Technologically Transforming The Travel Industry

Technology has played an enormous role in the modernization and development of India. It has not only given users an unlimited access to information & services, but has also helped players in each sector to aim for excellence. Innovation has been slow in coming to the flourishing travel industry; technological advancements and new-age startups are striving to create ripples in the sector now.

Forrester Consulting and Google search trends highlight that India is expected to serve 100 million online shoppers. Furthermore, the ecommerce market is likely to touch $38 billion mark by the end of 2016, as reported by ASSOCHAM. It is believed that almost 70 per cent of the ecommerce industry is comprised of travel-related platforms as many sectors, such as airlines, hotels/motels, travel agencies, buses, car rentals, gift shops and so on, are associated with this industry. These turn out to be quite substantial numbers.

One of the case studies that gives us an in-depth account of technology being the game-changer in the travel industry is the escalation story of IRCTC. Their online ticketing service went live in the year 2002 and in spite of all the hype and promotion, it had a mere 27 bookings on the first day of its commencement. But the online operations soon began to pick up pace and making their presence known in the travel ecosystem; IRCTC went on to witness approximately 13 lakh bookings on a daily basis in the year 2015.

Meanwhile, the online travel agencies were able to collect a loyal user-base right from the time they were introduced to customers. The trend of using travel agents for bookings gradually began to decline as users started to book tickets online themselves. Multiple factors have contributed to this pattern - convenience and independence experienced by users, an array of time and money-saving travel options, customer reviews, making modifications/changes to the bookings immediately if needed, getting discounts and more.

Furthermore, the use of mobile devices for making bookings is fast becoming the most important trend in the travel industry. With the mobile user base crossing 1 billion in India, m-commerce is expected to contribute up to 70 per cent of the total revenues. Having said that, travel bookings remain a cumbersome process to carry out on a mobile device due to the inconvenience faced while comparing different modes' of prices, time slots, duration etc. and this remains a big deterrent in this area. Online travel platforms, such as Routofy, have been working on making this process simpler and more convenient. The methodological use of technology will be the chief game-changer to tap into this potential customer base.

The various technology trends that will keep users engaged to the online platforms in the coming year are listed below:

" Trip Engineering?
Trip engineering enables the travel interface to meet the requirements of the user and serve him in the best possible manner within the constraints of availability, cost and time. If a corporate traveller has to plan his journey for an impromptu meeting the next morning, trip engineering will utilise technology to make recommendations according to the spontaneous and unplanned requirements. It's not about showing tons of data to the users anymore; it's all about keeping things simple and increasing the functionalities to meet the demands of passengers.

" Multi-modal Travelling
Infrastructural development has brought about an unmatched level of connectivity amongst airports, railway stations, bus terminals and public transport hubs. In fact, the Union Budget 2016 announced the upcoming development of 160 non-functional airports, which will be particularly advantageous for travel-planning to Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities. However, the different transport modes continue to operate separately due to a lack of online integration and inter-connectivity amongst these mediums. An evolution in the travel information ecosystem will prove to be invaluable in providing a multimodal experience to users.

" Personalized Services
Many ecommerce portals in the past few years have been focussing heavily on making the customer feel special with 'immersive merchandising'. This utilizes predictive algorithms and past trends to make intelligent recommendations to the users at suitable intervals. Understanding customer preferences and presenting relevant options is the idea behind this concept. Imagine being suggested to book lunch/dinner according to your preferred cuisine & time while on a journey and receiving the order right at your seat. The travel industry has not yet explored the same.

" Virtual Reality
The potential of VR is immense in the field of travel; it can allow people to experience a destination anywhere in the world with tremendous realism so as to smudge the line between reality and the 'virtual world'. Take the example of choosing a hotel room, for which VR would instantly teleport you to the room under consideration so that you can view the room and decide whether it is to your satisfaction. You can compare the ambience & facilities of economy & business class in the airline before booking your ticket. User experience will be taken to a new level with things like 360-degree photography, drone photography and smartglasses.

" Cloud Passports
Biometric passports store personal information and allow users to quickly clear immigration via a SmartGate in select countries. Virtual passports are another step forward as they would go on to contain a lot of info, including biometric data, a digital photo, and other identification. It would remove a large number of hassles associated with travel, such as missing/stolen passports and even the need to physically carry a passport. It certainly seems like a useful and fascinating concept to explore for Indian travellers.

We can expect the year 2016 to be full of excitement, expansion and progress for travel.