12 August 2021
The travel and hospitality industry is a vast field brimming with opportunities and wealth. According to Statista, its annual economic impact is approximately 6.5 trillion dollars. Tourists are one of the most affluent and appealing customer segments due to their high spending levels. In 2019, international travelers spent more than 155 billion dollars in the United States alone. When it comes to travel, modern consumers want it to be simple and enjoyable. According to the 2019 Mobile Travel Trends Report, 35% of respondents have a mobile travel app on their smartphone.
People use mobile apps to search for and book flights and accommodations and receive notifications about trip statuses. Travel apps have some significant advantages over websites. These benefits include faster performance and rich functionality not available on the mobile web, such as push notifications and offline access. Travel brands should be aware of how consumer preferences change and what new technologies have to offer.
Why focus on travel app development?
- In 2019, there were over 200 billion mobile app downloads, believe it or not. When it comes to travel apps, they rank seventh among the most popular apps on the Apple app store in 2019.
- In 2019, 61 percent of travelers use a smartphone app to book flights ‘nearly always’ or ‘sometimes,’ while 62 percent say being able to book hotels on travel mobile apps is important.
- 52% of travelers anticipate being able to communicate with a travel brand via text or messaging.
- 92 percent of surveyed travel brands believe a mobile strategy is critical to their organization’s future success.
Multibillion-dollar travel companies now dominate the industry. On the other hand, small businesses are not far behind and are beginning to invest in on-demand applications. When it comes to the year 2021, more and more travel agencies are realizing that they are the future. Today, we’ll talk about how mobile apps will transform the travel industry by 2021. We’ve created this content to explain the significance of mobile applications and development in travel and tourism.
How to Create a Travel App
Finally, let’s figure out how to make a travel app, both engaging and must-have useful.
Work for Your Target Audience
Consider whom you’re creating a travel app for. Do you deal with young budget travelers? It is easy to earn discounts, help to find hostels and press notices on future sales and free activities. Do you want to go for big donors? They have costly tastes and require high-quality offers. Give top experiences with unique offers that are never to be forgotten. Finally, adding personalized offers during the development of a travel app is a good idea. And it is not a shame to look and study their offers at competitors.
Pick the Right Team
Are you finished with your planning? It is now time to begin your search for a reputable travel app development company. It might be a good idea to outsource development to another country. Generally, software development services in Europe or Asia are less expensive than in the United States or Canada. And the standard is frequently the same.
Collaborate with the Hosts
If no good offers are available, no fancy travel app design or smooth performance will work for customers. As a result, one of the most important aspects of developing a travel application is a collaboration with hosts. That’s a lot of data, and hosts are more likely to manage it with a simple app. Hotel managers should be able to monitor bookings, general information, and other details from their accounts. Another consideration is a smooth notification system. Furthermore, customers are likely to blame the app if anything goes wrong during their trip. Make certain that you select trustworthy partners who will adhere to your agreement.
How to Make a Travel App: Must-Have Features
The travel and tourism industry is, without a doubt, a fantastic business. And the market for travel apps is still untapped. But the point that most businesses seem to overlook is what features your travel app needs to stand out from the crowd. Hopefully, you’ve decided to launch your travel app on both the Android and iOS platforms. Here are some of the key features that your customers demand and that you must include in your travel app development.
Registration and Profile Management
Sign-up is the core feature of any application, including travel apps. It would be excellent if you could allow users to browse the app without having to log in each time. However, registration is required when it comes to bookings, saving payment information, or chatting with the host. Most platforms require an email address and a phone number to sign up.
However, social login is also required for travel app development. It allows you to reuse login information from social media accounts (such as Google, Twitter, or Facebook) in just a few taps. To list their property, hosts should also have personal accounts in the app. They should not, under any circumstances, skip the registration step. Furthermore, becoming a platform partner typically takes longer than simple user registration. At least hosts must submit their owning documents, agree to the terms, etc.
Geolocation Tracking Services
After visiting a certain destination, tourists or travelers always seek nearby hotels, attractions, and cafés. The integration of GPS-based location service in the development of the travel application helps travelers to track their location and find the right location for all types of services during their trip.
Navigation and Maps
Navigation and maps are other key features in the development of travel apps. This function allows users to easily discover and find the spot. The offline maps and navigation functionality also work great for users because a third-party application mustn’t be downloaded.
Notifications
Updates, discounts, or providing reminders before the trip are perfect for information by push notifications. Push notifications are useful for:
- displaying new offers, discounts, and price changes;
- reminding customers about services that have been left unchecked;
- Improving customer experience by informing about booking changes or sending reminders.
