Travel Technology Solutions Continue to Evolve

Many people who use a travel booking engine never really give them much thought. The world has become so accustom to using technology in their day to day lives that it's become hard to imagine life before things like laptops and cellphones existed. I recently had a revelation while reading about the resurgence of the flip phone. Some may classify the flip phone as recent technology when considering how far technology has progressed in just the last 30 years, but the flip phone already instills a sense of nostalgia for many!

Technology in general has advanced so far over the last 30+ years and travel technology solutions have always been quick to embrace the latest advancements. The ability for anyone with a smart phone to research and book their entire travel is a long way from the days when you had to visit your local travel agent to research options and approximate costs for a trip.

Today's travel technology solutions can easily bring content for airlines, hotels and even cruise lines into a single platform and allow Users to custom build their own packages. A vast improvement from the days when travel agents had to use several different systems and methods to build a vacation package. Gone are the days of using one GDS to book airline reservations, another system to research hotel accommodations and perhaps a third application to book a cruise. The process of coordinating flights with a cruise and hotel accommodations can be a time consuming and complex process. Fortunately, the complete travel packaging solutions available today streamline the entire process with dynamic packaging modules that allow agents or consumers to custom package a cruise, airline reservations, hotels accommodations and other travel products in real time for example.

Travel technology solutions with multi-language & multi-currency capability, including optional exchange rate modules are important if you plan to expand internationally. Access to local content can be critical in some markets and some may require payment gateway integration for packages. Today's online booking engines enable Agency owners to integrate any local content that they may have contracted for themselves for which online booking capability is not available. They can easily add this content to their overall offering and build a day to day itinerary for their customers to book. Unique product features allow Agents to simply save whatever information they've put together for their customer as a quote. Then if the customer calls a few days later, the agent can simply click a button and within seconds the system will check the availability and price for the packaged quoted and allow them to proceed with completing the booking. These travel technology solutions streamline the process to build a vacation package and can save agents considerable time while expanding the products and services they provide customers.

Choosing the travel technology with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.

Travel Bookings Are Made Via All Channels

For most people, the annual holiday trip can be a significant expense. Taking a break from every day schedules and spending time with friends and family or just relaxing is often the time of year many look forward to the most. And for the lucky enough to be purchasing high-end packages such as cruises, the large price tag often motivates consumers to seek assistance and advice from several different sources before purchasing a vacation package. A traveler who is buying a $25,000 vacation package may need reassurance that they are getting the proper value for their money, even if they are a repeat customer. Generally speaking, the lower the cost of the package being purchased, the more likely it will be booked online.

Many start their initial research online with a significant portion being conducted using a mobile device. Today's consumer uses various sources for identifying vacation options including checking reviews on social media sites, seeking advice from friends & family or checking with a trusted travel agent. Once a consumer has narrowed down their options, the next step typically involves the use of a travel booking engine to get the latest availability and pricing for the vacation package they are looking for.

To serve today's growing number of consumers using their mobile device to purchase travel products, many travel companies look for a travel booking engine that is mobile ready. This way, regardless of the type of device a customer uses to access a travel website, applications automatically adjust the screen layout based on the type of device being used. And if you are looking to have a dedicated mobile app to make bookings, there are technology companies that can design and develop a custom mobile app for your business. Either approach offers consumers the ease and mobility of using their smartphone or tablet.

Make sure the travel booking engine you chose can offer access to all the selling channels your agency needs and that multiple selling channels can be easily managed using a single application (B2B, B2C, B2B2C). And if you plan to expand into new markets, look for applications that are designed to meet the requirements of the Global Marketplace and can easily handle multiple currencies as well as multiple languages.

Travel agency online booking solutions should include the ability to be easily customized to support an agency's own brand identity and unique selling style. The application's headers, footers as well as colors and font used should all match the agency branding. The ability to easily control the selling price and include targeted promotions right in the availability display is critical for consumer websites and travel agent applications as well. The more information and tools you provide an Agent during the research and booking process, the quicker they will be able to serve the customer and complete the sale.

Choosing a travel booking engine with the right combination of options for your business can be a critical decision. Finding a technology partner that will help you reach today's mobile consumer with the content they are looking for can be just as important.