technology of travel

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Impact of technology on travel and tourism - statistics & facts

What are the main technology trends in travel and tourism, travel apps: two countries dominate the market, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Revenue of Amadeus 2010-2022

Amadeus: number of bookings 2010-2022

Revenue of Sabre Corp. worldwide 2012-2023

Company Insights High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific

Great Deals E-Commerce Corporation
Spofeed Co., Ltd.

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Current statistics on this topic.

Online Travel Market

Most downloaded travel apps worldwide 2022, by aggregated downloads

IT Services

Tour Operators & Travel Agencies

Travel agencies and tour operators using cloud computing services EU 2016-2021

Online travel trends

Artificial intelligence (AI) use in travel and tourism
Travel and tourism in the metaverse
Mobile travel trends

Online travel companies

Booking Holdings Inc.
Expedia Group, Inc.
Trip.com Group
Tripadvisor

Recommended statistics

Global distribution systems (gdss).

Basic Statistic Revenue of Amadeus 2010-2022
Basic Statistic Revenue of Amadeus 2010-2022, by segment
Basic Statistic Amadeus: number of bookings 2010-2022
Basic Statistic Revenue of Sabre Corp. worldwide 2012-2023
Basic Statistic Revenue of Sabre Corp. worldwide 2019-2023, by segment
Premium Statistic Revenue of Travelport worldwide 2010-2022
Basic Statistic Revenue of Travelport 2013-2018, by segment

Revenue of Amadeus worldwide from 2010 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Revenue of Amadeus 2010-2022, by segment

Revenue of Amadeus worldwide in 2022, by business segment (in million euros)

Number of travel bookings made using the Amadeus distribution platform from 2010 to 2022 (in millions)

Revenue of Sabre Corp. worldwide from 2012 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Revenue of Sabre Corp. worldwide 2019-2023, by segment

Revenue of Sabre Corp. worldwide from 2019 to 2023, by business segment (in billion U.S. dollars)

Revenue of Travelport worldwide 2010-2022

Revenue of Travelport Worldwide Limited worldwide from 2010 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Revenue of Travelport 2013-2018, by segment

Revenue of Travelport worldwide from 2013 to 2018, by business segment (in million U.S. dollars)

Travel apps

Premium Statistic Revenue of the travel apps industry worldwide 2017-2027
Premium Statistic Travel apps revenue in selected countries worldwide 2022
Premium Statistic Most downloaded travel apps worldwide 2022, by aggregated downloads
Premium Statistic Number of aggregated downloads of leading online travel agency apps worldwide 2023
Premium Statistic Average number of reviews of travel and tourism apps worldwide 2022
Premium Statistic Average number of ratings of travel and tourism apps worldwide 2022
Premium Statistic Average retention rate of travel and tourism apps worldwide 2022
Premium Statistic Leading travel apps in the U.S. 2022, by market share
Premium Statistic Leading travel apps in Europe 2022, by market share

Revenue of the travel apps industry worldwide 2017-2027

Revenue of the travel apps market worldwide from 2017 to 2027 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Travel apps revenue in selected countries worldwide 2022

Revenue of travel apps in selected countries worldwide in 2022 (in million U.S. dollars)

Most downloaded travel apps worldwide in 2022, by aggregated number of downloads (in millions)

Number of aggregated downloads of leading online travel agency apps worldwide 2023

Number of aggregated downloads of selected leading online travel agency apps worldwide in 2023 (in millions)

Average number of reviews of travel and tourism apps worldwide 2022

Average number of reviews of travel, tourism, and hospitality apps worldwide in 2022

Average number of ratings of travel and tourism apps worldwide 2022

Average number of ratings of travel, tourism, and hospitality apps worldwide in 2022

Average retention rate of travel and tourism apps worldwide 2022

Average retention rate of travel, tourism, and hospitality apps worldwide in 2022

Leading travel apps in the U.S. 2022, by market share

Market share of leading travel apps in the United States in 2022

Leading travel apps in Europe 2022, by market share

Market share of leading travel apps in Europe in 2022

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Premium Statistic Number of companies using ChatGPT within their business 2023, by industry
Premium Statistic Share of travel firms that implemented AI strategies worldwide 2021, by AI maturity
Premium Statistic AI-influenced revenue share of travel companies worldwide 2018-2024
Premium Statistic Travelers expecting to use AI to plan trips in 2033 worldwide 2022, by aspect
Premium Statistic Expected usage of ChatGPT to plan next trip in the U.S. 2023
Premium Statistic U.S. adults that thought a Chat-GPT text on travel was AI/human-made 2023
Basic Statistic Interest in AI-related products among U.S. adults 2023

Number of companies using ChatGPT within their business 2023, by industry

Amount of companies using ChatGPT in their business function in 2023, by industry

Share of travel firms that implemented AI strategies worldwide 2021, by AI maturity

Share of travel companies that implemented Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategies worldwide as of September 2021, by maturity of AI strategies

AI-influenced revenue share of travel companies worldwide 2018-2024

Share of travel companies' revenue that was influenced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) worldwide in 2018 and 2021, with a forecast for 2024

Travelers expecting to use AI to plan trips in 2033 worldwide 2022, by aspect

Share of travelers that would trust using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to plan travel in 2033 worldwide as of August 2022, by travel aspect

Expected usage of ChatGPT to plan next trip in the U.S. 2023

Likelihood of using ChatGPT in the process of planning the next trip among respondents in the United States as of April 2023

U.S. adults that thought a Chat-GPT text on travel was AI/human-made 2023

Share of adults that believed a ChatGPT-generated text about travel was made by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) or a human in the United States as of March 2023

Interest in AI-related products among U.S. adults 2023

Share of adults in the United States who are interested in artificial intelligence (AI) related products as of February 2023

Metaverse and extended reality (XR)

Basic Statistic Leading business sectors already investing in the metaverse 2022
Premium Statistic U.S teens and adults on enhanced experiences in the metaverse 2022
Premium Statistic Interest in metaverse travel activities of Gen Z in the U.S. and the UK 2022
Premium Statistic Interest in AR in the U.S. 2022, by use case
Premium Statistic Interest in VR in the U.S. 2022, by use case

Leading business sectors already investing in the metaverse 2022

Leading business sectors worldwide that have already invested in the metaverse as of March 2022

U.S teens and adults on enhanced experiences in the metaverse 2022

Experiences expected to be better in a virtual or metaverse environment according to teens and adults in the United States as of May 2022

Interest in metaverse travel activities of Gen Z in the U.S. and the UK 2022

Interest in metaverse travel activities of Gen Z in the United States and the United Kingdom (UK) as of February 2022

Interest in AR in the U.S. 2022, by use case

Interest in augmented reality (AR) in the United States as of October 2022, by use case

Interest in VR in the U.S. 2022, by use case

Interest in virtual reality (VR) in the United States as of October 2022, by use case

Use of technology

Premium Statistic Travelers' expected use of selected planning tools for trips in 2033 worldwide 2022
Premium Statistic Expected comfort level with selected payment methods for trips in 2033 worldwide 2022
Premium Statistic Global consumer and merchant acceptance of crypto payments 2021, by industry
Basic Statistic Popular goods and services to buy with crypto 2022, by gender and income group
Premium Statistic Travel agencies and tour operators using cloud computing services EU 2016-2021

Travelers' expected use of selected planning tools for trips in 2033 worldwide 2022

Share of travelers expecting to use selected planning tools for trips in 2033 worldwide as of August 2022

Expected comfort level with selected payment methods for trips in 2033 worldwide 2022

Share of travelers expecting to be comfortable in using selected payment methods for trips in 2033 worldwide as of August 2022

Global consumer and merchant acceptance of crypto payments 2021, by industry

Willingness to use/accept cryptocurrencies for payments by consumers/merchants across various industries worldwide as of 2021

Popular goods and services to buy with crypto 2022, by gender and income group

Most popular goods and services bought by consumers worldwide when using cryptocurrencies for online shopping in 2022, by gender and income group

Use of cloud computing services among travel agencies, tour operators, and related activities in the European Union (EU 27) from 2016 to 2021, by cloud service

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Opinion The top travel-tech trends set to revolutionize tourism in 2023

Technology-driven innovations are reshaping the travel industry, with smart hotels, ar/vr experiences, contactless solutions, and ai-powered personalization leading the way towards a more seamless and efficient travel journey.

FairFly rebrands as Oversee, adds Rapyd CEO Shtilman to board
HyperGuest raises $23 million Series A to connect hotels, suppliers, and travel distributors
Travel insurtech startup Faye lands $10 million in Series A

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Table of Contents

1. Apps for booking hotels — and picking your room

2. smart devices as digital room keys, 3. the rise of virtual queues, 4. delivery apps to replace room service, 5. robotic and app-powered food delivery in airports, 6. the growth of app-powered car rentals.

These days, travel and technology go hand-in-hand. Many of these technological advancements were spurred by early pandemic pressure for contactless payments, food service and more. For example, between February and March 2020 alone, Mastercard saw the number of contactless payments at grocery stores grow twice as fast as non-contactless transactions. Meanwhile, the number of active restaurants on the Uber Eats food delivery app grew by over 75% between Dec. 31, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2020.

Technology is seeping into travel in a way that most travelers are finding enormously beneficial. Whether shortening queues, helping travelers save money or eliminating the need to get within six feet of others, here are some of the top travel technology evolutions to know about in 2024.

Most large hotel chains have long had free apps with features like booking and live chat, but many recently got big-time improvements.

Hilton launched a feature in June 2021 that lets you book and instantly confirm connecting rooms on its app and website, which has proven especially helpful for groups.

Its app also can display a map of the hotel and allow you to select your exact room of choice, whether it’s the peaceful room farthest from the elevator or the one nearby for easy access.

The Hilton app can be used to unlock rooms at many U.S. properties so you never need to go to the front desk to retrieve a physical key card. (Photo courtesy of Hilton)

Some apps serve as a digital front desk, which then allows you to use your smartphone and smartwatch as digital keys. For example, digital keys in Hyatt’s mobile app use Bluetooth technology to let you unlock your hotel room with your phone at more than 600 hotels worldwide.

Hyatt made things even easier for Apple users in December 2021 by becoming the first hotel brand to offer room keys in Apple Wallet. At certain Hyatt hotels, you no longer need to open the Hyatt app; instead you can tap your iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock rooms.

Over at Hilton, which has offered digital keys to some degree since 2015, last year saw a huge update in Digital Key Share, which allows more than one guest to have digital access. The feature is currently available at about 80% of Hilton’s hotels worldwide.

(Photo courtesy of Disney)

In January, Clear 2021, a private biometric screening company that lets paying members bypass certain security lines at busy areas including stadiums and airports, announced that it had acquired another company designed to reduce wait times — Whyline. The acquisition could allow Clear to improve virtual queues for processes like checking vaccine status or accessing airport lounges.

» Learn more: Is Clear worth the cost?

Meanwhile, Disney rolled out a feature in its U.S. theme park apps in October 2021 called Genie, which is intended to help vacationers better plan their day. By analyzing current lines and crowds, it can suggest more efficient itineraries.

Food delivery apps have been disrupting room service lately by delivering food from around town — and eliminating the need to pay $10 for a bowl of room service cereal.

Hotels are leaning into the idea of letting other companies handle it . For example, Hyatt launched a pilot program with snack delivery service Gopuff in 2021 to deliver prepackaged and hot meals to rooms at select Hyatt Place locations. Hyatt says the program has been successful, and has since grown to more properties nationwide.

(Photo courtesy of AtYourGate)

Speaking of food delivery, the days of waiting in long airport restaurant lines might be gone. Apps like AtYourGate allow you to order, pay and pick up food from participating airport restaurants.

More recently, AtYourGate is testing services where you don’t even need to physically grab your food. Instead, robots bring it to you. A pilot program that launched in September has robots roaming around Los Angeles International Airport, bringing food directly to your gate.

The rental car industry has sometimes been brutal to travelers, but peer-to-peer car-sharing alternatives are expanding, providing consumers with more choices.

Getaround cars can be booked on an hourly basis, and there’s no need to meet up with the owner to exchange keys. Cars are booked and unlocked through an app. Getaround expanded to Hawaii at the end of 2021, marking the 10th state that Getaround added to its portfolio in 2021 and the 22nd state in its history.

