The impact smart phones have on the travel market

Hello everyone,

This weekend I found many interesting articles that I would like to share with you. The 1st concerns the impact smart phones have on the travel market. We cannot stop technology! Hotelliers have hardly started working on the optimization of their websites, on their blogs and on their accounts on social networks that they already have to worry about how to seize the opportunities offered by the smartphone and their applications.

This article identified how travelers use their mobile and what they would really like being able to do, check and find via their mobile when they travel. Keeping in touch with their friends and family is a basic reason why they use their mobile. While a few years ago we sent postcards, it has become easier and cheaper to call and send sms or mms since the communication fees dropped.

Still, the mobile use is not restricted to thess traditional forms of mobile communication.When asked what kind of things they would like to do with their mobiles, only a few were interested in updating their Facebook, Twitter etc. What they need now (and is becoming the new trend) is to find information about the trip itself and their destination, going from flight and hotel booking to travelers comments and weather forecast. With internet available on smartphone, people never leave their mobile and use it for many different things while on holidays. The importance of the apps is growing faster and faster and younger people would be more willing to pay for travel related apps, while older would rather download free apps.

In both case, opportunities for travel companies are huge to gain profit and recognition. It is only the beginning for this trend but travel companies should already prepare their new apps and think of a way to answer their guests demand in the best possible ways.

I was not surprise by this article. Now, it is easier and cheaper to call anywhere from anywhere. With internet available on our mobile, we have all the information we want, here and now for everything . It is obvious that with the iphone apps, new possibilities were offered to consumers. Now people expects more than just web, they want the services adapted to their needs via all kinds of specific apps. I believe marketers will now how to answer and exceed that demand, generating always higher expectations. I wonder what will be the next step?