Augmented Reality and Travel Technology

Augmented Reality for Tourism has tremendous potential to take your experience to the next level. Digital content like 3D animations, video, audio, images, charts, signals & indicators etc. can superimposed on devices. Based on a specific set of parameters like time, location, person and fiducial (trigger), a cloud based infrastructure etc.
Augmented Reality Tourism Apps can generate relevant content to handheld devices.
Augmented reality is where the real future Travel Technology lies.Travel industry trends are always changing as technology drives new opportunities. This can give rise to new business ideas and create new revenue streams for Travel Technology companies.The global travel industry, and the way in which consumers experience it, is changing so dramatically that it requires a fundamental change to the way in which travel is sold and how the traveller is served.

The tourism industry is all about selling the experience of travel. Hotel operators want their guests to feel welcome and at home. Restaurants want to attract travelers who are interested in experiencing a new culture or flavor. Tour and activity operators want to offer unique experiences that can’t be had in any parts of the world. In this regard, virtual reality and augmented reality has the opportunity to change the entire game. This technology allows travellers to experience a particular place or activity prior to ever making their booking. They can decide for themselves, with nearly utmost certainty, if that option is the best choice for their 

upcoming trip.

Travel Booking Engine

Tour and activity operators can consider using augmented reality in the following ways:

• Offer virtual tours of the places that you visit and the things that you do on your tours and activities. Give people a chance to preview the experience they are about to book.

• Offer navigational tools that help people get around their chosen destination. This can be an added resource that helps you develop a reputation as a local guide rather than just a tour company.

• Offer augmented-reality apps that can provide translation services for your international travellers. This can help everyone feel comfortable and confident while on one of your tours.

Technology continues to change the way that tour and activity operators do business, and it’s important to always stay one step ahead of the game such as Travelomatix.
Travelomatix is an award winning travel technology platform, enabling the travel agencies, tour operators and holiday companies to leverage the key benefits of OTA platform.

Travelomatix as a brand, is identified by improved ROI for customers while leveraging using the "travelomatix technology" and superb client servicing, leading to customer retention and customer base expansion.

http://travelomatix.com/

Importance of Mobile Marketing for your Travel Agency

Smartphones are playing a key role in the travel consumer journey. Research shows that 40% of travel site visits come from mobile. SMS  might seem at outdated but it does provide penetration, at a low cost to your agency or tour company. 96% of SMS messages are read and most of them are read in the first 3 minutes from sending.

Travelomatix is an award winning travel technology platform, enabling the travel agencies, tour operators and holiday companies to leverage the key benefits of OTA platform. Travelomatix as a brand, is identified by improved ROI for customers while leveraging using the "travelomatix technology" and superb client servicing, leading to customer retention and customer base expansion.

http://travelomatix.com/

Travel Technology Development Company

To flourish in today’s travel industry, travel agents must embrace the mobile marketing revolution and put it to good use. Smartphone usage in the has been increasing day by day.

Smartphone activities include reading the news, making reservations, shopping, social interaction, and entertainment. Everything is mobile. Each of those smartphone-related activities can be accomplished at home or on the run. In terms of the travel industry, mobile devices can now display all scheduling options, reservation confirmations, online booking, and even serve as e-tickets at many airports.

Today’s travellers will most likely use a mobile device to search for travel agency help. This traveller may be checking websites, social media comments, and apps that can provide them information and recommendations regarding excellent service travel agents. A well-designed, interactive web page is a good start, but you need to stretch your marketing resources farther, building a social media presence that integrates across computer and mobile devices.

Your mobile marketing outreach may include text messaging, location-based social media, quick response (QR) codes and “agency-branded” apps that link your clients to their travel accounts to check on delays, cancellations, make changes, and communicate with you.

Mobile tools for agents’ use are important, too. Apps for travel agents like the Travelport Mobile Agent work on iPhone, iTouch, iPad, and Android mobile devices to give agents quick and complete access to GDS content (tap the app and sign into the GDS account).

The impact of mobile on the travel industry is felt not only in the increased speed and convenience of accessing vital travel information; it also is being felt in amazing interactive applications like augmented reality, gamification, and in-transit access to entertainment systems that make travelling more fully experiential and enriching.

