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As traveling becomes the norm, the travel and tourism industry has to adapt to the increase in flow, bring novelties to satisfy clients, and provide an overall great experience. As people aim to find cheap and fast means of transportation, technology provides advances that the industry can’t turn from.
This article will dive into what the industry is, why it relies on technology, and how it implements it.
Tourism is generally regarded as the act of traveling to a different location, this can be for either business or pleasure purposes. The actual definition specifies a minimum of 24 hours.
Travel refers to the act of moving from one location to another. This can refer to long-distance travel or short-distance. This also includes one-way trips and covers a wide range of traveling purposes.
While they both relate to transportation, the difference between these two sides of the industry resides in the fact that travel is much broader than tourism which only concerns short stays. These sectors however largely overlap and can be thought of more generally as the simple act of traveling.
The industry relates to the means of traveling (Airline industry, car rental, railway, etc) the accommodations (Hotels, camping, hostels, cruises, etc), food beverages (Restaurants, catering, etc), and to the entertainment industry (Shopping, tours, casinos, etc).
Global spending due to tourism has been in a steady increase since 2000, before crashing down amid the pandemic, between 2002 and 2019, the global spending in the industry doubled, up to $1,250 billion in 2019.
Technology has an important part to play in this growth and the industry is now entirely dependant on it to maintain its appeal.
The use of technology in the travel and tourism industry is of major importance, in this section we’ll detail what the main reasons for innovating are.
One of the greatest inventions of our modern days is the airplane, giving us the ability to cross oceans into new continents. As this technology became cheaper and new materials were discovered, airplanes offered us the ability to travel further.
This increases the number of flights for business and leisure as people can now reach new places they probably never dreamed of going to.
The ability to travel fast makes it easy for people to go on short trips, this encourages traveling by offering customers the ability to visit family members or friends for the weekend. Faster travel speeds encourage everyone to travel more and spend more time where you want to go and minimize the time it takes to get there.
The cost might be the single most important factor for the increase the industry has known in the past years. Alternatives like buses, low-cost airlines, and cheap hotels give clients cheap means of traveling. Further encouraging them to visit new countries and travel.
Technology has made the places, and transportation comfier, as part of the population, like staying in the comfort of their home, making their stay and their travel comfort helps them take their first steps and go visit different places.
Technology has also made the travel and tourism industry much more convenient, whether it’s booking a flight, reserving a table at a restaurant, looking up the menu online, translating a foreign language, getting directions. All of these tasks used to be a hassle, they can now happen in less than a minute each.
This simple fact has facilitated the process and brought travel and tourism to the masses.
Now that we understand why technology is so important to the industry, let’s understand how the technology is implemented.
The internet has brought a free flow of information with it. Planning for a trip is incredibly easy, thanks to search engines, you can find and book all you need in advance, flights, hotels, and places to eat.
The technology behind Airbnb allows tourists and travelers alike to stay in a country they might know nothing about, in the comfort of someone's home. This also provides the traveler with someone they might feel a little closer to on their trip to a foreign country.
This application works so well because it makes people who are afraid of traveling a little more at ease, bringing practicality and comfort. A lot of other innovations follow these guidelines, they all have ease of use, comfort, and cost in mind.
Another powerful tech element that encourages people to travel is our smartphone and the ability to stay in close contact with our families. We can easily take pictures and videos to send our families or friends and keep them up to date with what we’re doing.
This simple fact makes a lot more people confident about traveling far away from home. As long as they have WiFi, they can communicate with their families and feel a sense of security that might not exist otherwise.
Our smartphones bring another powerful tool to the table. As maps are now digital, you no longer have to rely on an outdated map of the country your visiting. You get added information, directions, various routes and estimates for the time it will take you and how much it will cost.
This added benefit helps people travel the world as they can always rely on some technology to get information, directions, and help if needed.
As technology progresses, travel and tourism is a lot more guided, people no longer travel into the unknown to lose themselves. While this might remove an important reason for you to travel, it also brings the joys of discovering a foreign place and culture to the masses that might not want to lose themselves into the wilderness. Technology brings security and comfort to this industry so as to make it more accessible.
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