Travel Industry News & Conferences - EyeforTravel - Mobile and Technology

Innovation in travel: Meet 5 new companies who are stepping out of the box in 2012

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:03:05 +0000

Feature Written by Rosie Akenhead, Director of Events & Industry Analysis, EyeforTravel, Follow @rosieakenhead on Twitter to comment or discuss.

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“28pc of all travel-related queries in the UK came from mobile devices by end of 2011”

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:36:52 +0000

Précis:

IN-DEPTH: It’s absolutely essential for businesses to evaluate their current mobile experience for consumers conducting their travel related queries on mobile devices and to invest in improvements before being left behind. 2012 will certainly be yet another record-breaking year for mobile, says Mike Giannotti, Industry Manager, UK Travel, Google.

By Ritesh Gupta

Google recently acknowledged that it is beginning to develop a strong understanding of how shoppers engage with their mobile devices and tablets as they make their purchase decisions.

It is also being highlighted that tablets and smartphones, while still in early stages of adoption relative to desktop computers, are showing strong and accelerating gains in search share.

The travel industry needs to take notice of these developments as Google is the biggest source of traffic for most travel companies.

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Google enhances its Flight Search offering for mobile browsers

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:24:13 +0000

Précis:

As Google focuses on improving Flight Search’s features and increasing its coverage, the company has shared that it is making it easier to find flights departing from the US on mobile browsers.

“Since we launched Flight Search back in September, we’ve been hard at work improving the features, increasing coverage and making it easy to find flight results directly from google.com on your desktop. Starting today, we're also making it easier to find flights departing from the US on your mobile device,” shared Gus Prevas, Software Engineer on a company’s blog.

The Flight Search feature on mobile browsers offers all the benefits of Flight Search on desktop:

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PrivateFly.com updates its app for iPhone

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:43:23 +0000

Précis:

Online private jet booking network PrivateFly.com has updated its application for iPhone. The app now includes a 'Jet Me Home' option – giving immediate pricing options for a private jet from users’ current location to their closest home airport.

The app gives private jet hire prices for any global route and itinerary. Its location-based settings gives options such as the ability to pinpoint airports from a global database; to view aircraft exteriors and interiors; and to save favourite airports, aircraft and routes for future use.

The location-based technology plus instant market pricing makes it the world’s most advanced app for private jet hire, stated the company.

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National Rail Enquiries reworks on its mobile site

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:09:20 +0000

Précis:

National Rail Enquiries (NRE) has introduced a new version of its site optimised for mobile users. The company says the site’s new look and feel has been aligned with the main NRE website.

The company has specifically focused on enhancing the user experience. The site now features stripped-down code, delivering super slick page load times and easy to access real-time information. It also makes information about travel disruptions, especially during bad weather, easier and quicker to find and introduces the ‘station picker’ drop down list to mobile visitors for the first time. Mobile users can also access station information to find out about local facilities, such as car parking and refreshments

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Creating a faultless consumer experience across all devices

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:56:45 +0000

Précis:

The average consumer will now use multiple devices to research, plan and book the same trip. The trouble is, very few travel brands can provide a seamless online experience, across all platforms, including mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop.

As smartphone and tablet adoption continues to soar, this presents a key stumbling block for the travel industry. Consumer habits have evolved - consumers will research, buy and inform themselves through the device which, at that moment in time, is most convenient for them.

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Determining your overall product suitability to a mobile offering

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:05:52 +0000

Précis:

IN-DEPTH: All too often organisations make a technology decision rather than a strategic decision without considering the product suitability to a mobile environment or why the customer would want to engage with their brand in the first place

By Ritesh Gupta

When thinking about mobile strategy in the travel sector, the primary place to look for direction is within your existing site analytics.

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Hotel.info enhances its iPad app

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:47:48 +0000

Précis:

Online hotel reservation service hotel.info has launched its iPad App’s English language version.

The app will allow users to compare hotels by price range or rating. Plus, users of the app will also be able to narrow their search to a particular vicinity - even down to hotels available around an address or landmark.