To make the most of mobile marketing, the travel agent must determine which services to emphasize in a marketing campaign and begin developing mobility connections that will provide the greatest services to their client base.

Mobile technology takes “full service” to new levels, from quick flights booking to travel enrichment applications. Clients want fast access across the mobile technology spectrum to all the information pertinent to their travel from e-ticketing to arrival/departure updates, travel advisories, and fast and easy check-in capabilities. Help clients easily find and work with you – via mobile technology.

How to start a Travel Agency

Travel agency is a business that is designed to help travelers in the arrangement for trips, tickets, hotel reservations, flight tickets, creating itineraries for tour or cruise packages and providing information about specific destinations and other travel arrangements.

To start a travel agency business, it is helpful to have a working knowledge of travel agent software, customer service experience and experience in traveling to different parts of the world.

Click here to see the best Travel Technology: http://travelomatix.com/

Travel Technology Company

1. Define your Business Model

Decide whether you want to become an independent Travel consultant or start your own agency. It is always good to be integrated with a good Travel Technology company like Travelomatix. If you have a good Travel Technology company with you, your start-up costs will be minimal because computer software which is needed to book flights with airlines and branding is taken care of by the Travel Technology company. Your start up costs will be a phone, computer and software, Internet service and marketing materials needed to run the business. You will also be responsible for building a client list.

2. Make a business Plan

Planning is a very important phase for your Travel Agency. Decide what services you want to provide who your target customer are and your financial plan.

Travel services include transportation arrangements (air, train, boat, car), hotel and resort reservations, cruise packages and specialized tour packages such as eco-tours or city-based tours. You may also want to specialize exclusively in family travel, senior travel, corporate travel or academic travel to set your business apart from other travel agencies.

Travelomatix is an award-winning travel technology platform, enabling the travel agencies, tour operators and holiday companies to leverage the key benefits of OTA platform. Travelomatix as a brand, is identified by improved ROI for customers while leveraging using the "Travelomatix technology" and superb client servicing, leading to customer retention and customer base expansion.

http://travelomatix.com/

3. Website

It is very important to have a good website for your company.Create a website that includes a description of travel services, contact information and online booking options. Invest in a good Travel Technology like Travelomatix that process client bookings and payment from your website, track online marketing campaigns and captures email addresses. Include testimonials of satisfied clients on your website. Update your website often by providing interesting content that clients will find useful when planning a vacation or traveling for business.

Now that you are done with all the basic requirements, go ahead and build your clients to have a successful Travel Agency.

How to grow your Travel Agency Business

While the Internet has pierced into many aspects of our life, it has, in addition, turned into a throng marketplace for travel agencies. Not only are you competing for clicks and revenue, but you’re also competing with big airline and hotel players that sell their products directly from their website. Your agency needs a vigorous marketing strategy to stay afloat.

This article provides a breakdown of the advantages of marketing a travel agency, as well as some useful travel agency marketing tips that you can implement to generate more revenue for your business.

Travelomatix is a next generation travel booking platform for travel agencies and tour operators.

Travelomatix Features – http://www.travelomatix.com/top-features.html

Travel Agency Software

Have a good website

Do everything you can to get your company a good website. You just can’t go wrong with this! This is the “point of contact” of you and your customer and it has to be completely commendable. Exceptional websites have a good design and compelling content.

Your website must be completely responsive. Mobile bookings in travel have grown by 1700% between 2011 and 2015, moving from 1% to 18% of online revenues. Still, this also means that 80% of online bookings don’t take place on mobile devices in 2016 which means that there should a continuous focus and growth in the mobile application (as there is a huge potential for growth in the mobile) without compromising on the development of other sources as majority of the revenue is still generated from the other sources.

Develop a Relationship

There is an ocean of options for the customer to dive into and if you really want to attract them you need to create and value for them. Give them a good and a personalized experience and they’ll definitely come back to you for the service. Differentiate yourself from self-service online solutions and instead give consumers highly personalized service, recommendations, etc., right from your very first interaction with them — whether online, by phone or in-person.

