Travel Apps - Thematic Research

Travel Apps - Thematic Research

Summary

Travel apps act as the ultimate one-stop-shop for travelers. When looking specifically at major OTAs, through their apps, users can instantly: book hotels or flights, create personalized itineraries, read up on information about a destination prior to arrival, look for things to do during a trip, manage their bookings and converse with property hosts, store important documents, contact customer service, receive exclusive app-based discounts, and share experiences with fellow travelers. Only a decade ago, creating personalized itineraries and looking for things to do during a trip would take a considerable amount of time. Now through apps using advanced forms of technology such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), travelers can receive personal recommendations on things to do and see during their trip, which have been learnt from previous searches on the app, then recommendations can be accepted and added to personalized itineraries. This example demonstrates that travel apps offer high levels of convenience and save time, which is a valuable commodity for travelers during a trip.

This thematic research report takes an in-depth look at the use of app technology in travel and tourism. Firstly, the players section and theme briefing identifies some of the leading and challenging companies in this theme and why the utilization of mobile apps has become so important for tourism companies. A trends section is then provided, describing technology trends, macroeconomic trends, regulatory trends, and industry trends connected to the travel apps theme. An industry analysis follows, providing insight into the link between travel app adoption and growth in mobile internet subscribers, filing analytics, hiring trends related to mobile payments, and patent publications linked to the travel apps theme. Industry use cases, mergers and acquisitions, and a timeline which showcases the emergence of travel apps then completes the industry analysis section. Penultimately, the travel apps value chain is reviewed, with each segment of the chain being given an in-depth description. Finally, the leading and challenging companies in the travel apps theme are outlined, along with their competitive position in the industry.

By combining wearable and voice assistant technology, then pulling it together through its Play Disney Parks app to enhance its Hey Disney Voice Assistant, Disney has demonstrated that it is a travel apps leader. Utilizing a range of advanced technologies that are underpinned by IoT and travel apps helps Disney to create seamless and a hyper-connected trips for customers, which will be well received by younger age cohorts.

Key Highlights

• Many travelers are also now in need of digitally advanced services, which has increased demand for travel apps. In GlobalData’s Q1 2021 survey, 66% of global respondents were ‘always’, ‘often’, or ‘somewhat’ influenced by how digitally advanced or smart a product/service is when making a purchasing decision. Younger age cohorts were the most influenced by this aspect of a product or service, with 74% of millennials and 72% of Gen Z echoing the same sentiment. Both of these cohorts are considered digital natives, which means they will naturally require products and services that are digitally advanced, especially compared to older cohorts that have not grown up with technology. This point demonstrates that the importance of travel apps will continue to grow as younger generations become the most important consumer groups for travel and tourism companies.
• Fintech and travel are becoming increasingly overlapped. Revolut ventured beyond financial services for the first time in 2021, and began selling hotels, homes, and guest houses. The offering came with a 10% cash back offer on each transaction as Revolut aimed to become more than just a mobile banking option. This advancement into travel may be concerning for the likes of Booking Holdings and Expedia, as they now have a new kind of competition to deal with. When turning the tables, app-focused superpowers such as Booking Holdings are investing time and resource into fintech. In 2021, Booking.com announced the creation of a new internal Fintech business unit to enhance seamless access to the company’s vast travel marketplace for both its customers and partners. The unit will function independently within the company, while creating potential new revenue streams for Booking.com by improving cross-border and cross-currency transaction processes.
• Trip.com Group is an intermediary that relies heavily on AI and ML to create efficient user experiences. When looking at GlobalData’s patents database, the company was a top AI patent assignee in 2021. In November 2021, it published at patent application for a ‘Hotel recommendation method and system for OTA website’. The method consists of the following steps: obtaining hotel feature data, room type feature data and current target parameters input by a user; inputting the current target parameters, the hotel feature data and the room type feature data into a hotel bookable rate model to obtain a predicted bookable rate of each hotel in a target check-in city; and recommending a hotel to the user according to the predicted bookable rates. This patent example shows that Trip.com Group is utilizing ML to provide recommendations to users based on a range of different prices, which could help its customers to get the best possible rates for their stay.

• This report provides an overview of travel apps and how they are utilized by the industry.
• It identifies the need for travel apps to remain competitive both internally and externally.
• This report provides a detailed industry analysis of travel apps, discussing a wide range of use cases in the process.
• We highlight travel and tourism companies that are leading and challenging in the travel apps theme, such as Airbnb, Trip.com Group, Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, and Hilton Hotels & Resorts.

• Understand the impact of travel apps on the tourism industry, using use cases to help you understand how you can adapt and understand this theme.
• Assess the strategies that companies are adopting when using travel apps.
• Discover companies that are leading and challenging in this space.
• To view real-world trends created by the adoption of travel apps from across the travel & tourism space.
• GlobalData’s thematic research ecosystem is a single, integrated global research platform that provides an easy-to-use framework for tracking all themes across all companies in all sectors. It has a proven track record of identifying the important themes early, enabling companies to make the right investments ahead of the competition, and secure that all-important competitive advantage.