The World Travel and Tourism Council and Travelport recently published a report in which they say that business travel equates to around $1.3 trillion of worldwide travel spending. The prediction is that this will rise at around 3.7% each year for the next decade.
There surely can’t be any doubt that this rise – and it’s predicted continued growth – is due at least in part to the rapid adoption of new technologies that make travel easier and more convenient than ever before.
The key to all this? The smartphone. As use of smartphones even now continues to grow, the demand for new app services has increased – which is turn has been adopted by many companies in the travel industry to make life easier for the traveller.
You can check in for your flight via apps. You can check the exchange rate via apps. You can locate your hotel via apps. You can book your taxi via apps. You can even unlock your suitcase via apps. Almost anything is available on your smartphone to make things simpler.
Improving business travellers’ experience isn’t limited to smartphones of course – development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and ‘smart’ equipment all have almost limitless possibilities.
It will be interesting to see how much further technology goes.