travel tech insights

Just like in life, planning ahead is good practice when considering a vacation or trip. Researching and completing bookings well in advance gives travelers peace of mind, keeps them organized, and allows travel agents and tour operators the opportunity to offer additional bookings to complement a customer’s existing itinerary. But the sad fact is the travel industry is prone to unpredictability and cancellations happen.

Weather. Personal struggles. Changes in availability. All these elements factor into why travelers must sometimes postpone, alter, or altogether cancel bookings, accommodations, and tours, and a travel company’s cancellation policy can go a long way toward either enhancing or remedying a traveler’s disappointment.

Many of today’s travelers view mobile travel apps as the simply the newest method to quickly and conveniently research, book, and modify destination and bookings - a shortcut or way around working with a traditional brick and mortar travel agency or even an online travel agency or management company. But for those within the travel industry, particularly travel agencies themselves, mobile travel apps are a key marketing tool travel agencies can leverage to increase deploy modern customer engagement campaigns and increase customer retention.

A recent survey published by Euromonitor International found roughly 44 percent of travel bookings completed during 2016 will be done via mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, and the use of mobile travel apps is also expected to play a large part in these bookings. Must-have market segments for travel agencies in today’s travel industry like millennials and travelers from emerging markets are spending more and more of their time online, incorporating apps into their daily lives in unprecedented numbers.