The app also gives users the option to take a virtual trip to the most frequently booked destinations via a global map, and check out weather forecast information for their chosen destination.

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Orbitz witnesses growth in hotel searches on mobile

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:47:08 +0000

Précis:

Online travel company Orbitz Worldwide has shared that it made strong progress in the growth of its mobile channel in 2011 for air, car, dynamic packaging and, in particular, hotel.

In December 2011, over 12 percent of hotel searches across the company’s brands were made on mobile devices, up from just five percent in December 2010.

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Triposo enhances its offering, focuses on user interaction

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:08:15 +0000

Précis:

Triposo, a start-up focused on building free, interactive travel guides for mobile devices, has improved on its offering by adding new functionalities.

The company has moved check in functionality to the first page of each guide and has also included the possibility to check into places for which it doesn’t have detailed information.

Triposo has also launched the travel log website. All the check-ins users do in the app, end up on the website - even the check-ins users did with the old version. The company presents all check-ins on the map, and one can navigate them easily.

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Using NFC-enabled mobile phone as a metro rail or bus ticket

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:40:57 +0000

Précis:

A report has indicated that one in eight (13 percent) of North American and Western European mobile users will use their NFC-enabled mobile phone as a metro rail or bus ticket by 2016, compared with less than one percent today.

Juniper Research’ report says worldwide, mobile users are now beginning to adopt mobile tickets as an integrated part of their mobile lifestyle, whether for airline, road or rail transport, sporting or entertainment event access.

Other findings from the report include:

- Worldwide mobile ticketing transactions are set to quadruple to 23 billion by 2016
- By 2016, NFC mobile tickets will represent more than 50% of all mobile ticketing revenue

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New app to pave way for meaningful travel experiences

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:26:43 +0000

Précis:

A new travel app that encourages its users to give more context to the experience than just a photo has been launched.

The AFAR mobile app is now available in the iTunes App Store. It has been launched by San Francisco-based AFAR Media.

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Consumers use smartphones at many different points in purchase path: study

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:21:26 +0000

Précis:

Google has highlighted that advertisers need to make sure they have a mobile optimised site, make it easy for customers to reach them with click-to-call and deliver a seamless experience between online and offline in-store.

It’s the advertisers who engage with their customers across all three devices that will have a distinct advantage in 2012, pointed out Dai Pham, Google Mobile Ads Marketing on a company’s blog.

The company mentioned that it is beginning to develop a strong understanding of how shoppers engage with their mobile devices and tablets as they make their purchase decisions.

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Europcar launches its app for iPhone

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:18:45 +0000

Précis:

Vehicle hire company Europcar has launched its app for iPhone that allows its customers to make reservations and search for details on any Europcar location worldwide.

The company shared that iPhone users can reserve vehicles or search for details on any of Europcar’s 5,300 stations across 150 countries worldwide.

Once booked, vehicle hire is confirmed immediately over the phone, via SMS or email.

The service is available in seven languages - English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

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“Providing mobile-friendly web browsing brand experiences is key”

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:39:25 +0000

Précis:

A survey by UK-based nucleus has indicated that web browsing on mobile devices has grown 72 percent between August 2011 and January 2012 - to an average 17.4 percent of all traffic. The company’s survey of 10 travel websites with 2.75m users in January 2012 suggests that Apple users dominate mobile web browsing.

The company highlighted that brands must now optimise their websites for tablets, with finger-friendly navigation and controls enabling swipes, tilts, zooms and pinches and replacing Flash with HTML 5. In most cases, making websites smartphone-friendly will require a fundamental re-think of both website content and structure.

Providing mobile-friendly web browsing brand experiences is key, especially in the travel and ecommerce sectors, where online conversion is vital for business.

