Change our travel, start with app

In 2011, China Mobile had reached 10.83 billion yuan in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 154.6% and a 38.9% quarter-on-quarter growth, according to a report on China Mobile's Internet market in the third quarter of 2011. At the same time, because of the rapid growth of high-end smartphone users, the mobile internet has become hot, thus driving the various "mobile applications", including tourism, rapid and diversified development. This data seems to be declaring that we have entered the era of mobile internet consumption.

APP, the acronym for creator, is the "mobile app" for smartphones.

And app, and "Travel is born on the road" characteristics should be highly consistent. And with the increasing use of intelligent terminals in the travel population, the next climax of the tourism industry must be the wireless era--in addition to Ctrip, Art Dragon, Baidu, Taobao, Tencent, Beijing-east and other network of large companies have started in the tourism app on the new exploration, according to the different aspects of tourism consumption, all kinds of niche market app is also increasing rapidly , such as line booking, information delivery, tourism reviews, itinerary planning, community sharing, custom services, and so on, because of the portability, mobility and affordability of the app has spawned a lot of new "tourism Business" form ... All in all, the pain of traditional travel will be the direction of app's commitment to service. And the biggest beneficiary of this first-episode travel Revolution is the tourists, who will reap a more perfect and rich travel experience.

Book Books

App changed the way we "book travel"

Pay first, then experience, which is the biggest difference between tourism consumption and other modes of consumption. From the heart to action, travel must be achieved through booking, even if it is to bypass travel agencies, to carry out self-help tours, but also around the air tickets, hotel reservations. In the internet age, and even earlier, the travel decision-making process is relatively long, users spend more time on search, parity, and in fact, China's online tourism industry, the "on-line conversion rate" has been low. Ctrip, the most famous online tourism company in the country, used a powerful call center to provide standardized services, air tickets, hotels by telephone booking ratio of more than 90%, the industry even said that "telephone booking is the Chinese characteristics of online booking mode."

However, entering the app age, the user habits have been reversed, although consumers have not been accustomed to using the site to book travel products, but the direct transition to the phone. In the fourth quarter of 2011, an online travel company in China has booked 63%, well above 45% for the same period last year, via mobile app clients and Web sites. On the other hand, users of Apple's operating system have a higher online booking ratio than Android phone users. From overseas travel search website Kayak data shows that the greater proportion of Apple users have American Express credit cards, which makes online bookings easier and facilitates a larger proportion of online payments, while surveys show that "Android users are 36% more likely than Apple users to forget their last vacation", This also shows a "demographic problem" in a way that, in general, the consumer of the iphone has a higher spending power on tourism.

Compared to the network booking, the biggest advantage of the app is to be able to make reservations at any time, more in line with the user decision-making ideas. The new data show that the user through the mobile phone client browsing attractions, surrounding routes and other instructions, and then direct booking of tourism products, through mobile phone booking of tourism products in the proportion of 30% per month rise.

Let's see where to go. Yi Long Network and Ctrip these three app store in the hot travel booking class application: For the provision of functions, information quantity, price advantages, booking methods and characteristics of services such as 5, we made a careful comparison to see how they meet the most basic needs of tourism. As you can see, there is not much room for difference in the traditional booking areas of air tickets and hotels, and every home is as much as possible in the interface design, interaction details and so on. But because of the phone screen, operating restrictions, mobile phone need more concise page and less operation steps, to art hotel booking as an example, basically users can not enter any text in the case, in the three-step operation to find the hotel, especially in the mobile phone plus GPS positioning information, by clicking on the screen, You can quickly complete the hotel reservation.

"Good booking experience" has become the standard of app competition, but to stand out, "featured information service" is the battleground--that is, really solve the real problem of the user travel process. In the homogeneous competition so fiercely today, it even determines whether an app can stay on the user's phone. Where are you going? "The whole user's life and work is becoming more and more fragmented, especially in the field of tourism, you start traveling, it's inconvenient to turn on the computer, and using smart devices to get information, this is a very good tool," said Wireless vice President Zhang. Moreover, wireless also has a different place with the Internet, many features and advantages. "Flight landing Information" as an example, for travelers or pick-up users, "flight big screen" is a very important information, in the past we can only wait for information updates in front of the big screen of the airport, and now like where and Ctrip, has this function directly into the mobile phone app inside, The user opens the handset to obtain such information, but goes to where the newest version, even provides the airplane "the flight dynamics" the information, such small innovation has the very big significance for the user.

>hoteltonight: Search on the same day hotel discounts

> Flight Butler: Provide real-time flight information

> Hotel talent: Very enjoyable experience

> Car Hire talent: Search car information by location

Tour guide Guide

App changed the definition of "guide" (1)

Intelligent tourism is a new proposition, skim the abstract technology concept, the ultimate goal is to make the various links of tourism consumption become more convenient. As far as mobile Internet is concerned, there are two main categories of tourism: tourism community and tourism tools. In terms of tourism tools, "guide" This function, is undoubtedly the first travel category app needs to be solved-here's "guide" has overturned the concept of traditional guides, and become a map, navigation, voice interpretation, travel planning and other functions of the superposition.

