Mobile travel
trends 2018
Next is now

Foreword
In December 2016 we compiled our firstever Mobile Travel Trends report. We
were pleased but not surprised with thethousands of people who downloaded
the ebook, read the blogs and attended
the webinars on the subject. Why?
Because it seems like every week there’s
a hot new app or piece of hardware that’s
set to revolutionize how travel businesses
will operate. For some people thatbrings confusion, but for others it spells
opportunity.

So what new tech is set to be adopted widely in 2018?
What’s going to be a fad and what dominant trends will
we see gathering momentum to shape consumer travel.
With a better understanding of key predictions and trends,
travel brands can make key strategic decisions of where
to make digital investments in 2018 and beyond.
Following on from the success of our Mobile Travel Trends
2017 report we’ve put together a more comprehensive
and extensive report for 2018. We’ve interviewed
more thought-leaders, surveyed even more industry
professionals and, for the first time, conducted primaryresearch with 955 end-travelers across the globe.
We hope this report illuminates the road ahead, and even
if you’re not going to launch the next billion-dollar app,
you’ll have a great mobile strategy that delights yourtravelers, boosts your bookings and helps you stay one
step ahead of the competition.

David MacHale
Digital Marketing Director, Travelport Digital

Foreword

Contents
Introduction

4

Mobile travel trends for 2018

Contents

1. Extending airline touchpoints

6

2. Voice

93. Go to where the customer is

12

4. The changing face of mobile apps

15

5. The death of travel friction points

18

6. The impact of blockchain on the travel industry

21

7. Predictive analytics

24

8. Mobile payments

27

Behavioral trends

30Conclusion

34

Contributor biographies

37

Introduction
The digital landscape is shifting faster thanit ever has before and so too are the needsof travelers. It took airlines 68 years to gain
50 million users, Super Mario Run passed
50 million users in just 8 days1 at the startof 2017 (on iOS only making it even more
impressive!).

Introduction

As we transition through this digital transformation thecore challenge for travel brands in today’s fast-moving
world is to gain the attention and loyalty of consumers.
Mobile is at the heart of true customer engagement for
travel brands, with apps leading the way. While there has
been much speculation about the decline in apps, the2

NUMBER OF YEARS IT TOOK EACH PRODUCTTO GAIN 50 MILLION USERS
Airlines

Automobiles

TelephoneElectricity

68 years

62 years

50 years

46 yearsCredit Card

TelevisionATM

Computer

28 years

22 years

18 years

14 years

Cell Phone

Internet

iPod

YouTube12 years

7 years

4 years

4 years

Facebook

Twitter

3 years

2 years

numbers speak for themselves; in 2017 the total number
of app downloads was estimated to hit 197 billion versus
149 billion in 2016 and they are set to increase to over 352
billion in 20213. Furthermore, recent research by Travelport
Digital found that 82% of travelers were downloading thesame or more travel apps than the previous year.
Last year our experts highlighted the major mobile trends
facing travel brands for 2017 - from the rise of intelligent
travel assistants and chatbots to apps moving beyond thehomescreen and UX being a strategic differentiator, it’s fairto say they were on the money, but what will 2018 bring?
As new technology unfolds the rate of change will
accelerate even faster than it ever has before and travel
brands need to assess what technology will enable themto connect with their customer at every step of theirjourney. Smart devices, the messaging explosion, deep
personalization, frictionless technology, new mobile
payments and voice technology are all shaping how
consumers and travelers expect to engage with travel
brands in 2018.

Super Mario Run What’s Next?

8 days? days4

We used to think about travel in one place - where brands
created a one stop shop and a traveler’s experience
could be catered for in one place. However, the future oftravel will be one wherever the customer chooses it to be,using social, messaging, mobile and even their voice tocommunicate.
Retailers of any category have to go where their customers
are, no matter what channel they’re using – because if they
don’t, another competitor will.
As we move into next year travel brands need to think
about things differently as there are now opportunities toengage at every step and through every platform, with thisset to explode even further as new technologies emerge.
It’s important to note that this is not about a potential
future, it is the here and now - next is now. Travel brands
that capture this space will continue to grow and expand,
while others that don’t adapt will get left behind.

“The future is already here, it’s just not
evenly distributed”“Over the next 10 years, travel industry experts predictthat the digital travel space worldwide will expand at
an annual rate of 3.8% to reach $11.4 trillion” **Nielsen Research 4

60%of travel brands are looking toenhance or replace their app in
2018*

90%

of travel brands said that having amobile strategy is ‘critical’ or ‘very
important’ to the future success of
their organization*

84%of travel brands intend to increase
their investment in mobile in 2018*

William Gibson

Throughout this report we reveal the mobile travel trends
that the industry believes will be big in 2018, sharing
opinions from Travelport Digital experts and drawing
valuable insights from our Mobile Travel Trends surveys. So
let’s take a look at our compilation of trends that are readyto be embraced by travel brands into 2018 and beyond.

*Travelport Digital Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2017

Introduction

5Extending airline
touchpoints

1. Extending airline touchpoints

Brendan Bourke
Digital Consultant
at Travelport Digital

It seems like much of the travel industry, including
ourselves here at Travelport Digital, have been talking fora quite a while now about the concept of ‘Owning theTraveler’. This is the idea that travel brands, in particular
airlines, can add value to the traveler experience over
and above their core offering of airline seats and getting
passengers from A to B, thus keeping travelers engaged
before, during and after their trip.
To date this has consisted of features and functionality
such as providing flight status and traffic updates pre-travel,mobile airport mapping to guide travelers through the
airport, extending the experience on-board through the useof mobile IFE functionality and enhancing the experienceat destination by facilitating ground transportation
bookings and destination activities. All of the examples
above and similar initiatives have added value to thetraveler experience while keeping airline brands front andcentre. And of course where appropriate, many of these
initiatives also drive improved ancillary revenues.
So quite a lot has been achieved in this area and although
at times combining all of the above into one experiencecan seem a little fragmented, I think we can say that there
have been solid strides made to date in terms of ‘Owning
the Traveler’.