It’s all about selling experiences. The more unique, the more value you’re adding.  The more you can get clients access to special events or people, the more differentiated you are.

Technology is the Key

Technology is the most significant area of the Travel Industry. You are required to have good technology with you in order to stand a chance in the vast market. You could opt for services of products like “Travelomatix” which is a best in class Travel Technology.Having a well designed Travel Technology will definitely increase your customer base and sales.

Search engines love fresh content

Work on those keywords, Search Engine Optimisation and all the online marketing tools that help you divert potential customers to your services. Keep updating your content along with your services and offerings to your customers.

Go upmarket

Segment the market based on different customer types. Have a separate team to provide services for them. This helps you provide better service based on the type of customer. Travelers with more money than time value purchasing a travel agent’s expertise and ability to handle every aspect of the trip. On the other hand some travelers don't require as much services and you revenue generated through them would also be comparatively lesser. But these customers are important too for the volume game as they will be  more in number.

Build Partnership and Associations

In the Travel Industry, Partnerships are very important. Your relationship with the hoteliers and airlines could get you discounts and more importantly, you will not have to worry about over booked scenarios. Be a good marketer or hire a marketing agency to help you. Have a Partner Program travel referral program to get more leads.

Travelomatix is an award-winning travel technology platform, enabling the travel agencies, tour operators and holiday companies to leverage the key benefits of OTA platform. Travelomatix as a brand, is identified by improved ROI for customers while leveraging using the "Travelomatix technology" and superb client servicing, leading to customer retention and customer base expansion.

http://travelomatix.com/

Web Portal Development

Capture Social media

Social Media presence is a must for any business. On customers front If you don’t exist on social media, you don't exist. Social Media influences customers’ decisions and buying patterns to a great extent.

A Facebook Page for your travel business is highly recommended. Get your clients to be fans and to post reviews of your services.  Engage them with insights and tips.

It is fine to post some specials or deals, but a Facebook page is best used when it’s less about selling and more about engaging with fans and being helpful with your knowledge. Apart from Facebook. Your social media presence on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn are equally important.

5 Steps to increase the sales of your Travel Company powered by Travelomatix

Increasing sales of your Travel company requires a through Marketing and Sales Strategy and is a process. Here are some tips of how to increase sale in a travel agency or a tour operator business.
Travelomatix Features – http://www.travelomatix.com/top-features.html

Travel Technology Company

1. Have a unique offering

Be unique and listen to your customers. Take feedback and inputs from your customers and work on improving. Offer a service or a customization that they can't find anywhere else.

2. Have an Integrated software

It helps to be tied up with Global Distribution Systems. Providing your customers with a complete easy and safe is a good way to be competitive is having the best possible rates on a worldwide range of high quality transfer services, car rentals, attraction tickets and excursions.

3. Partner Programs

The best way to reach out to more people and increase your sales is by having business relationships with partners. Business partners can help you reach new markets, new customers, get new ideas and so many more! Design a program that will create a value for your business as well as the Partners.

4. Offer a value added service

The best way to increase your revenue per customer is by adding a complementary offer to the experience like a complimentary lunch or a dinner. Know what your customers want and give them. Combine different products into a unique experience. For example, create a package and try to offer a better price by combining hotel, flight and activity. Value added services will satisfy your customers and make them come back to you.

5.Social Media

It is very important for you to have social media presence. From exploring destinations to booking trips and sharing journeys, social media activities have become integral to today’s digital travelers. 73% of people acquire vacation ideas from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Social media helps us create a brand, understand your customer needs and helps the growth of your business in many ways.

Travelling with Technology

Often unsure of what is actually needed, people end up carrying a lot more gadgets and technology than they should. Here are a few things you actually need.

View the best Travel Booking Software: http://travelomatix.com/

Travel Software System

Smart Phone

Though this is an obvious option. A smart phone will generally meet all your requirements during your travel. They can translate speech, signage, convert currencies, and the list goes on. You could also use your cellular card if you have international roaming or you could get a local cellular card and use it. Irrespective of the cellular card you can stay connected using your wifi on your smartphone. Make sure you install useful travel applications on your smartphones for your travel.

