Mobile in Travel 2009

Having a website does not bring success.

Having a great website will.

Mobile will not help your business –

But, using it effectively will transform it.
Introduction
As a Senior Executive within the travel industry, you will no doubt have heard about the
‘Mobile Opportunity’ and how ‘Mobile’ will play an important role in the future of travel.
The ‘Internet’ received a similar billing and we all know what happened to companies that
embraced that medium early….. or perhaps we heard more about the companies that didn’t!
However, the important question is; “How, why and where is the mobile medium relevant to
your company?” and “How do you assess what the opportunities are for your business?”

WHITE PAPER OBJECTIVE AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION

To evaluate the opportunity properly, one needs to be
in possession of the full facts.
The objective of this white paper is to provide Senior
Executives in the travel industry with the facts in respect of the
‘Mobile Opportunity’, to assist them in making an informed
decision in the context of their businesses.
In brief this paper will provide the following:
• A basic understanding of the mobile sector
• Specific information on mobile issues that will affect the
travel sector moving forward
A DEVELOPMENT ISSUE
Mobile has a development issue, similar to that initially
experienced by the Internet.
Speaking to Senior Executives across many industries,
it is evident that new products or innovations that are specific
to any one particular department (marketing, sales,
operations, commercial, finance etc) are easier to manage,
as the relevant department will take responsibility to assess
the opportunity and deliver against it. However, innovations
such as the Internet and now Mobile, which are companywide
and do not fall under any one department’s remit,
can potentially get lost in the development process.

• Practical examples of how mobile can be utilised across all Unfortunately, given the fact that these innovations will
sectors of the travel Industry influence a whole business means that they are also the
ones that can have the largest impact.

The information contained in this white paper will answer

some of the more common questions asked by travel
executives, such as:

• How should we view the ‘Mobile Opportunity’ strategically?

• Can it earn revenue for my business?

• How will it improve our bottom line?

• What do the terms WAP, SMS and Mobile Application

actually mean?

• What realistically can we use it for…now and in the future?

• Do our customers want it?

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INTERNET GROWTH …….
DITTO ……. MOBILE GROWTH
It is interesting to see how the growth of the mobile sector has
been similar to that of the Internet in its early days. Whilst this
does not mean it will have the same impact, it does show how
important it is for companies to assess the mobile opportunity
and develop a strategy.
Examples of these similarities include:
• Internet data charges were fixed (Internet usage exploded
following the introduction of ‘All You Can Eat’ data
packages). Mobile network operators have now introduced
similar packages.
• Growth accelerated following mass-market adoption of the
Internet. More people now own and use a mobile than they
do a PC or a TV.
• The Internet lost its ‘Only for Youth’ tag. The Mobile has also
now achieved this and is embraced by people of all ages.
On the Internet, consumers started to give their email address
as their point of contact rather than their home address.
It is now more common to give a mobile number as a point of
contact than a fixed line number.
FUNNY BUT TRUE…….….:
In one particular airline, the person who had the
title of ‘Head of Mobile’ and was identified by a
senior executive within that company as the
relevant contact to discuss the ‘mobile opportunity’
with, turned out to be the person who was
responsible for buying mobile phones
for the Pilots!!
HAS THE MOBILE
MEDIUM ARRIVED?
• 3.3 billion people actively use SMS....that’s over twice as
many as the 1.4 billion people that use the Internet
• 2.5 times as many people send a text than send an email!
• 700 million people use Instant Messenger, which is free
whilst 3.3 billion will happily pay to send a text message!
• 200 million people use social networking sites when 3.3
billion communicate and receive information by SMS.
• 1.7 billion people have a credit card….3.3 billion people can
pay by SMS!
• 90% of European mobile users sent or received a text
message in 2007.
The Mobile used to be just a ‘voice communication’ tool but
now it provides:
• Communication not only through voice but through SMS,
email, Bluetooth, instant messaging and WAP.
• Connectivity to Data (Web access on mobile, bespoke
Mobile information pages)
It is worth remembering, that those who were slow
in adopting the Internet, hadn’t reviewed it fully
and had decided that it was not for them. They
were the ones that, perhaps for the reason
detailed above, did not assess the opportunity
fully or even assess it at all…. and were then left
playing catch up.
In many cases this was a very costly
mistake…. for some, it was terminal!
www.travelbuddy.co.uk 03
THE MOBILE OPPORTUNITY
– AN OVERVIEW
As the growth of mobile has been similar to that of the Internet
in many ways, we can learn from that growth pattern as we
move forward with the mobile opportunity. Initially, there was a
tendency for businesses to treat the Internet as a completely
separate entity, detached from their core business function
(i.e. they were either in retail shops or on the Internet but not
both!). The Internet is now viewed as integral to all businesses
and is viewed as another channel to market and one that can
deliver across the value chain from sales to marketing to
operations and communications. If the mobile opportunity is
restricted to a single department, potential growth across the
business as a whole will be severely restricted.
All departments need access to the benefits and capabilities
of mobile within their own working environment.
The mobile opportunity should be viewed in the same way as
the Internet. Mobile is not going to replace any other
communication channel but will play an important part of the
product / service delivery mix in the future and will only serve
to enhance customer retention and satisfaction. To explain this
further, it may pertinent to respond to some questions that
have been asked by senior figures in the travel industry:
The mobile medium provides this access showing how it will
play a role in a company’s overall product and service delivery
plans.
MOBILE IN TRAVEL, WHY?
– THE TRAVEL FACTS
• 85% of travellers take their mobile phones abroad.
• The mobile phone is now the number one accessory taken
abroad by travellers, ahead of iPods/MP3 players and even
cameras.
• The introduction of automatic ‘roaming’ (allowing mobile
users to use their phones abroad) is now available to
travellers worldwide.
• 75% of travel companies surveyed confirmed that they want
to make mobile part of their future communication/digital
strategy.
• Mobile is the efficient and cost effective way to communicate
MOBILE WILL …….
• Extend communication time with the customer
• Enhance customer service
• Increase ancillary earning opportunities

