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What about me? TravelMole Guest Opinion by Mike Atherton, managing director, Mantic Point
Sunday, 23 Mar, 2009
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Airports are busy places with millions of passengers travelling through each year.
Hundreds of millions are spent on the terminal building, world class brands feature in most retail outlets, but one thing is missing – airports are not aware of who is passing through.
In a climate where flights arrive and leave later and are being cancelled more often, it comes as no surprise to holidaymakers or business travellers to find out that their flight has been delayed two hours after the original departure time, with no sign of a happy helper in sight.
Travellers are crying out to be put back in control of their own time. They want to receive personalised information that is context-aware and relevant to their journey.
M-travel has allowed passengers to check in via mobile, access timetables and find out destination information. This is undoubtedly a useful service, but it still requires the customer to enter data, navigate screens and work hard to access the information they are looking for.
Why should a consumer that has spent a considerable amount of time and money booking their holiday then have to spend even more time re-entering data that they’ve already provided?
The problem is that most existing travel industry mobile services address a single part of the customer journey. They haven’t been designed with the ‘I’m going on a trip’ mindset that a customer possesses.
Travellers are looking for a personalised, contextual, end-to-end service.
For example, passengers travelling to Egypt may receive retail offers on diving equipment, but those going skiing may receive offers on ski equipment.
They want traffic/rail alerts, airport/terminal reminders, flight alerts, terminal facility information, money saving deals at the airport, wayfinding, destination information and the list goes on.
Through mobile, the holidaymaker or business traveller can be put back in control of their time.
Phil Davies
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