LONDON - Travelport has revealed the trends that will shape travel experiences in 2020 and it’s no surprise that travel technology leads the way.
Making a big impact will be “super apps” which are spreading west from their established base in South-east Asia.
Super app tech giants such as WeChat, Grab and Go-Jek give their users a one-stop shop to communicate, shop online, book travel, bank, find a date, get food delivery, and pay for anything within a single, unified smartphone app.
Travelport says travel brands that want to deliver holistic mobile customer experiences need to think about how they engage travellers within these super apps as well as in their own mobile channels.
Other trends revealed in by Travelport:
Customers in control
Several trends highlight that customers are moving towards self-service options, with 55% of those surveyed preferring to hear about travel disruption via digital communications rather than speak with a person on the phone.
Retail accelerated
In the next year, research shows we will see an accelerated rate of change in the way travel is retailed and purchased online. This includes wider and more complex multi-content reach, more enriched and comparable offerings, more focus on relevance than magnitude, and increase in automation that enables customer self-service.
Fiona Shanley, chief customer and marketing officer at Travelport said, “It’s clear to see customers are driving change across the travel industry with new topics, such as the environmental impact of travel and when an agency could successfully employ a ‘bot’ show the 2020s will be another era of rapid change for travel.”