Extending airline touchpoints

But where do we go from here? How does ‘Owning theTraveler’ move from 2D to 3D in 2018?

“The next stage is all about how wemove to seamlessly not only own thetraveler experience but also more
importantly, help travelers to manage
their own experience in the easiest
way possible.”This next level of development will most certainly be
powered by data and enabled by data sharing among
stakeholders within the travel industry.
United Airlines perhaps gave us a glimpse into how thisdata-driven future may look. At the 2017 New Generationof Airline Passenger Service Systems’ conference United
showcased some upcoming functionality built on shared
travel data and designed to make the traveler journey as
seamless as possible while keeping users within their app
at all times.

7

The example given showed the passenger experienceduring a flight delay and how data sharing could be used
to offer the passenger a late check-in for their hotel and amobile room key alongside offering the option to choose
different flights. And all of this from the airlines own mobile
app. Right now this certainly looks and feels like the next
big breakthrough. Operational efficiencies for all providers
in the traveler’s itinerary? Tick! Surprising and delighting
the traveler? Tick! Generating engagement and brandloyalty? Tick! If this type of functionality is available via
an airline’s own mobile app you have to ask why a user
would ever uninstall it.
However, this is just one example of how data sharing
could be used to enhance the traveler experience. We’ve
seen some similar but smaller-scale initiatives this year
such as SAS displaying regional train departures in
Stockholm and Copenhagen directly in their app andSouthwest Airlines enabling passengers to not only book
but also manage hotel reservations from within their app.
The next big step into 2018 and beyond will involve
matching data from all segments in a traveler’s itinerary
which will enable airlines and other travel players suchas TMCs to not just efficiently handle disruption as in
the example above, but to delight customers while at all
times keeping them engaged with their brand’s mobile
presence. At a time when data privacy and the use of data
is such a hot topic, particularly in Europe, it’s important tolook at how the innovative use of data can impact bothbusinesses and their customers for the good. Excitingtimes lie ahead!

53%of travel brands feel it is important
to engage their passengers via
mobile before, during and after
their journey**Travelport Digital Mobile Travel Trends Survey 201788%of travelers think it would be
useful to have access to all theirfavourite content in one app**End Traveler Mobile Research 2017 – Travelport Digital

Extending airline touchpoints

8

Voice2. Voice
The age of touch could soon come to an end

Phoebe Collison
Digital Insights Analyst
at Travelport Digital

With 40% of adults now using voice search once a day5, it
has without doubt earned its place in our list of top trends
for 2018. In an increasingly time-sensitive world where
we are constantly multi-tasking, it’s easy to understand
why there has been such an uptake of a technologythat enables us to search faster (we speak 150 words per
5
minute vs type 40 ) and do so hands-free.

This new ecosystem will not only transform how travelers
communicate with brands, but how airlines and travelcompanies engage with their customers too. Outboundnotifications from the likes of Google Home, Amazon
Echo and HomePod are going to redefine the notifications
landscape, moving beyond simple SMS or push message,adding another level of notifications to mobile.

Of the top 20 Cortana flight and accommodation searches
in the UK 95% are for brands6, illustrating just how
significant it is for travel brands to be present on voice
enabled devices. And some are finally taking notice; inthe past year there has been a surge in airlines and travel
brands getting in on the voice action including easyJet,
Ryanair, Expedia, Kayak, Tripcase, Skyscanner and MarriottInternational.

The rise in voice will have an even bigger impact on the
lives of ‘the next billion’ mobile users who, thanks to cheap
data plans, low-end smartphones and intuitive apps that
let them navigate despite poor literacy, are now online
for the first time. One of the defining characteristics ofthese users is their avoidance of text based apps and web
services, with a preference for using voice and images tocommunicate instead. And there are huge opportunities
for travel brands to be clever about engaging with theseusers in a way that best suits them.

Travelers are becoming a lot more comfortable having
conversations with bots and virtual assistants, with 70%
of requests to the Google Assistant being expressedin natural language7. From getting flight options anddeparture times to booking a hotel and Uber, nearly
all aspects of a trip can now be managed throughvoice across multiple devices, from smartphones andsmartwatches, to home devices and in car infotainment
systems.

Voice

Developing markets are certainly driving the next wave of
voice powered technology. In the past few years we havewitnessed a regional explosion in areas such as India andAfrica resulting in a seismic shift in the market. By the endof 2016 North America accounted for 95% of Alexa and
Google Assistant users8. Fast forward to 2021 and over
47% of voice device users will be in Asia and Oceania8.
Recent research from Travelport supports this shift, having

10

found that 72% of Chinese travelers use voice searchcompared to just 33% in the UK9.

“People often talk about voice search
being something futuristic that may(or may not) take off – the reality is that
this is the future, we are now living in aworld where voice search is ubiquitous”

The sooner travel brands realize voice search is here
to stay and start to go to where their customers are by
giving themselves a voice, the better equipped they will
be to have a more meaningful conversation with today’s
modern traveler.

31%of travel brands intend to invest invoice technology in 2018**Travelport Digital Mobile Travel Trends Survey 201723%of travelers have used voicesearch to research or book a trip**End Traveler Mobile Research 2017 – Travelport Digital

Voice

11

Go to where 			the customer is3. Go to where the customer isGlenville Morris
Product Director;
Consulting & Digital Insights
at Travelport Digital

There have been many famous mobile quotes over theyears “We too, are standing on a burning platform” 10 , “Itjust works” 11 or “It’s OK, we’ll be fine” 12 to name a few. Now
it’s time to add another to that list.