That was the initial list of MVP features required for any travel application. However, you can always add more sophisticated features later on, such as weather forecasting, currency converters, in-app payments, language translators, and so on.
Search and Filters
Every travel application should help users to locate a place to stay. The number of people, budget, and dates, and so on should be based on their preferences. The more complicated the filters are, the more accurate they will be. Here are the primary filters users should have access to:
- Location
- Dates
- Cost
- Number of people
- Additional services (parking, Wi-Fi, and so on)
Trip Planning
One of the most common reasons people use travel apps is to plan their vacations. Apps that offer these features allow you to choose different destinations to get to them, reserve hotels, etc. This function needs to be built into all other features like maps.
Booking and Reservation
Travel apps can be used to book flights, hotels, tours, and a variety of other travel-related products and services. As a result, travel apps have evolved into tourist marketplaces. Implementing this functionality would necessitate plenty of different technologies and APIs, such as Arzoo, Booking, and Orbitz. It is worth emphasizing once more that simply adding the major features is insufficient. Each of them must be properly configured and integrated with the others.
In-App Language Translator
This is a difficult feature to implement, but your travel app will become an instant favorite if you can get it to work. Most travelers are unfamiliar with a regional language and suffer as they try to communicate in broken English. Apps such as Google Translate and translate allow travelers to scan texts for visual translation as well as translate real-time voice data and written text. If travel app development companies want to stand out and offer a unique pitch for their app, they should consider this feature.
Rating and Reviews
We can all agree that creating a successful travel app requires research. When looking for a hotel to stay in, users look at reviews and ratings. Looking at the statistics, we can see that reviews from previous visitors are very important, as users read reviews and look at ratings before deciding whether or not to visit a location. Posting a review and ratings is a must-have feature for travel app development so that users can share their experiences.
Transportation
Once a passenger arrives at the destination it is crucial to find convenient means of transportation. This is why it is important to give users information about available transport, schedules, prices, and other important details in detail and up-to-date. It would be a big plus if you could reserve a taxi, train tickets, etc. A lengthy list of transport APIs can be found on the programmable web.
Currency Converter
Consider the opinion of a visitor. You are on a voyage and have a few currencies exchanged. You shouldn’t have to look beyond your travel app to know the currency exchange rates. Apps like XE Currency should be used by travel application developers, who monitor and integrate all current and past variations in monetary rates.
Payment Integration
Users must be able to make payments for hotel and flight reservations through a secure payment gateway. When you include this feature in your travel mobile app, it allows users to check the availability of tickets/hotel rooms, compare prices, and pay for their reservations.
Travel App Development Trends
The travel and tourism industry has suffered greatly as a result of the Coronavirus. However, the pandemic also led to new technology companies – especially in the travel and tourism development department.
On the other hand, as global smartphone and tablet adoption continues to rise, so does travel provider and traveler demand for mobile apps. 44 percent of travelers plan their trip using a mobile device. Today’s travelers prefer multipurpose apps that make their lives easier. Apps that offer access to reviews, purchase comparisons, and local recommendations can become an important part of the travel process for today’s social and mobile consumers. Here are some mobile app development trends that are influencing the travel industry’s future.
Social Planning
Social travel planning incorporates advanced technology and human advice. Users of such applications can see friends’ and members’ recommendations, expert tips, and consumer reviews on destinations, sellers, and more.
On-Demand Conversations
Many people now search for things using their voices. Travelers are getting much more convenient than they were just a few years ago with bots and virtual assistants. One in three travelers worldwide would like to talk to Google’s Digital Research Assistant or Book Travel. People can learn about the best possible flight options and departure times or reserve a hotel room or ride free of charge. Users can use smartphones, smartwatches, home devices, and car infotainment systems to manage all aspects of a journey through their voice.
Virtual Reality
VR has been developing technology in a variety of industries, but its role in the tourism industry is particularly significant. It offers passengers the ability to experience distant locations far away from their comfort and can make a difference in whether they make a reservation at the end of the day. VR tours provide customers with the opportunity to experience everything from virtual tourist hotels and restaurants to landmarks, national parks, and even special activities.
4G and 5G Connectivity
If the increasing innovation in mobile apps wasn’t enough to startle the travel industry, 4G technology did the trick. Many technology companies have predicted that 4G will be a mainstream technology by 2021 since its inception. They predict that 4G will result in an almost infinite number of new mobile communications users worldwide.
In 2021, mobile travel trends will bring new ways to engage with consumers. Brands are moving away from the “just build an app” approach and instead want to create a more enhanced customer experience before, during, and after trips. Industry professionals can decide where to direct their major investment if they clearly understand the most popular predictions and trends. If you’re looking to build a travel app or get advice on the best technology stack for your travel app, get in touch with us.