» Learn more: Rental car alternatives you might not know about

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The autonomous AIRSTAR information robot (Passenger Aiding Robot) roams the aisles of the airport

5 pandemic tech innovations that will change travel forever

These digital innovations will make your next trip safer and more efficient. But will they invade your privacy?

In the 20 months since the COVID-19 pandemic began, technological innovations have gone from futuristic to familiar. These days it’s hard to be out in the world without encountering QR-coded menus or supplying digital vaccine passports.

As the tourism industry—which logged a billion fewer international arrivals in 2020 than 2019—sputters back to life, masks may begin to disappear, but many pandemic-era tech tools will continue to factor into your trips.

“Consumers will come to expect technologies that make them more confident about travel,” says Steve Shur, the president of the Travel Technology Association. “Some of these changes are here to stay.”

In fact, a 2021 Pew Research survey of 915 policy leaders, science researchers, and other experts predicts that, by 2025, our daily lives could be even more influenced by algorithms, remote work, and what some call “tele-everything.”

While novel interventions such as real-time translation devices and facial recognition passport control may make travel safer and more efficient, there are downsides, including concerns about privacy , data security, and biased technology. Here are some of the innovations that travelers will continue to see and use.

Virtual and augmented reality

When the pandemic shut down travel, museums and tourist destinations turned to augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to create online exhibits and experiences. While some of these experiences are best seen with a VR headset, most can be enjoyed with just a computer or smartphone.

The Xplore Petra app launched in June 2020, allowing users to “visit” Jordan ’s most iconic archaeological site by projecting a scaled-down version of the ruins. Lights over Lapland, an Arctic travel company, launched a VR experience to show off the Northern Lights using VR headsets or computer screens.

( How virtual reality might change your next trip, even after COVID-19. )

Post-pandemic, VR and AR may enhance actual trips by adding experiences such as a simulated climb up the Matterhorn at Lucerne’s Swiss Museum of Transport . The Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland, has a VR attraction in which visitors immerse themselves in “ The Garden of Earthly Delights ,” a 500-year-old painting by Hieronymus Bosch.

The Museum of Natural History in Paris has an AR exhibit that brings visitors face to face with extinct animals in digital form. The National Museum of Singapore has an installation called “Story of the Forest,” where sightseers explore a virtual landscape comprised of almost 70 nature drawings from the museum collection. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History , in Washington, D.C., has an app that uses AR to show what some of its animal skeletons would look like with skin and muscle over the bones, offering a new view of a collection dating back to the 1880s.

“VR is not going to replace travel and tourism. It is just going to enhance tourism,” says Anu Pillai, who runs the Digital Center of Excellence at Wipro, a technology company.

Crowd control

To help enforce social distancing, cities, airports, and museums tested or rolled out crowd-control technology including Singapore’s roaming, vaguely terrifying robots that announce people are too close together and signs indicating how large crowds are at airport gates . As throngs of travelers return to popular destinations, similar methods and devices may be implemented to prevent overtourism.

An engineer working on "R1", a robot designed to operate in domestic and professional environments, in a lab

In Italy during the pandemic, Venice began tracking visitors using cameras designed to catch criminals. Post-pandemic, it plans to harness them to keep tourist numbers at manageable levels, perhaps in concert with the mayor’s proposal to add electronic gates at major entry points (cruise ship docks, train stations) that can be closed if the city gets overcrowded.

(These tech changes could make your next flight safer.)

“We know minute by minute how many people are passing and where they are going,” Simone Venturini, Venice’s top tourism official, told the New York Times . “We have total control of the city.”

Amsterdam , which also struggles with overtourism, tracks how visitors use Amsterdam’s City Card, a flat-fee pass to museums and public transport. Beach Check UK launched this summer with real-time information on how busy dozens of beaches are along the English coast, guiding travelers away from packed areas.

“Technology can be used to collect data in order to both make better decisions and communicate those decisions,” says Christopher Imbsen, director of sustainability at World Travel & Tourism Council.

UV-C cleaning

Hospitals have used UV-C light to disinfect and kill viruses for more than two decades. Now, indoor public spaces including airports, gyms, and movie theaters are adding UV-C to halt viral spread.

“UV-C is having its heyday right now,” says Peter Veloz, CEO of UltraViolet Devices, which makes UV disinfecting technology.

An employee of the Chilean-Brazilian airline LATAM monitors the operation of an autonomous robot that uses type C ultraviolet light (UV-C) to clean the interior of the aircraft

UV-C has germicidal properties that combat COVID-19 and other nasties, both in the air or on surfaces. Depending on the location, new UV-C installations go into HVACs, on escalator handrails, or through airports and planes via light-equipped robots that disinfect as they go.

If installed and operated correctly, a UV-C system can kill all sorts of bacteria and germs. Even seasonal flu bugs might be zapped before they spread. “COVID-19 could come and go, but what won't disappear are normal pathogens,” Veloz says.

QR codes at restaurants

In the early days of the pandemic, when transmission of the COVID-19 wasn’t yet well understood, restaurants hurried to provide QR codes. The little black boxes of pixelated dots and dashes could be scanned with a smart phone to bring up a menu, let you order from it, and then allow you to pay your bill, all with limited virus-spreading interactions with servers.

While earlier fears that people could catch the virus via menus and other surfaces have been disproven, the codes have proven convenient and will probably stick around, especially with late-pandemic worker shortages.

Such convenience might mean a trade off with privacy, however, since the little codes can potentially gather a large amount of information from users. Some QR programs just take a food order, but others mine data like a patron’s dining history, age, and gender. The restaurant could use that info to send them coupons or event invitations—or sell it to third parties.

“It’s an example of companies exploiting COVID-19 to extend tracking,” says Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU. “Moving everything to mobile opens people to new ways of tracking and control.”

Travelers should know that QR codes can be hacked; you might scan one, place a dinner order, and wind up compromising your credit card instead. Stanley recommends treating QR codes just as you do links in unknown emails. Either use your phone to look up the restaurant’s menu on the internet or install a protective app like Kaspersky QR Scanner , which will give users a warning if the code isn’t safe.

Contact-tracing tools

Public health groups used contact tracing methods to identify and track down people who were potentially exposed to infectious diseases such as Zika and HIV, and offer counseling, screening, and treatment. These traditional tools were usually based on phone calls to ask individuals about who they were in contact with and to continue researching exposure. The pandemic pushed officials to scale up such efforts and implement new, higher-tech ones to track viral spread and provide information.

For instance, Apple and Google added contact-tracing functions to new smartphone software, allowing users to opt in and get alerts if they come into close contact with an infected person.

(If you must travel during a pandemic, here’s how to protect your health.)

“There’s been a strong recognition about the value of and the important role of contact tracing for infectious disease prevention and control,” says Elizabeth Ruebush, a senior analyst for infectious disease and immunization policy at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “But we’ve never seen it implemented at the scale of COVID-19.”

Other technologies, such as automated texts, viral heat maps and even CCTV with facial recognition could help track other infectious illnesses or make us ready for the next pandemic.

Even with fancy new apps, however, phone calls and personal outreach will still be at the center of public health. “These tools are aimed to enhance, but not replace, traditional contact tracing,” Ruebush says.

COVID-19 has sped up our adoption of technology . The downside is that this may make it even harder to turn off smartphones while on vacation. Then again, wanderlust is now stronger than ever—and getting lost in the moment still hasn’t been harnessed by a digital code.

Jackie Snow is a Washington, D.C.-based writer specializing in travel and technology. Follow her on Instagram .

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Perspective

Traveling between worlds in the metaverse

5-MINUTE READ

The next wave of technology disruption driving the future is here, bringing new technologies and worlds of experiences.
Over the next decade, ambitious travel players will shape new physical and digital realities and transform their businesses.
Travel companies need to prepare now to understand how these emerging technologies are critical for future growth and competitiveness.
How can travel companies successfully navigate uncertainty about the future, with blurred boundaries between humans and machines?

Welcome to the “Metaverse Continuum”

The metaverse is evolving the next generation of the internet technologies and creating boundaryless opportunities. Think of it as a continuum, spanning the spectrum of digitally enhanced worlds, realities and business models.

Expect to see it touch all facets of every business, from consumer to worker and across the enterprise; from reality to virtual and back; from 2D to 3D; and from cloud and AI to extended reality, blockchain, digital twins, edge technologies and beyond. In 2022, this way of life seems surreal, but the Metaverse Continuum is on its way and companies need to prepare now.

Next-generation traveler experience

The Metaverse Continuum enables people to immerse themselves within a universal shared experience that connects our real world to a fully virtual one—and everything in between.

The Metaverse Continuum is already transforming travel companies in five ways, changing...

How travel companies interact with customers
How work is done
Which services travel companies offer
How they make and distribute them
How they operate their organizations

Travel Technology Vision 2022 trends

In the Travel Technology Vision 2022 report, we explore how today’s technology innovations are becoming the building blocks of our collective future. These four trends investigate the entire continuum, from the virtual to the physical, across humans and machines alike, identifying where ambitious travel companies can find rich opportunities by uprooting themselves from today and planting themselves firmly in the future.

WebMe: The internet is being reimagined as metaverse, and Web3 efforts transform the underpinning and operation of the virtual world.

The Programmable World: Control, customization and automation are being immersed into the world around us, making the physical as programmable as the digital.

The Unreal: As AI-generated data and synthetic content convincingly mimic what is “real,” authenticity is the new north star.

Computing the Impossible: A new generation of computers is solving some of the world’s most intractable problems leading to one of the biggest technological disruptions of our time.

RELATED: Why the metaverse (really) matters for travel.

Now is the time to shape the future of travel technology

We are at a crossroads. Not only because there are new technologies to master, but rather that competition in the next decade will require much more than technical skills and innovative strength. Travel companies will need a truly competitive vision. A clear vision of what the future worlds will be like and a vision of where the travel business needs to go to thrive. Technology is pointing us in the right direction. Everything else is in your hands.

The metaverse continuum is waiting for you.

RELATED: Future borders 2030: From vision to reality

Related insights

Building a data-driven travel company
The Guide: Travel industry magazine
Tech Vision 2022: Meet me in the Metaverse

Sergiy Nevstruyev

Managing Director – Enterprise Architecture & Digital Transformation Lead

Anshul Gupta

Managing Director – Accenture Technology

Luis Aparicio Garcia

Associate Director – Accenture Strategy & Consulting, Travel

Ask Skift: What Are the Major Trends in Travel Tech?

Rashaad Jorden , Skift

December 11th, 2023 at 11:49 AM EST

The use of technology in the travel industry has continued to boom in recent years, and here's a look at some of the biggest tech trends in travel.

Rashaad Jorden

Travel brands have increasingly looked to use emerging technology in their operations, especially generative artificial intelligence . What are major trends in travel technology? We put the question to Ask Skift , our artificial intelligence chatbot. It used information appearing in both our past news coverage and Skift Research. We also conducted additional reporting.

What Ask Skift Said:

Some of the major trends in travel technology in recent years, as outlined in various Skift articles, include:

Mobile Innovation: U.S. companies like Airbnb and HotelTonight (which Airbnb later acquired) were redefining the lodging sector in 2013 through mobile technology . Larger digital giants like Google, Apple, and Nokia were also influencing the transportation with their mapping and local information offerings.

Use of Tech for Competitive Advantage : Many travel companies were tapping into tech products a decade ago to gain a competitive advantage (as they are today). Tech was helping travel providers offer customers relevant deals and accessible customer service. In addition, companies are using big data to streamline operations, cut costs, and boost revenues.

Smart Design : Another trend was the rise of smart design in travel , influenced by the “Apple-ification” of the world. This trend is seen in more design-centric airports, efficient hotels, and generally more design-meets-UX savvy sectors in travel.

Data-Driven Curation : There was an increasing need for better curated experiences in travel due to the overwhelming choices in search results for online booking. Booking providers were trying to deliver well-targeted information — and this is still a big priority — to travelers by mining and analyzing all kinds of data.

Ask Skift Is the AI Chatbot for the Travel Industry

Go deeper into the business of travel with Skift’s new AI chatbot.

What Else You Need to Know

Travel Technology Reporter Justin Dawes earlier this year listed five travel technology trends worth following in 2023 , the first of which was airport biometrics. Singapore announced in September that its Changi Airport will go completely passport-free starting in 2024 when it implements an automated immigration checkpoint using passengers’ biometric data. Passengers will undergo a facial scan that verifies their identity instead of presenting their passport to an immigration officer.

