Thursday 9 September 2010

Mobile travel bookings need a Smartphone travel strategy

The travel and tourism technology industry has been slow to adopt a smart mobile strategy for travel bookings and marketing. Some of the first to enter the race are the Online Travel Agents, who have ported travel bookings along with their version of hotel and tourism information to the iPhone and smartphone apps.

The independent travel technology suppliers, who provide products and services to the tourism industry, are catching up. They are still behind, and many hotel booking engines do not work on smartphones, but this is changing.
AXSES has shared its own strategies in past blogs and has created an entire social site/blog on Smartphone know-how and strategies. For example, see  http://strategies.smartphonetraveller.com and our discussion on Travel Bookings / Website redesign. Our lastest  Hub on Smartphone Strategies  lists the top 6 Criteria in Rating your Mobile Travel Technology Partner and provides advice on vital issues that are easily overlooked.


Only Travel technology suppliers can lead hotels and tourism suppliers into mobile marketing with Booking engines on Smartphones.  The new Mobile Market has spawned a host of new suppliers and new tools, but travel is complex and few of the new entries understand the intricacies of tourism. Tourism technology is  a very specialised industry that is highly integrated and interwoven - from the point of planning, shopping, departure and destination holiday activities, to return, sharing and building loyalty: The travel shopping and vacations experience is the worlds largest and most integrated business system. New Smartphone building tools that don't understand this industry, fail to offer suitable solutions to hotels and tourism operators.

Tourism Mobile strategies are best supplied by tourism technology companies that understand rates management, channel management, packaging, property management, guest relations and loyalty programs, inventory management and allocation, affiliate management, global distribution, yield management and direct bookings.

For details and criteria of what you need to look for in building a Mobile Bookings and Smartphone Marketing strategy, see our Hubpages on Tourism Strategies for Smartphone Bookings