Tourism and Technology: A Great Match

In today’s world, tourism and technology have begun to go hand in hand. From researching where to go, what to do, making all of your reservations, planning a vacation, or finding that perfect tourist destination is easier than filling out your March Madness bracket. Technology has played a huge role in this and will continue to as both technology and businesses move forward.

 

Technology can do some great things for tourists and vacation goes, especially in tourist hotspots that tend to be very busy and chaotic at peak times of the year. People want to control their travels and vacations without relying on tour guides or other tourism workers during their visits. This can be accomplished through digital devices and allow everything to flow better. 

 

Let’s face it, when people travel, they want to enjoy their time with as little disruption and waiting as possible. And with the use of digital devices, that has made people accustomed to instant access to information and answers to their questions. This is good for the tourism industry as apps, and other digital uses can be employed to make tourist experiences much better. Let’s look at a couple of ways this can be done.

Apps for Ease

Outside of apps for booking hotels and flights, people have an abundant call and need to allow for better planning and organization of all aspects of their trips to help take the stress away. Some apps like Pack Pro allow people to make quick checklists of what they need to pack, but they are the ones that have to make their own list inside the app. Some decent pre-made lists for travelers can be found online, but things could be made better.

 

Companies, like hotel chains and other businesses, could add many features to their apps that would really help travelers. For example, if you were traveling to Baguio City and staying in the Holiday Inn, it would be very beneficial if their application had pre-made travel item lists for the location and the season you might be visiting during; that way, you are completely prepared for the trip.

 

Apps like this are getting better and providing information about the immediate surrounding area that allow you to explore some nearby hotspots and give you an idea of what you might encounter. They are also allowing easy access to other hotel commodities like transportation, front desk requests, and the check-out process. Continuing to improve will make things better if they can expand the experience and access further outside of their hotel.

 

For tourist destinations with different attractions, especially historical or informational, they need to develop apps that freely give information or act as a tour guide for those visiting. This gives people the freedom to explore and get fun and exciting information without being confined to a time-constrained tour. This would be a big attraction and could be done quite easily.

AI and Chatbots

Communication is vital to having a good experience while traveling and visiting tourist destinations. Questions are bound to come up, and visitors want the answers as quickly as possible. AI and easily used chatbots can fill this void but need to be well organized to adequately give accurate information. 

 

These could be used for anything from hotels to tourist attractions, restaurants, and many more businesses involved with tourism. And with AI and this type of technology, insight can be provided to businesses based on consumer behavior and interests when visiting the destination. This is useful for businesses to gear themselves towards certain aspects of tourism and what is popular.

Next Steps

Tourism and travel companies need to continue to adapt and develop ways to make the lives of their patrons as simple as possible to make their experiences that much better. Finding technological ways that work on mobile devices and can scale to a large level would be ideal. 

 

Travelers and tourists would be much appreciated for the ease in use of technology and would more than likely be willing to give great feedback on what they would find useful in these situations.