Dubai International Airport is also no longer requiring travelers to have passports or boarding passes . Instead, passengers will be able to use their face as their ID.

Meanwhile, travelers going on trips via virtual and augmented reality has been another major trend in travel technology, with the global virtual tourism market expected to grow to more than $847 billion by 2028 . Virtual reality can help give travelers an idea of what to expect if they choose to visit a certain destination.

Travel brands — such as the Singapore Tourism Board — are also looking to augmented reality to boost interest in attractions . The organization’s CEO Keith Tan said it wants to use the technology to show visitors what World War II was like at Fort Siloso, a major attraction in the city-state.

Another booming trend in the rise of digital payments, with non-cash transaction volumes expected to jump to $2.3 trillion by 2027 . Skift Research said in an October 2023 article that, 70% of hotels worldwide use payment processing programs, and payment technology should be viewed as a revenue-generating opportunity for hotel owners .

In addition, although some hotels have increased their use of technology coming out of the pandemic, although tech reporter Dawes wrote in December 2022 that other hotels have dragged their feet in implementing new technology. Skift reported in January 2023 that several prominent hotel companies launched tech partnerships to modernize operations and services , and ongoing labor shortages were in part driving hotels toward more tech adoption.

Furthermore, some hotel executives are bullish on artificial intelligence and view it as a way to generate more room revenue. Jeff Edwards, a consultant and former IHG executive, said generative AI could help companies improve revenue management.

Finally, a growing number of major corporations, including Google , Meta , Expedia, Kayak, Booking.com and others have released AI-powered tools that can be used for trip planning. And TUI Group released a ChatGPT-powered chatbot on its UK app this July , the first part of an expected of rollouts that integrates generative AI into the company’s tech.

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Tags: airbnb , artificial intelligence , ask skift , augmented reality , biometrics , google , hoteltonight , meta , mobile , Singapore Tourism Board , virtual reality

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Preview: Travel Innovation and Technology Trends 2023

A preview of the most significant innovation trends in travel technology and distribution for 2023.

By Phocuswright Research

Introduction

As the world fully reopens in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the travel industry can once again focus its attention squarely on the future. While significant challenges remain (i.e., inflation, recession, staffing, international conflict), it’s a good time to place strategy and competitive edge-building at the forefront.

Each year, Phocuswright's expert analysts identify the technology and innovation trends that will influence travel significantly in the coming year and beyond. This year, we’re exploring the growing roles of social media and Web3 in travel, addressing the realities of sustainability and our fragmented technology landscape, and pondering the impact of the next game-changing technologies like generative AI and eVTOLs.

This overview article is a preview of the full report , which features brief introductions to the eight trends that we will cover in the coming months. Stay tuned for each full trend analysis, and for details on a late spring/early summer webinar in which we’ll discuss these trends live.

The Future of Social Media, Influencers and Social Commerce in Travel

Web3 is proving itself in travel .

Green Travel Innovation Now (Yes, Now!)

Selling Travel Is Hot Again – Even If You’re Not a Travel Company

Glimpsing the future: chatgpt, generative ai and travel .

Regime Change in Digital Hotel Operations
eVTOLs in Travel: Viable Addition or Flights of Fancy?

Super Apps’ Secret Sauce

By Robert Cole

Efficient direct-to-consumer marketing has been the goal of travel industry marketers since the dawn of the internet. Intermediaries may create value by cost effectively expanding brand reach, but they rarely enhance the brand-customer relationship in a manner superior to the brand itself.

According to one projection, U.S. social commerce surpassed $45 billion in 2022 and will reach nearly $80 billion in 2025, growing its share of total e-commerce sales to 5.2%.

Social commerce – in which merchants sell products directly through social media platforms without involving another e-commerce environment – is a key strategy for direct consumer engagement. According to one projection, U.S. social commerce surpassed $45 billion in 2022 and will reach nearly $80 billion in 2025, growing its share of total e-commerce sales to 5.2%.

The forthcoming report will focus on:

How influencer-driven social commerce differs from traditional paid advertising
Sponsorship and affiliate marketing methods typically employed throughout the social media landscape
Influencer communities

The future of influencer-driven social commerce represents a significant opportunity for a travel industry striving to develop direct distribution channels, nurture loyalty and improve marketing efficiency.

Image captions

By Norm Rose

After years of hype surrounding blockchain and Web3 technologies, 2023 promises to be the year when Web3 starts providing measurable value to the travel industry. This is both a revolutionary and evolutionary change that will eventually impact all players in the travel ecosystem.

Separating the hype from true business impact
Reviewing the landscape
Adopting Web3 across the industry
A closer look at the Web3 startup space and innovative companies, highlighting their unique contributions to the space
An evaluation of how traditional industry players are viewing Web3 technologies, with an eye to understanding how the mainstream travel industry will adopt Web3
A review of multiple sectors of the industry, including air and hotel distribution, short-term vacation rentals, ride sharing, payment, settlement, social travel and loyalty

The focus will be less on these companies’ future capabilities, and instead evaluate the real-world impact these companies have today.

Green Travel Innovation Now (Yes, Now!)

By Cathy Schetzina Walsh

Facing mounting pressure to enact measurable change, travel companies must move beyond greenwashing and halfhearted environmental efforts.

The industry can either accept the challenge to make real change and become more sustainable via innovation – or be forced to do so via crises, regulation and traveler demand.

Several new initiatives launched by travel companies and destinations
How individual travel companies are shifting towards renewable energy sources
How travelers – particularly younger travelers – increasingly consider environmental impact when making travel plans

Travel companies must innovate now to establish green infrastructure, leverage data and influence traveler behavior to shift the industry towards green energy sources and preserve tourism for future generations. There are many challenges along this path. Stay tuned for more on what’s realistic, what’s not and what needs to happen to effect meaningful change.

By Lorraine Sileo

Non-travel brands, such as financial institutions, retailers and loyalty clubs must really want to get into the travel business. Over the past 18 months, several have launched travel booking platforms or announced ambitious plans to do so, even though the online travel agency market is already consolidated and highly competitive. Will they succeed? If so, what are their advantages and what will be the impact on the marketplace?

If travel is best left to the big travel portals, then why are so many other entities jumping in?

If travel is best left to the big travel portals, then why are so many other entities jumping in? First, it’s easy to resell travel, considering the plug-and-play options offered by Expedia for Business, Rocket Travel (Booking.com), Hopper Cloud and others. And though non-travel brands’ travel gross bookings are tiny (earned commissions), the benefits can be big in terms of generating value and customer loyalty (e.g., Costco Travel, BJ’s Travel, AARP Travel Center).

How these developments put a whole new spin on online travel – creating pockets of loyalty across myriad brands
How they compare to giant OTAs
How they signal a shift in consumer behavior

“The travel industry can use generative AI in a variety of ways …” At least according to ChatGPT , the free chatbot from OpenAI that made its public debut in November 2022 (see figure below). Since its launch, ChatGPT has attracted massive attention as the world gets a taste of AI’s creative potential. But while the technology does have applications for travel, it comes with a number of challenges that must be addressed before generative AI can have a substantial impact on the industry.

Why generative AI is an area that travel companies should follow closely
Why ChatGPT marks a substantial step forward
Speed of advancement and potential pitfalls

Regime Change in Digital Hotel Operations

By Adam Glickman, VP Brand Strategy, Actabl and Dmitry Koltunov, Co-founder, ALICE

Hoteliers have typically looked at past performance and results to help forecast the future. They painstakingly analyze historical data to develop budgets, plans and goals. It’s been quite a simple approach, really: look back to compare in order to look forward and plan.

Real-time data is the “beating heart” that forward-looking plans flow through, and which allows hoteliers to maximize profits while optimizing guest experiences.

But as we move on from COVID and “revenge travel” and adapt to changing travel patterns for business, leisure and group, it’s time to consider a new approach in the context of labor shortages and inflationary pressures. It is essential to develop a strategy that puts real-time data analysis at the core of a plan to manage the business. Real-time data is the “beating heart” that forward-looking plans flow through, and which allows hoteliers to maximize profits while optimizing guest experiences.

Several novel data-centric approaches to optimize operating performance in new and powerful ways
Forward-looking demand data that can help enable precise scheduling and staffing
How sales pace and sales leader performance data can uncover market-wide trends and individual performance management opportunities
Identifying operational functions that can be automated, freeing up team members to deliver more personalized services to more guests
Predicting new ancillary revenue sources by evaluating changing guest behavior patterns for each market where hotels operate
Reviewing target Hours of labor Per Occupied Room (HPOR) for various segments and providing recommendations for using benchmarks to forecast labor costs

EVTOLs in Travel: Viable Addition or Flights of Fancy?

By: Hollis Thomases

EVTOLs, the acronym for Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft (pronounced “ee-vee-tolls”), have been in development for over a decade. Heralded as a greener solution to fossil fuel-powered short-haul planes, helicopters and roadway-clogging cars, eVTOLs will likely service intracity and city-to-city travel. The ecosystem is commonly referred to as Urban Air Mobility (UAM) or Urban Air Transportation (UAT).

While the applications of eVTOLs are broad and have previously been categorized into areas such as cargo, emergency medical or inspections, Phocuswright’s forthcoming analysis will focus on passenger transportation.

In the past 18 months, United, American, Virgin Atlantic and Delta have each invested in and/or made deal commitments to one or more eVTOL companies.

Addressing carbon emissions and climate change
Collaboration and access to data and technology
Improving the passenger/travel experience
Mindshare, relevancy and branding
Broadening of accessible markets

To flourish, eVTOLs must overcome concerns regarding short-term hindrances. Some of these key pain points include safety issues, significant legal and governing issues, certification of vehicles and pilots, public perception and adoption, sustainability, and infrastructure constraints.

What do Google, Meta, Twitter, Hopper, Booking.com, PayPal and Uber have in common? All are Western companies with their sights on becoming super apps in the vein of Asia’s all-in-one mobile powerhouses. Apps like WeChat and AliPay in China, Grab (Singapore), PayTM (India), GoTo (Indonesia), Kakao (South Korea) and AirAsia (Malaysia) have all built addictive multi-service apps that dominate their respective markets.

While different market conditions from region to region are not replicable, there are strategic lessons to be learned from the apps themselves.

It remains to be seen whether companies can replicate the level of super app success seen in Asia Pacific (and more recently, in Africa and Latin America) in Western markets like the U.S. and Europe. But you don’t have to build a full-fledged unicorn super app to capture some of the benefits that have made these platforms an essential part of daily life for Asian consumers.

While different market conditions from region to region are not replicable, there are strategic lessons to be learned from the apps themselves:

Multiple services
Daily usage
Social networking
Gamification
What can be learned from successful super apps to make travel offerings stickier and more appealing
Whether a travel company aspires to super app status or not

The overview article features full introductions to the eight trends that we will cover in the coming months.

Watch the online event that covered each trend, presented by Phocuswright analysts:

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How tech has changed travel

The internet has changed the way we travel

The travel industry has changed significantly, from the rise of air travel overtaking luxury boats to travel agents becoming a central part of your travel experience: The industry has not stopped reinventing itself.

Technology has been one of the biggest contributors to the travel landscape and those of us lucky enough to be able to afford to travel can't have missed how quickly this has happened.

Here are just some of the ways our tech revolution has changed the way we travel.

Booking everything online

For ages it is seemed like the only way to book your trip was through a travel agent either in person or over the phone. The rise of the World Wide Web has meant that this whole process has shifted entirely online.

However, since it has taken a while for the internet to reach the impressive speeds and workability we know and expect from it today, this move wasn't just automatic from the moment we could dial-up.

In addition, it took a while before people became as comfortable as we are today with online payments, especially for purchases as expensive as plane tickets and accommodation.

Only once we could keep a stable connection and online payments did airlines, hotels and comparison sites pop-up allowing you to book and pay for your whole trip online.

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Personalised experiences

Before the internet age, booking a trip and excursions meant either booking a tour, through a travel agent or when you arrived in the country. Your experience and helpful hints mostly came from travel guides which were printed and marketed to a wide range of tourists.

Since the internet allows for endless and constantly updatable content, the focus on travel and tourism shifted to personalisation. Travellers now don't just want to see the standard site but to rather have experiences that are unique, or at least appear to be so.

