2017MOBILE TRAVEL TRENDS

What’s next?

TMCs

1. INTRODUCTION

2. MOBILE TRAVEL TRENDS FOR 2017

(a) The connected travel experience – joining the dots throughout the journey!

(b) Reaching the next level in mobile travel through extended user profiles

(c) UX as a strategic differentiator

(d) The rise of bots

3. CLOSING SUMMARY

ABOUT MTTMTT, part of Travelport Digital, delivers innovative mobile travel solutions for airlines, TMCs and travel agencies to improve the end-to-end travel experience and to increase the value of every interaction with every customer via sophisticated apps and mobile services across smartphones, tablets and wearables. In addition to industry leading travel apps, we provide advanced mobile services including real-time mobile messaging, day of travel solutions and ancillary upsell opportunities.

www.mttnow.com

Contents

IntroWhat’s next for mobile in business travel? What will business travellers expect from mobile services next year? What are the dominant trends that will shape the mobile strategy for TMCs in 2017?

It’s hard to believe that next year, 2017 will see the 10th

anniversary of the iPhone. What a difference a decade

makes! We now live in a mobile culture that didn’t exist

10 years ago with mobile now at the center of how we

communicate and interact with each other.

In travel, this new mobile landscape has created a huge

array of new opportunities for TMCs to support, engage

and empower the business traveller via sophisticated

apps and mobile services.

As we head towards 2017, it is vital that TMCs understand

the pivotal role that mobile plays now and will continue to

play in delivering a sophisticated digital experience for a

new generation of business travellers who are increasingly

‘mobile first’. For our Mobile Travel Trends Report 2017, MTT

conducted a survey with 20 TMCs to get valuable insights

into the importance of mobile to their digital strategy in

2017. The results below clearly indicate that mobile is high on

the agenda for TMCs next year.

In our mobile travel trends ebook we share the views of

travel experts within MTT as well as highlighting key insights

from the MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey. So lets take a look

at the trends that the industry think will impact mobile travel

in 2017 and beyond.

268MILLION

mobiles accessingthe internet in

2007

3.6BILLION

mobiles accessingthe internet in

2016**

33%of TMCs currently feel they are not investing

enough in mobile*

78%of TMCs believe having a mobile strategy is ‘very

important’ to the success of their business*

of TMCs surveyed intend to invest more in mobile in 2017*

100%*MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2016

**Statista, 2016

The connected travel experiencejoining the dots throughout the journey!

ANDY GEORGEAPAC Regional Director at MTT

The ‘day of travel’ can be frustrating even for frequent

business travellers. Getting to the airport on time, lengthy

security queues, uncertainties about flight take-off times,

gate locations in unknown airports, lost baggage… are

all common pain points. However, as business travellers

become increasingly connected, the mobile channel opens

up new opportunities for TMCs to reduce confusion and

take customer service to another level by offering a more

seamless, connected end-to-end travel experience with a

contextual, ‘day of travel’ guidance via their mobile apps.

To offer a fully connected travel experience requires TMCs

to have an understanding of all touchpoints across the

journey including pre, during and post trip activity, booking

preferences, the ‘bleisure’ phenomenon (blend of business

and leisure when travelling) and how data can be used to

personalise the experience. Business travellers value the

ability to manage all aspects of their trip on the go and

recognise that using mobile will not only save time but make

the overall travel experience hassle-fee and more efficient.

With that in mind mobile will be central to how TMCs shape

the ‘day of travel’ and overall trip experience as they look to

support a comprehensive end-to-end journey.

Mobile is primed for TMCs to offer a more seamless travel

experience by ’joining the dots’ of the entire business trip and

providing mobile support and services such as mobile booking

and check-in, comprehensive itinerary management, air

modify, real-time in-trip messaging, destination information,

open booking functionality, live agent chat, disruption

management capabilities and much more.

“Moving forward it will be imperative for TMCs to ensure they provide the right combination of features to address the needs of their business travellers within their mobile and digital offering.”

86%of TMCs believe a

seamless connected travel experience will be either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to the success of their mobile strategy*

98%of business travellers carry more than one device and

more than 50% carry a minimum of three**

* Business Travel News, 2015**MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2016

“ “MTT TAKE

TMCs need to focus on how to provide a seamless digital travel experience that engages travellers throughout their journey and addresses their end-to-end travel needs. It is through these additional touchpoints that TMCs will maintain relevance.