as seamless and friction free as possible. And for oncea trend is not just marketing hyperbole, this shift in thecommunication landscape is obvious in the numbers theindustry is seeing:“Rather than trying to move 1.3 billion Chinese to our app,we moved to WeChat. We should be on apps that people
really use! Not just do our own”.13–– 330 million used messenger to contact a business forThat quote from KLM’s VP of Digital Strategy Guido van
Til speaking at the Aviation Festival in September 2017
perfectly encapsulates the theme of 2018’s most dominating
trend - ‘It’s time to go where the users are’. Next year will
see the dawn of a new age, the age of the customer - andin this new age the customer is wherever, whenever and on
whatever platform they choose to be on – and they’ll expect
your travel brand to be there too.
So, as well as interacting with your app (on their phone,
watch or tablet) travelers in 2018 are going to also want
to chat to your virtual assistant on messenger about theirhotel booking, ask an Echo or Home about their flightstatus, use iMessage to change their seats or show theirSingapore Airlines boarding pass to the gate agent as theyboard the plane without ever leaving their WeChat ‘chat’.
These travelers of tomorrow will expect, in fact demand,
that brands (and not just in travel) are accessible,
anywhere and everywhere and they will want to set theterms and timings of their interactions to make them

Go to where the customer isthe first time this year14–– Since launching in June 2017 easyJet have had over
30,000 flight status voice searches on their Alexa Skill15–– In just 90 days Oscar (the Air New Zealand bot) had
55,000 conversations16, typically receiving between
300 and 350 queries a day–– KLM have issued 1.4 million online boarding passes via
messenger17.

–– 20% of brands will abandon their mobile apps by 201918.
Bots… messaging… voice… it’s clear to all that that the travel
conversation is changing rapidly.
Mobile as a single-entry point for communication with atraveler has certainly had a good run though as apps havebeen operating in a device silo for nearly 10 years now
but engagement is not just about apps anymore. So whilst
thinking ‘mobile first’ has been absolutely transformational
for many brands, it’s no longer going to be enough tosatisfy the modern-day traveler as they move between
channels 24/7.

13

The on-demand generation now expects exactly as thename implies, an ‘on-demand’ conversation and if you
as a travel brand are not on a platform where and when
the traveler wants you to be next year, don’t expect that‘demand’ to be there for much longer come 2019.

“Apps didn’t die last year and they won’t
be dead in 2018, or even 2019, but they
are becoming an increasingly niche partof the digital journey, a journey that is
now multi touchpoint and now more sothan ever, multi-platform.”33%

of travelers expect to communicate
with travel brands via social and
51% via text or messaging*25%of travelers have researchedor booked a trip using a chatplatform*65%of travelers would be open
using a chat platform toresearch or book a trip in the
future**End Traveler Mobile Research 2017 – Travelport Digital

Go to where the customer is

14

The changing faceof mobile apps

4. The changing face of mobile apps

Ronan Morrissey
Product Director
at Travelport Digital

Trend watchers have been declaring every year ‘the yearof mobile’ since 201219. Regardless of when mobile arrived
few will argue that mobile devices and apps have becomea mainstream channel for engaging with users andtravelers, and with 60% of all searches now on a mobile
device20, it’s a percentage that is too big to ignore.
Travel brands that rely on users interacting with theirtraditional website via mobile can result in disengagement
and booking abandonment.
“61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they
had trouble accessing and 40% will visit a competitor’s site
instead.”21 – Google.
With 85% of time spent on mobile using an app22,
progressive travel brands have recognized the importanceof having a dedicated mobile app to service their travelers.
There are significant benefits for investment in native
apps, such as the ability to access device hardware like the
GPS/NFC antenna to deliver value add services, bespoke
mobile design booking and search flows which result inhigher conversion, and the ability to engage with the user
on a device that they always have on them. However,developing a mobile app is difficult; you have to address
multiple form factors and platforms, manage the approvals
process of the app stores, support users on older app
versions and build teams with bespoke skills in mobile UX
and development.

The changing face of mobile apps

Enter the Progressive Web App (PWA); a mobile
application built using the latest innovations in
web standards that deliver near native mobile user
experiences. Consider them apps that combine the bestof the web and native apps with zero friction for the users.
Customers can visit your website and with just one click
have your app on their home screen. With PWAs you
don’t have to invest in the creation and managementof a website and mobile apps (and the inherent devicecompatibility issues). By building a new SEO-friendly and
PWA enabled website you’ll reduce your operating costs
and your travelers will get a rich, dynamic and mobile app
experience without being asked to download, install or
register anything.
There are a number of advantages that PWAs offer overmobile websites or native apps.

–– Offline data access: PWAs will work when travelers
don’t have data access–– Maintenance: Every user will get the latest version
when they visit the app so there are no maintenanceissues supporting users on older versions of the app.
Better still your PWA will adapt to work on tablets aswell as mobile and desktops.

–– Accessibility: There is no need to drive users tovisit an app store to discover your PWA, they are as
discoverable as any website.

16

–– User Experience: PWAs will live on the phone likean app, have lightning response times and you won’t
lose the benefits of native apps (i.e. the ability to send
push notifications, presence on phone home screen etc.)–– Security: PWAs connect via HTTPS so there won’t be
any security or data privacy concerns.

–– Performance: 53% of users will abandon a mobile
site if it takes more than three seconds to load23 		
(average page loads is 19 seconds). PWAs often loadin under one second due to the underlying pagecaching technology.

“The PWA platform was introduced
around two years ago but it looks
like 2018 will see the tipping point intravel businesses utilizing this newtechnology”.

Early adopters in 2017 have seen some tremendous
benefits from their experiments with PWAs. Visit theTwitter website on mobile and you’ll get their PWA which
requires less than 3% of the storage space of their oldnative app. This new speedy web app has resulted in 75%
more tweets and visitors looking at 65% more pages24.
So is the native app dead? Absolutely not, as there are stillsome limitations to PWAs, specifically when it comes to
Safari which doesn’t yet fully support PWAs. This meansthat as of today Safari does not support some of the mostinteresting components such as push notifications andoffline mode. More generally PWAs still have limitations
using device hardware such as NFC or Bluetooth support.