This has led to a major boom in travel blogs, apps, itinerary trackers and local guide insight vlogs aimed at giving would-be visitors the insights they need to curate their perfect holiday.

A great example of this is AirBnb experiences, AirBnb took the model for their accommodation and adapted it for personalised, local led experiences in each country. From pasta making in Italy to hiking in Cape Town, this digital platform lets travellers easily find the "unique" and immersive experience they are looking for.

Safer money

This is a big one, while travelling has always been expensive, it's never been easier to take your money with you and safely.

The days of travellers cheques and wire transfers are long gone. Now you can simply log into your banking app and alert them that you're leaving the country. If you like they can activate your bank card to work overseas at an extra charge.

If this seems a bit expensive, there are many options like foreign currency cards which are pre-loaded with a set amount which can be withdrawn in another country.

In the past if you ran out of money and needed someone back home to help you out and it was quite an ordeal. Now transferring between accounts or sending money can be done in a number of ways which can reflect within hours, not days.

Always in contact

Postcards may have a romantic feel but when they are your only way to contact those back home, it was easy to feel incredibly disconnected to your loved ones.

Telephones helped a bit although international calling was always quite pricey. Now, with the rise of smartphones sometimes it's even cheaper to use your phone in another country than it is back home, depending on data prices.

While international roaming is still a big no-no for South Africans, buying a foreign SIM and loading up on data is simple and can often be done before you even step out of the airport doors.

The weird and wonderful future

The COVID-19 pandemic has already required the industry to adapt even further, pushing technology into new realms especially relating to hygiene. This will undoubtedly cause even more change for travellers going forward.

Already hotels are aiming to invite guests with the latest technological gimmicks like AI concierge robots and personalised tourist experiences. As more of our lives move to apps, you won't need a full laptop to complete even one part of your trip.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and we're excited to see what happens next.

Leila Stein is an experienced multimedia journalist and content producer with a special interest in data journalism. she is skilled in news writing, editing, online writing and multimedia content production and have a Bachelor of Journalism from Rhodes University and an Honours in Historical Studies from University of Cape Town.

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What AI means for travel—now and in the future

“Revenge travel.” It’s what a lot of people are doing these days—hitting the runways in big numbers to make up for travel time lost during the pandemic. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey partners Alex Cosmas and Vik Krishnan join global editorial director Lucia Rahilly to discuss a new report on travel in the age of AI : what the technology’s promise and pitfalls are and what it may mean for the travel industry overall.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

The McKinsey Podcast is cohosted by Roberta Fusaro and Lucia Rahilly.

The promise of AI

Lucia Rahilly: Much of the research for the report drew from interviews with executives at 17 companies across five types of travel businesses. One of those executives is Luca Zambello, CEO of Jurny—an AI-fueled hospitality platform. He says AI will be the new normal.

Luca Zambello: We’re at the very beginning of the hockey stick. Economically, we are at the start of what is potentially the biggest technology disruption that humanity has ever seen.

Lucia Rahilly: So everyone is talking about the disruptive juggernaut that is AI, and particularly gen AI [generative AI]. At a super-high level, and acknowledging that we’re still in early days, what do we expect this to mean for the travel industry in particular?

Vik Krishnan: The travel industry is unquestionably going to be significantly disrupted by AI. Whether it’s gen AI or other forms of AI that have been around for some time remains to be seen. It’s quite clear that if you work through the customer journey and the process of trying to understand where you want to go, where you want to stay, what are the things you want to see, how you want to plan your day-by-day itinerary, gen AI significantly eases the process of travel discovery.

If you then step into what this means for travel suppliers, which includes airlines and hotels and cruises and car rentals and rideshare providers, the promise of AI is very much to help them deliver on the promises, both explicit and implicit, that they make to their customers.

Gen AI significantly eases the process of travel discovery.

What I mean by that is, very often, the expectations of travel are that your flight is on time, your bags get delivered to you safely, you then get to your hotel, your hotel room is available to check into when you get there, and you have a room that provides exactly what you asked for. That baseline expectation is one that many travel companies have historically struggled to meet.

What AI can do is help airlines ensure that planes are on time. It can help hotels ensure that what they deliver in terms of staffing and the product promise is consistent with what they advertise in their marketing and branding strategies.

Alex Cosmas: Not only is travel and hospitality the world’s largest sector, but it’s actually the most intimate sector. That means the answer for each of us to what a good experience looks like—whether I’m traveling for leisure or for business—is, by definition, fundamentally different. And the promise of AI has been to take the pattern of history, take the pattern of millions, and boil that down to the individual response that is relevant to me as a segment of one.

Nowhere is that promise needed more than in travel, where the experience should be a segment of one. That’s what makes it magical. To be clear, AI is already being applied in the travel sector in spades—specifically, in the operation of schedule assets and the optimized allocation of rooms and crews. That’s been true for decades, and it’s only getting better.

But the customer-facing applications of AI are only now really becoming next-generation. And for the most part, in travel, the best AI applications will largely be opaque to customers, because they’ll still be delivered through the mediums that customers prefer: often through humans, through the front line, through desk agents, through guest agents.

AI is already being applied in the travel sector in spades—specifically, in the operation of schedule assets and the optimized allocation of rooms and crews.

That’s ideally the promise. But the starting point is to say we can’t suddenly expect that customers will prefer to interact through more digital channels than they have in the past. Travel is a very human-centric business. And so the best AI, the best models, will be delivered through traditional channels.

How AI can change travel—for the better

Lucia Rahilly: What kind of value might come from using gen AI in the travel industry?

Alex Cosmas: Our latest estimates suggest that gen AI alone, across sectors, is bound to unlock $2 trillion to $4 trillion of incremental value.

Lucia Rahilly: Wow.

Alex Cosmas: Therefore, not surprisingly, capital is chasing the disruptive sector of AI.

Lucia Rahilly: What are some good examples of products that customers might expect to be using or that might be in the background enhancing customers’ experiences in the future?

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Vik Krishnan: Imagine the last time any of you tried to book a trip. You probably started on a search engine such as Google, or you started at an online travel agent such as Expedia, or you started at an actual supplier website if you had some certainty on what airline you wanted to fly or which hotel you wanted to stay at. You probably started with a little box where you put in your destination, you put in your approximate dates, and then you had the search engine present to you a series of results that may or may not have met your needs.

What we’re imagining in a future with gen AI or AI in general is that you start with something much more free-form and say, for example, “I’m looking to plan a trip with my family to New Orleans for a week in October. Can you help me find a hotel that has a pool for my seven-year-old and is within walking distance of the French Quarter?”

Wouldn’t that experience be much easier in terms of trying to figure out where you want to stay and what you want to do, as opposed to getting a list of a thousand hotels in an order that may or may not meet your specific preferences and what you actually want out of that trip? It is one of the most obvious examples wherein customers can see a real difference in what gen AI can do to help them with the travel discovery process.

Alex Cosmas: The other application of AI that I’m excited about is this: every customer gives tells. They drop digital breadcrumbs of things they like and don’t like when they bounce off of the page of a dot-com when they’re shopping; when they abandon a cart; when they return less frequently to search; when they arrive on a page only to check a single itinerary on a single day, on a single fare, rather than browsing for 20 minutes.

All of these are small tells that we as consumers provide travel brands. And so the ability to record, “I actually know what Alex is keen on in general and frankly less keen on and less likely to convert on,” and turn that into relevant offers is really important.

AI is only part of the answer

Lucia Rahilly: Where are we in terms of companies really embracing the use of this next-gen AI and other related technologies?

Alex Cosmas: We’re pretty far down the path of companies both embracing traditional AI and experimenting with gen AI. Very few of the airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and suppliers that I’ve interacted with are not already embracing deployment and actively experimenting with advanced tech. It’s only going to grow.

But there is risk. More is not always better. Faster is not always better. There’s a bit of, let’s say, a cautionary tale that we’ve learned from other sectors, which is that first off, AI is only part of the answer.

I like to say it doesn’t matter if you got the answer right if you got the delivery wrong.

The digital-delivery mechanism is how I go about delivering the answer: a mobile app, a push notification, an e-commerce experience, a kiosk, digital signage, or data just given to the front line. Those mechanisms are as equally important as or, I’d argue, even more important than the predictive and gen AI models behind them.

Vik Krishnan: To build on Alex’s point about getting the delivery wrong, many of you listening have probably been on an airplane in the last year. How many times have you experienced the outcome of landing, pulling toward the gate, stopping short on the tarmac somewhere, and it turns out the gate’s not available yet. Therefore, you have to wait for the other aircraft to taxi out, so your plane can then pull into the gate.

The reality is that putting together an operational execution plan involves data from so many different sources that aren’t necessarily pulled together in a large model. So it doesn’t necessarily enable or unlock this type of orchestration. And this is where AI can be enormously helpful.

There are companies out there that try to understand turning an aircraft, which is the process of essentially getting it from arrival to departure for the next flight. That involves actions both above the wing—for example, getting passengers off and onto the plane, getting the aircraft catered—and below the wing—for example, getting bags on and off the plane.

It involves refueling aircraft. It involves a number of other maintenance-related and ground-handling-related activities that many consumers don’t see. All of that is an extremely delicately orchestrated ballet that happens at an airport every single day, while involving multiple third parties and several different suppliers. It involves a fuel provider. It involves a ground handler. In some instances, it involves a different gate agent than the airline itself. That orchestration requires data and communication of very, very large volumes of information.

There are companies out there that are now saying, “We can actually identify when, during an aircraft turn, something didn’t happen according to schedule.” In other words, that catering truck didn’t pull in three minutes after arrival as it was expected to, which induced a delay. And that delay then allowed for a replanning of the entire turn process, so as to deliver an on-time departure. AI has an extremely large role to play in helping deliver on that promise in a way that suppliers have historically struggled to.

Don’t be AI stranger

Lucia Rahilly: In order to deliver on that process, understanding the data is critical. Here’s Ella Alkalay Schreiber, the GM of fintech at Hopper.

Ella Alkalay Schreiber: Machine learning is important, gen AI is important, predictive AI is important—but the actual challenge is to understand the data, ask the right questions, read prediction versus actual, and do this in a timely manner. The actual challenge is the human thinking, the common sense.

Lucia Rahilly: “Know your customer” is really a business axiom at this point. What does understanding your customers mean specifically for the travel industry?

Alex Cosmas: It means a few things. AI models learn the same way humans learn. It’s a test-and-learn process. I ask a question. I observe a behavior. That reinforces either my false or positive conception of who you are and what makes you tick. If you can’t measure cause and effect precisely, then avoid running an experiment entirely.

This is what our general advice is to our clients. I’d rather they experiment correctly on something small than swing for the fences and have no idea where the ball lands. That’s particularly true in microexperiments, where I have individual customers, where I provide individual treatments, but I have to be able to measure the response. If you can’t measure it, don’t bother. Focus your energy and resources on a different experiment.

This is what our general advice is to our clients. I’d rather they experiment correctly on something small than swing for the fences and have no idea where the ball lands.

If a brand, for example, doesn’t have the digital tech to be able to send a tailored offer to me as an individual, then you don’t really need to know my personal willingness to pay. In that case, stick to the microsegment or the macrosegment and take action that way. If you can’t send a personalized message without making it feel generic, then don’t.

Vik Krishnan: The experience of hyper-personalization has to feel authentic. So in other words, a flight attendant coming up to you and saying, “Hey, I know you normally like a Diet Coke with a slice of lime. Is that what you’d like this time?” is different from presuming what your preferred drink might be. That might be an example of how AI actually delivers on hyper-personalization, but with a bit of a human touch so it doesn’t appear creepy.

Lucia Rahilly: Both of you are deep in this industry. Any examples that come to mind of companies that are really doing AI right? And if so, how?

Vik Krishnan: Hotels that actually understand or acknowledge your past history of staying at that specific property—that’s quite a personal touch I really appreciate. But the reality is many hotels struggle to even understand basic facts such as the frequency, duration, and purpose of a recent stay. Many hotels don’t easily make that type of information available to their frontline staff. And so empowering those employees to use that information to deliver a hyper-personalized greeting or experience is a good example of companies using AI well.