DO YOU THINK THAT • Reduce operational costs

MOBILE WILL BE AS
BIG AS THE INTERNET
IN TRAVEL? As one travel
The traveller will not use one instead of the other. Mobile is a
tool that can give the traveller access to the Internet, the expert said:
traveller will not decide to use a mobile instead of the The companies that succeed in the travel industry
internet….that would be like asking whether they will use a PC will be those who figure out how to serve their
or the Internet!
customers better whilst learning how to decrease
E.G: If a customer has their Itinerary delivered on the Internet actual interpersonal interaction
(as a personal page from their travel company/airline or a
confirmation email) how does that person view the information
when they are travelling?

Interesting Fact – It does not cost to receive a text whilst abroad

04
 Interesting Fact – A UK traveller whilst abroad can use a ‘shortcode’. (e.g. they
could text the word ‘TRAVEL’ to shortcode 82345 and receive their itinerary delivered
to their mobile phone, automatically without any need for human interaction.

MOBILE AND YOUR BUSINESS?

IDEA BOOK PRE-TRAVEL OUTBOUND FLIGHT DESTINATION RETURN

The best way to view the ‘mobile
opportunity’ in the context of your own
business is to look at the various stages of
the travel value chain, as detailed above. At
each of these stages, one needs to consider
the requirements of your customer and
whether the mobile medium can be utilised
to deliver what those customers want, in a
way that achieves one or perhaps all of the
following objectives?
These objectives are not independent of each other and all
three can be achieved (see ‘Mobile Package’ later in this
document as an example).
The second consideration is that the mobile phone is a unique
tool and user expectations are very different from those of the
Internet. On their mobile, the user wants clear, relevant, timely
and above all concise information. If we look at the very
successful example of Football Goal Alerts (providing mobile
text alerts on football scores for one’s chosen team), the
mobile user just wants the details of who scored? When? And
for which team?
However, if that user were online, they would have a different
expectation and would want an image of the goal, a more
detailed description as well as perhaps even a video!

MOBILE OBJECTIVES:
GENERATE REVENUES – either directly from the information
provided or through ancillary sales.
REDUCE COSTS – delivering information ‘proactively’ to
customers can reduce operational costs significantly.
Without looking at the specifics of the example above and to
assist in the general understanding of what works and what
doesn’t, on the next page is a useful synopsis when
considering the type of content/ information a traveller wants
delivered to their mobile. Wherever they are in their journey
cycle, TAP is a very simple acronym to remember.

ENHANCE SERVICE – differentiate your company and

increase customer service at a reduced cost.