In the past, limited by the lack of scenic map, intelligent Guide Service Development slow, traditional guide to explain the machine despite the technology behind, but also occupy the market for decades. And now with the help of "app/positioning/Scenic map" and other technology support, to find attractions, scenic areas within the navigation, urban tour has become easy. In this new area, the Triposo application, founded by Google's former staff, has a clear advantage in information integration-which, through information search and aggregation, almost completes the navigation services of the world's leading travel destinations. Because of the highly developed free open source information and map data abroad, this provides a fast expansion space for companies with data integration and search capabilities. The world's most prestigious traditional travel guide service provider Lonely Planet (Lonely Planet), is using its own content advantages to provide the "Lonely Planet travel Guide" series of applications to the preset travel routes and voice guides as the main selling point. In China, due to the relatively closed and limited information sources, the lack of scenic spots and other reasons, this area of entrepreneurial companies can only be drawn from the scenic map, such as "Touchchina series of Applications", "Friends tour scenery-travel strategy", but the potential is enormous.

Fresh Cases >

City Tour

Scenic Navigation & Interior map

AR virtual reality

AR (augmented Reality), virtual reality meaning. The application of AR technology to travel app is a perfect fit. Take a look at the actual example. The Hong Kong Tourism Board launched a joint "Hong Kong" with Cathay Airlines in 2011. AR tour guide app, a smartphone travel program that uses the expanded enrichment (AR) function, is frequently found in the promotional ads and promotional materials of the Hong Kong Tourism board and can be downloaded free of charge in Hong Kong through 8,000 wireless outlets in PCCW PCCW.

The camera lens of the mobile phone will be located in the surrounding environment, the mobile phone screen will show the nearby main attractions, shops, restaurants, subways and other information, and then click on these attractions, shops, can obtain detailed information. Through "scope" control, can be scanned in the area set in the range of 500 meters to 30 kilometers to adjust, with the screen rotation, the mobile phone will be marked with the location of the surrounding attractions and distance, visitors can easily judge and choose the destination, just along the direction of directions, you can easily find the destination, The user experience is very good. This "three-dimensional" approach to tourism exploration has brought a new tourism experience.

Following "Hong Kong. AR tour Guide "APP, the Hong Kong Tourism board has once again launched the application of" extended reality "technology to the smart-phone travel process" Hong Kong. "Discoverhk.city Walks" app--through the built-in four already planned theme browsing routes, Take you to realize the ancient and modern footprints of this city.

Figure reading the World

At home, the famous Fotopedia company, a multimedia company headquartered in San Francisco, was founded in 2006 by five former Apple employees, and the original business was to build an encyclopedia of online photos of the world's beauty, What makes the company famous is a series of beautifully crafted mobile apps, the most famous of which are Fotopedia's Paris, North Korea, Burma and World heritage apps, each with thousands of of stunning photographs made by professional photographers, And all the pictures are sorted and sorted, at the same time, provide a slide-style exploration model, in addition to the well-known attractions, but also includes a number of "hidden treasures", such as art, architecture, coffee shops, castles, fashion, history, shopping, street life ... The tourist information from Wikipedia is good enough to give travellers a feast of eyes and gain knowledge. In addition, the recent Pinterest (the world's most famous photo images to the site) swept the global situation, but also let people see the "reading Era" coming.

Although there is not much technical innovation, but fotopedia with the most common technology and the highest quality pictures, opened a guided tour of another road.

> Hong Kong. AR tour guide

> Hong Kong. Will wander (discoverhk.city walks)

>nearest YouTube, check the location of London subway

> Consumer Reviews website Yelp, a client with ar+lbs technology, used to find restaurants around

> Holland Layar Company, the AR platform total offers more than 2000 AR applications

>united Air Lines

>: a lbs-based shopping navigation and electrical business offers

> point: A shopping navigation app

> China Mall Palm Map: The national "shopping mall" service Application

>lonely Planet: City tours, voice guides.

>mtrip: Complete off-line map, built-in AR function, open the camera to view the surrounding attractions and information

>everytrail: The main outdoor sports enthusiasts

>wallpaper: city guide, top interface design

> "Travel Together" community: Domestic famous tourism website Kuxun.com launched the tourism community

Share Share

App lets sharing become "anywhere" (1)

Although travel is a very low frequency thing, but people's pursuit of travel dreams is innate, in the past we or through word of mouth, tourism media and a variety of Donkey friends Forum to get the latest information shared by travel enthusiasts, as well as predecessors carefully organized the destination strategy, both forms of "road book", There are also colorful travels, but more through the "two-dimensional plane" way to explore the destination. Now, many apps combine social networks, AR virtual reality, panoramic technology, position positioning and a series of new technologies, so that we have a new way of sharing travel.

