By Anandi
Don’t get surprised if we tell you 85percent of the international tourists have a mobile device with them while travelling (eHotelier). Or did you know 76percent of the travellers believe their smartphone is the most important travel companion (Openkey)? According to Hotels.com, 42percent of the travellers globally have booked a hotel on a mobile device. Now, in this ‘digital first’ era, it goes without saying that the smartphone has become an integral part of the travel business.
From driving business, building a loyal customer base to bringing about innovation, smartphones are changing the dynamics of the game with each passing day. The travellers are using mobile phones especially travel apps in 2019 like never before. We are quite sure that in 2020, the travel apps will increase their number of downloads, courtesy customer satisfaction, loyalty features and additional functionalities.
Sripad Vaidya Co-Founder of Confirmtkt, train booking and discovery app, explained that how in the past, most of the travel planning and booking used to happen on the desktops.
‘Now with the new set of users coming online, we will see both bookings and research happening on mobile only. As the new Internet users are 80percent mobile, most of the travel inspiration is via the video but previously this was with the travel bloggers. This will continue to grow as more and more new Internet users keep coming online,’ he said.
In fact, 53percent of travellers prefer to research and book accommodation on their mobile devices. Now, that’s more than 50percent, proves how people are increasingly becoming dependent on this hand device for their travel experience.
Given the benefits, discount, automatic log in details, loyalty features, and speed, these apps are becoming the ‘must-visit’ for travellers.
Another area where mobile technology is scoring big time in the travel business is using voice assistants. With the outburst of technology, chat platforms using AI-powered chatbots, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), are very much part of 2019 Travel Trends and will continue to rule in 2020.
In fact, India’s well-known travel portal MakeMyTrip will be using AI-powered chatbots to provide suggestions and alerts of railway, car and flight bookings to customers in Hyderabad and Mumbai soon.
MakeMyTrip co-founder Rajesh Magow made the announcement recently in October and also said that travellers can also book tickets by using their voice assistant and talking to the chatbot on MakeMyTrip and GoIbibo.
‘Soon, you will see a shift where travel planning and booking will be done via voice. Already Confirmtkt has released a voice version of the travel planning and soon we will be working on completing payments via voice,” Vaidya signed off.