Alex Cosmas: If done right, the frontline workforce should look and feel like superheroes powered by AI. There’s a luxury fashion retailer that arms its sales associates with iPads to link shoppers to the styles and the sizes they searched for online. That’s pretty cool. Now, augment that with the propensity models in the background that give the agent a steer to what a customer wants, and suddenly they appear clairvoyant. Think about that application in travel. There are far more interactions on average in a travel journey.

So as consumers, how do we preserve the magic of travel, which is more about heads-up time and being immersed in our surroundings, rather than about heads-down time and researching on a device? It means more agents who surprise and delight; say, “Welcome back”; say, “Happy birthday”; know you arrived earlier than planned; and swap the room preemptively so you could get in and get on your way. And that’s what we call knowing your customers like you know your friends.

I’ll share one example. When I check into a hotel, I really don’t like the kiosk and the app check-in. But I love it for checking out. For other customers, the complete inverse is true. My hotel can know that. It certainly knows how I check in and check out. It should act on that or understand the why, just as you understand your friends. This is the test-and-learn experiment that we talked about earlier and that most suppliers can begin right now.

AI and talent: What’s next?

Lucia Rahilly: Alex, that makes a very nice segue to Christiaan Hen, chief customer officer at Assaia, talking about frontline talent using AI as an assistant.

Christiaan Hen: Sometimes, people say automation might be a risk to people’s jobs, but that’s not the case here, because there are not going to be enough people to do these jobs in the first place. I like to see it as we’re equipping people with the right tools to do their jobs in a better way to accommodate for the additional workload that is coming.

Lucia Rahilly: This clip invokes the palpable fear that AI and automation will eliminate people’s jobs. We hear that time and again. How do you see these advanced technologies changing things for the front line in the travel industry?

Vik Krishnan: I see technology helping frontline employees do a better job more than I see it eliminating those jobs. We don’t necessarily see, for example, AI reducing flight attendant staffing any time soon, because those flight attendants are on the airplane to provide primarily for your safety, followed by the guest experience.

We see AI in many instances allowing those flight attendants to deliver a better customer experience, because they know that passenger in seat number 17C better as a result of the information provided to them. But it’s not replacing their jobs.

In certain pockets of the economy, technology and AI will end up replacing people. The reality in travel, though, is that the quality of the guest or passenger experience for so many people is tied to human interaction. Consequently, we don’t necessarily see a large-scale replacement of people here by technology and AI.

Alex Cosmas: Let’s look at the facts for a moment. Post-COVID-19, the travel sector employs 12 percent fewer staff than pre-COVID-19. And that’s not necessarily by choice. It is hard to find folks with the hospitality gene who genuinely want to deliver for guests, engage with them, and serve at the highest level day in and day out.

That’s part of the reason we see a smaller workforce in travel today than we have in the past. It takes twice as long, an average of five to six weeks, to fill roles as it did before the pandemic. Those with that hospitality gene would love nothing more than spending less time fixing broken itineraries, fixing issues that frankly could be automated. They’d rather spend their energy serving, which is what travel and hospitality is all about.

It should be a net-positive growth. The travel sector itself should grow as a result, creating jobs. We estimate the travel sector to grow at roughly 6 percent over the next decade, which is twice the rate of the overall economy.

Lucia Rahilly: Could AI and related technologies help with training folks who don’t come by that gene naturally but could be trained to fill those roles more efficiently?

Alex Cosmas: Absolutely. We’re already seeing applications of virtual reality, augmented reality, and AI coming together to offer more efficient ways to enhance and accelerate employee training, because you can throw live, immersive scenarios in front of employees at a higher clip than they would get organically on the job.

Oftentimes, the same is true not just of the front line but also of training corporate and call center employees. AI can learn from the patterns of thousands upon thousands of call-ins and transcripts—which no single human can ever be expected to go through—boil them down to the top ten core issues and suggest outcomes that seem to resolve 70 percent of situations. That’s the power of AI in training.

Lucia Rahilly: Alex, you mentioned virtual reality. Would travel drop if you could experience Bhutan from your sofa rather than actually having to take an arduous flight?

Alex Cosmas: Here’s my honest read on it. We’ve been able to visit Bhutan virtually for over a decade through YouTube and through National Geographic . And yet, travel is at an all-time high. And it’s because we all, as social animals, continue to enjoy experiencing new things, meeting new people, hearing new stories, and being inspired by a new site’s history and cuisine.

The numbers also suggest that we are in an unprecedented growth phase for travel. We are also in a phase where, over the past 15 years, customer satisfaction has steadily grown, despite how much we all like to beat up on our travel suppliers.

Consumers are admitting that the area they want to splurge on in the next year is travel and hospitality, such as experiences and restaurants. So they’re giving us that gift of their wallets and their trust. We have to deliver on that expectation as a sector. Gen AI, traditional AI, augmented reality, virtual reality, and digital technologies are going to help us deliver on the promise.

Alex Cosmas is a partner in McKinsey’s New York office. Vik Krishnan is a partner in the Bay Area office. Lucia Rahilly is the global editorial director and deputy publisher of McKinsey Global Publishing and is based in the New York office.

Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.

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The promise of travel in the age of AI

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The future of tourism: Bridging the labor gap, enhancing customer experience

11 Travel Technology Trends Emerging in the Tourism Industry in 2024

With widely available vaccines and lower numbers of Covid-19 cases, travel is slowly returning to its pre-pandemic levels , although travel risks and disruptions are still present. Extreme weather conditions, political instabilities, and hardware malfunctions. With the emergence of artificial intelligence and mobile devices, customers expect a much greater level of personalization than ever before. These are the main reasons why the travel industry is consistently striving to find new and innovative ways of integrating breakthrough technologies into its operations.

What is travel technology?

Impact of technology on the travel industry, why is technology important in the tourism and travel industry, key statistics and forecasts for travel technology in 2024, what are the latest technology trends used in the travel industry, 1. advanced travel search engines, 2. ai dynamic pricing engines, 3. dynamic scheduling systems.

4. Internet of Things
5. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

6. Contactless payments

7. AI chatbots

8. Big Data

9. 5g and fast wi-fi networks, 10. recognition technology, 11. cybersecurity practices, future of travel technology, building a travel application or extending your development team.

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Travel technology is an umbrella term to describe the multitude of different uses of modern technology such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and mobile technology within the fields of tourism, travel, and hospitality industry.

Technology solutions can be deployed at virtually every point of travel in one form or another, significantly influencing the overall customer experience.

Do you remember buying an airline ticket from a real human being?

Neither do we.

We all got used to the presence of modern technological advancements in the travel industry.

There are many more ways in which modern digital technology influences and improves the travel industry.

The ultimate motivation behind implementing these technologies is pretty straightforward. It as always boils down to increasing profits and expanding business, which in turn has a positive impact on customer experience.

First and foremost, it leads to improved efficiency and decreased operating costs.

In fact, it is a win-win situation for online travel agencies, airlines, as well as the travelers.

For companies, digital transformation in travel industry means better margins and healthier cash flows. For customers, in turn, it means many more attractive tourist destinations and lower prices.

[Read also: What’s the Future of Digital Transformation and Its Trends? An Expert’s Point of View ]

These days, almost everyone has a smartphone or other mobile device, granting access to an immense choice of online services.

It is thus crucial for travel companies to allow their customers to book their trips, check-in for their flights, and find information about their destinations online.

Even though we are taking all of these modern utilities for granted, they are still a key factor for improving user experience in the travel industry. As a result, they have to be improved and optimized consistently.

Latest travel technology trends refer to the innovations and digital solutions that are transforming the travel and tourism industry. Some of the trends include online travel booking, virtual tourism, mobile travel apps, chatbots and artificial intelligence. Here are some of the latest quantitative statistics and forecasts on travel technology trends:

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT will become more popular for trip planning, as half of travelers surveyed are interested in using them to find the perfect stay.
Destination “dupes” and “set-jetting” will continue to be in vogue as travelers seek affordable alternatives to crowded or expensive places, or follow the locations featured in their favorite shows or movies¹.
Global travel app revenues will grow by 17 percent in 2024, reaching nearly $400 million.
The share of digital ad spending in the travel and leisure industry will reach 14.5 percent in the United States and 13.9 percent in the United Kingdom in 2024.
The world’s leading online travel agencies (OTAs) will spend $2.3 billion on Google advertising in 2024.
The global travel and tourism market will shift from 66 percent offline sales channels to 54 percent online sales channels from 2017 to 2027.
The global travel technology market will grow by approximately 45 percent from 2020 to 2026, reaching $12.5 billion.
The Asia-Pacific region’s recovery will be evident as travelers flock to destinations such as Taiwan, Thailand, and Australia, which have successfully contained the pandemic and reopened their borders.
Travelers will need to be more creative and flexible in their destination choices, as travel restrictions and regulations may change frequently due to the ongoing health crisis.
Travelers will opt for carry-on only luggage with a twist: they will use smart luggage that can track their location, charge their devices, and weigh themselves.
Travelers will rely more on their travel advisors, who can offer more than just flights and hotels, but also personalized experiences, insider tips, and access to exclusive benefits.

Sources: Statista , Travel + Leisure , Smart Flyer .

There are plenty of different technology trends that are shaping the future of the travel industry.

Below, we’ve listed 11 of the most important travel industry trends.

Let’s compare here travel search engines to the Google search engine.

On the surface it is a pretty simple concept. A user introduce certain keywords of their interest and the search engine matches the most relevant results.

But what if you are looking for a hotel room in a specific location with certain room facilities? A simple Google search won’t be able to compute so many details.

This is where metasearch engines enter.

Metasearch engines are the tools that send search queries to many sources and organize results in a comprehensive list.

The main objective of such sites is to aggregate results in a unified way, so that the client can access the maximum number of available options on the market. It allows users to have a reliable source of objective information and to compare offers with one another.

Results presented by metasearch engines are obtained with less amount of exertion on the end user side.

Instead of searching one single search engine to find a specific website or browsing through different services, the right amount of data can be obtained by a metasearch engine.

It definitely improves the user experience. Ans save their precious time.

tourism technology trends and travel advisors

In the tourism industry, metasearch engines are used to search through and compare travel agencies’ offers to provide clients with as many suitable options as possible.

Nowadays, these services have grown quite robust. Many provide smart price alerts or tempting last-minute deals.

When developing a metasearch engine for an online travel agency , lodging reservation service, hotel booking engine , or a hotel inventory management software key factors are performance and scalability .

A team of Stratoflow Java developers when tasked with improving the travel search engine for a major hotel bookings aggregator decided to extract the availability search into a separate cache layer based on an in-memory data grid (IMDG) platform. It allowed for a major decrease in SQL database usage, as well as improved efficiency.

Interestingly, our client saw almost an immediate commercial effect right after the initial implementation.

Higher overall throughput of the travel search engine allowed the existing customer base to query the platform more frequently, generating higher revenues in the process.

[Read also: Introduction to a hotel channel manager ]

Airlines such as Ryanair or Southwest are known for their extremely low price model.

You can hop anytime you want on a plane from Warsaw to London for less than 30 dollars.

You may have been wondering – how are airlenes able to break even, and run a successful business model with such low prices?

The answer is artificial intelligence.

These days, the pricing of airline tickets is completely automated and run by advanced systems that aim to fill a plane with passengers at the most optimal prices.

These systems take into consideration different types of clients. Those can be either business travelers who value convenience and comfort the most or leisure travelers who are more cost-conscious regardless of long layovers.

All of these factors are summed up by the pricing system. The goal is to fill as many seats on each plane as possible. But at the same time to avoid situations of complete tickets’ unavailability for potential clients in a very complex balancing act.

Airlines’ pricing systems have to process an immense amount of customer data as well as travel trends about local destinations.

It is worth mentioning that during the COVID-19 pandemic pricing systems of many popular airlines were pretty severely disrupted. This led to a rather peculiar situation when we could book flights from Europe to the US for less than 200 dollars.

How was that possible? The dynamic pricing engines weren’t prepared for such an exceptional situation.

Nevertheless, as pandemic restrictions loosen, and airlines worldwide resume their normal routes and operations, dynamic pricing systems continue to play a vital role in their business model .

[Read also: Benefits of Digital Transformation for Your Business ]

Airlines are characterized by their large involved capital and incredibly slim average profit margins hovering around 5% (ignoring COVID-19 disruptions).

What does it mean for travel technology trends?