The changing face of mobile apps

As a result, you might not be able to deliver all of yourdesired app use cases. Converting your apps and webcode bases to support PWAs also isn’t a simple or quicktask. Apple confirmed in August of this year that they areplanning to support PWAs and it will be interesting to track
their pace of development.
The best bet would be to keep your successful native apps
but to start to experiment with PWAs and maybe consider
rewriting those apps that haven’t quite hit the expectedhighs in the eyes of your customers. Maybe 2018 will be
the year mobile reinvents itself!

18%of travel
brandscurrently
have a PWA*

28%

of travel
brands plan
to invest in
PWAs in 2018**Travelport Digital Mobile Travel Trends
2017

17

The death of travel
friction points

5. The death of travel friction points

Ailsa Brown
Vice President Asia Pacificat Travelport Digital

The overall fall in average prices for air travel has led to ahuge upsurge in the number of travelers. However, airport
congestion, baggage restrictions and airport security
delays have led to travel becoming a stressful experience.
In recent years airlines and TMCs have turned to technology
to improve the traveler’s experience and give them backsome element of control. We have seen the introduction ofmobile boarding passes, personalized inflight entertainment
systems, on board WIFI and of course enhanced self-service
capabilities via mobile apps. However, many of these are isolated
experiences of innovation interspersed between periods offrustration for the traveler.
In 2018, I believe we will see the elimination of most friction
points as more capabilities are enabled through a personalized
experience delivered primarily via mobile channels.

“Mobile will play a central role inshaping the ‘day of travel’ experience,
enabling travel brands to take customer
service to another level by proactively
providing travelers with a frictionlessend-to-end mobile experience pre,during and post trip”.

The death of travel friction points

These frictionless experiences will be delivered byseamlessly interconnecting some existing innovations withnew technology.
We’ve seen growth in the usage of mobile boarding
passes but what if travelers didn’t have to check-in at all
and it happened automatically? Having access to thepassengers’ details will allow TMCs or airlines to check-in
the traveler as soon as the check-in period opens andmake the boarding pass available via the mobile app.
Alerting the user to the presence of this boarding pass isa great opportunity to allow the user to choose their seator pre-order some ancillary services. These additionalpurchases can be done using payment wallets such as
Apple or Android Pay, so a secure payment can be madewith just a tap, click or touch of a smartphone. Both checkin and payment often require the user to input lots of data
manually; in a frictionless future technology will makethis as simple as possible by automatically ingesting card
details or passport information via the phone’s camera.
Travelers often feel out of control when they are traveling,
therefore it’s important that travel brands use the powerof mobile to share the right information with them at theright time. However, interacting with your customers is nolonger through the channel that you want. Travel brands
need to go to where their customers are, allowing themto get information or complete the action they want
on whatever channel that is most convenient to them.

19Whether that be asking Alexa a few days before theirtrip what terminal their flight is departing from, chatting
on Facebook messenger asking about their baggage
allowance and how to purchase additional bags orchatting to a customer service agent from within your app
to modify their trip; you must be where your customers
are to eliminate the friction of customers trying to find out
how to interact with you.
Even outside of the app experience friction points are
now being eradicated by new mobile technologies. App
reviews and ratings have historically been a key feedback
exchange between a travel brand and it’s travelers, but theflow of taking users out of an app that very moment andinto the App Store to give feedback has caused frictionin the past, in turn leading to a negative view. However,Apple’s new ‘in app prompt’ released in June 2017 now
allows travelers to rate an app without ever leaving theapp experience. This frictionless feedback flow has seensome incredible results, most famously Instagram doubled
their ratings by adding 2 million in just one week25!
Travel brands are also seeing great traction. One ofTravelport Digital’s customers, BCD Travel, has seen asignificant positive impact on ratings on their TripSource
app since they implemented the in app prompt; receiving
a 899% increase in 5-star ratings, with 4 and 5-star ratings
now making up 90% of their overall ratings across the fivebiggest markets for this global TMC.
Show customers that what’s important to them isimportant to you. Why limit the frictionless experience tojust booking? Travel brands should be looking at the entire
travel experience for opportunities to remove friction for
the traveler - after all, whether they choose you for theirnext trip depends on how frictionless the last experience
with you was.

The death of travel friction points

36%of travel brands plan to invest in
auto check-in in 2018**Travelport Digital Mobile Travel Trends Survey 201738%of travelers think interactive chatis important in the overall app
experience**End Traveler Mobile Research 2017 – Travelport Digital

20

The impact ofblockchain on thetravel industry

6. The impact of blockchain on the travel industry

Samir ShahHead of Market Intelligenceat Travelport

Blockchain continues to be headline news but what
exactly is it and how will it drive change in the travelindustry? A blockchain is a distributed ledger of records
arranged in data batches called blocks that use
cryptographic validation to link themselves together. Put
simply, each block references and identifies the previous
block forming an unbroken chain, hence the name.
However, the clever bit is that the ledger is not stored ina master location or managed by any particular body.
Instead, it is said to be distributed, existing on multiple
computers at the same time in such a way that anybody
with an interest can maintain a copy of it.
In today’s ever connected world establishing trust andownership is critical. Blockchain allows individuals andorganizations, independent of each other, to rely on thesame shared, secure and auditable source of information.
This is big news for the travel industry and something thatwill start to flourish as we move into 2018 and beyond.
Originally pioneered in 2008 as a way of recording andlegitimising bitcoin transactions, bitcoin is the most wellknown application of blockchain technology to date anda well-established currency accepted globally by manyleading brands including Microsoft and Expedia.
However, blockchain’s potential is not restricted to justcryptocurrencies or the financial industry, it is being

The impact of blockchain on the travel industry

hailed as the new Web 3.0 with the potential to disrupt
many industries, including the travel industry. One areaof disruption will be smart contracts which will help one
exchange money, property, shares, or anything of value ina transparent, conflict-free way while avoiding the servicesof a middleman. The sharing economy has flourishedunder Uber and Airbnb. However, users have to relyon an intermediary like Uber to hail a ride. By enablingpeer-to-peer payments, blockchain opens the door to
direct interaction between parties — resulting in a truly
decentralized sharing economy.

“Across the travel value chain blockchain
has the potential to streamline payments,
remove counterparty risk, improvecustomer experience, and boost data
security”.

