Travel and Tech Trends to Look Out for 2020 and Beyond

While COVID-infected 2020 will be registered as the disastrous year for many industries, travel and tours are undoubtedly one of the worst-hit sectors by the pandemic. The virus has brought international travelling to a standstill for almost five months. At long last, tour destinations in many places are gradually opening with a lot of caution and SOPs in place.

Since a big chunk of 2020 travelling has washed away due to COVID-19, we don’t have any noteworthy travel and tech trend developed this year. Nonetheless, some trends had started taking shape before coronavirus, and they will most likely prevail and thrive with travelling fully resumes once again.

If you own a travel and tour agency and want to keep your finger on the industry’s pulse, watch out for these travel and related tech trends for what is left of 2020 and upcoming years.

More People Will Like to Travel to Second Cities

Booking.com’s survey suggests that more than half of the global travellers like to pick second cities as their tour destinations. Second cities are essentially the relatively least visited destinations of a country. For instance, Milan is the second city to Rome, and Marseille is the second city to Paris. Young travellers are particularly travelling to second cities for various reasons.

• To avoid the tourist rush for making their travelling experience more worthwhile.

• To reduce over-tourism for preventing its negative consequences on the environment and community.

• To avoid soaring flying and booking rates.

The same survey also suggests that travellers would love to use an app or website that can guide them more regarding second city travelling. As a travel and tour operator that manages international travelling, you need to introduce tour packages centred on second city travelling.

Travel Booking Will Be Linked to Sustainable Air Travel

Millennials and Generation Z are more aware of and worried about climate change. Consequently, many of them want to ensure their activities have the least impact on the environment. Sustainability and eco-friendly tendencies also reflect in their travelling plans. For instance, more young travellers are interested in knowing the emission information, green ratings, and carbon impact of the airline they are travelling with. Similarly, they try to plan their travelling itineraries, including stay, to have a smaller carbon footprint.

Travel and tour agencies need to be transparent in conveying the environment and pollution-related information to their potential clients. They also need to use a robust travel management system and website that can facilitate eco-friendly travelling.

Pet-Centric Vacations Will Flourish

Gone are the days when pet owners would leave their canine or feline fellow at their friends’ place or an animal shelter before travelling. Now, people like to take their pets on international travels, especially on holiday trips. Nearly half of the respondents in the earlier mentioned Booking.com global survey say that they will look for pet-friendly tour destinations and pay more for their pet’s accommodation if required.

As a travel and tour operator, you need to become a liaison who can help travellers tour with their pets. You can do this by creating special tour packages for pet parents.

Social Media, Smartphone and Travel Booking

It is not a secret that social media is inspiring more people to travel. A big credit of this movement goes to Instagram, whose feed acts as a catalyst and pushes people to get more serious about their travel plans. As a travel and tour company catering to young and tech-savvy clientele, you need to adapt to this new environment.

For instance, your travelling front office and booking system must be mobile-responsive. Also, its UI must have the same zing and aesthetics as social media websites. A travel and tour website with pictures and grids and overall Instagramesque feel will get more traction than a plain web page just with text-based content.

Demand for Alternative Payment Methods Will Increase

Non-traditional and non-banking payment methods are now standard for many online transactions. The travel industry also needs to adapt to this new reality, especially when on-the-go destination-driven buying is getting more popular.

A travel and tour agency needs to introduce in-destination support to meet modern traveller’s requirements, and it is not possible without offering multiple on-the-go payment methods. To put things into perceptive, we would like to tell you that consumers can use over 300 channels to pay while travelling internationally.

Using a travel management system and website that can incorporate multiple payment methods all at once will help travel businesses to meet the growing alternative payment demand.

IoT Will Have More Role to Play

People are getting more used to smart technologies and devices. This trend and tendency are also spilling to the travel industry. For instance, airlines are developing apps with voice-recognition features and let people book their flights without tapping on the screen and typing out things. Similarly, hotels are offering rooms that are powered by IoT. From calling room service to controlling light fixtures, everything is controlled through sensors and voice recognition.

Travel and tour agencies can have a booking and management system that offers a front compatible with Google and Amazon Alexa. Also, they need to partner with airlines and hotels that are on top of the IoT trend.

Solo Travel Will Flourish

Solo travelling has been in vogue for the last couple of years, and it will continue to flourish in the future as well. People consider solo travelling a great way to unwind and for self-discovery.

Tour and travel agencies that usually focus on group and couple packages need to focus on this growing niche of travellers who want to travel and tour by themselves.

If you want your travel and tour agency on top of travel technology developments, you need to power it with an agile travel management system with the latest updates. TravnetTech can deliver you a travelling front and back-office that can meet the modern travel technological requirements. Our experts can also equip your operations with travel search engine and marketing automation.