Whoever owns the itinerary owns the trip. In the not-too-distant future individual leisure and business travelers will be walking around with their own ultra-connected personal networks accessible via mobile and/or wearable devices. iBeacon will become a transformative force in travel.
Those are just a few of the potentially reality-altering trends every travel business should keep careful watch over this year, according to Norm Rose, president of Travel Tech Consulting.
Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, MapQuest, Microsoft and Concur are all developing or enhancing proprietary technologies that have the potential to radically reshape how travelers interact with travel providers and agents.
“Google and Apple continue to drive the evolution of mobile communication,” said Rose, who is also a senior consultant to PhoCusWright, the travel research company owned by Northstar Travel Media, owner of Travel Weekly. “They’re going in similar but somewhat different directions. The similar things come with intelligent assistance. In the Apple world that's Siri and in the Google world it's Google Now. But they are also both working with communication promotions — the ability to be part of the conversation.”
This is the first installment from a discussion between Rose and Diane Merlino, covering Rose’s insights on how the key technology players are positioning themselves in the travel space.
Personalized Relevance Ramps Up
“Providing relevant personalized information to an individual — responding to what I need right now, at this moment — is the way technology will be impacting the travel experience in 2014, whether it's through a wearable or some other type of device. That’s an extension of what’s been happening over the last few years, ever since the mobile revolution really took off with the introduction of the iPhone.
That relevant information will be based not only on explicit and implicit preferences but also on the context of what the traveler is looking for. Google and Apple are moving forward pretty strongly with an approach to provide that type of relevance.”
Wearable Computers Get a Toehold in Travel
“We're still at a fairly early stage with wearable computers, whether it's Google Glass or iWatches or things that help measure your heart rate or blood sugar. There's a vast array of companies, some small, some big players, who are coming out with wearables. I don't think 2014 is going to be the tipping point for these devices. I do think we’ll see the emergence of wearables as an alternative that will have a minimal impact on the travel experience by the end of the year.
That being said, the future trend for travelers, leisure or business, is to have their own personal networks. Travelers will be walking around with their own personal network, driven mostly by their smart phone. That network is going to connect to everything, including these wearables.”
Travel Agents: Serve Clients Over the Entire Trip Lifestyle
“We need to have a next-generation travel agent — it doesn’t have to be about age, it’s more about a progressive kind of travel agent — who understands that their job is to provide ongoing service throughout the lifecycle of the trip. It’s not just to book and issue a ticket and an itinerary.
Traditional travel agents need the ability to integrate themselves into the online planning process and give travelers more real-time interaction and collaboration with their expertise. They need to be part of the conversation in the 
mobile environment we’re in now. There are technologies and platforms that can enable this.
Travel agents have knowledge. It’s just a matter of how that knowledge is shaped within the context of these platforms which are becoming more and more mobile, and how that knowledge gets communicated to the traveler through every part of the trip lifecycle. If traditional travel agents don't do it we're going to see Expedia and its sister company Egencia, other online agencies, and some of the mainstream tech players like Google and Apple, providing this.
It’s now a battle between travel agents — both online and traditional — and suppliers about who is going to provide that relevant information to the traveler during the lifecycle of the trip.”
Apple in Travel: Get to Know iBeacon — Now
“The big push for Apple is all around iBeacon. Everybody in travel needs to understand this. It's basically a way to use a certain form of Bluetooth technology — it's smart or low-energy Bluetooth — that allows broadcasting in a narrow location space.
Imagine you're at the airport. You turn on your iPhone. You have already loaded your boarding pass into Passbook. Then Passbook becomes iBeacon-enabled and you get a message from the airport, the airline, the OTA, the traditional travel agent — whoever — that the gate has changed, or your flight is delayed by an hour, or whatever you need to know. You could even get offers like a pass from the airline to their club lounge because your flight is late. That type of proactive communication is what iBeacon can enable.
Now imagine if a travel agent used iBeacon. The agent knows the traveler likes to rent bicycles when they're with their family in a certain location. The agent may send that traveler a message, or work with a local supplier to send a message, that says, “Hey there. There’s a bicycle rental place just 10 minutes away down the street where you are.”
Own the Itinerary, Own the Customer
“The first integration point that has occurred with Passbook, which is really the Apple wallet, is the boarding pass. The idea of having further itinerary integration brings forth an overall theme I've written about and talked about at lots of conferences: Essentially, whoever owns the itinerary owns the customer.
When I talk to traditional travel agents or even OTAs about this they say, “Yeah, we want to do that. But how?” Sometimes the quick response is, “Okay, I need to create my own app.” That may be good for a very large TMC but if you're a second-tier or third-tier travel agency, or even an OTA, you may not have enough stickiness in the marketplace to do that. So combining your efforts with existing platforms, such as the iBeacon from Apple, is one way to reach the segment of the population that's going to use those devices.
TruTrip is Sabre’s answer to the corporate travel open booking trend allowing corporate travel managers and TMCs to capture and evaluate bookings outside the channel. Sabre agents certainly can benefit from that. Carlson Wagonlit bought WorldMate. Having those things work with Apple Passbook and ultimately iBeacon is how this ecosystem is going to start evolving around the Apple platform.
Initially, the major focus for iBeacon will be retail, but retail has a lot of similarities to travel. There’s an even greater need for iBeacon for the travel experience because by definition you're in an unfamiliar place. Even if you travel frequently to a destination there is a certain amount of discovery that has to take place. Then there is the entire travel lifecycle. During every step of the travel process itself a traveler can use assistance.
That’s part of the evolution we're seeing from Apple, and I think that's going to be the major focus from them this year. When I talk to colleagues I refer to ‘iBeacon mania’ because in tech circles it already is a big, big topic of discussion. But in the travel industry you know how it is. Sometimes it has to hit us across the face before we notice what’s going on.”
NEXT ISSUE: Norm Rose on how new technology introductions from Google, Facebook, Mapquest, Twitter, Microsoft and Concur could shape the travel space in 2014.