Smartphones Have Become The Essential Travel Companion - And That's Creating Major Disruption In The Travel Industry

Tourists no longer wander around new cities, dreamily stepping into unknown restaurants and hotels and hoping for the best. Now, the smartphone has become the traveler's personal concierge. Tourists turn to their phones for directions, recommendations, even bookings while on-the-go.

That major shift in tourism activity has huge implications for the travel industry. Businesses in the travel space were already upended once by the mass move online - think of real-world travel agents supplanted by online travel agent websites (OTAs) like Expedia. Now mobile is creating the next great disruption to the travel space.

Just this week, Airbnb launched a new feature allowing users to instantly book day-of or next-day lodging. The feature naturally extends to travelers using the Airbnb mobile app on-the-go.

In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we look at how the worldwide adoption of smartphones, tablets, and other devices is dramatically changing how we travel - before, during, and after the trip - and what the impact of that change is to businesses in the travel space. Players in the travel industry are emphasizing mobile as a core component of their business strategies, and working to make their products and services mobile-friendly. Those that do not adapt risk becoming relics of a bygone desktop computing era.

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Here are some of the key points from our report on mobile travel:

• Mobile devices are ideal companions for travelers, allowing them to access information, services, and booking while en route. By 2015, mobile will account for one-quarter of U.S. online travel sales, driving $40 billion in revenue, according to PhoCusWright.
• Tablets are emerging as a power device for completing travel purchases. Tablets accounted for 7% of all online travel bookings globally in the third quarter of 2013, and 11% of all time-spend on travel sites in April 2013.
• These are some of the hottest trends relevant to travel apps: cross-device services and marketing, algorithm-driven personalized local search results, innovative photo features, and the integration of travel information and data into augmented reality apps and wearables.
• But there are significant barriers to overcome before mobile can become a key channel for travel-related research and purchases: bad user experience design, friction that keeps users from completing transactions on mobile, and lack of Wi-Fi and 4G coverage.
• Airlines, hotel chains, and online travel agencies need to stay ahead of the mobile computing curve. Airbnb already sees over a quarter of its traffic from mobile and expects the majority of traffic to come from mobile very soon. The company is actually encouraging this trend.
• Wearables and the car dashboard represent the platforms where mobile travel will thrive next. Expect to see new travel-related apps and features for wearables debuting regularly.

In full, the report:

• Looks at how big the travel market is, and why mobile will continue to take a larger slice of online travel bookings
• Examines which mobile-centric features are going to be most important to travelers, and how businesses are beginning to incorporate these features into their mobile travel services
• Describes how Airbnb and TripAdvisor specifically are gearing up for, and even encouraging, travelers' transition to mobile devices
• Discusses the pain points that are still holding back mobile usage among travelers, particularly when it comes to making bookings
• Considers what will be next in mobile travel, especially as wearables see much greater uptake and travel apps become a major part of the wearables app ecosystem

For full access to all BI Intelligence's charts and analysis on the mobile industry, sign up for a free trial.