NB: The mobile, like the Internet is a phenomenal platform to embrace….but like the Internet, if it is used in the wrong way it
can prove ineffectual. In one example, a hastily put together text message was sent to all travellers in a specific destination
using one example of wording and a 6% response was achieved. The wording was changed and 40% responded!!

www.travelbuddy.co.uk 05
T = TIMELY
A = AREA SPECIFIC
P = PERSONAL / PROFILED
We can now look at a few examples of using mobile in the various stages of the value chain using the ‘TAP’ rule and meeting one or
all of the objectives namely, generating revenues, reducing costs or enhancing service.
IDEA
Q. Can mobile play a part in a traveller researching a
holiday and will people actually book their holiday or
flight on their mobile?
The answer to this is yes but not in any numbers in the
foreseeable future. Although the advancement of the iphone,
the Blackberry and other similar devices are speeding up this
process, the standard mobile user is a long way from making
bookings or researching travel on their mobile. The reason for
this is part cautionary, part practical. Again, similar to the
Internet, when one could buy online most were cautious in
doing so and few actually did for some time. In terms of
practicality, the travel research process is part of the fun and
excitement pre-booking and the traveller wants to see pictures
and videos of the destination or hotel and this type of content is
not conducive to mobile.
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Deliver information and/or offers at the right time for the
traveller. As you know the time and dates that the customer is
travelling, content can be delivered in accordance with that
information. (i.e. specific airport and flight Information, special
offers pre-departure, flight alerts pre return departure or post
travel offer/message)
Once you know the traveller’s destination; you can deliver any
information or offers relevant to that location, country, region,
resort, and accommodation.
Deliver information or offers relevant to the profile of the
traveller (i.e. give EVENTS happening in Rome; specifically at
the time that the traveller will be there) and where possible
match their personal details (Family, Couple, Youth etc). The
‘TAP’ rule acts as a good guideline when delivering mobile
content or communication at any stage in your relationship
with the traveller, whether it is pre- departure, during or post
trip.
It will happen but it will develop in stages. The first sector to
gain traction will be the booking of flight only where the
consumer just needs a price and dates or perhaps where the
customer just wants to book the same hotel as previously
booked. In both of these cases, there is less of a requirement
for research and detailed information.
Prior to booking complete holidays or flights on mobile,
travellers will look for operational services from their travel
provider/airline that will enable them to change their flights,
check-in prior to arriving at the airport or book additional
ancillary services on their mobile.
However, even if consumers will not book in numbers via their
mobile for some time, there is an opportunity now that is
attractive to travel providers/airlines at the ‘IDEA’ stage. This
is to use mobile as a vehicle to inform customers of last
minute deals. This is an excellent way for travel providers to
sell excess inventory and build a valuable mobile database.
PRE-TRAVEL
A customer has booked their flight, holiday or business trip
and we now look at a few examples, applying the ‘TAP’ rules,
of what can be delivered to the customer to achieve one or all
of the objectives.
ITINERARY The customer is delivered their Itinerary directly to
their mobile giving them easy access to their details wherever
they are. This information can be delivered automatically prior
to departure or the customer can request it when they need it.
Imagine how impressive and valuable that information would
be. The customer is sitting on the beach, they text ITINERARY
and immediately receive a personalised SMS text stating their
flight number is 5643 leaving from Palma Airport, Terminal 1
the next day at 14.30hrs and their transfer pick up will be at
11.45hrs. There has been no human interaction, the
information has been delivered in seconds and the enhanced
customer experience is one that will be remembered when
next booking a holiday or flight.
PROVIDE FLIGHT DELAY INFOMATION Provide information
on delays to the customer’s flight. As the travel provider, you
know which flight the customer is on, therefore this is an easy
service to deliver and one that the traveller values highly,
potentially enhancing brand awareness, reducing costs and
generating revenues as it is proven that travellers are willing to
pay for such a service. The customer texts the word FLIGHT
and they receive a confirmation text stating that their Flight
Number 5643 is currently on schedule to depart from Terminal
1, Palma Airport at 14.30hrs. This information can be delivered
as part of their holiday as an enhanced service or provided as
a paid for service. It may be that your company already incurs
high costs of customers calling your UK contact centre for flight
updates and information. If so, to provide this service
proactively as part of the booking process would actually
reduce costs as well as enhance service delivery.
OTHER REVENUE AND SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES As the
travel provider you will know the customers route and
departure airport. With this in mind, there are additional
opportunities to offer other relevant and timely services such
as: Airport parking, airport transfers, VIP lounge access,
priority boarding or even mobile check-in.
TRAFFIC INFORMATION Mobile traffic alerts relevant to the
roads surrounding the customers’ departure airport. This
information can be chargeable to the customer as an
additional service or included in their booking as a brand
enhancer. It may be decided that services such as this will
only be provided free to ‘premium’ customers as part of their
booking but perhaps incur a charge for standard bookings.
SKI INFORMATION Every skier and boarder wants to have
the latest snow report. Again, as the travel provider you know
where they are travelling to so you can provide them with
automatic updates and snow alerts prior to departure. Again
this has proven to be an excellent brand enhancer but also a
service that skiers and boarders will pay for.
MOBILE VOUCHERS A straight revenue earning opportunity
would be to deliver discount vouchers directly to the traveller’s
mobile (Mobile Coupons) tailored to their specific area or
departure airport. Again, this is timely information, location
relevant as well as personalised. Coupons can be delivered
dependent on where the customer is travelling (i.e. coupons
for suntan cream delivered specifically to customers travelling
to hot destinations or vouchers for lip balm, or outdoor clothing
for ski customers etc.)
MOBILE CHECK-IN The traveller can both check-in via their
mobile phone or online and receive their check-in code
delivered to their mobile phone. This can then be read at the
departure airport to ease congestion, enhance the customer
journey and reduce the costs at the airport for the airline.
www.travelbuddy.co.uk 07
DID YOU KNOW!!
Over 80% of handsets now come with a built in, 2D barcode reader.

