How Technology is Disrupting the Tourism Industry
The tourism industry has continued to evolve throughout the many centuries of its existence.
Prior to the early 19th century, traveling was restricted to the rich and the landed elite. But Thomas Cook and his notion that travel could be made accessible to everyone changed the tourism landscape completely.
His revolutionary idea sparked the creation of a massive industry that, at its peak in 2019, contributed $8.9 trillion to the global economy. And the arrival of the pandemic only reinforced the foundational principle of tourism— change is the name of the game.
The scope to adopt newer and better technology in the tourism industry is practically limitless. This article will list some of the most innovative technologies today.
Facial recognition and contactless biometrics
In the wake of the pandemic, many hoped to avoid unnecessary contact. While contactless check-ins were around before 2020 as well, they have taken on a completely different dimension in recent times. And rightly so! Over 80% of travelers said that touchless services would encourage them to fly more.
Some use-cases of facial recognition technology are:
Better personalization of hospitality services: By requesting guests to upload facial scans at the time of booking, hotel cameras can recognize the guest before they have signed in. This will allow the staff to tailor their services to the guest's preferences, especially if the guest has been to the hotel previously. Cameras can also be used to detect the age, sex, and mood of the guest to ensure that the staff accommodates their needs better.
Improved security: Hotels can have cameras installed at the entrance to common facilities such that only those whose face scans match the hotel’s records can enter.
Faster Payments: Using technology like Mastercard’s ‘Selfie Pay,’ guests can make payments without interacting with the staff. This can also help recurring guests receive discounts without the need for coupons and vouchers.
Photo by christy jacob on Unsplash
Augmented reality (AR) in tourism
AR is a digital technology that allows an app to overlay digital elements onto a person’s surroundings by altering their perception of their environment through a device. This is similar to virtual reality, but it doesn’t replace the real-world surroundings, rather augments it by adding digital elements.
The potential benefits of AR on tourism are vast, and with a projected 1.73 billion AR users by 2024, it is certainly an area that should be explored further.
AR applications like the City Guide Tour help tourists learn more about the place they are visiting. For example, tourists are instantly given more information about the place by pointing their phones at a monument. AR-powered glasses can also serve a similar purpose, cutting out the need to hire a tour guide.
Even hotels can leverage AR to make their guests’ stay more comfortable and exciting. Since AR uses beacon technology to operate, hotels can allow guests to open their room doors by simply being in close proximity.
The blockchain revolution
Just as decentralized transactions have become the norm in other industries, the tourism sector has also rapidly adopted the latest developments. Some possible uses of blockchain in tourism are:
Safer and faster payments: Blockchain facilitates the use of ‘smart contracts’ that cut out the need for middlemen like notaries and banks. It can also be used to create a unique digital identity for travel companies to have all the information about a guest stored in one database. Both these factors will help significantly decrease costs and processing times.
Business ratings: Often, bad-faith users leave negative reviews for hotels and other tourism services that negatively impact the business. Since blockchain assigns a unique identity to each user online, it can improve the transparency and reliability of these ratings.
Customer identification and rewards system: Blockchain can help identify customers through their unique IDs. This makes the personalization of services and offering rewards to loyal customers even easier.
Robotics and artificial intelligence
Many hotels and airports are using robotics and artificial intelligence to better serve their customers.
Henn na Hotel in Nagasaki, Japan, became the first to have an entire staff of just robots. They serve various functions throughout the hotel, like serving as front-desk receptionists and acting as a point of information.
In another interesting development, Travelmate cuts out the hassle of carrying your own luggage. Its inbuilt anti-collision technology helps it avoid obstacles while following you as you move.
AI is also being used to create chatbots to assist tourists with booking a hotel or flight, changing dates, or answering frequently asked questions.
Clearly, technology brings a lot of tangible benefits to the tourism industry. It is also a fascinating prospect for tourists looking to experience something new or make their regular travels more enjoyable.
CustomTravelSolutions.com