It’s simple. For an airline to make money, it has to adapt fast and consistently search for profitable routing opportunities.

This task has to be handled by automatic scheduling systems .

Aside from the cost, the major factor for customers determining which flight they will choose is the overall travel time.

Airlines, therefore, put an enormous effort into assembling the most optimal schedule that they can offer in the shortest travel time possible.

Modern dynamic scheduling systems have to take into account these three factors pointed by Nawal Taneja :

Scheduling optimization system – An automated solution created by a team of experienced developers that process operational data and identify the set of possible routing and scheduling changes. These have to be both profitable and operationally feasible.Such a system works based on all the possible arrangements of feasible schedule changes. Then it sorts them by their profitability.
Access to reliable market data – A dynamic scheduling system uses only reliable and accurate data on the routes popularity and its profitability.Considering a fairly short time horizon of flight scheduling operation, the best source for booking and revenue data is an internal Revenue Management system .
Knowledge about potential operational constraints – Many factors dictate whether a certain route is feasible operationally or not.These include maintenance costs at airports, gate availability, and miscellaneous aircraft-specific constraints.Only understanding all of them can ensure that a dynamic scheduling system can return positive results.

In terms of profitability, it is estimated that dynamic scheduling can result in a 1-3% increase in revenue , depending on its utilization rate.

It constitutes a substantial amount when it comes to the airline industry.

Stratoflow developers have a great deal of experience in this particular field.

They were tasked by a global flight information company to improve their existing system.

Stratoflow proposed a replacement of major calculation logic with an open-source, high-performance framework that dramatically lowered TCO when compared with the existing code.

4. Internet of Things (IoT)

Another emerging technology that is slowly being adopted by the tourism industry is the Internet of Things (IoT)

This concept refers to the network of physical devices —“things”—that are equipped with various sensors in order to connect and exchange data with other systems within the network over the internet.

Depending on the use case, these “things” can range from ordinary household devices to sophisticated industrial machinery.

When it comes to its role in the tourism industry, we’ve already seen some practical implementations beginning to appear.

Some airports, using IoT devices, tag passengers’ bags to alert them of their luggage’s current whereabouts and send them a notification when it arrives at the carousel.

Hotels are also starting to leverage some IoT-enabled sensors and voice control devices to adjust things like air conditioning. Using an in-room tablet, hotel guests can seamlessly control the temperature, music, lighting, and curtains, changing the atmosphere of the room and personalizing their experience to a whole new level.

5. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

Virtual reality (VR) has recently once again come into the spotlight when Facebook rebranded itself and announced Metaverse. It’s a conceptual virtual universe that will be a future replacement for well-established social networks.

These visions seem exciting and a little eerie at times. But can virtual and augmented reality also influence the tourism industry in the future? As it turns out, the answer is “yes”.

Virtual Reality allows people to explore new places without leaving the comfort of their homes.

Virtual tours will enable people to have a glimpse of a certain exotic place before their visit in person. What’s more, popular travel platforms like Booking.com can set up virtual hotel room previews in order to better manage customer expectations.

Contactless payment methods take pride of place among recent tourism technology trends.

As the pandemic forced people to shy away from physical coins and banknotes, contactless payment options like GooglePay and Apple Pay have gained a lot of popularity.

When using them, the user’s device with a payment app communicates with the reader using RFID technology.

To see how it works in practice let’s take a look at the contactless payment method designed by The Walt Disney Company.

Disney offers Disney World guests custom wristbands, known as MagicBands. Visitors can link their credit card to their MagicBand to make purchases with a simple and effortless swipe of a wrist.

From a business standpoint, this solution offers Disney an unmatched opportunity to track customer behavior in order to optimize its operations even further. It is a trend that is undoubtedly gaining traction in various sectors of the travel industry.

7. AI Integration and AI chatbots

AI is expected to be increasingly used in the hotel and travel industry, creating more seamless travel experiences and supporting new innovations to meet higher guest expectations.

Recently a story has surfaced that, allegedly, an advanced AI chatbot developed by Google has become self-aware.

AI chatbot technology has gone a long way in the last couple of years. It can also play a significant role in the development of the travel and tourism industry.

AI Chatbots stimulates human conversation, mostly using text interactions on various websites and services. Their main objective is to alleviate some congestion in call centers by proving at least basic help for customers 24/7.

When it comes to their usage in the travel and tourism industry, AirAsia is a good example of the use of a successful chatbot. Their advanced chatbot, AVA is able to do a multitude of things from helping travelers to choose seats and book flights to answering more difficult questions about current COVID-19 restrictions.

Data is a company’s most valuable asset.

This is also one of the main reasons why companies in the travel and hospitality industry are investing more and more funds into Big Data solutions.

Put simply, Big Data is a term that refers to large and unstructured data sets obtained from various data sources. These data sets are so voluminous that traditional data processing would have a hard time processing them into useful information.

Modern hotels and travel agents are using big data solutions to more effectively track customer behavior and preferences. This information is later used to improve the guest experience.

Big data measure precisely business performance.

Thanks to receiving data from previously untapped sources, the system allow for better yield management and demand prognosis.

[Read also: Fintech Trends That Shape Financial Future ]

As travel tech trends grow more robust with every passing year, connectivity develops at the same rapid pace.

A couple of years ago, 5G made its debut in some of the largest cities around the world, offering up to 20 times faster download speeds than before.

Even though that might not be such a big deal for an ordinary person, the connection between smart devices can now be more efficient than ever allowing more advanced IoT networks.

We have also seen an emergence of other breakthrough communication technologies, such as the Starlink internet.

Thanks to thousands of satellites in low earth orbit, people in virtually every corner of the world can enjoy internet speeds in excess of 100mbit/s and low latency unmatched by any other satellite internet provider.

A poor WiFi or Internet service in a hotel room can lead to bad online reviews for the hospitality and travel industry. With Starlink, even hotels in the most remote places can have a stable and fast internet connection.

[Read also: What is a GDS? ]

Facial recognition is the software that classifies a single face according to its gender, age, emotion, or other characteristics in an attempt to confirm a person’s identity.

It is currently one of the most powerful surveillance tools ever made.

While many people are happy to use it to effortlessly unlock their phones, companies and governments are beginning to use it to a much greater extent.

Facial recognition devices are beginning to appear in various airports across the world as an advanced security measure and potential deterrence.

According to a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security, “U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans to dramatically expand its Biometric Exit program to cover 97 percent of outbound air passengers within four years.”

To verify accounts on virtually every major travel and tourism offer aggregator, you would have to provide a photo of your ID card and other sensitive personal data.

It’s natural to feel a bit uneasy to share so much personal information, regardless of the service’s squeaky clean reputation and impressive market share.

Tourism companies and travel businesses understand that. That’s why they dedicate a substantial amount of resources to developing reliable and safe cybersecurity practices.

As virtual reality and augmented reality technologies are becoming more and more advanced, some people speculate that they will negatively influence the tourism industry, but we beg to differ.

We predict that future tech advancements will push the travel industry towards better travel experiences and even more personalized experience.

Travel technology trends – summary

The travel and tourism industry is the one where proper interactions with the consumer are essential. As new technological breakthroughs enter the market, they are letting corporations understand their customers a bit better, and provide them with improved services and experiences.

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What exactly is travel technology? All about this industry game-changer

What Is Travel Technology?

How is technology used in travel, real-life examples of technology used in travel, impact of technology in the tourism industry: numbers and stats, how has technology changed the travel industry.

Technology has become an integral part of our lives, completely changing how we work, shop, eat and spend our leisure time. With just a few simple taps on our smartphone, we can order food, purchase home appliances, make dinner reservations, and much more.

Constant technological advances have even made their way into the travel industry. We can now book hotel rooms, flights, sightseeing tours, and other activities, and plan our entire trips – all from a mobile device.

Technology has revolutionized the way we travel , making our travel adventures more convenient and fun. This massive change in the tourism industry is what we now call travel technology . Let’s take a look at some of these travel industry facts and see how you can benefit from them.

In simplest terms, travel technology means using tech to plan trips . It helps travel agencies book trips for their customers, together with airline tickets, hotel accommodation, car rentals, and many other travel-related activities.

Thanks to computerized reservation systems (CRSs) provided by their hotel and airline partners, they can handle everything travel-related in a matter of minutes.

Every reservation system stores and retrieves real-time data, so each travel agent can streamline communication with all the relevant parties.

Travel technology automates bookings, payments, and back-office tasks for travel agencies and enables consumers to make their online bookings without a travel agent .

Hotelmize and similar technology-driven companies and startups are helping the tourist industry implement travel technology. This has been welcomed with open arms.

Travel Tech Definition

Travel tech is the use of IT in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry .

It is the application of IT and e-commerce solutions in tourism, travel, and hospitality with the goal of automating travel, saving time, reducing costs, and creating a seamless travel experience for consumers, including before, during, and after a trip.

We’ve touched upon some general applications of travel technology to help you understand what this game-changer in tourism is. Now, let’s dig deeper into how tech is used in travel.

Here are some of the latest travel technology trends worth mentioning.

Smartphone as a Travel Buddy

Using your smartphone, you can plan a trip completely hassle-free . More importantly, your mobile device can be your tour guide wherever you are.

You can use it to get real-time updates regarding your flight, check in and out of a hotel, and find your way around your travel destination. It can be your map and compass, instantly locating nearby cafes, restaurants, museums, and anything else you need.

Thanks to voice search and virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana, your journey can be even more convenient and exciting.

AI and Chatbots

More and more online travel agencies and hotels are leveraging AI-powered solutions to automate bookings and provide personalized service .

One example is chatbots . Not only can they provide 24/7 customer support, but they can also make bookings, provide instant answers to FAQs, process payments, and carry intelligent, human-like conversations. They can be an ideal travel companion.

Thanks to machine learning , AI tools also provide insights into consumer behavior, interests, and preferences regarding travel destinations, hotels, amenities, airlines, car rental companies, pricing, and more.

Armed with such insights, OTAs and hotels can display or send relevant offers to customers.

VR (virtual reality) in travel enables you to transport yourself to another location virtually. You can take a virtual tour of a hotel before booking a room or a restaurant before making a dinner reservation.

You can “teleport” yourself into the Louvre, stand on Times Square, cross the Grand Canyon, or marvel at the breathtaking views from Mount Everest. You could watch a hundred videos on YouTube, but VR will make you feel as if you were there.

With AR (augmented reality) , you can also take room tours and engage in various hotel facilities.

You can take a peek inside an airplane, make sure your carry-on luggage is the right size, access public transportation schedules, overcome language barriers , and much more.

Internet of Things

Internet of Things (IoT) in travel helps personalize and streamline the travel experience.

For instance, hotels that embrace IoT allow guests to control various internet-enabled devices inside their room with their smartphones. They can control the lights, thermostats, TVs , and more.

Some of the most notable real-life examples of travel technology include:

TravelCarma
TechnoHeaven

Hotelmize (mentioned in the What Is Travel Technology? section) is the first on this list. They use capital market trading strategies and financial technologies, as well as travel industry experience, to help profit optimization efforts.

Trawex is a travel software development company that offers global B2B travel technology solutions. Its Trawex APIs seamlessly integrate with any travel portal and enable travelers to make seamless bookings and payments.

Amadeus is a travel technology company that provides solutions to everyone in the travel industry for improving travel experiences. Several years ago, it unveiled Navitaire , a VR travel search, and booking experience.

TravelCarma offers a suite of travel tech solutions for aggregation, distribution, data integration, and custom UI/UX development. It provides travel agency ERP, travel APIs, B2C/B2B booking engines, CRSs, back office, and more.

Expedia is an online travel company where you can book flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages, and plan entire trips.

It also has a chatbot for booking that works on Facebook Messenger, and an Amazon Alexa app with AI voice recognition. There’s also Ex pedia Travelocity , which has a price-match guarantee .

Skift is yet another great example of travel tech, except it’s a media company. It uses industry intelligence to research and define travel trends worldwide. It’s your go-to source for daily news and insights on travel tech .

Technoheaven is travel technology company that provides travel technology solutions for travel and tourism business to help them manage day-to-day operations and increase business efficiency. These solutions include travel agency software, tour operator software , B2B/B2C Booking Engine, XML API Integration and more.

