A group of industry leaders have given the thumbs down to any major breakthrough in the use of mobile devices for anything but simple travel bookings in the next three to five years.
Speaking at a specially convened TravelMole discussion group on the Greek island of Corfu, during Youtravel’s annual VIP trip, the majority of those present believed it would be a long time before an annual family holiday is booked via a mobile device.
Anthony Martin of Rock Insurance said only simple repeat transactions would be used.
“We have developed technology that allows clients to renew their annual travel insurance via one simple click of a button via a mobile device,” he said.
“Unless it’s as simple as this, I don’t think we will see any major increase in usage. Sure, productivity measures such as using mobiles for boarding cards or location information, but not hard cash exchanges.”
Tom O’Connor of Travel Zoo suggested that the methods of marketing to a mobile audience need to change and that usage would be encouraged by offering deals that have a time expiration.
“We find that the use of mobile and the effectiveness of the offer is enhanced by a major degree if it has a specific time expiration,” he said.
“If the deal runs out at midday people are more inclined to use the mobile device to book.”
This was backed up by Daniel Ox of TravelOx who firmly believes that more thought and imagination should be bought into Mobile software design.
“To continue as before would be a mistake. Mobile apps need to be designed to be simple and interesting to encourage quick and easy use.”
Despite the general opinion, many of the industry leaders present said they are still investing heavily in mobile strategies.
Victoria Sanders of Teletext confirmed: “We as a group are investing heavily in this arena. Whilst transactions are not there at the moment they may be in the future and we want to make sure we are leading the field. In the meantime, customer offers and customer loyalty programmes are all important projects and who knows what the tablet market such as the i-pad will do for this area.”
To see pictures of the discussion group, go to www.stevedunlop.com/youtraveltravelmole.html
