The world is on the move. People are traveling more than ever. In fact, after coronavirus, a survey cited in?Forbes?suggests that travel is alive and well. Experts will tell us that when the pandemic is over, travel will come back quickly.
“Demand will come back stronger than ever once the situation is over,” says Jannik Lawaetz,?LuggageHero's CEO.
Over the years, travel has progressed by leaps and bounds, so have travelers. Thus, the industry has constantly transformed and enhanced itself in numerous ways, specifically through technology.
It is common knowledge that what kept customers pleased ten years ago no longer works today. Technological innovation has wholly transformed consumption behaviors and the travel sector has advanced tremendously to respond to them. These changes in consumers’ behavior can be summarized in three ways:
In all this, technology is the key player for customers’ higher demands and changes in travel patterns, and in this article, we will show you the five most important tech solutions for the tourism industry—- by far.
1. Mobile Technology
This is, no doubt, the main character in the new ways of travel. The cellphone has become our travel agency, tour guide, top restaurant locator, map, and more. It is by our side during the entire purchase journey. According to an article published by?CMO by Adobe?on how mobile is reshaping travel, travelers consider their smartphones to be the single most indispensable item they carry with them when they travel, ahead of their toothbrush, deodorant, and driver’s license.
This is why businesses find it a need to adapt their services and communications to these customers’ hand-held devices, where they can complement the physical travel experience with mobile experience to give travelers the information they need when they need it.
2. Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) has also entered the travel world, and the truth is that it is a trend due to all the possibilities they can offer. By definition, VR is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. For tourism, more and more companies use it to show users a cabin on a cruise ship or transport them, for a few seconds, to chosen destinations in the world.
Today, it’s possible to “teleport” customers to the most remote corners of the globe without getting off their couch. For instance, Google Earth’s VR app for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive allows people to fly around the world and so much more - virtually of course. You can check that in this?video.
3. Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to bring significant updates to the tourism industry. It is a network of physical objects, devices, clues, buildings, and other items - embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data.
Mobile Keys, where guests no longer need to wait in line at the front desk but through the mobile app can be notified when their room is ready, and once at the room can simply wave their phone to open the door, is something that has been introduced through the IoT. Talk about an enhanced experience!
Another example of this is?Smart Luggage.
4. Virtual Assistants
People may all be familiar with?Siri?and?Alexa, the virtual assistants that meet all their needs: what is the weather like today in their city, turn the radio on, open their email, and more.
Meanwhile, a growing number of online destinations and travel research utilizes tools, like?Expedia. They have virtual assistants to answer email, take phone calls, make schedules, find cars to take customers to the closest airport, find wide-range or other activities, and many other services—- a few of the long list of services that assist customers with whatever needs they might have.
5. 5G
Travel technology becomes all the more powerful with help from 5G networks. They promise much faster loading and downloading speeds, wider coverage, and more stable connections. Beyond downloading content 20 times faster than before, 5G allows us to develop and deploy technology that 4G limited us. That means the connection between smart devices will be more efficient and we will be able to start to truly enjoy the Internet of Things (IoT).
The BBC ran a test project that used 5G and an Augmented Reality application at the Roman Baths in Bath, England, where users could go back in time to reconstructions of the site in key moments throughout history. This?video?shows the pilot testing, which saw that over 80% of participants reported they would be more willing to visit a museum if it had experiences of that caliber.
Technology has forever changed the way billions of people travel, either for pleasure or business. Smartphones, AI, electronic payments, social media, and so on have, for better and worse, affected travel in incalculable ways. People can travel faster now and travelers have also been enjoying the perks of better-quality and more comfortable travel experiences, through helpful tools and apps that let them do it more frequently.