The smartphones also come handy when you want to click an instant selfie or capture something wonderful you see on your travel.

Talking about selfies, we can't miss Selfie Sticks. The Selfie Sticks help you with some awesome photography by fitting in yourself and your background perfectly in a frame.

Laptops

Many people are able to travel the world using just a smartphone or an iPad for their source of internet. Especially if you’re travelling for work laptop is a must. Even for leisure travel, laptop can come handy for you if have to co-ordinate for some work. This happens sometimes though you're on a vacation. Also, you could watch movies and play music if you’re in a budget hotel or an outdoor camp. It is important that the laptop is small, lightweight and compact

E Reader

For the love of reading, carry an E reader. Long flights, waiting at the airport and long queues at the immigration. There is a lot of waiting during travel where reading can help you kill time. Also, if you’re a voracious reader this is a must. Let me sum it up for you by stating three reasons to carry an e reader:

1. You save space rather than carrying many people. You can download as many books you want on an e reader.
2. E power consume very less power. You can go on for days without charging it.
3. They are lightweight and perfect for travel.

TabletsIf you’re not a laptop person, it's okay. Tablets are faster,lighter, useful and they’re cheaper too. For entertainment, web browsing, photo and video storage and most other travel tasks, a tablet is a good choice. You can do almost anything on a tablet and it is the most recommended gadget to carry. With a tablet, you have a smartphone, a laptop and an e Reader.

Camera

Think about all the times you travel, whether it’s for business or leisure. Maybe you’re going home to reconnect with the friends and family.
In any event, chances are high that you’d like pictures to commemorate the occasion. There’s an equal chance that you instinctively reach for your smartphone anytime you feel a photo-op coming on. But is it really the best option to gather your friends and family to smile at an object you use to take trivial selfies and candid photos of people sleeping on the subway? It’s time to think about a getting a camera made for travelers.

The size, weight and the ability to take quality photos is what initially drew us to this camera. When travelling, having items in your backpack that weigh very little is a high priority.

Drones

Drones are changing the game for artistic photography and videography. With the latest products offering the best features like 4K HD technology, you can now get amazing aerial shots of your travels or take photos on angles that are not possible with a regular camera or smartphone. If you are a photography enthusiast, this would make your travel more exciting.

Before taking your drone abroad, make sure to read up on the latest (ever-evolving) local laws regarding possession and usage. Because drone technology is so new and law enforcement around the world have growing concerns with issues of surveillance and aviation safety, the rules continue to change. Taking necessary precaution might mean leaving your drone at home or simply applying for permission ahead of time will save you the stress of handing over your equipment at customs.

Travel Technology Company

Headphones

A nice pair of headphones or earbuds is a great travel accessory. Having music really helps make flights more enjoyable. Noise cancellation headphones enchant you with wonderful sound, everywhere: in planes, trains, busses, waiting hall as these places tend to be noisy, your travel headphones should be able to attenuate outside noise effectively.

Portable Hard Drives

We have thousands of photos and videos from our numerous trips around the world. Rather than jam-packing our laptops with these files or trying to upload them to the Cloud or a drop box with slow internet, carry external hard drives. Not only are these hard drives useful for storage and backup of our precious memories, but you can also carry movies, tv shows, documentaries and music albums.

Plug Adapters

Plug adapters are just the metal plug ends that let your home country’s plugs fit the foreign plugs. There are quite a few multi-adapters that have 4 or 5 country’s plugs all on one unit. This will help you charge your smartphones, Laptops, tablets, Cameras and all the electronics you carry conveniently.

These are some of the useful Gadgets to carry during travel. Figure what are most convenient and appropriate for you and carry them for a better travel experience.

3 Essentials for starting a Travel Agency

Travel agency is a business that is designed to help travelers in the arrangement for trips, tickets, hotel reservations, flight tickets, creating itineraries for tour or cruise packages and providing information about specific destinations and other travel arrangements.

To start a travel agency business, it is helpful to have a working knowledge of travel agent software, customer service experience and experience in traveling to different parts of the world.