Embedded in this code to the right can be a URL for specific offers or information personal to a specific
customer. For example, a personal code can be delivered by the travel provider/airline to their customer.
The customer passes their mobile phone over the barcode and their itinerary opens up on their screen and is
saved to their phone. There are numerous opportunities and applications for the travel provider/airline to
utilise this type of barcode.

MOBILE COMMUNICATION
Mobile is an invaluable communication vehicle that is both
cost effective and efficient.
An airport announces that it is closing due to a security alert
or extreme weather conditions. A travel provider may have
hundreds of customers already on their way to, or already at
the airport.
Mobile communication can be used at any stage of the travel
value chain and it is proven to be a huge advantage to the
travel provider/airline that can communicate with its customers
in this way. A number of travel providers are already delivering
this service. It is available now with little or no initial outlay or
investment.

For a few pounds, the company can communicate with all

affected customers via their mobile phone and keep them
updated throughout the situation.
The process can be fully managed automatically, quickly, IN
efficiently and cost effectively. DESTINATION

In this instance, the customer frustration level starts at a very

high level but the swift mobile communication process diffuses
the situation very quickly, travellers want to be informed. The
travel provider/airline reduces its overall cost of communication
dramatically and the service scores very highly with the
traveller, a great service differentiator and situation diffuser.
LOOK AT IT FROM
A CUSTOMER
PERSPECTIVE……
You are in destination, something serious happens but you are
unaware of the impending danger or crisis looming, until it
happens. However, other travellers in the same destination
have booked with a company that uses a mobile system that
can deliver them immediate information about what’s
happening and what they should do. As a customer, who
would your booking go to next time around?
Once again, utilising the same TAP rule and considering the
potential objectives (Revenues, Costs, Service) we can now
look at a couple of examples of information made available to
the customer ‘in destination’. One of the huge advantages of
mobile communication is that it opens up a potential revenue
stream that until now has been largely inaccessible to many
travel providers. A travel provider will have access to their
customer at the time of booking and perhaps during a flight
but rarely does the relationship extend much further. Whilst a
customer is in their destination and in ‘holiday mode’, this is
when their requirement for information is at its highest and
also more importantly when they are spending money. Mobile
opens up a communication path for the travel provider to now
take a slice of those valuable revenue earning opportunities,
which will potentially change many travel business revenue
models going forward.

