Travel technology – technological developments in travel & tourism

From using your mobile phone to check-in at the airport, to a key card opening your hotel room, TravelTech companies are striving to make travelling frictionless. So, what is powering these technological innovations? It is many of the usual suspects when it comes to R&D: big data, mobile technology and the Internet of Things among others.

A range of technological challenges are being overcome by TravelTech companies in the UK, with various organisations performing exciting research and development (R&D). Many of these companies are likely to qualify for the UK government’s R&D tax credits incentive – an initiative devised to encourage innovation within the UK.

ForrestBrown specialises in optimising these claims for companies performing genuine R&D. Several types of expenditure can qualify, including staff costs, materials, software and utilities. The money recuperated is highly valuable for SMEs, enabling further investment in developing TravelTech.

The types of R&D currently being performed within the TravelTech sector include:

• Using big data to scan for competitive flight prices.
• Developing apps that help tourists navigate their way around new cities.
• Integrating technology with hotels to improve operations and customer service.
• Creating VR experiences in cities around the world.

So whilst Airbnb has transformed how we book our accommodation and Uber has shaken up the world of transport, we’ve taken a look at some of the innovative companies developing travel and tourism technology and transforming how we see the world.

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TravelTech Market

Tech labs up and down the country are accommodating companies that are performing TravelTech R&D. One of these is London & Partners, who have set up the TravelTech Lab. This is a creative space designed to nurture travel start-ups performing R&D in the industry.

Other workspaces and travel labs, such as The Trampery, act as a tech-savvy environment, facilitating the growth of small companies. By providing a creative, collaborative environment, these hubs nurture technological advancement.

Although advances and technological developments in travel and tourism are being made, there are still many challenges and uncertainties that need to be overcome. The use of APIs (application programming interface) is an integral part of TravelTech – particularly for price comparison sites. However, APIs are not often openly accessible to TravelTech start-ups, meaning the information and data they receive is limited.

Connectivity in TravelTech

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the linking of everyday devices to the internet. And whilst homeowners are beginning to introduce the IoT into their homes (e.g. Samsung’s smartfridge), it is also presenting new opportunities in the TravelTech sector.

A company creating innovative TravelTech products is Bluesmart. Through combining modern technology with traditional luggage, they have developed a suitcase that possesses ground-breaking features.

The Bluesmart carry-on suitcase connects to the user’s phone. Bluesmart is controlled through an app on a smartphone, allowing the user to lock and unlock the suitcase, weigh it, track its location and charge a phone. Powered by a global SIM card, this enables the suitcase to be tracked through GPS. This means no more hanging about at the airport, trying to find lost luggage!

Cloud technology and travel

The potential of a cloud passport was considered by Australia in 2015 – a prime example of technological developments in travel and tourism. The aim was to store passport information, such as the traveller’s biometrics and personal details, in the cloud. This would enable document-free travel, significantly reducing passport and identity theft among other benefits.

Connected hotels

The IoT is gaining momentum within the hospitality industry for a significant reason – convenience. Hotels revolve around making their guest’s lives easier, and technology is designed to do the same.

The IoT has been applied to the hotel industry. Features such as guest automation, predictive maintenance, mobile engagement and location-based suggestions are all becoming increasingly common within hotels.

It is not uncommon to now experience automated guest rooms. Hotels such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide have introduced an indoor lighting system that adjusts based on the amount of natural light in the room.

Alongside their indoor lighting system, Starwood Hotels & Resorts have also proceeded to implement a smartphone-based keyless room card. Utilising existing Bluetooth technology, they have created an innovative app that transforms a smartphone into a hotel room key.

The user simply downloads the SPG app, taps the smartphone on the door lock, which it communicates with via Bluetooth, and the door swings open. This means the guest spends less time checking-in and more time enjoying their stay.

Wearable technology in TravelTech

Smartwatches are now able to perform several functions and provide the user with the following:

• Weather
• Boarding passes
• Gate locations
• Reservation information

Samsung has collaborated with Spanish airline Iberia to design boarding passes that can be used through a smartwatch and other wearable technology.

The boarding pass is accessed through an app, which provides an electronic bar code that the user scans to get through airport checkpoints, allowing them to board their flight. This software also gives the user automatic updates such as gate locations and whether a flight has been delayed.

Despite the paper-free convenience that smartwatches provide for travellers, small screens and hefty price tags still pose as issues and challenges that need to be overcome – particularly when appealing to mainstream consumers.

Travel apps

Citymapper, a popular journey planner app, displays real-time information and routing updates every few minutes, displaying the fastest and easiest routes to a destination.

