Traveling has already become the fundamental need for the wanderers across the globe and the partial credit should go to the travel portal development companies.
Evidently, the tourism has been considered as an essential part of people’s lives for their own personal achievements like experiencing different cultures, learning new languages, sight-seeing, scuba-diving, hiking and at times, for no definite reason. But, was it travel always this popular? Well, not to everyone.
People found it difficult to plan the intricacies of travel which was more than just packing your bag. In fact, it is a herculean task of making a decision on itinerary and doing multiple bookings at the hotel with minimum transparency and exposure.
So, what made traveling easily accessible and doable task?
Travel Portals
Travel portals consist of features which have made traveling as easy as breathing. These features gave the comfort and liberty of picking your desired amenities such as luxurious hotel rooms, window flight seats, add-on services, final cost comparisons or booking confirmation at a simple click without any hassle. This advancement has attracted the majority of people and encouraged them to finally take the vacation they have always dreamed of.
Portal development services have re-designed the tourism sector and gave it a whole new avatar which made travel accessible to a broader audience.
To enthrall and engage online customers, the travel web portals have a design that makes the traveler’s journey quick and comfortable with easy and useful features.
What are the key features these Travel Portal Development Companies must involve?
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Predictive Analysis
When a large amount of data feeds into the predictive model, it creates a useful multipurpose software. Predictive analysis unravels the opportunity gate for the vast range of industries like an airline, hospitality, travel agencies, public transport etc.
Predictive Search – A variety of statistical methods from predictive modeling and data mining analyze the current and past behavior of the potential customers and predict future travel possibilities.
Predictive analysis has been practiced by various industries, for example, a retail industry. You must have noticed that most of the e-commerce websites provide recommendations based on the visitors search and buying habits.
Even if people put just a single alphabet in the search bar, they get plenty of recommendations based on their previous searches.
Many people iteratively believe that predictive feature only saves few strokes on the customer’s travel portal account, however, it’s the comfort of saving time and predicting travel probabilities which lead travelers to depend on the travel portals more than any other means.
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Responsive Design
Responsive design should be considered without a blink as it is quite a basic requirement in today’s multi-gadget environment.
Availability of the multiple types of gadgets, such as smartphones, laptops, desktops, and tablets, with different screen sizes makes the responsive design mandatory. It becomes a prime factor in creating a simple to navigate and engaging travel portals. This gives the customer a portal design which focuses more on the needs of the visitors rather than a ‘single gadget’ based portal design.
To put it in a nutshell, a potential customer should have a smooth experience while booking or surfing through your web portal rather than getting confused with changing screens.
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Straightforward Interface
Majority of the travel portals have incorporated a straightforward organized list of requirements related to the product or services including every possible option to get more appropriate buying scenario according to the customer’s need.
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Riveting Pictures and Videos
You always believe what you see! Allowing beautiful and clear pictures into your travel portal strategy entice and convert almost half of the new audience.
Let’s assume, you are looking for the Antebellum and Victorian homestay in the beautiful surrounding of Georgia, and you are unable to decide which place to book because every option has similar amenities and services.
Incorporating beautiful images, videos, graphics, and any visual elements can be a great tool in persuading the customer to give a final nod with the big smile.
As Airbnb make their users put an interesting, real and colorful pictures of the property increasing the interest level of their visitors. People start mining the place after place into the apps, stop at the screen full of glorifying image which makes them plan their travel in their head already.
Apart from this, be careful in allowing the well-chosen collection of pictures which creates a chronological view of the place with easy to understand mapping and description.
Simple videos with a walkthrough of the accommodation make everything look more appealing and transparent for the potential customer. Great visuals would set the expectations at the rise and surprises at the lowest.
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Social Media Integration
Travelers are most diverse and expressive people who like to share their stories and experiences with everyone. Integrating the popular social media handles, like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, within the travel apps is a win-win scenario for everyone. Firstly, the travelers like to interact and convey their experiences with other users, subsequently, the service providers get the insight of customer’s mind and utilize the feedback for improvement in services, and, finally, the travel web application gets the opportunity to reach the broader audience.
Social media gives an easy, informal and convenient platform to people who would like to do the discussions, share stories, make suggestions and a lot more. This proves to be an opportunity for multiple industries enhancing their customer engagement and brand reputation around the world.
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Navigation
Location navigation feature, especially Google Maps, integration proves to be an essential part of the customer experience and booking process. Travelers can thoroughly study the destination do’s and don’ts, plan their local transport in advance, pick interesting activities happening at the time of visit and so on.
Hotel selection is majorly decided based on the type of activities people want to explore. For instance, if a tourist wants to sunbathe and read that favorite novel at Coney Island, he/she might want to book an accommodation just a walk away from the beach during summer.
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Reviews and Feedbacks
Although some people view this as a negative feature in the travel system, reviews and feedbacks are traveler’s right and it creates a transparent community. When an application allows the flow of authentic information about the travel experiences and recommendations, this plays a pivotal role in developing a comfortable forum for the travellers.
It definitely enhances the customer engagement and give them a sense of security in planning their work or leisure trips.
Summary
To engage and captivate travelers, the travel portal development companies have evolved the technology and helped the world in ever-increasing globalization. We have recapitulated the list of vital features which play a fundamental role in the tourism industry. Nonetheless, we, at BluEnt, are constantly working with our existing clients and developing customized web portals and web design according to the target customers and scenarios.
BluEnt is a web application development company based in New York City. We have a strong team of avid developers and engineers who have worked on similar projects and gained quality industry experience.
Maximum Value. Achieved.