Social networking

In the past two years, from foreign Facebook, Twitter to the domestic network, Renren, Sina Weibo and other social networks to develop rapidly, we share and access to information from strangers to the network of acquaintances, and the network of tourism communities in this area also has a significant change. Early tourism community to comment on, travel notes to share, the destination recommended mainly for people to provide as much understanding and help as possible before departure, domestic such as poor travel net, distant network, green, mill nets, etc., have been in China's most senior road old Donkey, and internationally, Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) TripAdvisor, the world's largest and most popular tourist community, is also the world's first travel review site, with more than 10 million registered users and over 2,500 reviews.

TripAdvisor hundreds of thousands of tourist destinations reviews, the number is amazing, but perhaps this is more believable than the advice of one of your best friends, and at the same time, we care more about people's movements than strangers ' travel experiences, and there may be a lot of fraud on these sites ( For example, the restaurant or hotel staff to write a review to flatter themselves, to belittle others), so in the recent two years of social network crazy development, from the beginning of the 2011, the "new tourism community" concept began to rise, and gogobot.com is the classic representative of this model.

Gogobot was founded in 2010, and completed the first round of financing 4 million U.S. dollars, by the United States "time" weekly as the "2011 Top Site", and then received a second round of financing 15 million. Gogobot's success lies in Facebook's open platform, where users can make travel plans with their friends, view their friends ' reviews and share them, and even "raiders" to their friends, and the information will be shared to a third party platform, and a reply on your Facebook Will reverse sync to Gogobot, which forms a very credible acquaintance travel area. And Gogobot's app is the foundation of social networking, users can take photos of what they've seen during the trip and make a nice postcard, and after posting it on the app, your circle of friends can click "Like" and "Share" for the first time. And these postcards will also be associated with the corresponding "location" above, for the follow-up traveler to provide reference and reference, you can also see in the past in this "location" on the left postcards, reviews of various materials.

In contrast, the domestic tourism community is also experiencing a transition from a traditional forum model to a new type of tourism community. Based on the Chinese preference for different uses of the Internet, there is no such thing as a strong social network like Facebook alone, and a blossoming social platform is not good for third party developers, and integrating users ' real social relationships faces many difficulties, Therefore, in China for the time being, there is not such a strong new tourism social network as Gogobot, but more embodies the "hundred schools" status quo.

>tripadvisor.com: The world's largest tourist community

>gogobot.com: The best travel social networking site

>mafengwo.cn: Ma Honeycomb, currently the most popular tourist community in China, APP "Travel Raiders"

>tukeq.com: A traveller's circle, dedicated to the travel community that provides the "Travel plan" function

Travel Live

In the past to share a trip, more is the return of tourism, through the collation of photos, text, Raiders, to complete an epic long travels, but also through the Forum, blog, QQ space to share to friends. After the microblog appeared, people began to use mobile phone to the debris of the tourism process "live", but the microblogging itself is not designed for travel, such a sharing although the timeliness is very strong, but information dispersed, trivial, the reader can not restore the whole process of tourism. And the combination of travel notes and Weibo these two ideas, the "Tripcolor" and "on the Road", which are specially designed for travel, solve this problem-by recording the GPS position of each picture, the system automatically concatenates the itinerary on the map, and through social platforms such as the related microblogging, Each photo will be shared at the same time, the final automatic generation of a complete footprint and time axis of the photo wall, the real realization of the edge of the walk, side note, and share.

The core function of "on the road" is to record and share every trip. The user clicks on the "Record" button to start publishing the journey. This application records a journey from 5 dimensions: Photo, location, date, note mood, and title guide. Where the location function is a bright spot, record specific locations in map mode, and when visitors are outdoors, often encounter no signal, you can use the application of the "off-line record" function, save the photo location, left to post (now most smartphones can be stored in the photos of GPS location information). While the photos in the journey are fragmented, the travel record looks orderly, clear, and aesthetically pleasing due to the time and location of the two messages loaded.

"On the Road" in October 2011, the founder of the former Grand open platform director Chen Wei. Talking about why the travel itinerary was cut into online travel, the official said, "after interacting with a lot of donkey friends, our group of young people who are passionate about mobile internet and tourism are starting to build a vertical community based on social tourism." "On the Way" on the online app Store a short time after the user's affirmation, quickly rushed into the travel category of the top 10. The model is also quickly recognized by the capital level, the beginning of the line and has been the angel investment, and reportedly a round of financing will be implemented in the near future.

>tripcolor: Itinerary recording and sharing

> on the road: Travel record and share

> Surfing: A good tool for track records

Author: In telecommunications operators have done technology, toss over the business, engaged in product & operations, mixed over half a year film circle, the ambition, has always adhered to the ideal, now on the road to entrepreneurship, pay attention to the "Mobile Internet & Online Tourism" field, Weibo address: http://weibo.com/ Zhengrf2