“ “Reaching the next level in mobile travel through extended user profiles

KEN AUGUSTINEClient Partner at MTT

Personalisation is becoming increasingly important as an

enabler for TMCs to drive long term loyalty among their

customer base. However, a TMC’s ability to personalize

depends on level of knowledge they have on the business

traveller. With that in mind a key trend I see emerging in 2017

will be a push for travel brands to extend their users’ profiles

and preferences beyond just their credit card information and

the information required to book a trip because this will be

key to extending personalisation to the next level.

“Profiles should dip into trip history to identify favorite airlines, affinity or loyalty programs, types of hotels and rental cars, spending patterns, and even user movement over times of day.”

Using this data in conjunction with mobile features such as

live agent chat, in-app feedback, proximity based messaging,

personal travel assistants, itinerary management solutions

will not only help travellers navigate time consuming tasks

but also create a highly personalised, contextual digital travel

experience. Imagine your app recognising that you are going

to Phoenix, AZ for the 3rd time in 12 weeks, and simply asking

you to confirm the same flight numbers and hotel. Or knowing

that you are entitled to a certain hotel upgrade based on your

loyalty status with them. VIP or high loyalty status users

could get phone calls to ensure that their app activities have

fully taken care of their needs, or to offer them a pass to the

business lounge. For business travellers, anything that takes

away the headaches of planning will surprise and delight them.

For TMCs this is a chance to better know the business traveller,

keep them engaged and more importantly build a competitive

advantage based the knowledge you have about the business

traveller. Furthermore, meeting the traveller’s expectation

that you know who they are and what they want will lead

to greater sales conversion and reduce the likelihood that

business travellers will book outside your mobile offering.

* Business Travel News, 2015**MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2016

*MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2016**CMO, 2016

MTT TAKE

The more data that TMCs can get by extending traveller profiles, the more equipped they will be to service business travellers. TMCs can build up unique insights into the travellers profile which can be a source of competitive advantage if used correctly.

TMCs should be able to identify whether those users are VIPs

that need special handling. Users should be able to add to the

profiles and preferences, but they should only be prompted

for this at times when it makes sense.

Personalized experience is cited as important to heavy mobile users and

young travellers30% of Millennials

34% of Gen X**

57%of TMCs intend

to invest in personalisation

in 2017*

UX as a strategic differentiator

MATTHEW OVINGTONDirector of User Experience at MTT

The vast majority of Fortune 500 CEOs see user experience

(UX) as a competitive differentiator. Most travel industry

CEOs would not disagree. Creating a competitive advantage

around UX requires a UX strategy that relates to the unique

brand and market position of your TMC.

At MTT we believe that the mobile user experience is a key

opportunity to enhance the end-traveller experience. It is

essential to follow a customer-centred process to define

and build the best user experience possible. This means

combining a user-centred design approach with an emphasis

on craftsmanship and interaction design because great

usability is central to the success of all apps and digital

experiences. In order to form a UX strategy TMCs need to

understand the biggest opportunities or gaps in the user

experience. The differential between the business traveller’s

expectation and reality over his or her journey determines

the experience.

Mapping out the customer journey and understanding the

experiential touchpoints - what happens, where it happens

and whether it matches expectations - are the first steps.

This understanding also helps TMCs to identify new

opportunities to meet unmet needs. Insights into the

business travel experience and their needs on the road

fuels innovation.

Only when TMCs understand the variation in user experience

can they assign resources to maximise impact and ROI. For

too many organisations UX is still fuzzy and hard to quantify.

A granular understanding of the opportunities to meet and

exceed expectations is the first step in forming a strategy

to exceed expectations.

71%of TMCs have highlighted

UX & design as a key investment area in 2017**

60%of TMCs strongly believe their ability to deliver an

improved user experience is very important to the success of their mobile

strategy**

returning visitors month on month to the BCD Tripsource app*90%

*BCD, 2016**MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2016

“ ““One of the simplest ways to improve UX is to prevent bad experiences, or do a great job of recovering when they happen. Understanding where they happen, and why, is the starting point for fixing them.“

MTT TAKE

In order to successfully differentiate via mobile, TMCs need a clear UX strategy. A deep understanding of the various experiential touchpoints for business travellers is essential. Only once this is understood, can TMCs create a mobile offering that addresses the needs of the business traveller.