If you take an example of having all hotel properties in acity in a blockchain database, this would mean that searchcompanies would still be necessary to help users find what
they are looking for and offer a curated list of hotels. However,anyone would be able to source rooms from the blockchain
and thereby the market would see increased competition
rather than intermediaries setting the distribution rates.

22

TUI has already moved all of its hotel contracts onto its
private blockchain. Using smart contracts, which executeautomatically on the blockchain, TUI can easily manage
and automate a large part of bedstock and hotel capacity
between all the markets it operates in26.
Airlines are also beginning to get in on the action with Air
New Zealand exploring blockchain technology to improve
efficiency and security of services such as booking andbaggage tracking and Lufthansa looking at use cases toput booking, rebooking and traveler itinerary informationon the blockchain27.
Blockchain is a disruptive technology because of its
ability to digitize, decentralize, secure and incentivize
the validation of transactions. Like any new technology
critical mass is essential for adoption and a wide swath ofindustries are evaluating blockchain.
In 2018, blockchain will make further headlines as moretravel companies start accepting bitcoin and othercryptocurrencies as a form of payment. In addition there
will be initiatives to transform the way the entire travelindustry processes and manages online payments andinventory. Using distributed architecture and encryption
to authorize transactions blockchain helps remove themiddleman making mobile payments more efficient, costeffective and accessible – even to consumers that don’t
have bank accounts.
Over the past three years over 2,500 patents have been
filed and over 90 corporations have joined Blockchain
consortia. This year alone blockchain initiatives havereceived over $2 billion of funding, however this is the justthe early stage; I expect this to increase exponentially into
2018 before the technology becomes mainstream by 2025.

The impact of blockchain on the travel industry

43%of travel brands are exploring theuse of blockchain*

Which areas would you be interested in using
blockchain technology for?*35% payments
26% loyalty
20% supply chain
17% contracts
2% other*Travelport Digital Mobile Travel Trends Survey 201823

Predictive
analytics

7. Predictive analytics
The new face of personalization

Stephen Oman
Director of Data Analytics
at Travelport Digital

It’s often said that it is difficult to make predictions,especially about the future. Statistics helps a lot with this,such as estimating the volume of people likely to be
travelling from Abaeté to Zyryanka during March, or thenumber of hot breakfasts that will be ordered on an earlymorning flight from Johannesburg to Doha. Predictive
analytics using statistical models have been used tomaximize yield and predict capacity for many years.
However, it is more difficult to predict the likelihood that agiven traveler will purchase that breakfast, need that seatwith the extra room or which hotel they need to stay in. Yet
this is what modern travelers expect. Their experience with
online retailers is personalized to their wants and needs anddelivered at the right time and in the right way.
A major trend in predictive data analytics over the past
few years has been the adoption of machine learning
to reduce this difficulty. Machine Learning is a type ofArtificial Intelligence (or AI) that relies on detecting patterns
in large amounts of data. AI has had a rocky past, withmuch promised by researchers but not a lot delivered.
Lately though, AI has started to be successful, giving rise
to autonomous vehicles, ultra-personalized news feeds andeven machines that can beat the best human players in theboard game Go. Amazon is a pioneer in leveraging Machine
Learning techniques on their website and in their outboundemail content. They can examine the items you search for,what product pages you read and what you buy to accurately

Predictive analytics

determine other things that you might be interested in. While
not without its flaws, it’s success has helped Amazon become
the third largest retailer28, predominantly without a physical
shopping location. There are clear opportunities in travel toadopt AI in a similar way. Borrowing from the experience ofretailers, targeting customers with relevant, personalized offers
and services leads to simpler searching and better conversion
rates. For example, if we know a traveler’s preferences for aparticular type of hotel room, then those could be promoted
in search results.
To deliver such personalized services, a travel brand must get
to know their customers using three key criteria: time, locationand context. These criteria set out when the time is right toengage with a customer, where the customer is at that time(the time might be right, but the customer is not in a position
to take action) and how the service on offer relates to what
the customer is trying to do. As this interaction will likely differ
from person to person, using predictive analytics in this way is
becoming an indispensable tool in getting personalization right.
Starwood Hotels are a great example of a hotel group using
predictive data to create a more personalized experience.
The more a guest stays at a Starwood Hotel, the more theirpreferred guest app learns about them. They track theirinterests over time and use that data to suggest activities
and recommendations, and if the app is installed on a
guests phone, the app experience changes when it senses
they have entered one of the hotels to reflect this29.
25

Machine Learning algorithms have a voracious appetitefor data. The more data that can be collected, the moreaccurately they can detect useful patterns. In particular,
mobile is a vital source of such data as people carry theirphones everywhere and increasingly use it as their primary
way to interact with brands. Mobile therefore proves a way
to gather information on travelers’ preferences, what they
like and need at the various points during their trips.

“Coupled with the data that has been
accumulating over a long period of time on
searches and purchases, predictive analytics
can be used to determine when travelers
are likely to be receptive to personalized
offers and which offers to present”

A number of airlines have started using the abundance ofdata available, to deliver a more personalized experience.
Lufthansa introduced a customised system that analyses
data on customer behaviour to determine the best time tooffer additional services. Since the system was launched,
the number of customers who took an upgrade offer has
doubled. United Airlines is another good example, they use
a “collect, detect, act” system that analyzes 150 variables ina customer profile. Everything from previous purchases tocustomer priorities is measured in order to present a tailormade offer. This system has increased United’s year-on-year
revenue by more than 15%. 30
As we move into 2018 and on to 2019, we’ll start to see
new entrants specialising in mobile travel analytics enter
this space. They will help travel brands leverage this
rapidly growing capability by investigating ways to unlock
their data and deliver the personalized services that theirtravelers are now expecting.