According to FCM Travels , 39% of hotel bookings are made on smartphones. The same study found that smartphones are go-to devices for 22% of flight bookings.

Condor Ferries published some very interesting stats on online travel bookings :

70% of travelers use smartphones for travel research
33% of travelers plan their trips with the help of a virtual travel assistant
82% of 2018 travel bookings were made without a travel agent
66% of all travelers make their bookings online
83% of consumers in the US prefer making their travel bookings online
80% of travelers rely on reviews on TripAdvisor before making bookings
72% of consumers won’t make a booking before reading online reviews

Travel technology is definitely on the rise, and the OTA market share confirms that we are slowly going towards a fully-digital future.

Technology has made travel automation possible, making trip planning less time-consuming and exciting for travelers and travel agencies.

You can plan a trip in minutes and easily book accommodation, tickets, flights, and much more. You can have your travel itinerary in the palm of your hand, with your mobile device as the perfect travel buddy.

You can stay connected wherever you are , break down language barriers, and even improve your packing routine with tech such as AR. You can have a personalized experience that makes every trip unforgettable .

Travel technology has revolutionized tourism, and we can’t wait to see what its next chapter has in store for us! It’s undoubtedly going to be brilliant!

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Marc Truyols has a degree in Tourism from the University of the Balearic Islands. Marc has extensive experience in the leisure, travel and tourism industry. His skills in negotiation, hotel management, customer service, sales and hotel management make him a strong business development professional in the travel industry.

Mize is the leading hotel booking optimization solution in the world. With over 170 partners using our fintech products, Mize creates new extra profit for the hotel booking industry using its fully automated proprietary technology and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue across its suite of products for its partners. Mize was founded in 2016 with its headquarters in Tel Aviv and offices worldwide.

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How technology has transformed the travel industry

There has been a digital revolution for holidaymakers, and technological advances may see increased personalisation take off

At the turn of this century, planning a holiday might have entailed a visit to the local travel agent. Or for the more adventurous traveller armed with a well-thumbed guidebook, relying on trusted word-of-mouth recommendations to set their travel agenda. Today, thanks to breakthroughs in technology and high-speed internet, travellers can book their own flight and hotels online, choose to stay in a stranger’s house, and rather than entering that unfamiliar restaurant with trepidation, search online reviews on their mobile while connected to the hotel Wi-Fi.

“Digitalisation has given us choice in a big way,” says Tamara Lohan, co-founder and chief technology officer at boutique hotels website Mr & Mrs Smith . “More people are travelling than ever before, and companies like Airbnb encourage younger people to explore sooner, and in a more cost-effective way. Technology has also given us more information on the place we are going than ever before. Want to know if there is an artisan chocolatier close to your hotel in Amsterdam? Well, now you can – in seconds.”

In the digital age, we’ve become a generation of DIY travellers who plan, manage and book travel online. So what has this meant for businesses in the travel industry?

For travel agents, the rise of digital has severely disrupted the industry. “Traditional travel distribution in which high street travel agencies played a dominant role was revolutionised with online travel agencies and direct distribution through airlines and hotels’ websites acquiring a key role,” explains Angelo Rossini, contributing analyst at Euromonitor International .

“Low-cost carriers and online travel agencies were the clear winner of the online travel revolution over the past 15 years, changing the way today consumers plan and book their trips. Tour operators suffered the rise of independent travel and are today embracing the online and mobile channels in order to stay competitive,” says Rossini.

While the internet killed off many high street travel agents, others have been forced to adapt to a very changing marketplace, with many embracing the internet by introducing online bookings.

“As part of our omnichannel strategy, Thomas Cook has seen the need to make sure our customers can be served in a seamless way through whatever channel they wish – online through mobile, tablet, desktop or offline in a store or over the phone,” says its group head of digital operations, Graham Cook. The company has stepped up its digital innovation of late, even introducing virtual reality experiences across select stores.

One of the biggest disruptors to the travel industry has of course been Airbnb , which spurred the launch of other similar online-only companies such as One Fine Stay . Thanks to the rise of such sharing-economy companies we’re more likely to book a room in a stranger’s house, with 9% of UK and US travellers having rented space in a private home or apartment.

“The digital revolution has impacted almost everything in the world as we know it,” says James McClure, country manager for UK and Ireland at Airbnb . “In Airbnb’s case, technology has also brought tradition into the mainstream. The concept of staying in people’s homes when travelling is not a new one and dates back many centuries, but what technology has been able do is accelerate this to a fast-moving and easily-accessible global phenomenon.”

Technology has also presented new opportunities for small businesses in the travel sector, allowing consumers worldwide to stumble across say a B&B in Brighton or luxury safari park in Kenya through online review sites, social media and the businesses’ own websites.

“We pivoted from a hotel guidebook to become an online travel agent just as the internet started to become a place people could finally trust with their credit cards,” says Mr & Mrs Smith’s Lohan. “In the whole of that first month online we did 10 bookings – now we do 300 a day.” While she says the business changed its model due to internet and allows online bookings, it still runs 24/7 customer service support via phones “for people who want that human element”.

For travel brands it’s meant they have had to get smarter and adapt as consumers expectations rise. Take airlines, some of which now allow passengers to check-in online, access their boarding pass on mobile and operate Wi-Fi on flights.

“Digital technology has changed the way we connect with guests, creating a 24/7 relationship in and out of stay,” says Stephan Croix, vice-president of marketing at Starwood Hotels and Resorts, owner of hotel chains W Hotels and Aloft .

“It is also transforming every phase of hospitality – from finding a hotel, to checking in, to unlocking your door and personalising your stay. As travel is inherently mobile, travellers expect to use their mobile devices to enrich their travel experiences,” Croix says.

As a result, Starwood has adapted and invested in mobile, leading to overall mobile gross bookings rising more than 50% in 2015 compared with the year before.

Like others in the sector, the company is continually embracing technology to woo its digitally-savvy customers. It recently launched “Let’s chat”, enabling guests to communicate with its front desk associates via WhatsApp, Blackberry messenger or iPhone before or during their stay.

So how will technology shape the future of travel? “The next few years will see travellers requiring an increasingly personalised service, with companies able to suggest them customised products on the basis of their profiles and past behaviour,” says Rossini. With many travellers already seeking a more customised and “local” experience, truly personalised trips are already beginning to take off.

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The Evolution of Travel Technology: How It’s Shaping the Future

As technology continues to revolutionize every aspect of our lives, the travel industry is no exception. But how is technology impacting the future of travel-related businesses in particular? While we may not realize it, most of the things we do when traveling are powered by technology, from booking flight tickets on our smartphones to using artificial intelligence.

Technology advancements offer travel companies an unlimited number of opportunities.

Travel, however, faces new challenges as a result of technology. Today’s customers expect immediate responses to their requests due to the rapid pace at which everything is evolving. Without the right tech tools, businesses that are not able to meet the demand will likely experience a decline in customer satisfaction levels and, as a consequence, risk losing money.

Despite this, technology has transformed the way travel businesses operate and will continue to do so. In this article, we will highlight a few ways in which technology has changed the way we travel, as well as some trends and updates related to it.

Table of Contents

Some of the Ways Technology has Made Travel Easier and More Enjoyable are Listed Below :

Easy booking:.

The advent of technology has made it possible for people to book flights, accommodations, and even desired activities within minutes. It is now possible to find flights and accommodations at the best prices using the Internet. Some platforms offer flight and accommodation options that fit your budget and needs. Mobile check-ins and e-tickets eliminate the need to print tickets or hotel reservations. You will save a lot of paper and the hassle of carrying around a lot of papers this way.

Quick Planning:

Planning trips has become easier with the help of technology. It is easy to plan a perfect trip online. It is possible to find all the information you need about your chosen destination by simply surfing the internet for a few hours. In case you need professional assistance, you can find the best travel agents online and contact them. You only need a computer and an internet connection to plan your trip.

Efficient Packing Routine:

Technology has improved people’s packing routines. If you forget something important when packing, your journey, and trip can be ruined. The technology makes it possible to pack a lot of things without worrying about the weight limit. When waiting at the airport or on long flights, you don’t need to pack paperback books. Streaming platforms also allow you to listen to all the music without packing an iPod.

Remarkable Traveling Experience:

Travel has become more efficient due to technology. Google Maps allow you to reach the destinations that you want to visit without having to read maps or get lost. By doing so, you will save yourself the trouble of reading a map and asking for directions. Maps on Google can provide directions and suggestions anywhere, anytime.

When traveling abroad, people face the language barrier as a major challenge. Using technology, travelers can now travel without language barriers. Communicating with natives is possible with translation apps.

Stay Connected:

While traveling, technology allows you to stay connected. It is possible to work remotely if you are unable to take time off work. Besides that, you can stay in touch with your loved ones. People will know where you are if you are traveling to a foreign country.

Personalized Traveling Experience:

People like to have a personalized and unique travel experience. With technological advancements, you can have an experience that is unique to you. A lot of platforms, such as blogs, apps, chatbots, services, etc., can help you plan your dream trip.

Why is it Essential to Incorporate the Latest Technology Trends in the Tourism and Travel Industry?

Businesses should always stay up-to-date on travel technology trends since their main competitors will do the same. By allowing them to adopt new technology, you risk giving them a significant advantage. If the technology benefits customers, you rest on your laurels.

With the emergence of new trends and the introduction of new technology, customers are expecting a certain level of experience, and they want the convenience that comes with it. If your business fails to meet these expectations, customers will likely feel disappointed. Negative reviews could then damage your reputation, leading to negative reviews.

Additionally, keeping up with travel and tourism technology trends may facilitate recruitment, as candidates want to work with the latest tools, particularly if they reduce stress.

Trends and updates in travel and tech

Mobile technology.

Undoubtedly, this is the most important aspect of the new way of traveling. We use our cell phones as tour guides, travel agencies, restaurant locators, maps, and more. Throughout the entire purchase process, it is by our side.

Therefore, corporate services and communications must be adapted to these devices. As an example, Some brands have already created a Facebook Messenger information service for their passengers.

When a customer makes a reservation, the system sends them information about their ticket, boarding pass, or flight status updates via Facebook Messenger. By using an app that the user is already familiar with, the user has instant access to all the pertinent information about their trip.

Internet of Things (IoT)

With the Internet of Things (IoT) , the tourism industry will experience significant changes. Among these are sensors integrated into cars, suitcases, buildings, and more.

Over the next few years, the Internet of Things will be a major factor in personalizing the customer experience.

Some brands provide clients with an app that lets them control the thermostat or the television in their rooms. To prevent lost baggage at airports or other public places, some suitcases have devices that allow users to use their cell phones to track their suitcases.

5G networks make travel technology more powerful than ever. It promises faster loading and downloading speeds, wider coverage, and more stable connections. Besides downloading content 20 times faster than before, 5G allows the development and deployment of technology that was not possible with 4G. We will be able to enjoy the Internet of Things (IoT) more efficiently and will be able to connect smart devices more efficiently.

Blockchain holds the potential to transform the way we live. Travel seems to be impacted by it as well, even though it’s primarily associated with finance.

Although little experimentation has been done with it, it may prove useful for identifying passengers at airports, ensuring tourists’ opinions are transparent, and facilitating secure payments.

Augmented Reality

Due to all the possibilities it offers, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have also entered the travel world. Increasingly, companies use it to show users a cabin on a cruise ship or transport them to the Great Wall of China for a few seconds.

It is now possible to “teleport” to remote corners of the globe without ever leaving the couch. With Everest’s EVEREST VR app, you can see the top of the world without having to climb it.

Virtual Assistants

Alexa and Siri are virtual assistants that can answer all your questions: like what’s the weather in my city, what’s the news, and more.

Due to the arrival of virtual assistants designed specifically for hotels, AI-powered virtual assistants create an interactive and personalized experience.

It is an open technology that firms can use and adapt to their needs.

There has been a lot of talk about Big Data in recent months, but it has yet to demonstrate all its benefits. However, it is already being used by many industry players.

Marketing campaigns for some hotels are based on information about guests. Their main objective is to examine their database for information on amounts spent, reasons for trips, and countries of origin. This will enable them to develop a customer profile based on public data from government sources. To increase their efficacy and optimize their investment, they segment their campaigns in this manner.

