The technology most likely to have the biggest effect on the travel industry in 2010 boils down mainly to one thing: applications, applications, applications.
Or, in tech parlance, "apps."
With a North American user base of Internet-accessible mobile phones estimated to quadruple to about a quarter-billion people between 2008 and 2013, according to research firm Parks Associates, companies ranging from start-up tech firms to the world's largest hoteliers and airlines are building software that, when downloaded, can turn a smartphone into anything from a GPS system to a boarding pass.
The lion's share of applications are being developed for the iPhone, which Apple introduced in 2007. The iPhone is still going strong, with 16.4 million units sold in the first three quarters of 2009, up 76% from a year earlier.
But a growing number of travel apps are also expected to be launched in 2010 for Research in Motion's BlackBerry as well as for Google's Android phone platform.
For travel distribution professionals, there are other technologies on the horizon, including incremental improvements in GDS functionality and Web programming, but in the consumer space, mobile apps appear to be the most important travel technology for 2010.
The smartphone is truly the digital Swiss Army knife. Smartphone apps are "replacing maps, GPS, restaurant guides, weather channels, cameras and flashlights in forests while enabling me to network with friends and business," said Teaque Lenahan, associate partner with Chicago-based consultant Gravitytank.
Applications
About 100,000 applications are available for the iPhone alone, but the biggest impact on travel will arise from just a few categories.
• Augmented reality. The concept is fairly simple: Hold your mobile phone up at an intersection to enable its camera-view feature, start walking and watch names of nearby restaurants, clubs or other attractions, as well as reviews, pop up on the screen.
The user-generated review site Yelp debuted its augmented-reality application, which combines the phone's GPS with a feature called a Monocle, in August. Amsterdam-based program developer Layar has released augmented-reality browsers for both the iPhone and Android during the fourth quarter.
Travelers should expect many other review- and travel-related services to add augmented-reality features in 2010.
"That's really going to explode in the next year or two," said Joe Buhler, senior destination marketing and social media analyst with the Connecticut-based travel-industry research firm PhoCusWright. "You no longer have to start your searches by looking at maps."
• Trip planning and itinerary management. Sabre Holdings' TripCase is among the dozens of applications that provide mobile-phone users with a wide range of travel-related features such as real-time updates of flight delays and cancellations, security wait times and baggage claim information.
Users can get automatic alternative flight schedules and hotel and car rental offers relevant to their travels.
Hand-held devices are not just about getting the weather forecast or doing currency conversions anymore. With the right apps, the camera phone can generate photo travelogues to friends in real time and instantly notify family of itinerary changes.
Competing with TripCase among free iPhone and BlackBerry downloads, with Android downloads expected in 2010, are independently owned WorldMate and TripIt. Finally, free applications for more specific services are offered by Web-derived service operators such as Taxi Magic (taxi and limousine reservations), Open Table (restaurant reservations) and Yelp (user-generated reviews).
• On-site management. Look for hotels, airlines and other hospitality-related companies to take advantage of the ability of mobile applications to free up resources.
For instance, check-in and booking features for mobile devices can enable hotel companies to free employees from the front desk to perform additional duties, according to Henry Harteveldt, senior analyst at Forrester Research.
Social media
Newer services and established travel companies are both creating features for social-media websites like Facebook and MySpace as well as for the microblogging service Twitter. And for good reason: As of October,
Facebook had doubled its popularity from a year earlier. Its 97.4 million unique users made it the fifth most popular U.S. website, according to ComScore.
• Loyalty programs. Companies like Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Accor Hotels have added programs for Facebook and Twitter. Loyalty-program members can use Facebook or Twitter to start planning their trips by reading travel reviews from other members and upload them, along with map coordinates, onto mobile devices. Such companies are widening programs for both mobile-device and Internet users that target their most profitable customers by sending them discount offers and upgrades.
• Traxo. This independently owned website connects members by giving an automatic notification if a friend or business associate is traveling to the same place at the same time. The service also gives access to friends' itineraries and user-generated travel reviews.
• Itinerary application integration. Travel-related mobile applications TripCase, Tripit and WorldMate all have Facebook pages enabling friends to compare travel notes and maintain a running dialogue about travel-related issues.
Internet
Travelers can choose from a newer batch of independent websites designed to help them cut through the clutter by collecting and organizing pretrip information. Gliider is a plug-in feature for the Firefox Web browser that enables users to highlight information from various Web pages and drag and drop them into folders such as Flights, Shopping and Hotels.
The service also has agreements enabling Hotels.com and Travelzoo to send users deals tailored to the information that was dropped into their Gliider folders. Nile-Guide and TravelMuse are other sites that enable more personalization for people looking to create their own trip itineraries.
Business-to-business
The rapid advancements in mobile-device applications and Web programs haven't been lost on the large GDS companies looking to maintain the relevance of traditional distribution channels.
In 2010, Travelport, which owns the Galileo and Worldspan GDSs, will launch its Universal Desktop, a so-called "GDS-agnostic" platform aggregating search-engine, booking and reservation-tracking features as well as an instant-messaging service.
The company's e-Pricing low-fare search engine and Traversa corporate online booking feature will also debut in 2010.
Meanwhile, Sabre is broadening its hotel inventory on its GDS and speeding up access to corporate or preferred rates, while adding an attribute-based shopping feature to agents' desktops that enables them to better price features such as seat selection, baggage charges, lounge access, onboard meals and trip insurance. The company is also investing in a social-media platform while improving its technology to enable more automation of manual tasks.
Finally, Amadeus is introducing a so-called "extreme search" program to give travelers more customized travel searches by enabling them to enter open-ended parameters such as "beach vacations," "family destinations" or "golf resorts," along with budget limitations, to get more precise options without having to specify geographic locations or specific travel dates.
The feature, called Affinity Shopper, was unveiled at November's PhoCusWright conference and is debuting on Lufthansa's website in December.
To read the entire "Preview 2010" issue, click here.