Travelers don’t want to hunt around for answers – but are looking for a hero

From standing in line at the wrong entrance, to not knowing where to purchase tickets to find that the rooftop is about to close due to limited access hours – turning your afternoon to a desperate search on your mobile along with on-site support and passersby for answers.  In a nutshell – becoming a #DuomoRooftopFAIL moment.

This unfortunate tale actually happened to me last summer.  I’m guessing that you and many other fellow travelers have experienced similar kinds of disappointments.  Sadly, most travelers arrive at a dream destination without the critical insights that will ensure access to what they want, when they want it, in order to make the most of their trip.  Needless to say, my hunt for timely information and guidance about my intended visit to the Duomo of Milan Rooftop was far from seamless – should it have been?  Ovviamente- of course!

Everyone’s travel experience should be as stress and worry free as possible. With this in mind, we asked over a thousand travelers around the world to discover what frustrates them most during the post-booking phase as part of our Get Ready for Destination X insight paper.

The results very much echo my own experience - two thirds of travelers struggle with planning their destination experiences due to either lack of time or poor access to trustworthy reviews and ratings. 45% of the travelers we talked to regularly use mobile devices to access destination services.  And more than a quarter of the travelers in the study dislike having to flip through multiple apps and websites to find the information and activities they are looking for.

Implementing a mobile channel is essential to meet the traveler’s in-trip needs today.  Having an always-connected, single point of access for relevant information, things to do, last-minute bookings, user reviews and so on, will allow travel sellers to engage with their travelers and better manage the overall travel experience. 

The opportunity is clearly there for travel sellers to offer a super-app style solution that brings together different kinds of information, content sources and tools to serve their travelers on all levels. Besides having direct access to the travel itinerary and updates, this also includes looking and booking content such as activities, transfers, and parking, discovering new cities and neighborhoods, checking out the weather forecast and getting directions. Travel sellers can also use this channel to proactively offer personalized and relevant travel options using push notifications, app inbox or even email. 

Combining relevant information and services in one easily accessible place can create a more seamless travel experience.  This will essentially lead to more confidence and trust in the travel seller, generate a stronger relationship and longer-lasting loyalty.  

To find out more about travelers’ needs and the critical role of destination services’ in improving the overall travel experience, please visit amadeus.com/DestinationX where you can download our paper, view the infographic and learn more about the 8 key trends extracted from our research.