Predictive analytics

83%

of Millennials said they would let
travel brands track their digitalpatterns if this would provide
them with a more personalized
experience**Study by American Express 31

47%

of travel brands plan to invest in
analytics in 2018*

Travelport Digital Mobile Travel Trends Survey 201726

Mobile payments

8. Mobile payments
Fast becoming the new commodity of the commerce experience

Eric Booth
Product Marketing Manager
at Travelport Digital

Since 2010 it seems that every year has been dubbed
the year of mobile payments. The reality however is thatit’s only now being truly implemented on a wider scale as
the popularization of smartphones has made consumers
more accustomed to anytime, anywhere commerce.
While the concept of mobile payments is nothing new, thechanges in consumer behaviour are, and as we move into
2018 and beyond mobile devices will drive the on-demand
economy more than ever before.

patent on single click payments has come to an end.
The ability to drive repeat business in a single click has
been pivotal to Amazon’s success and this is big news as
Google and Apple introduce their own one-click solutions.
Popular social media and messaging apps such as
Facebook and WhatsApp will also drive further adoption
by opening up social media as a commerce channel byenabling consumers to make payments directly fromwithin the app.

For the first time, demand and infrastructure are maturing
and coming together to make mobile payments easy,
secure and intuitive in a way that they never have been
before. With the total value of m-commerce transactions
expected to reach $210 billion by 201932 (up from $8.7
billion in 2015) we can see the potential upside fortravel brands in embracing this capability. Technologies
including mobile e-wallets and enhanced connectivity
through near field communications (NFC) and Bluetooth
are transforming the way consumers interact on theirphones for payments and with the major players suchas Apple, Google and Samsung delivering their own
version of the mobile wallet there is little doubt that thistechnology will continue to convert users in the coming
years as confidence grows.

The convenience of single click booking based on stored
payment details enable the kind of seamless experiencethat consumers are demanding and on it’s own willundoubtedly have a significant impact in a channel which
is notorious for high abandonment rates. By simplifying
the flow between consumers and products, there arefewer opportunities to drop out of a transaction andincrease revenues as a result.

As we move into 2018 the mobile payment space should
also get more competitive as Amazon’s long-standing

Mobile payments

Another key development for mobile payments as wemove into 2018 is the rise of blockchain. As we mentioned
in our earlier trend, this technology will breathe new life
into the adoption of mobile payments by providing tighter
security, lower fees and instantaneous payments. As
blockchain becomes more established it will drive evengreater adoption of mobile payments so the travelers
experience can become easier, faster and more satisfying.

28

“Whether we like it or not, digitalwallets, mobile payments and consumer
demands are steering us towards acashless world and with the emergenceof technologies such as blockchain the
speed of this transition will only getquicker”.

While this may not come as a surprise given the increased
usage of smartphones and smart devices it’s important
for travel brands to acknowledge this shift before it’s toolate. For the majority of travel brands their key goals still
revolve around increasing engagement, driving revenues
and providing a better overall travel experience andmobile payments will play a significant role in helping
achieve this.

36%of travel brands plan to invest
in enhanced mobile payment
platforms in 2018**Travelport Digital Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2017

$210
billionthe total value m-commercetransactions are expected to reachby 2019**TechCrunch

Mobile payments

29

Behavioral
TrendsApps remain the ‘go to’ for traveler engagement
So with our 2018 mobile travel trends
revealed, how does consumer behavior
The ongoing growth of mobile has impacted how
travelers are using apps on their phone for travel, with appalign to our predictions? We surveyed
955 end travelers to find out how they are usage stronger than ever. 64% of travelers currently havea travel app installed on their phone and 69% use thoseusing mobile for travel going into 2018.
apps on a regular basis.

We investigated what they use apps for,how often they use them and explored
if they were ready or expected to use
emerging technology including voice,chatbots and messaging apps.

Behavioural trends

Furthermore, our research found that travelers are still
installing multiple airline apps on their phone; 36% of
the respondents currently have 2 or more apps installed,
giving travel brands a prime opportunity to utilize apps asa marketing platform and drive engagement throughout
the end to end travel lifecycle.

How many airline apps do you currently haveinstalled on your smartphone?
one

25%
22%

two

9%

three

5%

four or more

39%

none

30

With travel brands now putting a key focus on greatuser experience it comes as no surprise that the primaryreason travelers are turning to apps is to search and booka trip, with the added benefits of relevant and timely alerts
and notifications making the pull even stronger.
The findings also revealed that app specific functionality,(such as mobile boarding passes), great user experience,
speed and personal preferences play a key part in why
travelers prefer to use a travel app over mobile web.

Which of the following best describes your reasons fordownloading a travel app to your smartphone?

1%
5% 6%

35% search for flights/accommodation
27% book flights/accommodation
5% avail of an offer/promotion

35%

19%

2% loyalty
19% keeps me updated with notifications

While there is still space for mobile web travel brands,
PWAs haven’t quite claimed the app space as of yet - withtravelers still prefering to use travel apps over mobile web,especially for searching and booking for a flight as well as
to check-in and generate a mobile boarding pass.

5% activity unavailable on desktop/mobile web

2%5%

1% my preferred travel brand
6% other27%

Why would you download a travel app and not justuse a mobile website?
speed

39%
30%
28%

updates on relevant notifications/offers

26%

can use it without being connected to the internet

20%
17%
11%

Behavioural trends

travel functionality unavailable on mobile web

better look and feelstores my preferences to make bookings easy
reward/discount for downloading app

31

Why would you download a travel app and not justuse a mobile website?

App

Behavioural trends

Website63%

checking in to a flight

37%

62%

generating a boarding pass

38%

58%

searching for a flight

42%

53%

searching for accommodation

47%

52%

purchasing additional flight items(i.e Wifi, extra bag, priority boarding etc)

48%

52%

searching for discounts or offers

48%

50%

booking a flight

50%

50%

making a last minute booking

50%

49%

booking accommodation

51%

48%

searching for things to do in destination

52%

46%

booking things to do in destination

54%

46%

looking for car rental

54%

32

User experience plays a key role in brand loyalty
A brand’s reputation is defined by the experiences itdelivers. If a user has a bad app experience - if it is difficult
to navigate or frustrating to use travelers won’t hesitate
to uninstall it, leading to customer churn. It’s imperativethat travel brands get the user experience right, building a
deep understanding of each of the customer touch points
throughout the end-to-end travel lifecycle.
Travel brands who get the user experience right reap therewards with 85% of travelers saying they would be more
likely to book a trip with a brand that had a good user
experience, conversely if they had a bad experience on theirapp 69% would be unlikely to book with that brand again.