The rise of bots

BRENDAN BOURKEDigital Consultant at MTT

If you’re working in the travel industry and reading this then

I don’t need to tell you that bots and AI are hot topics. This

area is vast, from a large and growing start-up and tech

supplier scene to platform plays from the likes of Facebook

and Skype, barely a day passes without reference to the

effect this trend will have on the travel industry. But let’s boil

this down to the three areas where bots and AI are currently

impacting the industry.

EXPANDING REACH: Bots have allowed travel brands to

grow their reach and talk to current and new customers

via third party channels such as Facebook Messenger.

Functionality such as search and travel updates are not

necessarily new, but both the channel and the environment

are different and bots enable brands to speak with users in

places where they already live and feel at home.

REDUCING COSTS: At the moment the use of bots for

automated responses and customer service may be relatively

limited but anywhere that automation can be used to reduce

costs is welcome in the industry, whether that be for TMCs

or airlines. For TMCs, virtual agents are a great way to add

value to their corporate clients while also saving costs by

automatically handling basic and common queries.

SOLVING PROBLEMS AND CREATING OPPORTUNITIES:

Bots and AI are starting to chip away at travel problems.

From last minute requests for a boarding pass via Facebook

Messenger through to automating disruption alerts, bots

are beginning to have a top-level impact on some of the

industry’s issues. But opportunities are also starting to

be uncovered with progress being made in harnessing AI

to improve recommender systems for ancillary sales and

providing personalised destination suggestions based on

individual and aggregate historical travel preferences.

There’s no doubt that 2016 saw significant progress

being made, but much of it is scratching the surface and is

fragmented in nature. So where do bots and AI need to go to

make a bigger impact in 2017? To date bots and AI have been

great at acting as a basic assistant using scripted responses.

Things are moving fast, experimentation is recommended!

* MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2016**Economist 2016

Over2.5 billion people have at least one

messaging app installed**“““Bots need to understand context and

history and ultimately need to act as collaborators on more multi-layered and complex travel challenges, rather than simply responding to basic commands.“

MTT TAKE

Bots and AI will become more firmly established within the travel industry in 2017. Success will only be achieved with a strategic approach based around channel integration and a deep understanding of the business traveller.

43%of TMCs intend to invest in chatbots

in 2017*

As evident in our survey findings, TMCs believe a mobile

strategy is key to the success of their organization so there

is no doubt that TMCs should continue to embrace mobile as

an opportunity to drive their business forward as we move

into 2017 and beyond. The constantly changing mobile travel

landscape coupled with pervasive mobile-centric behaviours

are creating a myriad of new opportunities for TMCs to

support, engage and empower business travellers

via sophisticated apps and mobile services.

Closing Summary Key soundbytes from the MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey

While every TMC is at a different stage of their mobile

evolution, at MTT we believe TMCs need to become more

mobile-centric in their approach. As the demands of today’s

ultra-connected business traveller evolve and increase, TMCs

have an opportunity to leverage mobile technology even

more to enhance the end-to-end travel experience, make the

journey more seamless and ensure they stay connected to

the business traveller at every step.

MOBILE USER EXPERIENCE & DESIGN

PERSONALISATION

DAY OF TRAVEL COMMUNICATIONS

RESPONSIVE WEB

CHATBOTS / BOTS

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / TRAVEL ASSISTANTS 14 %

43%

57%

71% MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey 2016: Which areas of mobile development does your TMC intend to invest in?43%

43%

43%

%

very important

Is having a mobile strategy for your TMC important?

Do you intend to increase your investment in mobile in 2017?

78

YES

Which of the following statements best describes your TMC’s level of investment in mobile strategy?

11%

44%

33%

11%

We are investing a lot as mobile is a big focus for us

We are investing enough to keep up with the competition

We are investing but not enough

We are not investing in mobile at all

100%

Survey MethodologyIn November 2016, MTT conducted an online survey with a selection of TMC

executives across the globe. With over 20 respondents our survey reveals key

insights into how TMCs view mobile as we move into 2017.

References: Source: Statista, 2016 Number of mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide since 2007. Source: Business Travel News, 2015 Mobile disconnections in the age of smartphones and travel apps. Source: Criteo Travel Flash Report, 2016. Source: MTT Mobile Travel Trends Survey, 2016. Source: CMO, 2016 15 mind blowing stats about how mobile is reshaping travel.

Source: Frederic Gonzalo, 2016 16 stats about mobile in travel. Source: Forbes, 2016 Top 10 strategic predictions for 2017 and beyond. Source: Economist, 2016 Market apps maturing.Source: BCD, 2016

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