Michael Bayle - Head of Retail Customer Solutions & Mobile, Amadeus

Travel is mobile - today’s travelers demand immediate results, and search for truly unique experiences with a swipe and a tap. With the travel activities market expected to reach $183 billion next year, the potential rewards for travel sellers who decide to tap into this emerging market are huge. What’s more, there are now an estimated five billion smartphone owners worldwide - making mobile technology vital for travel sellers to capitalize on this opportunity. Implementing a mobile channel successfully means travel sellers can be at just a fingertip’s reach of travelers throughout the entire trip.

Amadeus’ recent white paper, Get ready for Destination X, identifies crucial insights about travelers’ needs and frustrations post-booking and in-trip – and how mobile can help make the travel experience seamless and stress-free.

Destination services make or break the trip
Traveler demand for tailor-made destination service suggestions is becoming an unignorable theme in the travel sector. Our research shows that more than 90% of travelers from across business and leisure sectors agree that there is value to complementary services being offered on a trip – with over a third stating that such offerings are “very valuable” to their travel plans. However, respondents do not have time to invest in ensuring their experience is fully personalized – with a quarter saying they lack time in their destination to plan experiences. This doesn’t mean that people are planning ahead either. In fact, Google and IPSOS research shows that a massive 85% of people traveling for leisure only decide what they want to do once they’ve arrived.

Making the most of mobile’s potential
Mobile technology gives travel providers the perfect opportunity to respond to these traveler needs through by providing personalized offers at the right time based on the individual traveler’s habits and data. Just as a music app might use an algorithm to share suggested songs based on listening habits, travel providers can use their apps and mobile sites to offer contextual ancillary services.

This can be particularly useful through push notifications. These can provide live information to a traveler in a new city. This could be a restaurant recommendation, exclusive deals on museum tickets or sharing transport options so travelers can easily order a taxi late at night or an airport transfer. Customer feedback is essential as it allows travel sellers to learn from favored choices and improve suggestions for complementary services on repeat visits.

Increasing revenue while gaining trust and loyalty
The possibilities are endless for travel sellers looking to use mobile technology to improve the traveler experience. In fact, according to our study, one in four travelers highlight having to access multiple apps for destination services as a key pain point. The market is ripe for growth and travel sellers can take advantage of this to gain traveler trust and loyalty – and at the same increase their revenue - it’s a win-win.

At Amadeus we continuously develop, test and enhance our mobile solutions so we can bring new features to the market faster. Ultimately, we want to equip customers with the information and technology that enables them to best serve travelers with timely, personalized content and services while they’re on the go.

Find out more in Amadeus’ whitepaper Get Ready for Destination X which identifies eight key trends highlighting the challenges and opportunities in the post-booking ancillary game.