We are now living in the heyday of web and mobile development. PCs, Laptops and then tablets along with smartphones have changed our life irreversibly. The travel sphere is the one which has gone through a fundamental shift.
The way people travel and the experience they are getting are changing rapidly due to the mobile devices and tools at hand. 88% of activity on smartphones and tablets happens through applications. About 30% of travelers admit they use apps for flight booking and approximately the same number installs them for hotel reservations. People widely utilize smartphones to study reviews about hotels, attractions, cafés, and restaurants, etc. More than 80% of users find other tourists reviews helpful.
Thus travel app development has resulted in convenient and accessible touring, however, the charm of stepping into the unknown has been almost lost.
Let’s see how technology is changing the travel and tourism industry in more detail.
Features that make a travel app successful
As we can see mobile devices and the applications they have are great drivers of the present-day traveling domain. The change happens both for ordinary travelers and for tourism businesses. The latters bet big to provide their clients with innovative, user-friendly, responsive, and smart tourism apps.
They are quite variable, however, there are common features, able to bring a travel app success. They can be found below.
Smart booking system
One of the secrets of how to make a tourism app successful is to provide it with an intelligent booking system. It should allow comparing prices, getting notifications about discounts and special offers, making bookings, saving them and setting reminders.
Thus, immediately after choosing a destination, a tourist will be able to proceed with the travel arrangements, like itineraries checking, flights, and hotel booking, transfer ordering and other significant things. Booking a cab belongs to the latters as well. Letting the traveler to identify the exact location and cabs’ timetable facilitates his better time estimation and management during the journey. Besides, the scope of information can be extended with such details as type and color of the vehicle, driver’s contact, and registration number. This benefits to the security aspect and makes the traveler feel safer.
Search engine optimization
SEO is that modern force, which drives users in the right direction. A proper SEO strategy is able to prompt the travel and tourism mobile app and the agency on the whole, which moves to make the next.
Among the other multiple benefits of tourism apps, local SEO optimization should be noted specifically. It allows the user to get the enhanced traveling experience through localized suggestions and prompts grounded on personal likings. To identify them the apps should have an intuitive design and social media integration. In such a way a tourist can easily find what he wants and the app remembers the choice.
Geolocation
Geolocation feature facilitates traveler’s comfort allowing him to investigate everything around. That's why tourism mobile app development can’t at present do without the geolocation integration. It comes in handy when the traveler searches for entertainments, cafés, restaurants, or other attractions somewhere nearby.
Providing a user with the opportunity to get all the necessary details in one app, you’ll likely gain his heart for long. It may be a good idea to create an augmented reality tourism app. A person can then get the impression of presence in the place of destination in advance.
Weather forecasting
The function of weather and climate forecasting comes in handy when a traveler packs for the trip. Being aware of the current, most recent and accurate state of things at the place of his destination, he is able to pick the right luggage and avoid taking unnecessary items. When going to another continent or region such features as sea temperature, humidity rate, and storm forecasts may be quite useful for a tourist.
Trip reviews
If you question yourself how to build a trustworthy travel app, the answer is simple – include actual trip reviews. As we mentioned in the beginning, more than 80% of travelers trust the feedback from real visitors more than to the official information or rating. Besides, it stimulates the hotel owners and various service providers to improve their work. Nobody wants to spoil the reputation they have. Real-life reviews are a true driving force of people’s attraction in the modern world.
Streamlining of transactions, provisions, and checking
When you have a digital product it’s unreasonable to proceed with paperwork. Providing your clients with the possibility of online payments you can also implement online receipts and reports. It will not only allow cashless traveling to your clients but release you or your staff of lots of work, due to the possibility of dealing with digital docs right in the app.
Benefits of tourism app development for the travel business
The simplicity of the customers and visitors attraction
Mobile apps for the tourism industry are perfect marketing tools, they allow to demonstrate the services quickly and transparently, gaining new clients as well as retaining the returned ones. Social media integration makes this process even faster and totally hassle-free.
Availability of the destinations’ photos and videos
People are attracted to visual images, so the photos and videos of the places they consider to visit often play a decisive role in the final choice of destination. Through the app, you can craft the images of various places to attract more visitors to this or that locale.
Total customization
The application allows users to depend less on touring agents since it can have all the necessary services onboard. Thus, the tourist can manage all his itineraries, bookings, transactions and other arrangements himself, at the same time receiving the assistance on part of the agency whenever it’s necessary through the communication channel integrated.
Fulfilling the client’s requirements
When considering a travel app development any company should keep in mind the advantage of the direct and immediate reach of the clients with straightforward special offers, transparent loyal programs, and discounts available.
When you know your customer base and preferences of each client, it’s easier to tailor customized special offers to match the traveler tastes and requirements. What is important the app can generate and send them automatically.
Offering additional services
The amazing stats claims that almost half of the tourists use their travel apps not only for flights and hotel booking but also for GPS navigation, one third to utilize the offers, a quarter to set constitutive reminders. Besides, 37 % of people utilize them for shopping, 62% to spot nearby restaurants, cafés, or resorts and about 15% to get to know public transport and routes. When you consider tourism app ideas, think of these options to integrate and enjoy the result later.
Conclusion
The market of travel services and applications is now highly competitive, but digital solutions of good quality are almost sure to earn its keep in this sphere. If you have been questioning yourself how to make a travel app and enter this fruitful ground, now you have some answers. If you need further consultancy, Axisbits may be of help, simply contact us for further discussion.