08
How big will this ‘mobile’ opportunity
be?………….well it’s big enough for
GOOGLE to take a very keen interest and
place ‘mobile’ and ‘location’ at the top of
their future strategy and plans.
However, being a travel business has huge advantages. As a
travel provider, you not only know your customer’s location but
also how they are getting there, their length of stay and
potentially other profiled information about them. You have a
head start over non-travel businesses like GOOGLE.
Your business has the opportunity to deliver to your customer
everything that they need whilst in resort, via mobile and you
can commercially benefit from that unique relationship. Prior to
the advent of mobile, unless a company had representation in
each destination, they had little or no communication
opportunity with the customer. Mobile media has changed this
and opened the market up completely. As a travel provider
you are perfectly placed to take advantage both financially
and from an improved service delivery perspective. This
document does not and cannot deal with every prospect for
mobile in travel but here are a few practical examples of ‘in-
destination’ opportunities.
Personalised Travel Information. The author of this white
paper believes that it will be sometime before the mass
market is ‘surfing’ the web on mobile for destination
information (it’s difficult enough searching on a PC or a Mac!)
However, as a travel provider, you know where and when your
customer is travelling and so you can deliver mobile Internet
pages that are completely personalised to the customer, their
dates of travel and their destination. The opportunities with
this particular mobile vehicle are huge from both a revenue
perspective and a customer service perspective. Examples of
this are that as you know what airport the customer is
travelling from and how long they will be away for, you can
deliver the ‘actual’ cost of airport parking to their personalised
pages as well as maybe the real time rates for car rental in
their destination and their dates of travel. This service is not a
vision for the future but one that is already available with a
very low cost to entry.
UK travellers list a necessity to know what the weather forecast
is in their destination as one of the most popular items of
information requested. As you know the customer’s destination,
you can easily make this information available to them (already
very popular for ski customers). Once again depending on your
objectives, you can deliver this as a brand enhancer free to the
customer or make a small charge, generating a new revenue
stream. How many of you go on holiday and in the evening,
when you’re deciding what to do the next day, your children
ask…” What are we going to do tomorrow?” and you reply
“It depends on the weather?” Mobile enables your customer to
text the word WEATHER and receive an up-to-date weather
forecast for their destination, automated, in your brand with no
human interaction and completed within seconds.
Your customer did not book car rental at the time of booking
their trip, but now in destination, they decide they want to rent.
Potentially, this is lost revenue for you as the travel provider.
However, mobile can enable you to take that booking, add
revenue and provide a great service to the customer.
The customer doesn’t want to search locally for a provider.
Again, you already know where they are and for how long
they are going to be there, via mobile you can take that rental,
earn the revenue and deliver greater customer satisfaction.
All the traveller needs to do is text the word ‘CAR’ to you, their
travel provider via a short code (short codes work abroad i.e.
82345) and the relevant information can be ‘automatically’
generated and passed to your contact centre or your car
rental partner for the specific country/destination to fulfil the
request.
This service is already live with some companies. In this case
it deals with the hiring of a car but this type of ‘keyword’ (CAR)
request can be used for many other travel services
( i.e. PARKING, HOTEL, EXCURSIONS).
The pay per click ‘GOOGLE’ model will come to mobile too.
If one looks at the example of personalisation above, it is
clear why businesses like GOOGLE are interested in the
‘mobile location’ business. There are many businesses in
destinations around the world, wanting to advertise events
or promote products and services to travellers in specific
destinations. Pre-mobile, the only way for a company to
promote to visitors was through normal advertising
channels, which proved very hit and miss, not targeted or
particularly measurable. Now, with mobile, visitors can be
targeted directly in location via mobile.
www.travelbuddy.co.uk 09

