Today we will go over some trends that are emerging in the travel sector or are already out there but are gaining popularity. As you may now, technology is taking over the world, including everything related to tourism, there are some new trends that tourism professionals and tourists are using to benefit from such as Virtual Reality, Smart Apps, Concierge robots, smart luggage, smart hotel rooms, facial recognition, Augmented Reality, Online bookings and many more!
Let’s begging with some trends that are becoming popular among travelers.
Nowadays, travelers feel more comfortable by doing the booking procedure by themselves, from planning the whole according to their preferences to actually booking the tickets or travel products they will need. For this, tourists are using websites and apps. Some websites such as Expedia.com, Travelocity.com and so on. On the other side, there are smart travel apps which provide a customized service to the users, these apps use Artificial Intelligence to differentiate them from regular booking apps. à
Have you heard about Hopper?
Hopper is an app specialized in finding the best deals for flights, send alerts for lower prices and similar itineraries. The attractive of this app is that it uses machine learning to analyze the data and give price predictions to the clientele. It will advise travelers to book at the moment when they make the search or it will advise them to wait because according to the statistics it might drop.
This is just an example of how Artificial Intelligence is an useful tool for travel providers and travelers.
What about FLIO?
This is an app for travelers who have a layover at unknown airports, which is very common when you are taking long flights. The app will ‘learn’ about the airport the user will land to and will provide relevant information about the terminal such as where to eat, where are the lounges located and more.
Let’s talk about one of the most promising tech travel trend: Virtual Reality.
Virtual Reality along with Augmented Reality have been one of the most entertaining uses that we have given to technology. Travel experts have found the way to include this attractive and entertaining tool into the travel sector. They have created apps and websites where travelers can find several destinations around the world and virtually travel to the virtual surroundings of tourist spots, hotels, attraction and more by just watching VR videos. These videos give the opportunity to the travelers to have a similar feeling of how they potential future travel destination looks like and see it from a different perspective, close to reality. Augmented reality has basically the same objective as VR however it is an augmented picture which shows more details of what a tourist spot looks like.
For travel agents, VR and AR became useful sales tools. In order to close sales, agents will show VR videos to the clients so they can convince themselves that they actually like the place they’re travelling to and convince them to go.
Not only travel agents are using VR but also Airlines and travel providers use it for marketing purposes and to enhance travel experiences. Airlines will show cabins in advance to increase ticket sales, as an example.
Watch this quick and interesting video about how companies and using Virtual Reality to enhance the travel and booking experience.
Touristech 