Mobile technology shaping the travel industry

by Yogesh Tandel
in Mobile
— 2 Apr, 2016 at 12:00 pm

Mobile technology has long entered our lives and has now become an integral part of what we do online. Almost every online business has a mobile app of their own. Having a mobile app of your product or business is as important as it was to have a website a decade ago. There are thousands of travel apps available on the apple app store and the google play store. Read on to find how much mobile has penetrated the travel industry –

Below is the total mobile penetration, percentage of people who have booked their travel online and total amount of money spent on travel, according to country –

Name of country	Total mobile penetration	Percentage of people who have booked their travel online	Total amount spent on travel
India	36%	25%	$4 billion
China	58%	18%	$11 billion
Brazil	92%	20%	$4 billion
United States	91%	40%	$93 billion
United Kingdom	129%	47%	$47 billion

(Source: Tnooz)

Of all the people who booked their trips from their smartphones and tablets, about 17% researched their trip on their phones, about 12% downloaded a mobile app related to travel, 2 out of 3 said they are likely to explore, shop and book travel activities via their mobile devices and 3 out of 4 active travellers used their mobile phones while on the move.
Out of all the people who searched and booked their air trips on mobile –

Action	Percentage
Checked airfare prices	26%
Looked up a phone number of an airline	25%
Looked at flight schedules	25%
Checked flight status arrivals/delays	25%
Looked up airport information	24%
Booked a flight	18%
Cancelled a flight	10%

Out of all the people who searched and booked their hotels on mobile –

Action	Percentage
Looked up for hotel address/directions	29%
Looked up/researched attractions/things to do at my destination/near my hotel	23%
Looked up/searched for places to eat	22%
Read a hotel review	22%
Compared hotel prices and availability	21%
Booked a hotel room	18%
Cancelled hotel reservation	10%

Expectations from a travel mobile application –

Clients (both B2B and B2C) expect the following features from a travel mobile application:

It should be able to manage all aspects of both personal and business travel via smartphones and tablets. It must meet the demands and expectations of mobile-centric customers who manage their entire trips online and must support the entire journey end to end, from travel research and booking, to planning and preparation, to in-airport, in-flight and at-destination services.
It must be customer-focused, meaning it must drive mobile revenue and mobile customer engagement.
It must provide bundle of device agnostic components that enable the core functionality of mobile travel applications.
It must provide access to the booking system anytime, anywhere, on any device.
It must have an intuitive and attractive user interface that makes searching and bookings of flights and hotels a breeze.
It must have all the filters for searching flights and hotels, like price, deals, reviews, pictures, and comprehensive information on itineraries.
It must process transactions in multiple currencies and the transactions must be protected using secure connection (SSL).
It must be safe and secure without compromising on speed.
It must operate seamlessly across all platforms.
Although it is not always necessary for an app to work offline, it is a good-to-have feature and can allow customers to access data on-the-go in places where there is low internet connectivity.
It must generate BI reports detailing the number of bookings, their locations, total revenue and more.
It must provide push/SMS notifications to travellers before and during their journey.

The technical features expected from a travel mobile application are –

It must exchange data in both XML/JSON format.
It must compress data for faster speeds.
It must be programmed using native programming language for seamless operation.
It must process secure payments in multiple currencies.
It must provide an extensive list of hotels on a scroll.

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— Yogesh Tandel

Multi-talented Project Manager and programmer, having worked on HTML, Actionscript, Android and Blackberry technologies, as well as design. Is passionate about mobile development and heads the mobile team at Qtech. A positive thinker with indomitable optimism and a will-do spirit. Is currently learning Swift. When he isn't researching on the latest in mobile technology, he hits the road on his Harley Davidson.