Discreet advertising alongside pertinent content delivery will
prove to be a very successful model for travel businesses in
the very near future. Soon we will see the local weather
information brought to you by ‘Nivea’ sun cream in association
with airline ‘X’, or UK airport traffic updates brought to you by
“BMW’ and tour operator ‘Y’, all delivered by mobile, with a
pay per delivery model, another valuable revenue stream and
very targeted.
A traveller in destination requests local information via SMS
text on their mobile, for example for seafood restaurants.
A similar ‘PPC’ model can work, where restaurants will pay to
be further up on the list of restaurants delivered back to the
customer. The value that the travel provider has now is that
they know where the customer is, how long they are in that
destination and perhaps even a customer profile. This means
that highly specific content can be delivered to the customer
mobile which will have huge value for the future and it is very
important for travel businesses to be building their mobile
databases now as this will prove to be a huge asset moving
forward. How many travel businesses in the UK in 2009 still
do not capture their customer mobile number? Are you one of
them?
The mobile market is young but as with the Internet, it will be
the travel business that embraces mobile NOW that will grab
market share, increase revenue per customer and grow
margins considerably.
RETURN
FLIGHT
Very similar to the customer outbound journey, there are a
number of TAP (Timely, Area Specific, Personalised)
opportunities to deliver to the customer that are linked to their
return flight.
10
HOW CAN MOBILE ASSIST IN
SERVICING YOUR CUSTOMERS?
Businesses in the travel sector tend to fall into the following
categories with regard to customer service delivery:
• Businesses that have a customer service department and
want/need to continue to provide a service but want to
reduce costs.
• Businesses that have a customer service department and
want to increase/improve their customer service offering to
enhance their brand but are aware that this will mean an
increase in costs.
• Businesses that do not have a designated customer service
team but would like to offer a service without incurring the
significant cost associated with doing so.
As our ‘travel expert’ quoted earlier, it will be the businesses
that determine how to serve their customers better whilst
understanding how to reduce interpersonal interaction that will
achieve success. Mobile provides this opportunity.
When asked, most travel providers stated that 40-50% of their
inbound customer service calls revolved around very similar
issues and questions regarding in particular, itinerary, tickets,
flight timings and weather. Using mobile as previously detailed,
these responses can be automated and thus dramatically
reducing costs, in addition to providing a better service to the
customer.
Take the example of the customer on a beach holiday, flying
back from Palma (in ‘ITINERARY’). To deliver on mobile not
only saves the travel provider money, the customer receives a
superior service (they are not making an expensive call from
overseas and being kept on hold). Everybody wins!
A number of travel providers have launched this simple
service and it is already seen as integral to their
product/service offering, traveller feedback has been
excellent.
Looking back at 2d barcodes and future destination
opportunities, mobile vouchers can be sent to the
traveller’s mobile to be redeemed anywhere. So, if you
have customers going to Barcelona or New York, they can
receive, for example, retail or restaurant vouchers to be
redeemed specifically for the dates they are there.
This is not a ‘future’ technology, it can be delivered now
and this market will build in value significantly over the next
5 years. Travel providers that build their mobile databases
now will see huge benefits from technology that is now
readily available to travel businesses in the UK.
It is also evident that travel providers are looking to
‘differentiate’ their offering to that of their competitors.
Mobile now means that they can provide a service without the
need to invest in expensive systems.
There are many other ways of creating revenues and adding
value by differentiating your business using mobile and whilst
the above examples only scratch the surface of the full
breadth of opportunities available to you now, it should at least
give a glimpse of the huge potential that mobile can now bring
to your business.
ARE PEOPLE SURFING THE WEB ON
THEIR MOBILE?
Figures in the UK show that around 25% of mobile users ‘surf
the web’ on their mobile. However, this can be misleading.
The 25% figure is actually the number of people opening up a
WAP/INTERNET session on their mobile. Given that
whenever someone buys a ringtone or screensaver for their
mobile phone they generally have to open a WAP/INTERNET
session to receive it means that perhaps the 25% of users
identified as surfing the web on mobile aren’t necessarily
doing so in the same way as they would on a PC or a Mac.
Whilst it can sometimes be frustrating for a traveller to view an
internet page on their phone, again, as the travel provider you
know where the traveller is going and when, so that their
‘searching’ and accumulation of pertinent content can already
be done for them automatically, optimised for their specific
mobile handset and delivered to them, tailored by you and
with you brand identification. Again, having access to this
personal travel information (when, where and for how long),
travel providers are sitting on a huge and unique library of
untapped data and it is why mobile businesses, particularly
Travel Buddy have been the pioneers in developing and
rolling-out a full ‘white labelled mobile solution’ to travel
businesses, to enable them to take full advantage of their
unique position.
And, from a traveller perspective, you want bespoke
information delivered to you in the most accessible way
(mobile) with content such as your Itinerary, local events,
weather and tickets for example that are available in your
destination on the dates that you are there, not a market, club,
concert or show that is scheduled to finish two weeks before
you arrive, which is what you may get in published generic
guides and internet searches.
CAN’T WE JUST MAKE OUR
WEB PAGES ACCESSIBLE TO
MOBILE USERS?
For the reasons detailed later in this document relating to
handset optimisation, regurgitating web content on mobile is
not the way forward, not only from a technical perspective but
more importantly, the mobile user wants a different experience
than they would receive online and they want it optimised and
delivered specifically for mobile. Delivering the same web
content on a mobile is a little like making a TV show and then
without changing it’s format and content, putting it on the
radio.
SHOULD WE OUTSOURCE OUR MOBILE
STRATEGY OR DO IT OURSELVES?
This is a question that many people ask and whilst each
company will make their own decision based on their own
infrastructure and resources, there are a number of important
things to consider. When assessing whether to make the
investment into developing mobile expertise internally, the two
relevant questions are:
1. Will building the technology add value to your business as
an asset?
2. Will it increase your margin on each sale and deliver
additional profits by developing it internally or are the costs
prohibitive?
Whatever you decide, there will always be areas that you will
definitely not want to develop internally, for example having to
optimise ‘content’ for use on all mobile handsets (as detailed
later in this document under the ‘Jargon’ section) an important
factor to bear in mind in your decision making process.
As the mobile market expands and develops, there will be
new delivery options as well as new technologies (e.g.
barcodes, coupons, mobile video etc) and should a travel
business decide to develop mobile solutions internally then
they would have to make a fairly significant investment in staff
and research to have the expertise to develop the capability
as well as being able to look at developments such as
‘Bluetooth’, ‘Mobile Internet Page Services’ and assessing the
