Since the pandemic, adventure travel has been growing in popularity – and growing fast. This means there’s never been a more important time to be able to clearly and efficiently communicate with your clients. So we teamed up with the lovely (and extremely knowledgeable) folks over at Adventure Travel Networking to look at how the latest travel tech supercharges your client’s experience. If you’ve got some time, you can watch the full webinar below and get every juicy detail. If not, we’ve summarised the key takeaways below.
Who we heard from
This webinar was loaded with genuine experts in adventure travel and travel tech. Together they’ve got decades of experience in the industry. Let’s meet them:
- Pru Goudie, Adventure Travel Networking. Our partner host from ATN and adventure travel guru.
- Jono Vernon-Powell, Nomadic Thoughts. The charismatic moderator of this discussion and a seasoned tour operator.
- Alisdair Lusmoore, Vamoos & Fleewinter. Alisdair has extensive knowledge of travel tech through Vamoos, as well as of tour-operating through Fleewinter.
- Mark Fancourt, Travhotech. Our guest speaker and all-around travel tech expert with 25+ years of experience
- Mark Johnson, Hobnail. Also a guest speaker, this Mark knows a heck of a lot about adventure travel and communication.
Why is travel tech so important for adventure travellers?
- Readily accessible channels of communication and reliable tech builds trust. That’s vitally important for adventure travellers who are, at times, putting their life in your hands. They also have a more urgent need than other holiday goers to be able to access key information quickly and safely wherever they are in the world – tech can provide this.
- Since the pandemic, an increasing number of thrill-seekers are what’s known as digital nomads: those who constantly move and work from wherever they are via the internet. These new-age nomads love adventure and they love tech, so a travel company needs to be able to deliver both of these elements to have a strong appeal.
- Moving heavily towards client relationship management tools has been a big trend in the industry for a while, but now travel companies are taking it even further. Personalisation and customisation are fast becoming key selling points for the new generation of adrenaline junkies.
- The modern adventure travel company must have a platform on which to engage customers. Clients are increasingly using mobile apps and phones instead of websites, which can’t be ignored if you’re to thrive in the digital age. Adventure travellers are cutting-edge people – they want the best experience and the top tech to support it.
What are the benefits of investing in travel tech for clients?
- It’s no secret that the travel sector has been lagging behind other industries in terms of embracing both tech and communication. But now people want to share the trip they’ve booked with their network. They want a live countdown to departure that they can post on Instagram. They want to get excited about the trip and keep revisiting their itinerary until they’re giddy with excitement. An app can facilitate these new demands in a way that calls, emails, letters and websites never could.
- Supporting the claims made above, Vamoos has found that their travel app is used more between booking and travel, than when clients are actually on the trip. Before the recent advances in travel tech, there was a void between booking and takeoff. But now clients expect more. After all, they’ve paid all that money, they want more from the build-up.
- The key is to keep the experience going. Travellers consider being able to share the details of their trip as more than an added feature, it’s a part of the holiday. For many adventure seekers, their holiday is their biggest spend of the year – they want to get everything out of it that they can. As travel companies, we’re now selling more than the holiday, we’re selling the excitement, too.
What are the benefits of investing in travel tech for travel companies?
- The window to engage with customers before the trip is shrinking. Clients are increasingly booking closer to their departure date, so the post-travel experience has become more important, too.
- Adventure travellers are prone to rebooking if you give them a better experience than they’ve had elsewhere, so once you’ve got a customer, you need to hold onto them. You need to not only maintain the relationship but nurture it, too. And a travel app gives you the tools to do it.
- Having the offline capability of an app is vital as lots of adventure travellers often go off-grid during trips. Being able to access their information makes clients feel connected to you, even when they’re not. That’s top-tier service.
- Today most customers are digital, tomorrow they all will be. So, ultimately, you’re either in the digital space, or you’re not. Lots of companies used the pandemic to upgrade their tech, making the virtual sphere more competitive than ever. Don’t get left behind.
Ready to up your tech game?
To find out how Vamoos can give you the tech you need with a free consultation, click here.
Watch now: [WEBINAR] Adventure Travel Networking | Supercharge Your Client Comms with Travel Tech
