February 25, 2019

How a Customized Mobile App can Benefit a Travel Agency

Digitizing has penetrated all the spheres of modern life and changed them once and forever.

According to the Bitkom investigation, the inspiration for 25% of travels comes from the internet today , comparison platforms, advertising, social networks, and travel blogs benefit much for this. 64% of tourists study trip reports of other travelers before making their final decision on the destination.

As of today, still, 50% of travelers turn to travel agencies when booking a trip. The consumers consider their personal data is properly secured and protected by the travel agencies. This fact provides the agencies with a good starting position when it comes to competing for potential travelers. However, the increasing competition in the industry obliges to create new ways to lead the race. That is where digital technologies can provide a crucial added value to the process.

Travel agencies can significantly increase the number of customers by means of mobile apps development and usage. The present-day travelers appreciate to be cared about, receive real-time support whenever it’s necessary and benefit from the online services. All these tasks are easily solved through customized mobile apps.

By the way according to Statista investigation, travel apps boast one of the longest uninstall periods. That is the additional factor to go for an app if you are a travel agent and want to keep your ground in the niche.

Mobile Apps benefits for the Travel Agencies

Let’s look at the advantages, brought to the travel agencies by mobile applications in more detail.

All-in-one solution both for travelers and agents. It can be reasonably called the key reason why the modern travelers’ craze of the traveling apps increases. They look for the one stop solution to all their travel-related needs: information, ticket availability, booking opportunity, payment options and itineraries storing along with the most up-to-date data about the place of their destination, transfer and exchange services, restaurants, cafes, entertainments, whatever...

In case you manage to provide all these features in your travel agency mobile app, you may be sure, your customers won’t look for another operator. People value comfort and attention to their needs.

Travel agents in their turn get all the necessary information right away, they can not only follow the necessary administrative routine through the app but be in touch with the travelers and immediately see and react to the problems arising.

By the way, our company has significant expertise in travel mobile app development. We are ready to take a new challenge and to create a top-notch mobile application for your travel agency.

Travelers’ inclusion through up-to-date offers and discounts. A mobile app is a perfect opportunity for an operator to provide handy discounts, special offers or exclusive deals for their customers. The modern trend for personalization opens broad opportunities in this sphere. Send your client a birthday promo code or a special offer for his or her most favorite destination and your agency is sure to gain a permanent customer.

Easier customer attraction through an app. Yet, offers and discounts should not be overestimated, travel app design is the thing which matters. You should ensure to get the best UI/UX travel app design. It is the key feature making a mobile application successful. Your solution should be easy to use and then the customer engagement will increase.

Smartphones are always at hand. You may still doubt why mobile. Being mobile- means extreme flexibility in responding to your clients. Through an app, you are always in contact and aware of the situation with any tour you administrate.

Let’s also be realistic, people may forget a map, realistic, people may forget a map, a ticket, even some items, but modern travelers are unlikely to forget a smartphone. It’s already the best things to have during a trip as it becomes extremely multi-functional in the digitalized world. So offering your customers a mobile app customized for their smartphone you facilitate their trip in many ways and make it stress-free.

Increasing client satisfaction through better customer service. Various emergencies are common during traveling, flight delays or cancelations, transfer failures, late or early arrivals, whatever. With a mobile app, you can offer your clients instant contacts with travel agency representatives to solve any problem right away. Enhanced customer support makes tourists feel safe and provides them with a pleasant traveling experience. In such a way you get satisfied customers, who are sure to return for their next trip.

Real-time updates both for agents and tourists. It can become a perfect bonus feature for your application. Flight statuses, weather conditions, possible booking alterations or changes, you can follow all these and prevent difficulties of your clients, getting at the same time actual information from multiple marketplaces, either it’s flight booking, hotel reservation or taxi service at the place of destination your tourists arrived.

It can become a perfect bonus feature for your application. The majority of tourists want to know about the weather at their destination, accommodation availability, restaurants, shops and entertainments hours of work, places for sightseeing. Navigation options and offline maps will also be a great feature to implement for travelers convenience in the unknown area.

More client loyalty through the latest technologies. The travel industry has immeasurable opportunities in the age of digitalization and technological advancement. Implementing the latest technologies into your travel agency app can open an extraordinary experience to your clients. Alexa, for instance, have already a wealth of features precious for travelers. It can look for the flights, confirm traveler status, track routes and check weather, schedule transfer, request hotel services and manage them, check the weather, make orders. Having it in your app you can benefit from all these functions.

Virtual reality is a great find for marketing purposes, allowing your clients to make virtual tours you have more chances to get sales, people are more inclined to buy what they can see or try.

Augmented reality options can get similar function, besides it can provide the traveler with the important information right away, whether it’s a route in the unknown area, a history of a certain place of interest or details about a masterpiece in a museum.

Alexa, Virtual or Augmented Reality options can nowadays easily be integrated into the mobile applications for travel business. Consider such an option for your app as well.

Customer involvement through reviews and social sharing. At present people rely more on the reviews and feedback from other people than on some formal information about the place or service they are going to use.

A good idea is to include the review feature to your app. Besides, travelers can share their experience in real time and have a real-time access to the useful tips and crowd-sourced information they need.

Additional benefits for your travel agency. Your travel agency mobile app can become an ultimate means of your brand promotion and marketing strategy. And nowadays it is extremely important to maintain the presence in the market.

Besides, the other additional benefit, you may get is a deeper connection to your customers. You can gain priceless details about them that are impossible to receive through any other channel. For instance, the client’s birth date, past journeys history, and habits as a tourist, may allow you to approach him in a more personalized manner.

Conclusions

It should also be noted that developing a travel agency app you do not only benefit from the enhanced user and traveling experience of your clients, but you can gather all the necessary statistics and manage your business processes more efficiently. It will allow you manage the agency’s travel products, various reports, and payment policies.

In an app you can create packages, integrate affiliate programs and third-party beneficial services. It will also motivate you to improve your production and offer your customers the highest service quality.

In our latest whitepaper we analyze the main areas to consider for innovations within the travel industry in 2019 and aim to help you set the right investment priorities. Download our whitepaper “Travel Industry: Where to Invest” and make sure you can always expand and integrate your service, product or solution later.