Robots, Chatbots, and Augmented Reality: The Future of Travel
Bots are bound to take over the world, and the travel industry is no exception. Fortunately, this mass invasion seems to be producing positive results so far. In the travel world, personalization and speed of processing are two of the biggest essentials. These two goals can be achieved easily through the use of artificial intelligence, which is the foundation for modern robots and chatbots. Adding augmented reality to the mix, the travel industry gets the ability to provide their customers with immersive experiences that make traveling more exciting and convenient than ever.
A Brand-New Booking Experience
Travelers are getting a bigger number of options available online and, as a result, they have stopped relying excessively on travel agents.
The global digital travel services market is set to grow from 629.81 billion dollars in 2017 to 817.4 billion dollars in 2020. In the US alone, online booking revenue is set to reach 80 billion dollars in 2018. These numbers confirm one very important thing — the hospitality industry is going digital big time!
There are a few additional trends that determine the growing prominence of artificial intelligence and augmented reality solutions in the travel industry.
For a start, the number of consumers using smartphones and wearables to explore destinations is growing. Mobile accounts for 37 percent of travel shopping and 43 percent of accommodation purchases. Guests who are given access to a mobile app developed by a hotel or a travel agency demonstrate a higher level of satisfaction with the service being offered.
Image Source: The Travel Marketer’s Guide to the US Digital Travel Landscape
It’s easy to reach a conclusion on the basis of these numbers: clients want simplicity, instantly available booking options, personalized recommendations on the basis of their past behavior, and travel packages at their fingertips.
Let’s delve into new digital experience that AI and AR experts have brought into tourism and hospitality and explore the role that robots, chatbots, and augmented reality solutions play in giving travel service buyers exactly what they’re looking for.
Apps That Understand You
Conversational interfaces will enhance travel apps — the trend is already becoming obvious whenever the chatbot technology is being utilized.
The engine powering such apps is becoming more responsive thanks to big data and artificial intelligence. Just like Siri and Cortana, it is beginning to recognize patterns communicated via chat. Based on this information, the bot is making suggestions that can potentially appeal to the individual who submitted the inquiry.
The most overwhelming thing about AI-powered chatbots is that the more you use the app, the more it will know about you. As a result, the relevance of the suggestions will increase even further.
Expedia is an excellent example of a company utilizing such technology. The Expedia Facebook Bot was launched back in 2016 as one of the first real-life examples of the technology’s scope of applications. Expedia’s Facebook Bot made it easier to search for hotels via quick chat. All that you need to make a booking is the Messenger app. Tell the bot a bit about what you’re looking for — location, travel date, the cost of accommodation, whether you’d like an all-inclusive experience, etc. Based on this input, Expedia’s Facebook Bot will make hotel recommendations and list the opportunities currently available for booking.
Robotic Concierges? No, It’s Not Science Fiction
Why should travel companies limit themselves to chatbots when the technology has so much more to offer?
Have you heard about Connie — the robotic concierge that came in existence via a partnership between Hilton and IBM? Connie was presented in March 2016, which means this isn’t a brand new or revolutionary development in the hospitality industry.
A robot concierge like Connie draws on extensive data, once again, to inform hotel guests about tourist attractions, relevant features of the hotel and dining options to explore during the stay. It is the first Watson-enabled robot specifically developed to function within the hospitality field. Once again, its primary goal is to personalize the experience of hotel visitors and to empower guests through the provision of relevant information.
Connie was originally stationed at the Hilton McLean in Virginia. The hotel was its training ground where it “learned” how to interact with guests. Just like in the case of chatbots, the more guests interact with Connie, the more relevant and personalized the robot’s suggestions become. In addition, Connie stores a log of inquiries — invaluable data hotel staff can rely on to offer guests exactly what they need.
Hilton’s Connie isn’t the only example of an intelligent travel robot. Kate by SITA is an intelligent robotic kiosk. She functions autonomously and can move to the busiest airport queues for the purpose of speeding up the check-in process. Data about passenger flow is utilized for the effective repositioning of the robot and as a result, waiting time in queues can be brought down significantly.
Augmented Reality Applications in the Travel Industry
Yet another technology has a special application in the hospitality industry. This technology is augmented reality.
Image source: revfine.com
Augmented reality enables hotels and other service providers within the hospitality industry to augment the physical environment they’re offering to clients. An augmented reality solution within the room itself can enable easy interaction with the guest, plus relevant information may be shared about the visitor’s surroundings and the sites worth exploring.
Hub by Premier Inn is an example of a hotel that has integrated an augmented reality experience in a typical room. Augmented reality is used in conjunction with wall maps, providing digital information about the specific place that the visitor is interested in. To utilize the enhanced map, hotel guests will simply need to download the Hub Hotel app on their smartphone.
Apart from providing easy to utilize information, augmented reality can also enhance the hotel environment itself.
In 2016, all US hotels in the Best Western chain became equipped with the Best Western Virtual Reality Experience. Through this app, visitors become capable of seeing and exploring each room and amenity in a virtual online environment before arriving to the respective hotel. Over 1.7 million photos of the US Best Western hotels were collected and utilized to make the option possible.
The photos were used to create a 360-degree video that can transform into augmented reality through the use of a headset. Narration is also available to give the potential visitor additional information about what they’re looking at.
Augmented reality use isn’t limited solely to hotels. Paris Then and Now is an augmented reality solution that enables travelers to “take a walk” down the streets of Paris as they looked in the past. In a sense, this is a time travel augmented reality experience, enabling tourists to draw a comparison between what France’s capital used to be and what it has become today.
Digital technology is evolving constantly and these new trends aren’t the only ones that will shape up more personal, more interactive and more readily accessible travel experiences. The blockchain technology, interactive video content, and wearable technologies can also be expected to have a profound impact. Needless to say, many of these technologies can be used in conjunction with each other for the purpose of giving the traveler more than they’ve received as a part of a tourism service ever before.