Citymapper accesses big data to make it as easy as possible for users to navigate their way around large cities such as London and New York. It displays London’s real-time travel information by using Transport for London’s data, which is deciphered and analysed through Citymapper’s algorithm.

This same algorithm can be applied to any city that has open source, public transport data. This is a highly innovative use of technology, enabling users to instantly access travel information and reduce journey times. This trip app also injects a bit of humour into the user’s commute by displaying the time it would take to arrive at their destination via jetpack.

Launched in February 2015, Detour is a travel app that offers 150 immersive audio walks across locations in 17 cities such as Central Park in New York, Whitehall in London and San Francisco’s Chinatown. As an app that comes with a virtual tour guide, it guides the user through various districts of a city. The tour guide acts as a storyteller, creating a real life, location-based documentary.

What makes Detour stand out from other apps for travel is that it is aware of the user’s location by using GPS and iBeacons, enabling it to provide relevant content. Detour’s content also achieves a high level of realism and historical accuracy by collaborating with journalists and radio producers, creating the documentary effect.

The R&D invested in Detour offers a whole new way of creating interesting, informative and educational walks for tourists. By enabling travel technology to blend into the background of a city, the user no longer has to stare at their phone. The narrator simply guides them from place to place whilst providing a source of education.

Flight price predictor

Through their analysis of big data, flight price tracker and predictor tools such as Skyscanner and Kayak show the price of airfares at various times. These sites allow users to set alerts and send email updates – an effective way of saving the user time and money. The Hopper app also notifies the user when to buy their flights at the lowest possible price – and with 95% accuracy!

These flight price tracker tools work through algorithms that collect and incorporate data from a range of airlines, hotels, holiday providers, etc. The algorithms, which are refined and developed through analysing the data of more than 100 million users each month, optimise flight travel search for a combination of speed and quality.

Flight price predictors attain their data from many sources including ITA, Amadeus, various airlines and online travel agents. And with these being self-learning algorithms, as they collect data, their forecasts will continuously improve in accuracy.

Artificial Intelligence and TravelTech

AI travel platforms are having a big influence on the world of tourism technology, providing companies with the opportunity to directly and visually connect with customers.

Machine learning

• Natural language processing
• Hypothesis generation and evaluation
• Dynamic learning

Watson identifies specific information and continually creates hypothesis, narrowing in on the most accurate results, making informed, in-context decisions.

Virtual reality in the tourism industry

Travel company Thomas Cook are pioneering the use of VR in the travel industry through using immersive 360 VR films. Developed by VR app design and development company Visualise, these films included a variety of content, allowing customers to put on a headset and experience the Egyptian pyramids or visit Singapore.

After creating an in-store VR experience for its customers, over a three-month period Thomas Cook saw flights and hotel bookings increase in the UK and Germany, resulting in a 40% ROI. Alongside this, there was a 180% increase in bookings to New York, demonstrating just how persuasive and important VR can be to the travel industry.

VR app Timelooper, a member of the TravelTech Lab and partly created by London & Partners, is another prime example of VR being used in the TravelTech sector. With its ability to work through a headset or a smartphone, this time travel tourism app uses location-based technology and motion sensors, allowing users to watch key historical moments that occurred in their current location.

Users of Timelooper can watch events in London such as the Great Fire of London and the Blitz. The R&D invested in Timelooper included extensive historical research, a 360-degree shot of the location, the use of green screens to recreate the events with actors, then finalised with 3D modelling and an array of visual effects.

Augmented reality

An innovator of augmented reality travel is Ascape, an augmented reality app that offers 360 degree videos, virtual tours and content through a smartphone. Ascape is compatible with several VR headsets including Google Cardboard, Zeiss VR ONE, Homido and Fibrum, showing just how integrated and accessible this technology is becoming.

Ascape has been developed to use the software, sensors, compass and digital projectors that exist within the smartphone. Through combining these features, the user simply holds up their smartphone and Ascape displays virtual images on to real-life objects.

These augmented reality apps allow users to feel as though they are physically at their destination, and even experience unique activities such as a Star Wars parade at Disneyland, a trip to the Coca-Cola museum and learning how to wakeboard in New Zealand.

 

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R&D tax credits and travel technology

The level of R&D being performed in the TravelTech industry is creating ground-breaking technology that is being used in a variety of ways.

At ForrestBrown, we specialise in maximising the claims for R&D tax credits. Our award-winning approach earned us ‘best independent consultancy firm’ at the prestigious 2016 Taxation Awards.

Our dedicated team of chartered tax advisers enable you to make the most of your claim, facilitating the growth and development of tech companies up and down the UK. For many SME’s these are highly valuable, often being worth more than £50,000 and sometimes much more too.