Digital Tourism- Connecting Destinations
Travelling is one of the most popular items on people’s to-do lists. Thanks to technological innovations, you can easily find out about your destination using digital tourism websites. Therefore, instead of visiting travel agencies physically and collecting glossy travel brochures, you can simply get the details in the comfort of your home. Technology has similarly impacted other sectors, such as the casino sector. You can log into an online gaming platform like Joe Fortune casino and enjoy virtual sports and other online casino games. Additionally, you can still take care of many different issues online without leaving your house. This post looks at digital tourism and how it has affected the tourism industry.
What is digital tourism?
Digital tourism offers travelers a unique tourism experience. It is digital support provided for travelers before, during, and after their traveling activities. There are different digital tourism services, for instance:
- Provides recommendations to help travelers find the appropriate accommodation, which is essential while planning.
- It can be an app that travelers install on their phones that they can use as a mobile tour guide.
- It can also be the ability to explore all the holiday photos you took once you go back home.
Therefore, digital tourism is not a new concept, as many people have used it in different scenarios. For example, some websites like TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Orbitz provide user reviews and recommendations that travelers use to discover their destinations. Others offer travel management services, such as Kayak and Triplt, while others, like Google Flights and Booking.com, help travelers to compare prices and book flights.
You can think of digital tourism as a tech-driven approach to research, planning, and experiencing your holiday travels. In this regard, tourism-related business operators ought to invest in digital presence. It is not viable for such businesses not to be seen online. Moreover, their online presence should be creative, persuasive, compelling, and clever.
Travel technology
Travel technology is also popularly known as tourism technology or hospitality automation. It means applying information and communications technology to provide information and support for the hospitality, tourism, and travel industry.
In the past, travel technology was associated with the computer reservations system (CRS) used in the airline industry. Nowadays, travel tourism includes applications such as virtual tourism, which offers virtual tours.
Travel technology is a collection of different systems that manage and monitor travel. On the other hand, you can think of travel technology as the technology travelers use on the road—for example, satellite internet connection, lightweight laptops, and universal power supplies.
The future of tourism
Industry experts project that digital tourism will grow even bigger in the coming days. Digital and physical wearable technologies are being merged. For instance, Near Field Communication (NFC) is a new wireless technology on trial. The application allows travelers to move around without carrying their tickets or written itineraries.
You need a mobile device and use the app as proof of travel. The application comes with multiple features, such as hotel bookings and entry to tourist attraction sites. You can also use your smartphone to purchase items using QR codes.
More applications are being developed for new augmented reality applications like a city break that enables users to access histories of destinations and future plans. In addition, there are also other apps that allow you to read hotel reviews, make bookings and perform virtual hotel tours.
How the travel industry will adapt
All the operators in the industry need to prepare for the future. For example, businesses should have a travel website appropriately localized. This makes the travel website ready for digital tourism.
You can achieve this by identifying the cultural backgrounds and languages most of your clients speak. In this sense, travel businesses should make their websites available in different languages to enhance consumer interaction.
Besides that, ensure your website is evocative to capture the emotional part of traveling. Make its UX outstanding and ensure it includes an efficient e-commerce system. Consider reading posts on how you can start a travel blog to get some more tips.
Final Thoughts
Digital tourism is an essential component of the modern-day tourism industry. It is a phenomenon that every tourism industry player must take seriously. However, it is not straightforward as it requires you to consider several factors. Nonetheless, the developments around digital tourism will help take the industry to the next level.
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