Communication at every touchpoint
The power of push notifications is not waning, 52% of travelers
find push notifications related to travel useful with trip status
and flight search/booking notifications ranked the mostimportant with discounts and offers following closely behind.
However, while push notifications still have their part toplay, with the messaging explosion travel brands needto look at every touchpoint through which they can
engage their customers, as travelers now expect to becommunicated to through whichever channel they choose,
primarily preferring apps and messaging platforms.

What sort of travel notifications do you find useful?

79%

trip status76%

price change offlights looked at

68%

discount or offer

68%

reminder ofbooking in progress

How do you expect to be able to communicate
with your travel brand/airline now?

60%

app/website

52%

text/messaging

33%
15%

80%

of travelers use a smartphone
app to research a trip

77%of travelers use a smartphone
app to book or pay for a flight65%of travelers would be open tousing a chat platform to researchor book a trip in the future

88%

of customers think it would be
useful to have access to all theirfavourite content in one app

socialvoice

As we move into 2018, travel brands need to look at
every touchpoint with which they can engage with theirtravelers. It’s no longer just about owning one stage in thejourney, there is now an opportunity to own the customer
across the entire travel lifecycle - pre, during and even post
trip. Those that go to where the customer is, engaging
them with relevant, contextual information through thechannels the customers choose, will win in 2018.

Behavioural trends

33Conclusion
With technology evolving and growing
at such a rapid rate, especially in themobile travel space, 2018 will bring ahuge amount of opportunity for travel
brands to engage with their customer
throughout the entire end-to-end travel
lifecycle. However, it is the consumer
who will chose how and where they want
to be communicated to.

2018 will bring an abundance of opportunities for travel
brands to be clever about the way they engage withtravelers in a way that suits them best. It’s no longer
about just ‘apps’, travel brands need to also be on othermobile channels including chat, messenger and voice.
With changing traveler needs, a ‘one size fits all’ approach
will no longer work. Travel brands need to understandand embrace emerging technologies that leverage mobile
to further enhance the customer experience, allowing
travel brands to be clever about the way they engage withtravelers in a way that suits them best.
Throughout this report we have looked at the eight
trends that we believe will help travel brands address thechallenges they face into 2018 and beyond. From data
sharing, enhanced personalization and the elimination offriction points to make the customer journey as seamless as
possible right through to the changing face of apps, voiceand the messaging explosion bringing travel brands towhere the customer is, next year will have it all.
There is so much opportunity and potential on the horizon
for the next year, with mobile at it’s core. However, with somuch to plan for, it’s important to remember that next year’s
mobile strategy doesn’t need to incorporate all the trends,
but travel brands need to keep them on the radar going
into 2018 and beyond so they don’t get left behind.

Conclusion

How mobile travel will impact travel brands
in 2018 – key findings from our research withsenior industry professionals
What is the biggest challenge you feel mobile
could help your organization address in 2018?
improving traveler
retention & loyalty

33%
20%

acquiring new customers

15%

disruption/IROPs

10%

increased engagement

10%

more direct sales

10%

customer support8%

building brand awareness34

In 2018 what areas of mobile development do you
intend to invest in?

How do you feel about your organizations level ofinvestment in mobile?

business
intelligence/
analytics

47%
39%

chatbots

36%

auto check-in

36%enhanced mobile
payment platforms

What mobile goals are important to yourorganization in 2018?

10%
18%
45%

voice technology

31%

PWAs

28%
17%

chat with rep

17%

blockchain

8%

virtual reality

3%

augmented reality

62%

customer service

53%

revenue generation48%

customer engagement& acquisition

47%

owning the entire end-toend customer journey
cost savings/operational
benefits

44%
28%

35%

innovation/mobile first

45% we’re investing but not enough
28% we’re investing enough to keep up with competition
18% we’re investing a lot as mobile is a big focus for us
10% we aren’t investing in mobile at allConclusion

35

Sources

1. Indian Express, ‘Super Mario Run crosses 50 million downloads on Apple App Store’, Dec 2016 2. The VR, ‘On the Road to 50M: Growing the Number of VR/AR User Adoption’, May 2017 3. Businessof Apps, ‘App Download and Usage Statistics 2017’, May 2017 4. CMO, ‘15 mind-blowing stats about digital trends in travel and hospitality’, June 2017 5. Branded3, ‘Ok Google, Siri, Cortana; Can you tellme some stats on Voice search’, Jan 2017 6. Tnooz, ‘Voice getting louder in travel search and it’s all about brand’, April 2017 7. Think with Google, ‘The future of travel: New customer behavior andthe technology giving it flight’, Nov 2017 8. ZDNet, ‘Virtual digital assistants will overtake world population by 2021’ May 2017 9. Travelport Global Digital Traveler Survey, Nov 2017 10. Engadget, ‘Nokia
CEO Stephen Elop rallies troops in brutally honest burning platform memo’, Aug 2011 11. Macgasm, ‘Apples ad campaign, a brief history’, April 2010 12. Forbes, ‘Blackberry’s famous last words at 2007
iPhone launch, ‘We’ll be fine”’, May 2015 13. KLM, Aviation Festival 2017 14. SmallBizTrends, ‘330 million used messenger to contact small business for the first time this year’ Nov 2017 15. easyJet,‘easyJet to offer inflight entertainment for the first time with air time offering passengers prime time content on their devices for free’, Sept 2017 16. Future Travel Experience, ‘Air NZ’s chatbot gaining
intelligence as it comes online outside of New Zealand’, Oct 2017 17. KLM, ‘KLM takes next strategic social media step with flight info on Twitter and WeChat’, June 2017 18. Gartner, ‘Gartner predicts
2017: Marketers expect the unexpected’, Jan 2017 19. Forbes ‘Is 2014 finally the year of the mobile?’, Feb 2014 20. Search Engine Land, ‘Report: Nearly 60 percent of searches now from mobile
devices’, Aug 2016 21. McKinsey & Company, ‘Why marketers should keep sending you emails’, Jan 2014 22. TechCrunch, ‘Consumers spend 85% of time on smartphones in apps but only 5 apps see
heavy use’, June 2015 23. DoubleClick by Google, ‘The need for speed: How mobile latency impacts publisher revenue’, Sept 2016 24. Developers.google.com, ‘Twitter Lite PWA significantly increase
engagement and reduces data usage’, May 2017 25. Skift, ‘Blockchain will disrupt Expedia and Airbnb TUI CEO says’, July 2017 26. Medium, ‘Instagram doubled its iOS ratings in a week thanks to thisin-app preview pop up’, Aug 2017 27. Reuters, ‘Air New Zealand, Swiss travel platform Winding Tree in blockchain tie up’, Nov 2017 28. Forbes, ‘The world’s largest retailers 2017: Amazon and Alibaba
are closing in on Wal-Mart’, May 2017 29. GuestRevu, ‘From mobile app to personal butler: five hotels getting personalisation right’, March 2017 30. Exastax, ‘How airlines are using big data’, Jan 201731. CMO, ‘15 mind-blowing stats about digital trends in travel and hospitality’, June 2017 32. TechCrunch, ‘The evolution of the mobile payment’, June 2016

