Travel agents need to embrace mobile phone technology or risk losing business as suppliers begin to translate their website content on to consumers’ phones, experts warned at London’s Travel Technology Show.
Gerry Samuels, founder of Mobile Travel Technologies, told visitors to the show that this latest form of travel distribution was set to dominate as mobile phone usage has exploded in the last decade with 3.3 billion mobiles now in use across the globe and 70 million handsets now in use in the UK alone – more than the UK population .
“Travel companies should exploit media technology because it is coming your way,” said Samuels.
“At the moment business travel agents are in the best position to benefit from it.
“If your client makes a booking, you can send a text with a link to all sorts of information they need on the go such as details of their booking, the weather, opportunities to upgrade, nearest restaurants or whatever.
“It’s a great opportunity for upselling and selling other related products plus giving added value.”
He added: “The jury is out on whether agents will embrace this opportunity as quickly as they should. If they do not there is a danger because as a consumer if you book with a supplier direct and you get a great mobile phone service with that, giving you the ability to alter bookings, upgrade, get directions etc, then that consumer is going to want that again.”
The days of poorly displayed and non-loading web pages on mobile phones, said Samuels, are over.
“The saying ‘Wap is crap’ no longer applies. Now 30% of mobile phone subscribers in the UK are using the web. It’s not a fringe activity done by geeks anymore. It’s mainstream. It’s also much cheaper than it used to be – a travel booking on a site accessed via a mobile now costs about 5p.”
He added that the developing world, particularly India, represented a major opportunity for travel distribution via mobile phones as residential broadband is low and most web users access it via their handsets.
by Dinah Hatch