Click here to see the best Travel Technology: http://travelomatix.com/

Travel Booking Engine

1. Define a Business Model

Decide whether you want to become an independent Travel consultant or start your own agency. It is always good to be integrated with a good Travel Technology company like Travelomatix. If you have a good Travel Technology company with you, your start-up costs will be minimal because computer software which is needed to book flights with airlines and branding is taken care of by the Travel Technology company. Your start up costs will be a phone, computer and software, Internet service and marketing materials needed to run the business. You will also be responsible for building a client list.
2. Make a business Plan

Planning is a very important phase for your Travel Agency. Decide what services you want to provide who your target customer are and your financial plan.

Travel services include transportation arrangements (air, train, boat, car), hotel and resort reservations, cruise packages and specialized tour packages such as eco-tours or city-based tours. You may also want to specialize exclusively in family travel, senior travel, corporate travel or academic travel to set your business apart from other travel agencies.

3. Website

It is very important to have a good website for your company.Create a website that includes a description of travel services, contact information and online booking options. Invest in a good Travel Technology like Travelomatix that process client bookings and payment from your website, track online marketing campaigns and captures email addresses. Include testimonials of satisfied clients on your website. Update your website often by providing interesting content that clients will find useful when planning a vacation or traveling for business.

Now that you are done with all the basic requirements, go ahead and build your clients to have a successful Travel Agency.

7 ways Social Media is important for your growing Travel Agency

The revolution of Social Media led to many changes in how every industry does marketing. From exploring destinations to booking trips and sharing journeys, social media activities have become integral to today’s digital travelers. 73% of people acquire vacation ideas from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In fact, more than half of people say Twitter helped them in considering travel brands.

View the best Travel Technology: http://travelomatix.com/

Travel Development Software

1.The Perfect Place to Know the likes of your client:

Social media page is the best way to get to know somebody. You can understand what their requirements are based on what they like, the pages they follow and what they post.

2. Engaging your clients:

You must also keep in mind the interactive aspect of the social media platforms.
There are a number of ways to engage your client like - Join travel forums, engage in discussions with your target audience and Reply to their queries.
It will help you communicate with them more effectively. This will help you design your trip plans according to the requirements of your target audience. The result: more number of travel enthusiasts will respond to your travel plans.

3.Segment
The most avid among vacation-goers are millennials, who are reportedly the biggest spenders on travels. What’s unique about this generation is that they rarely seek help from professional travel services. Only 10% of millennials say they used travel agents in 2014. Who do they listen to? Social media stars! If you want to grab these clients and influence their travel decisions, social media is the place to do it.

4. Branding

You can use Social media to create your brand as a trustworthy brand and create a proper online reputation by getting your existing customers to share their experiences on your social channels and posting reviews of your customers on your social media profiles. Share some travel ideas, offer helpful travel tips and offer your customers with unique reads to keep them interested. Having the right content will help you attract more customers.

5.Photographs and Videos
Creating highly engaging videos and capturing photographs will help take your company’s image to the next level.
You may hire professional photographers to take impeccable pictures of your offerings and even create exciting videos that redefine travel goals.

6.You Have Huge, Devoted Social AudienceThis method of marketing will not only convert the viewers to your customers but also save you big bucks. Spending a hefty amount of advertising dollars will catch eyeballs, but it won’t necessarily translate into purchase intents. People nowadays, especially millennials, are increasingly skeptical about misleading and exaggerating advertisements.
7.Social Media influences consumer behavior patterns

As much as 52% of the Facebook users admitted that photos posted by their friends helped the design their travel plans. With the large number of registered users sharing their experiences and pictures from different trips, it is becoming the perfect platform for prospective travelers to research for their travel destination.

From destination picks to restaurant choices, influencers guide their fans to exciting journeys in life. With a few delightful captions and creatively-executed visuals, they are able to turn otherwise generic stuff into the latest trends.