Primary Event:

Mobile Strategies for Travel 2012

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Offering relevant offers via mobile app

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:34:02 +0000

Précis:

Air Miles has introduced its re-designed mobile app. The company highlighted that the focus is on letting its members stay connected with Air Miles offers and promotions optimising opportunities to earn reward miles. And a gameification layer, too, has been added to the app.

More than 10 million active Collector accounts, representing approximately two-thirds of all Canadian households, participate in the programme.

The company says Collectors with Android and iPhone devices can now get on the go access to Air Miles Reward Programme information such as account balances, improved browsing of the complete dream rewards catalogue and in- store bonus offers at sponsor locations based on GPS.

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Offering last minute hotel deals to passengers in-flight

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:27:52 +0000

Précis:

HotelTonight has signed a deal with in-flight connectivity specialist Gogo to offer last minute hotel deals to passengers who connect with Gogo using their tablet or mobile device.

The service will be available to those passengers flying to more than 30+ destination cities in the U.S. served by HotelTonight. The deals will be offered via Gogo’s mobile multimedia platform.

Access to HotelTonight will be available through tablets and mobile devices only and will be free. In order to access HotelTonight while in flight, passengers need to open their Wi-Fi enabled tablet or smartphone, launch their browser and click on the HotelTonight promotion on the Home page.

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GetThere’s mobile capabilities to better serve needs on the road

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:17:30 +0000

Précis:

GetThere has added new capabilities to its mobile offering in order to meet travellers’ needs on the road while still adhering to the corporation’s policies and preferences.

The company, a Sabre Travel Network brand, is now giving travellers the ability to book new air reservations within company policy and preferences for all carriers in the global distribution systems. GetThere Mobile now allows travellers to make new hotel and air bookings via their mobile devices including iPhone, Blackberry and Android.

GetThere will introduce additional booking capabilities later this year.

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Accessing great value holiday packages via TV

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:49:01 +0000

Précis:

Teletext Holidays says it has signed yet another deal as part of its plans to grow its presence across all Internet connected televisions.

Teletext Holidays has signed a new partnership with Humax, the digital TV recorder and set-top box specialist, to offer a holiday search App on all new Humax Freeview HD boxes. The app will allow travellers to check out value holiday packages by destination.

The company stated that this move is a first for the travel industry and follows the successful launch of Teletext Holidays’ App on the Samsung Smart televisions and Samsung Smart blu-ray players last year.

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Viator focuses on local-language mobile platforms

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:45:06 +0000

Précis:

Viator, an online resource for travel experiences, has launched mobile sites in French, German and Spanish for European travellers.

These local-language mobile sites complement Viator’s French, German and Spanish translated websites.

Viator highlighted that bookings on its French, German and Spanish sites have grown steadily in the past 12 months despite the challenging global economic climate.

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TripAdvisor witnesses 13m downloads of mobile apps

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:49:50 +0000

Précis:

TripAdvisor has shared that the company reached 13 million total downloads of mobile apps and 16 million unique visitors per month via mobile devices as of December 31, 2011.

In October last year, the company hit 10 million app downloads across all platforms. This included downloads of the TripAdvisor app for the iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, Nokia and Palm smartphones, and the iPad. During the same month, the company expanded its mobile portfolio by offering 20 free mobile City Guides for Android and iOS, offering access to TripAdvisor traveller reviews on hotels, restaurants and attractions, as well as suggested itineraries and offline-accessible interactive walking tours.

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Mobile Internet usage on the rise

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:24:16 +0000

Précis:

Global Internet usage through mobile devices has almost doubled to 8.5 percent in January this year from 4.3 percent last year, according to StatCounter.

The firm’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats highlighted the increasing use of mobile devices to access the Internet with market share doubling year on year since 2009. StatCounter defines mobile device as a pocket-sized computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input or a miniature keyboard.

“While global Internet usage through mobiles is still under 10 percent, the pace of growth is remarkable,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter.

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How Travel is Getting to Grips with New Mobile Technology and NFC in 2012

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:28:45 +0000

Précis:

According to a recent Google whitepaper, the number of mobile users researching travel via their mobile devices is expected to grow 51% in 2012.