Sources36

Contributor biographies

Brendan Bourke

Phoebe Collison

Glenville Morris

Ronan Morrissey

Digital Consultant
at Travelport Digital

Digital Insights Analyst
at Travelport Digital

Product Director
Consulting & Digital Insights
at Travelport Digital

Product Director
at Travelport Digital

Brendan has over 18 years digitaland mobile experience working
on both the client and agency side.
Prior to joining Travelport Digital,
Brendan worked at both Aer Lingus
and Emirates. At Travelport Digital
Brendan works with customers on
their mobile strategies with a specificfocus on mobile marketing andengagement.

Phoebe has worked at Travelport
Digital for 4 years in various
Marketing, Product Research andDigital Insights roles. Phoebe’s
current role involves keeping pacewith new technologies and industry
developments, competitor analysis
and advising customers on bestpractice mobile marketing.

Glenville has over 12 years experience
as a digital and mobile professionalin the travel, entertainment & retailsectors. Prior to joining Travelport
Digital Glenville worked at easyJet
across analytics, mobile marketing
and was the product owner for
easyJet mobile. At Travelport Digital
Glenville heads up the Digital Insights
team looking at market trends,
operating system updates and how
new mobile technologies will affectthe travel industry.

Ronan has over 13 year’s experiencein product development, digitalstrategy and innovation consulting
across travel, fintech and technology
industries. At Travelport Digital heis responsible for the travel agency
and travelers engagement suite ofproducts. Prior to joining Travelport
Digital Ronan worked at Mastercard
Labs’ and has also held a variety ofleadership roles with Barclays Bank.

linkedin.com/in/brendanbourke

linkedin.com/in/phoebe-collison1b28a241

linkedin.com/in/ronanmorrissey

linkedin.com/in/glenville-morris2b9a9413

Contributor biographies

37

Ailsa Brown

Samir Shah

Stephen Oman

Eric Booth

Vice President Asia Pacificat Travelport Digital

Head of Market
Intelligence at Travelport

Director of Data Analytics
at Travelport Digital

Product Marketing Manager
at Travelport Digital

Ailsa has responsibility for the sales
and commercial strategy in APAC,
with a focus on supporting airlines
to drive and accelerate their mobile
strategy. Prior to joining Travelport
Digital, Ailsa held a number of seniorleadership roles at Travelport, mostrecently Senior Commercial Director
for SE Asia & India Subcontinent,
developing airline relationships anddriving the commercial performance.
Ailsa is a highly regarded commercial
leader with over three decadesof travel industry experience, 20+
focused on the APAC region.

Samir is Head of Market Intelligenceat Travelport and is based in the
UK. Travelport’s Market Intelligence
function gathers insights througha combination of market research,customer research and competitor
intelligence. Prior to joining Travelport,
Samir held a number of strategiccentric roles at Genworth Financial(originally part of GE Capital) andPricewaterhouseCoopers.

Stephen is the Director of Data
Analytics in Travelport Digital, helping
our customers get the most fromtheir mobile products through theapplication of data analytics andmachine learning. Prior to joining
Travelport, Stephen spent many
years in the telecommunications
sector, delivering personalizationbased products to Mobile Network
Operators around the world.

Eric has 13+ years experience asa digital and product marketing
specialist within the online services,
entertainment and travel sectors.
With experience working in both
B2B and B2C environments Eric’s key
focus at Travelport Digital is to bringnew products to market, articulate
product value propositions and drive
product demand by connecting
customer the needs to productcapabilities.

linkedin.com/in/samir14

linkedin.com/in/stephenoman
linkedin.com/in/eboothlinkedin.com/in/ailsa-brownbb8ab68

Contributor biographies

38

About Travelport Digital
At Travelport Digital we deliver innovative digitaltravel solutions for airlines, TMCs and travel agencies
to meet the expectations of today’s ultra-connectedtravelers. We create superior, end-to-end travel
experiences across multiple devices and channels
with the latest in mobile technology, great UX anddesign, a travel focused product set and close
collaboration with our clients. Our work enables
airlines and travel companies to leverage ‘every
moment in travel’ with mobile and digital services thattransform how they interact with their customers.
–– 35+ million app downloads (as of October 2017)–– 100 number 1 travel apps in App Store / Google Play–– 775 App Store promotions in the last two years–– 4.5 average app star rating–– 330+ mobile experts dedicated to travel–– 34 industry awards for our apps (2014 – Present)

travelportdigital.com