right mobile operator partners etc. Generally speaking, with
current mobile business models, this work is carried out by
external suppliers and in the case of Travel Buddy, all systems
and content have been specifically designed and developed
www.travelbuddy.co.uk 11
after consultation with, and specifically for, businesses within
the travel industry. This mobile business model also means
that travel providers can already access mobile technology,
systems, ready-made strategy and services for a very low cost
or on a revenue share of the income derived from mobile
activity, which can be self funding.
This gives a potential zero cost of entry to the market and
enables travel providers to use mobile as part of their product
and service mix leaving them to concentrate on their core
business of selling flights and holidays.
It is also relevant to note, that in the current economic climate,
the cost of investing internally in new areas such as mobile
will prove prohibitive and external solutions like the one
supplied by Travel Buddy, can deliver entry to the mobile
arena with minimum or no outlay.
SUMMARY:
In summary, the mobile medium is already playing a role in
the travel sector and future plans, with more and more
companies adopting it as part of their communication and
product mix and extending the communication time with the
customer, saving costs, increasing ancillary sales and
enhancing customer service.
Travel Agents, Tour Operators and Airlines can be very
different in their business approach as well as their approach
to customers and should look at the opportunity in context of
their own business model. For example, if a company is a
Tour Operator that sells escorted tours, then they will use the
mobile in a very different way than the business that sells
flight only, room only or package holidays.
The most important aspect of this document is that we hope it
shows that mobile already is and will continue to play an
increasingly important role within travel and it is important for
businesses, that don’t have one already, to have a ‘mobile
strategy’.
This document has provided brief, but hopefully thought
provoking, information on mobile in travel. Given the limited
distribution of this document, the author will be only too happy
to discuss with the recipients any aspect of it and answer any
questions that may arise as a result of it.
12
MOBILE DELIVERY IN
THE TRAVEL SECTOR:
Below is a summary of the methods of how content or
communication can be delivered through mobile to the
customer. Briefly, whenever you communicate with your
customer via their mobile, whether for sales, marketing or
operational purposes, it will be generally done by one of the
following methods:
SMS - Text messaging.160 characters (including spaces) of
basic text.
WAP/MOBILE INTERNET – Providing users with access to
mobile internet pages on their handset.
MOBILE APPLICATIONS (JAVA) – The user downloads an
application to their phone (generally a JAVA application),
which holds relevant information for them. It also delivers an
‘Icon’ for their screen. When they click on this icon it
automatically opens up the phone line and updated
information is downloaded to that application.
BLUETOOTH – Bluetooth is short-range wireless technology
that enables one to send and receive messages, pictures and
video clips to other Bluetooth enabled handsets. This
technology has also been used to deliver marketing messages
or offers to people, for example in shopping centres as they
walk past a restaurant or shop, delivering a special offer to the
handset.
Above are the main types of mobile content delivery. There is
also a vital piece of information that you need to be aware of
at the same time and it comes under the heading of ‘Mobile
Handset Optimisation’.
WHAT DOES ‘MOBILE HANDSET
OPTIMISATION’ MEAN?
Very simply, when browsing the internet on a PC, the browser
(i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox etc) optimises the web page you
want to see so that you can view it on the screen clearly with
the right dimensions and colours etc. When a business
develops their internet pages, they make sure that they work
(or are ‘OPTIMISED’) to work with all Internet browsers.
Mobile Handset Optimisation is basically doing exactly the
same as this but has to ‘Optimise’ its content for all mobile
handsets and their browsers.
Simple for a PC but with mobiles, there are not only more
browsers but also different screen sizes and colour
combinations and as a consequence, an Internet page on one
mobile handset can look superb whilst on another handset, it
will be illegible. This is why a company cannot just provide a
customer with access to their website from their phone as it
simply will not work.
‘OPTIMISATION’
– HOW IT WORKS!
In essence, when a customer accesses a service on their
mobile, their request identifies the make and model of their
handset and so the mobile pages can be delivered with the
right colours and screen dimensions for that specific handset.
Every request is ‘washed’ through a ‘mobile optimiser’ and
delivered correctly to the specific handset.
APPLICATION OR MOBILE
INTERNET DELIVERY?
They both have their advantages and disadvantages but
perhaps the downloading of mobile Applications has been the
more problematic. Mobiles can have different operating
systems and as many of us have probably found out, different
ways of using the mobile buttons for navigation. So each
application has to work with (or be ‘Optimised’ to) all of these
operating systems as well as the different screen sizes and
colours as detailed above. This can be very difficult and given
that a new handset is launched every day, it can cause
operational issues. That is why you will find that a number of
applications cannot be used with certain handsets.
(Blackberries for example).
The upside of Applications is that when you download an
application with all the information required, you are only
paying for the DATA charge for downloading it but once the
download is complete, you can close the data line and read
the content on your handset at no further cost, until you open
the data line again to update the content.
Mobile internet, on the other hand, can be easier for the
customer as there are fewer optimisation issues than with
downloading applications so the customer experience is
generally better as the travel providers’ pages will be
optimised already for the browser.
The downside is, whilst the customer is surfing they are
paying the data charges whilst they are online so the costs
can add up. However, as with the internet these data charges
have not only reduced dramatically but users can now fix
tariffs for unlimited data in a monthly period for example.
IN BRIEF - OTHER
CONSIDERATIONS AS
PART OF YOUR OVERALL
MOBILE STRATEGY:
Mobile Search: Without going into too much detail in this
document, the market for mobile search will grow exponentially
over the next three years and it is important to have a strategy
in place. In the initial stages, you will need to look at mobile
search from a marketing perspective but this will eventually
move to transactional opportunities and as detailed previously,
perhaps start with promoting last minute deals with a telephone
number or website for the consumer to book through.
Mobile ticketing & boarding: Delivering travel tickets by mobile
to be scanned at airports and destinations.
Mobile Social Media: We all saw the power of mobile social
media with the aircraft emergency landing in the Hudson River
and the event being broadcast globally on the Twitter network
even before the TV Networks could cover the story. These
networks have opened up huge opportunities in marketing for
travel and airline companies.
One travel company has set up on Twitter and now has over
1500 followers, receiving their ‘tweets’ on a daily basis. This
opportunity for mobile will only grow and needs to be
considered as part of an overall marketing strategy.
Legalities: There are a number of areas that will need to be
considered from a legal standpoint and items that will need to
be integrated into your T’s & C’s. These will all have to be
considered at the time of assessing your mobile strategy.
www.travelbuddy.co.uk 13