Travel businesses need to adapt to these changes as technology changes the travel and tourism industry. As travel companies connect with their users globally through technology, information technology plays an extremely important role in these processes. HashStudioz Technologies Inc. can help you implement recent travel tech innovations and take the world by storm. Our goal is to help travel companies digitize their processes and implement top-quality travel technology solutions.

Our expertise in business process outsourcing and travel app development makes us the best travel app development company . A world-renowned travel process outsourcing company, HashStudioz delivers exceptional products and travel technology services.

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As international travel grows, so does US use of technology. A look at how it's used at airports

U.s. customs and border protection is expanding the use of technology to process the ever-growing number of passengers as travel booms following coronavirus pandemic-related slumps.

Piet De Staercke, from back right to left, with his wife Jill Bornauw, their eldest son Stan De Staercke, watch their youngest Tuur de Staercke, get screened by a Custom Border Protection officer, right, in the port of entry at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va. Monday, April 1, 2024. The Belgian family of four, used the Mobile Passport Control app, the newest technology in international travel, to ease their way to their port of entry. Within minutes they had bypassed a long line of people waiting at the airport's passport control and were waiting for their luggage. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Belgian family of four was on their fourth trip to the United States. They had been dreading the long line at passport control when they entered the country but had heard about a new app they could use to ease their way and decided to give it a shot. Within minutes, they had bypassed the long line at Washington Dulles International Airport and were waiting for their luggage.

“It was always a long row," said Piet De Staercke of the line to go through passport screening. He, his wife and two sons were visiting Washington and Chicago. “We were a bit scared. But now with the app, it’s amazing.”

As travel continues to boom following coronavirus pandemic-related slumps, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is expanding the use of technology like the Mobile Passport Control app the De Staercke family used in an effort to process the ever-growing number of passengers traveling internationally. And with events like a rare solar eclipse , the Olympics in Paris, and summer holidays still driving international travel, those numbers don't look set to drop anytime soon.

Customs and Border Protection officials gave The Associated Press a behind-the-scenes look at some of the technologies they've been using and what to expect in the months and years ahead.

During fiscal year 2023, the agency processed over 394 million travelers at the ports of entry. That's a 24% increase over the previous year. When looking at the country’s top 20 airports by passenger volume, officers processed 31% more travelers while average wait times increased 11%. And at some of the busiest airports, the wait times have had negligible increases or even decreased. At JFK Airport in New York, for example, wait times went down — by 0.4 of a second on average — while CBP officers processed 33% more travelers.

Increasingly, people are traveling internationally with their families rather than going abroad alone for business.

Officials are moving more toward app-based technologies to speed passengers' movement through the airport. The Mobile Passport Control app used by the Belgian family is one example. It's available to U.S. citizens, but also to lawful permanent residents, certain Canadians and travelers from countries who are part of the Visa Waiver Program who've already been to the U.S. at least once.

Passengers upload their photos and information to the app. When they enter the screening area, they get routed to a separate line. The officer then just needs to take a photo of one member of the family and it pulls up the entire group's photos and their information.

CBP launched the app in 2021 but is now trying to get more people to use it, including by working with airlines to allow the app to be downloaded while the plane is in flight and putting up signs at airports to let travelers know about it. Last year, a record 4.1 million people came into the country using the app.

“Any second that we can save through the process, it saves time because it adds up eventually,” said Marc Calixte, the top CBP official at Dulles.

Last September, the agency also created an app specifically for passengers who use Global Entry. That's one of the “Trusted Traveler” programs CBP runs that allows certain low-risk passengers who make an appointment for an interview and submit to a background check to travel through customs and passport control more quickly when they arrive in the U.S.

Last year saw a record 3.2 million people apply to the Global Entry program, and this year the agency is on track to field about 4 million applications, said Brendan Blackmer, CBP branch chief for the Trusted Traveler Programs. But passengers have complained about how long it can take to get applications processed and their struggles to get appointments. On its website, CBP says it averages four to six months to process applications. In February, 17 members of Congress wrote to CBP demanding information, saying they were fielding complaints from constituents over the wait times.

Blackmer said the agency has pushed to improve the process, including by allowing nearly 100% of people renewing their status to do so without having to come into an enrollment center. That frees up appointments for first-time applicants. And it's pushing for more people to be able to complete the process while they're in the airport, either leaving or returning from a trip.

There are also more appointments available, Blackmer said, although some cities like San Francisco are still seeing so much demand that appointments can take more than 90 days to get.

“We’ve done a lot of work the past year and a half, and the agency’s in a better position now and able to meet the demand for the program. And we’re going to continue to work,” Blackmer said.

Come Oct. 1, people using some of the Trusted Traveler Programs will see increases to the fees they pay. The cost of NEXUS, a U.S.-Canadian program designed to ease travel between the two countries for pre-approved travelers, will go from $50 to $120. Global Entry will go from $100 to $120. SENTRI, for pre-approved travelers on the southern border with Mexico, will go down, from $122.50 to $120.

But the fees will now cover all kids under 18 regardless of which program you're in.

What's unchanged is that approval for the programs will still be good for five years.

Calixte said possibly by the end of summer the airport will be opening so-called E-Gates where passengers using Global Entry can use the app, bypass an officer at a booth, and instead go to a gate where their photo is taken and matched to their passport, and, assuming no red flags arise, the gates open and they pass out of the customs and passport control area and are on their way.

Further on the horizon, Blackmer said the agency is exploring a concept called smart queuing, where the app assigns passengers to certain lines depending on information they have entered into the app, such as whether they have goods to declare.

Follow the AP's coverage of travel at https://apnews.com/hub/travel .

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NASA Picks 3 Companies to Help Astronauts Drive Around the Moon

The agency’s future moon buggies will reach speeds of 9.3 miles per hour and will be capable of self-driving.

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By Kenneth Chang

NASA will be renting some cool wheels to drive around the moon.

Space agency officials announced on Wednesday that they have hired three companies to come up with preliminary designs for vehicles to take NASA astronauts around the lunar south polar region in the coming years. After the astronauts return to Earth, these vehicles would be able to self-drive around as robotic explorers, similar to NASA’s rovers on Mars.

The self-driving capability would also allow the vehicle to meet the next astronaut mission at a different location.

“Where it will go, there are no roads,” Jacob Bleacher, the chief exploration scientist at NASA, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “Its mobility will fundamentally change our view of the moon.”

The companies are Intuitive Machines of Houston, which in February successfully landed a robotic spacecraft on the moon ; Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colo.; and Venturi Astrolab of Hawthorne, Calif. Only one of the three will actually build a vehicle for NASA and send it to the moon.

NASA had asked for proposals of what it called the lunar terrain vehicle, or L.T.V., that could drive at speeds up to 9.3 miles per hour, travel a dozen miles on a single charge and allow astronauts to drive around for eight hours.

The agency will work with the three companies for a year to further develop their designs. Then NASA will choose one of them for the demonstration phase.

The L.T.V. will not be ready in time for the astronauts of Artemis III, the first landing in NASA’s return-to-the-moon program , which is currently scheduled for 2026 .

The plan is for the L.T.V. to be on the lunar surface ahead of Artemis V, the third astronaut landing that is expected in 2030, said Lara Kearney, manager of the extravehicular activity and human surface mobility program at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

“If they can get there earlier, we’ll take it earlier,” Ms. Kearney said.

The L.T.V. contract will be worth up to $4.6 billion over the next 15 years — five years of development and then a decade of operations on the moon, most of it going to the winner of this competition. But Ms. Kearney said the contracts allow NASA to later finance the development of additional rovers, or allow other companies to compete in the future.

The contract follows NASA’s recent strategy of purchasing services rather than hardware.

In the past, NASA paid aerospace companies to build vehicles that it then owned and operated. That included the Saturn V rocket, the space shuttles and the lunar roving vehicles — popularly known as moon buggies — that astronauts drove on the moon during the last three Apollo missions in 1971 and 1972.

The new approach has proved successful and less expensive for the transportation of cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA now pays companies, notably Elon Musk’s SpaceX, fixed fees for those services, more akin to plane tickets or FedEx shipments.

For the company chosen to build the L.T.V., the vehicle will remain its property, and that company will be able to rent it to other customers when it is not needed by NASA.

“It’s commercially available for us as a commercial business to sell capacity on that rover,” said Steve Altemus, the chief executive of Intuitive Machines, “and do that for international partners and for other commercial companies and space agencies around the world.”

The competition created alliances between small startups and larger, more established aerospace companies, as well as car companies. The Intuitive Machines team includes Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Michelin, the tire maker. Lunar Outpost added to its team Lockheed Martin, Goodyear and General Motors, which had helped design the Apollo moon buggies.

Astrolab is working with Axiom Space of Houston, which has sent private astronauts to the space station and is building a commercial module to the International Space Station. Astrolab announced last year that it had signed an agreement to send one of its rovers to the moon on a SpaceX Starship rocket as early as 2026. That mission is independent of whether it is selected by NASA, a company spokesman said.

While Lunar Outpost is competing with Intuitive Machines on this contract, it plans to work with the company separately, sending smaller robotic rovers to the moon on the company’s lunar landers.

Kenneth Chang , a science reporter at The Times, covers NASA and the solar system, and research closer to Earth. More about Kenneth Chang

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WASHINGTON – United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai will travel to Leuven, Belgium from April 4 to April 5, 2024.

On Thursday, April 4, Ambassador Tai will participate in a fireside chat hosted by Carnegie Europe and moderated by Carnegie Europe’s Director Rosa Belfour. This event will be open press.

Ambassador Tai will also participate in the U.S.-EU Trade and Labor Dialogue with European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and U.S. and EU labor and business stakeholders. This event will be closed press.

Later, Ambassador Tai will participate in a U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) fireside chat on “TTC Achievements in a Changing World and the Future of EU-U.S Trade And Technology Cooperation” with TTC co-chairs U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (tbc), U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, and European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, as well as European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton. The conversation will be moderated by Arancha González Laya, Former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. This event is open press and registration to access the livestream is here .

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As international travel grows, so does US use of technology. A look at how it’s used at airports

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April 3, 2024, 2:42 PM

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“It was always a long row,” said Piet De Staercke of the line to go through passport screening. He, his wife and two sons were visiting Washington and Chicago. “We were a bit scared. But now with the app, it’s amazing.”

Customs and Border Protection officials gave The Associated Press a behind-the-scenes look at some of the technologies they’ve been using and what to expect in the months and years ahead.

THE NUMBERS

During fiscal year 2023, the agency processed over 394 million travelers at the ports of entry. That’s a 24% increase over the previous year. When looking at the country’s top 20 airports by passenger volume, officers processed 31% more travelers while average wait times increased 11%. And at some of the busiest airports, the wait times have had negligible increases or even decreased. At JFK Airport in New York, for example, wait times went down — by 0.4 of a second on average — while CBP officers processed 33% more travelers.

Increasingly, people are traveling internationally with their families rather than going abroad alone for business.

Officials are moving more toward app-based technologies to speed passengers’ movement through the airport. The Mobile Passport Control app used by the Belgian family is one example. It’s available to U.S. citizens, but also to lawful permanent residents, certain Canadians and travelers from countries who are part of the Visa Waiver Program who’ve already been to the U.S. at least once.

“Any second that we can save through the process, it saves time because it adds up eventually,” said Marc Calixte, the top CBP official at Dulles.

Last September, the agency also created an app specifically for passengers who use Global Entry. That’s one of the “Trusted Traveler” programs CBP runs that allows certain low-risk passengers who make an appointment for an interview and submit to a background check to travel through customs and passport control more quickly when they arrive in the U.S.

IMPROVEMENTS TO GLOBAL ENTRY

Blackmer said the agency has pushed to improve the process, including by allowing nearly 100% of people renewing their status to do so without having to come into an enrollment center. That frees up appointments for first-time applicants. And it’s pushing for more people to be able to complete the process while they’re in the airport, either leaving or returning from a trip.

There are also more appointments available, Blackmer said, although some cities like San Francisco are still seeing so much demand that appointments can take more than 90 days to get.

FEE INCREASES

But the fees will now cover all kids under 18 regardless of which program you’re in.

What’s unchanged is that approval for the programs will still be good for five years.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Follow the AP’s coverage of travel at https://apnews.com/hub/travel .

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The claim: NASA admits the Earth is flat and non-rotating

Our rating: False

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The claim: Moon visible in the daytime proves Earth is flat

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Our rating: Missing context

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