Well, the advice from Brett Henry, vice president-marketing, Abacus International and vice president India, is “conquer the post-booking space first”.The value to travel agents is in this area, he said – delivering information after a client buys a ticket, such as late flight changes, and a mobile itinerary.
“Conquer this space first, then think of transactions,” said Henry.
Having said that, he said that mobile travel bookings were becoming a reality and that Asia was leading the way. The largest OTAs in Asia are farther ahead in mobile transactions than their global counterparts, he said, citing Cleartrip and Ctrip as leading the way.
Among airlines, he said AirAsia was leading the way and was making significant investments in mobile.
One agency that is making an attempt in the post-booking space is Manila-based Shroff International Total Travel Care, which is using Abacus Mobile and Abacus WebStart for Mobile. Sheena Shroff, business development director, said Abacus Mobile had made life easier for the company, citing “convenience, ease of use, reliability and efficiency.”
On the question of whether one should go for a mobile website or App, Henry said, “Have a great mobile website first, then go for the App.”
The ground is certainly ripe for travel to go mobile in Asia, which is the world’s largest mobile phone market – Asia Pacific accounts for 30% penetration of smartphones worldwide, and 54% of all devices sold in Asia are expected to be smartphones by 2015, up from 5% in 2009, most of it driven by social networking.
Seven out of 10 mobile users are members of online social networks and a third of them are influenced by comments by people in their online social network when making travel purchase decisions. In 2012, it is expected there will be around 123 million mobile payment users in APAC.
The number of apps has also taken off recently, with all the major app providers including Apple App Store, Google Android, Blackberry App World and Nokia Ovi Store, increasing by triple digit percentages from a year ago.
iPhone, Blackberry and Android are the primary platforms that companies have developed apps for. Apple iPhone leads the way with almost 300,000 applications, while in total, the number of applications available for Google Android Market is 130,000.
Blackberry App World and Nokia Ovi Store grew significantly to nearly 18,000 and 25,000 applications respectively.
Both iTunes and The Android Store have over 1,000 travel-related apps, and Blackberry lists 468 apps.
When pressed by WIT to pick which would be the dominant platform longterm, Henry chose Android.
“Airlines and travel providers see the value in mobile. They are setting up mobile websites and developing apps,” said Henry. “With its vast population and mobile usage, Asians will pave the way in determining the future face of travel through mobile, especially with the dominance of smartphones in the region, serving as a one-stop repository and access to all the touchpoints travellers need when on the go.”
