According to a new study from ChangeWave Research 39% of consumers now have a smartphone, which is almost double from a year ago.
Is it time to consider developing a travel application (app) for the handheld traveler?
That depends…. do you want to attract these handheld users who are visiting your community looking for places to stay, dining alternatives, things to do? If you are in the tourism business, now might be the time to recruit an application developer.
Consider Building an App instead of a Mobile Web site
Planning a Web site for handheld once meant restructuring your site to provide a mobile version of your content to ensure that simple, easy to see information was available to a handheld traveler. While this still may be important for your current Website, the iPhone which allows users to zoom to view your existing Web site clearly makes investment in a mobi Website a secondary consideration.
Apps can greatly enhance the experience and increase brand/region loyalty of an iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone user.
Currently in the iTunes store Apple has over 100 000 apps!
Developing an App: Three Important Considerations
- Think Here: Location, Location, Location. Start thinking about what your ideal traveler needs to know when en route or visiting your community.
- Think Now: Information needs to make life easier for your ideal guest now, and that may mean being ready to make the most of last minute business opportunities. Are you a family-friendly tourism biz? Consider investing in an application for the kids to pop onto their iPod Touch to keep them happy and entertained before, during and after their stay.
- Think Social: Encourage your guests to share photos, video, stories of their stay. For instance consider embedding a direct link from the app to your TripAdvisor profile where your guest can comment on their stay.
The Starwood Preferred Guest app is a really good place to start in considering how an app might benefit your ideal guest.
By linking the app to a guest account, Starwood Preferred can provide the guest with access to a range of services that enhance the guest experience and make it easy to book or check details of their stay. In addition the app links to the company blog. Your app could link to all kinds of multimedia content and automatically push your new content to App users as soon as you publish.
Which platforms should you be planning for?
While RIMs blackberry dominates the market, there has been a meteoric rise in the number of iPhone users over the past two years. All that for a phone that (until now) has had limited availability due to its restriction to few select networks (ie: AT&T in U.S. and Rogers in Canada). As Apple makes iPhone available across networks expect iPhone use to continue to outpace the growth of other handhelds.
Also in the near future expect to see the Google operating system – Android take its place on the chart below (new phones are just coming onto the market).
Things to Do:
- If you haven’t got a smartphone yet, get one (or try out an iPod Touch which has many of the iPhone capabilities). Think like a traveler. Figure out how your ideal clients might use them. Try out as many apps as possible. Keep a file of your great app insights.
- Focus on linking all your digital assets to specific geographic locations. One of the biggest implications of smartphones is that they easily link GPS co-ordinates to photos, video, audio and text.
- Get a conversation going in your dmo, cvb or tourism association. What could you do for your members that they can’t do themselves.
Links:
- Reflections on the Mobile Web and Travel
- 100 000 Apple iPhone apps (October 27, 2009)
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I believe that for destinations and operators to fully leverage the great opportunity of mobile marketing they need to establish their mobile strategies now. (and if you need help, ask for it)
A mobile app is a great tool within the toolbox of mobile marketing and there are many benefits to getting one now (less clutter in the market place, PR advantages, establishing your brand before someone else does). But, as is true with all mobile marketing, Apps are not an island, they need to be integrated.
I recommend that destinations and operators start the conversation about mobile with experts in the field. Mobile is a different beast than internet marketing and needs to be treated as such. For the most part in travel, the potential for this channel has been untapped. I predict that 2010 will bring many new innovations in communication and revenue streams for business that start to embrace mobile strategically now.
Thanks Trevor,
Not sure we need experts, I think we need experience with handheld devices and applications! Then we need to put on our traveler hat and think like our ideal guest.
Of course we need experts to help us out… once we understand our clients needs and match that with our content stream.
I think most people think mobile is tremendously difficult and that it is something that is way out there in the future. Its simply not true. I think of the loyalty edge that organizations will have with their mobile customers and can’t help but throw myself into designing something new right now! Calling all coders, I’ve got a hot project that I think will inspire others small tourism operators to do something in mobile… heck, it might even be a template for others to follow. Stay tuned.
Hey Todd,
Thanks for sharing your insights about apps for mobile devices. The three considerations and the Starwood Guest app helped me to make the link and understand “what might be”. You are good at helping us to see the possibilities – then, we turn ourselves inside out inventing the solutions to what might be, that make sense in our worlds……Today, I helped two people to make the shift to iPhone in ways that simplified their lives. Last night, we went for a late night walk in Saint John, using the iPhone to access information about historical buildings and structures (the story about them) to bring alive the late night walk…Imagine if I could have had an app for my “self-guided walk” that enabled me to “log my personal experience”.
What if the categories in the app included My Experiences, Audio links, Quick Links to other ways to experience history and culture, my memories, my photos, my videos, my story, maybe even connecting to Bento to capture my travel experience in notes that I could use to paint a picture or write a story for a local paper when I go back home.
Cheers
Celes
Celes, Now you are thinking like a handheld toting traveler. Nice to hear your dreams. They are not that far from reality. Imagine if the content in Wikipedia were accessible as you stood looking at a building or monument and what if this content was geolocated to a Google Map with streetview.
It’s closer than we think. Say Hello to Saint John, New Brunswick for me.
Todd,
In fact, while we were standing there in front of a heritage building, I used Google to access the name of the historical structure and of course a Google Map came up with the location of the building where we were standing. It was not Wikipedia, but we were able to then get the link to the story which I read out to my two colleagues while we stood in front of the building.
Hi Todd,
Like your thoughts on developing mobile apps for the travel industry over mobile friendly sites. To me the advantages and possibilities for a mobile app, especially in the travel industry, are endless.
Would love to get your thoughts and your readers on a article over on my blog – 5 iPhone App Marketing Tips For Your Brand & Business – http://bit.ly/4pII82
Sounds interesting but in reality unpractical.. unless roaming broadband prices drop. I will be spending a hundred dollars more if I am using roaming GPRS to access apps when I am travelling.
Actual Implementation may be more than 3-5 years away.