How Mobile Apps are Easing Travel and Tourism?

Gone are the days when people used to rely on third-party agents for travel bookings. With advanced travel apps, wanderlusts can make travel arrangements on their own within a few taps and let the app handle all the tedious tasks. It also provides travelers with the freedom to plan the trip as per their preferences and make the necessary arrangements effortlessly.

Technology has brought a great revolution across industries and the one where we can witness a major transformation is in the travel and tourism industry. Travel app development is on the boom. Many businesses are coming forward with the idea of launching a travel booking app.

An online travel app is the best way to organize your trip without any hassle and also because it replaces the involvement of any third party. A survey by eMarketer reports that travel apps rank at seventh position in the list of most downloaded app categories and nearly 60% of mobile users use travel apps to plan their trips. In another survey by Travelport that involved 16,000 travelers from 25 countries, it was found that 61% of US travelers are using their smartphones to pay and book for traveling purposes.

Benefits of Building a Travel Mobile App

If you are into travel and tourism-based business, it’s high time that you consider building a mobile app for your customers and to get a competitive edge over your competitors. If you are still unsure whether to go for travel app development or not, let’s delve into the benefits of a travel application and see how convenient it has made things for users.

1. Easy Travel Bookings

A travel app offers hassle-free bookings and allows travelers to plan, book, and manage their trips while they sit comfortably at their homes. They can choose their preferred destinations, book and pay for the tickets, create reservations at hotels, book local cabs and meals- all just in a matter of minutes. The travel itineraries are also available to app users that provide a breakdown of the trip. The best thing is that the booking price is displayed up-front and hence the users can plan as per their budget.

2. Improves Travel Experience

Another benefit of travel mobile app development is that it enhances the experience of end-users. Travel apps are used as a medium for online ticket booking, hotel reservations, locating local attractions and food outlets, checking reviews about the destination, and more. Users also have the accessibility of destination photos and videos. They can check out those pictures and clips to get an overview, and a clear understanding of their destination and stay updated in advance. Such things help enhance users’ travel experience.

3. Works as a Powerful Marketing Tool

In today’s digital world, online marketing is essential to reach a large audience and improve your brand visibility. How are people going to discover your app or brand if you are not following an effective marketing strategy? A mobile app related to travel and tourism can enhance visibility and establish your presence in the competitive travel industry. It’s a proven fact that companies utilizing social media as well as the local platforms to promote their brand and connect with their audience succeed in optimizing their ROI.

4. Eliminates Paperwork

Travel application development helps get rid of hectic and unnecessary paperwork. Everything tends to happen online, be it about transactions, booking receipts, flight tickets, hotel reservations, and more. You can save the soft copies of the necessary documents on your smartphone and take them along. This also cuts down the labor and resource cost. Paperless work also improves customer satisfaction as they have a sense of relief and peace of mind that they do not need to carry too many documents with them and all the necessary ones are safe inside the phone or tablet.

5. Acquire New Customers

Travel companies can attract new customers through enticing deals, offers, and discounts such as discounts for first-time app users or customers, seasonal discounts, and some amazing holiday packages. Brands can offer loyalty points on bookings made through their app to retain customers which will ensure more visits and more revenue in the future. This helps create an authentic client base.

The competition in the travel and tourism industry has remarkably increased. Users have many options to choose from to book their trip. The discount factor, in this case, becomes crucial. There are apps that allow users to compare travel expenses so work it out on how you are going to be better than your competitors in drawing new customers.

Key Features for a Successful Travel App

Planning to build a travel app for your business? Here are a few key features that are a must in the application.

1. Geo-location

Once a tourist arrives at the destination, they would want to check in to a hotel or visit the nearby cafes and restaurants to relax. This is why the geo-location feature is crucial in a travel app as it will help them track nearby places comfortably. This is quite helpful for those who have never been to that place before. They can wander new places without taking the help of any local guide. The feature can be added by integrating Google Maps SDK into your Android and iOS mobile app during the travel app development. It will incorporate maps into your travel app with navigation and routing options. Although this might increase the overall travel mobile app development cost, it is something that shouldn’t be ignored.

2. In-app Cab Booking

A travel mobile app should not only allow users to make flight, train, and hotel reservations but also cab bookings right from within the app rather than them exiting out of the app and opening any other app to complete that task. The in-app cab booking facility saves users’ time by allowing them to call a cab comfortably to their live location without having to enter their pickup and drop location separately. Users can also see the estimated time of arrival and booking price from different cab providers. There are already many travel apps that offer in-app cab booking and you too shouldn’t miss out on this important feature when going for travel application development.

3. Itinerary Generator

One of the biggest concerns travelers have is managing the itinerary operations. They are often confused about where to travel first, where to take a break, where to plan their stay and how to carefully move ahead in their journey. Travel apps take care of all these hassles. The apps seek information from the user about the places they wish to visit and then set up the itinerary accordingly. A survey by Travelport reports that 64% of the travelers in the US take the help of travel apps to check their whole itinerary. With such a feature in your app, not only do you boost its effectiveness but make it an extremely helpful and go-to option for your app users.

4. Weather Forecast

When we talk about travel application development, this feature cannot be missed. Integrating climate or weather forecasting feature in a travel app provides users with real-time updates about the places they are deciding to visit and helps them pack their clothes accordingly. Some people pack up in haste without even giving a thought about the weather conditions of their travel places. If an app comes with that feature, it will keep users alert of the weather forecast and prevent them from falling sick or facing any natural calamity. It should give them detailed information like wind speed, rain possibility, cloud forming, humidity, etc.

5. Ratings and Reviews

Modern-day travelers always check out ratings and read reviews about the places they plan to visit. Therefore, it is important to include this feature in your travel app. On average, travelers read around 5-7 reviews before they finalize their trip decision. Having this section would allow users to learn from the travel experiences of the previous users and make a more firm decision about their journey. Also, when the current users would post a review about their experience, it will help future users as well. It’s the best way to raise awareness and also helps app owners to learn what went wrong during the app users’ journey and then improvise accordingly.

Final Thoughts

A travel app is a great way to stay connected to your users throughout their travel journey. By assessing the interests, needs, expectations, and browsing history of the users, travel businesses can better understand their customers and put forward customized deals and packages.

As technology advances, we might come across many more features in the upcoming days that could add to the comfort of the users. The travel app development industry is constantly evolving to offer better, faster, and more reliable services to users.

Looking for a company that could help you with travel mobile app development? At Dew, we have qualified experts and a team of experienced app developers who can design and develop a travel app as per your requirements. Reach out to us at info@dewsolutions.in for any queries or you can contact us by submitting your requirements here.