Travel mobile app: Introduction
Tourism is a billion-dollar industry, with many thriving economies depending upon it. The earlier urge to stay in your comfort zones and save more on travel is slowly declining. People spend around 130% more each year, which depicts the widespread craze for travel and the growing need for catering for these tourists. And with the advent of a mobile travel app, bookings and all travel-related matters have become even more facile.
Mobiles are indispensable; no matter which corner of our world, our mobiles are always with us. So it is no wonder that mobile applications are extensively used by tourists, as they work on the tips of their fingers and help them connect to the world irrespective of where they are.
The travel mobile app industry is thus slowly transforming the tourism industry. The digital revolution is here, and gone are the days when people made manual bookings or had any language barrier in another country. Instead, tourists have started to rely on mobile apps for any problem they might face when traveling, be it a cultural difference, complete isolation from their homeplace, or any other. There were slightly over one billion travel mobile app users in 2019, with approximately 1.5 billion people taking trips worldwide and more than 65% using a smartphone or website to book.
Businesses have invested heavily in this domain in the app development industry and have begun to devise innovative solutions to problems a tourist might face. As a result, these mobile apps make the whole experience much smoother for people traveling and bring a sense of reliability and ease to the table.
Travel mobile app: Redefining the travel experience
According to statistics, more than 60% of users use mobile travel apps to plan their trips. This is because there are so many logistical requirements and required planning, and these apps assist you in making your journey easier.
You can make hotel bookings, book flight or train tickets, and document your travel journey. The comfort and ease of these mobile apps for travel and tourism have entirely redefined the travel experience. There are apps for translation to help you communicate in a foreign place without needing a physical translator. In addition, there are apps for finding out about nearby places for exploration and their reviews. You can also look for restaurants and markets or entertainment areas with travel apps.
Solo traveling, which might have been unthinkable a few years ago, has been made possible. It has reduced people’s dependency on third-party agencies and made travelers independent to roam wherever they want.
It’s glaringly apparent that the tourism industry heavily relies on software, especially app development. It has encouraged more people to travel, to step out and explore, and has revolutionized the industry.
Further Read: Travel App Ideas: Companies Can Steal To Shape Their Business
Travel mobile app: Categories
Since there are various areas in which tourists might need help, the travel apps have been categorized according to their functionality:
1. Accommodation booking
These travel mobile apps include those which help you to book accommodation for staying at a particular place. You can book fancy hotels, hostels or Airbnbs, which suit your budget and requirements. There are thousands of options to choose from, along with features such as reviews, facilities, cost, and distance from local tourist sites. So instead of following the exhausting process of calling up and enquiring about each place of stay, you can directly browse and book your room.
2. Transport booking
This category covers the essential apps that help you book flights, trains, or travel cabs. One can compare prices, see the available dates and pay directly to secure their seat without needing currency conversion. Transport booking apps are beneficial, as they reduce users’ dependency on travel agencies or localities for movement. In addition, you can make your bookings conveniently and at your own pace.
3. Navigation
Navigation apps help you travel throughout the city you’re visiting. It would help if you had guidance from a trustworthy source to travel around an unfamiliar place. Navigation apps tell you about the local tourist sites, unique experiences found nearby, or just good places to eat or shop so that you know where to go and which place helps you fulfill your trip’s purpose. GPS services and maps are included in this.
4. Social
Social apps help you to document the whole journey with your family and friends. You can make videos and collages and share your memories with your close ones. These apps help you communicate freely, as well as help you to keep in touch with your people back home.
5. Banking
This area used to be entirely manual until a few years ago. Now, apps have been developed which help you in currency conversion to transfer money directly for bookings or overseas banking. As a result, one does not need to worry about carrying massive amounts of hard cash, which is challenging to do while traveling.
Features that make a travel mobile app successful
1. In-app translator
This feature helps to give mobile travel apps the edge they need. However, in most cases, the tourists are unaware of the regional language, which can make the communication gap huge. This might affect their travel and journey.
It can be implemented by scanning, speech-to-text, or maybe scanning a location and getting their description through voice.
2. Currency converter
The currency used worldwide is different, and its rate keeps on fluctuating. A currency converter helps you know the conversion concerning the cash you have, which you can use to make transactions, withdraw money, etc.
3. Geolocation services
Geolocation services help keep track of your location, which can be used to fetch accurate results. For instance, this feature is necessary if you want to browse good eating joints nearby or book a cab service.
4. Trip reviews
Since there are high chances that the destination you’re traveling to is entirely unknown, trip reviews by multiple users help you get a real insight into how a thing or place is. You can make a fair judgment, as the people giving the reviews share their good or bad experiences.
5. World clock converter
A good travel mobile app helps you calculate the correct clock time for different time zones worldwide. This reduces the load on the tourist who might have to go to another website to check their timezone every time.
6. Payment integration
This feature is crucial for any travel mobile app, as they don’t have to carry around a considerable amount of cash to pay for their services otherwise. One can use a payment gateway and only book the service through the app. This increases the security and portability of money.
How are travel mobile apps benefiting tourists?
1. Reduces paperwork and resource cost
The manual work has dramatically been reduced in the past years, and loads of paperwork needed for applications and bookings have become negligible. In addition, soft copies of documents can be stored on your device. Thus, manual labor and unnecessary costs have been cut down in the travel process.
2. Convenient and easy-to-use
Travel apps are incredibly convenient and easy to use, with complicated processes translated with a few clicks. People can use them anytime, anywhere they want, thus providing tourists with a hassle-free experience.
3. Great user experience
Travel apps are highly functional, and multiple feature integrations help tourists do almost anything they want. Whether searching for local tourist spots, adventure activities, good hotels, or formulating a map for a road trip, there are travel apps for almost everything.
4. A single place for all bookings
Long trips to different locations might become very cumbersome in terms of bookings and a very lengthy process if a tourist were to do it manually. Most travel apps have features to make all their bookings under one roof, be it flights, hotels, cabs, or buses, which makes these very handy for making all the travel arrangements.
Markovate’s travel expertise
Markovate empathizes with the tourists who travel worldwide and might need services that help them keep in touch with their habits and lifestyle. An example of a product delivered by Markovate is the Trapeze app. It is an efficient, flexible, and productive application that brings about ease in transit and fulfills the needs of riders to access last-mile mobility solutions that helps connect clients with instructors from nearby locations anywhere in the world.
One can quickly know about the trainers near them, read their bios, and then decide if they want to book a session with them to keep their health and fitness in check. Travelling can deteriorate the tourist’s health by quite a large amount, and this app ensures that you can work out in your style anywhere you go without breaking your routine. Hence, Markovate can be the perfect fit if you are looking for a travel app development company that understands your needs and helps you maximize your profits.
Travel Mobile App: FAQs
1. How do mobile travel apps help?
Travel apps help to bridge the communication gap, make bookings more accessible, and travel to places independently. From booking flights, and train and bus tickets, to even renting cars and hotels, these travel apps are loaded with features that can help users travel better and more conveniently.
2. How do you develop a tourism app?
A tourism app can be developed by hiring a service from an app development company that understands your needs and integrating features such as geolocation tracking and app-service integration to make it more functional.
3. Why does your travel business need a mobile app?
Mobile Apps for travel and tourism are necessary for any travel business as they help to reach customers in any place in the world, market the service you provide, and act as an efficient medium for building trust between the business and the tourist.
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