Travelomatix- Future Technology Trends of the Travel Industry

Technology advancements in Travel didn’t just stop online booking and portals. From virtual-reality to drone photography, new technology is continuing to influence the way plan and execute our travel. Convenient, effervescent, Automated and Personalized travel is where the future technology is heading towards. There are many futuristic technologies that Travelomatix is working on:

View Travelomatix product features: http://travelomatix.com/features.html

Travel Agent Software

Let's have a look at some Technology Trends coming to us:

Robotics and artificial intelligence

Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) were seen as wildly futuristic, but such has been the rapid pace of technology advancement. Customer-facing robots in airport terminals are not a new trend today. Back in 2013 Geneva Airport launched its first trial of a customer service robot. There was another robot introduced at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam which guided groups of passengers directly to their departure gate, it is designed to recognize emotions, consider group behavior and proactive response to unexpected situations, potentially providing a new-generation customer service and passenger experience tool.

Every day, passengers miss their connecting flights due to delays, problems finding their way around the airport or language barriers. The process can be improved by fitting in robotics to this process. This will also make the customers have a great experience. The important role of Artificial Intelligence has is to improve operations and the passenger experience.

Smart baggageSmart baggage solutions will be one of the useful and sought after trend as Millions of bags are mishandled by airlines each year, at a cost to the industry of hundreds of millions of dollars and upset customers. Biometric-enabled bag drop will help conclude baggage mishandling. The New baggage tracking device for frequent flyer's, and multiple vendors are redefining the travel behavior and buying patterns as their futuristic bags are publicly available. These new luggage tracking systems are generally designed to shut down when your bag is stored on board a plane and then turn on again upon landing.

Drones

People love to travel and what they love more is sharing those travel experiences with the world. Within the last few years, affordable consumer grade drones with cameras have taken to the skies by the thousands. Travel enthusiasts are capturing an environment or event from a bird’s eye view, affording massive views and sublime images to be captured with ease and setting travel goals for everyone who view it. Whether or not the number is accurate, unmanned aerial vehicles for hobbyists are so popular.

With so many drones in consumers’ hands, they want to go on a vacation and get awesome aerial shot of their adventures like no regular camera or smart phone could capture. This creates a bandwagon effect and makes all the viewers crave for it. Of course, social media has an important role to play in this process too.

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Travel Technology Company

 

Virtual Reality

Technology! This is become the Keyword when it comes to Travel. Virtual reality tech may be in its infancy, but that hasn’t stopped the travel sector grabbing hold of this opportunity and realizing its benefits. The travel and tourism industry is all about selling an experience; a feeling, a landscape, the history of a particular destination. Traditionally, this has been accomplished through compelling imagery, storytelling and user accounts, among other approaches.

That’s why Virtual Reality is definitively the most exciting innovation in travel and tourism marketing today. It enables people to live and experience, albeit for a short time, directly from their living rooms or your experiential hub. The potential of VR in travel and tourism marketing is vast. Just think, with VR you can take anyone on a guided tour of your city, island or country from anywhere in the world.

To get a better idea of what we’re talking about take a look at this website, dedicated to 360-degree video and photography. Virtual tours can help you make better travel decisions, not just the feeling of being somewhere else. Virtual travel is no different than navigating around the world via Google Earth and Google Maps, but VR offers a more immersible experience.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) allows the seamless overlay of computer graphics onto the real world to add more information enhance the perception of reality .The opportunity for the application of this software in the tourist industry are vast. Augmented reality technology, however, is revolutionizing the traveler’s experience by making the planning journey much more seamless, interactive, and simple. This technology makes it possible to layer digital enhancements over an existing reality or real life scenario.

Augmented Reality for Tourism has tremendous potential to take your experience to the next level. Digital content like 3D animations, video, audio, images, charts, signals & indicators etc. can superimposed on devices. Based on a specific set of parameters like time, location, person and fiducial (trigger), a cloud based infrastructure etc.

Augmented Reality Tourism Apps can generate relevant content to hand held devices. Augmented reality is where the real future Travel Technology lies. Travel industry trends are always changing as technology drives new opportunities. This can give rise to new business ideas and create new revenue streams for Travel Technology companies. The global travel industry, and the way in which consumers experience it, is changing so dramatically that it requires a fundamental change to the way in which travel is sold and how the traveler is served.