By Marco Saio, 8^th Feb, 2012

The case is equally compelling for mobile booking in APAC, with more than 15% of travellers projected to book travel products and service by 2013.

And yet, an EyeforTravel survey of over 500 APAC travel brands in late 2011 revealed that 57% admitted confusion over how to launch, track and achieve ‘mobile success’.

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Primary Event:

Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2012

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Consumer mobile app revenues to pass $50b by 2016

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:18:22 +0000

Précis:

A report has indicated that annual revenues from consumer mobile applications will approach $52 billion by 2016 as consumer smartphone adoption accelerates in tandem with the emergence of a mass tablet market.

According to Juniper Research’s report, the introduction of operator billing across leading storefronts such as the Android Market and Ovi Store had led to a dramatic rise in revenues. Likewise, the mass deployment of in-app billing options meant that, for many storefronts, post-download revenues had surpassed those of PPD (Pay-Per-Download).

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Consumer mobile app revenues to pass $50b by 2016

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:05:36 +0000

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JetBlue reworks on its website, launches iPhone app

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:29:04 +0000

Précis:

JetBlue Airways has re-launched jetblue.com and mobile.jetblue.com sites, and also introduced a new iPhone application.

Overall, the airline says it has refreshed the look and feel of the airline’s digital offerings with smart technology to personalise and simplify the entire customer experience -- from the point of booking through the time of travel. At the same time, the airline has focused on using its core brand elements: nice, fresh, smart, stylish, and witty.

iPhone app

The new iPhone mobile application introduces on-the-go ease for booking, check-in, flight status, and more.

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Identifying travel habits based on the type of phone one carries

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:14:02 +0000

Précis:

A study has indicated that 14 million hours per year are spent searching for flights while at work, and Blackberry users spend 38 percent more time searching for flights during working hours than either iPhone or Android users.

This has been shared by Cheapflights.co.uk, based on its survey (featuring 700 people) and its user search data. The company took an initiative to identify travel habits based on smartphone brands. The company assessed the preferences of the users of different brands by comparing Blackberry, iPhone and Android Phone users.

Source: Cheapflights.co.uk

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Travelport introduces mobile travel itinerary app

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:50:07 +0000

Précis:

Travelport has come up with a new travel application for users of smartphones in the UK and Ireland. The app, ViewTrip Mobile, (for iPhone and Android) marks the mobile debut of Travelport’s ViewTrip online itinerary product.

The company also stated that it is one of the first, fully integrated GDS powered travel itinerary apps available.

The app will be available in other countries from Q2 when the phased role out continues. ViewTrip Mobile was developed in partnership with ManticPoint, a provider of mobile travel services.

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Delivering sub-second search results

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:41:44 +0000

Précis:

B2B airfare shopping provider Vayant Travel Technologies says it is now ready to deliver “airfare search results in sub-second response times”.

Vayant FastSearch, the latest addition to the company’s proprietary next-generation platform, is based on real-time queries and is without traditional caching techniques, said Boyan Manev, director of Product Marketing at Vayant.

The company says its latest work is a significant technological breakthrough, offering accurate search results including Worldwide Availability based on real-time data.

“FastSearch was designed to capture 80 percent of a customer’s searches in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional systems,” stated Manev.

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TripIt introduces “Tablet-Inspired” new map-centric feature

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:34:21 +0000

Précis:

Travel companies are keenly observing how travellers are utilising their smartphones and tablets for their needs, and accordingly, they are opting for designs and features that help them to serve their customers better and also make their offering more consistent across platforms.

In a development that emerged late last week, mobile trip organiser TripIt has come up with a new way to access trip maps and get directions on TripIt.com, making it easy for travellers to navigate every part of their journey - from the airport to the hotel and beyond. TripIt originally introduced a map-centric design on TripIt for iPad, giving travellers a way to interact with their trips geographically.

The company says the new itinerary map view lets users interact with their entire trip geographically.

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