THE UNIQUE TRAVEL BUDDY
MOBILE PACKAGE
Travel Buddy is the market leader in white-labelled
mobile services to the travel industry and was the first
to develop and launch systems to deliver mobile
services and white-labelled destination content to the
traveller.
The unique ‘MOBILE PACKAGE’ pulls together a
selection of the above outlined services (plus others
not highlighted here) and delivers it to the traveller at
specific times throughout their journey under the
brand of the respective travel provider. These
packages can deliver all of the following objectives:
• Generate ancillary revenue
• Enhance customer service
• Reduce costs
ABOUT TRAVEL BUDDY
Travel Buddy is the innovator of ‘White Label’, mobile
content and communication systems for the travel
industry working with major travel companies and
airlines as well as the main travel regulators.
Travel Buddy has delivered strategic assistance,
tailored to companies within the industry and rolled-out
services that are live and have been tested over the last
2 years.
Commercially, Travel Buddy will work on a revenue
share basis and its objective is to act as an ‘internal
mobile department’, assisting the travel business to
deliver mobile services, content and technical systems
to travel businesses and their customers. To date Travel
Buddy have delivered information to over 4 million
The travel provider selects which of the mobile services they
wish to deliver to their customers and the delivery, content
and timing is managed by Travel Buddy.
There are different ‘Mobile Packages’ for different travellers
such as SKI (Flight updates, snow dump alert, next day
forecast, insurance policy number and emergency phone
number etc), CITY BREAKS, FAMILY, BUSINESS etc, that
can all be completely tailored to the travel providers customer
profile and requirements.
This ‘white labelled’ package can be integrated into the host
booking system and is seen as an integral part of the travel
providers’ overall offering. In some cases this can add up to
30% on the margin per booking.
As well as generating revenues, the package enhances the
service to the customer as it delivers relevant and timely
information specific to them and their location but also can
reduce costs as it proactively delivers relevant information to
the customer before they ask for it.
The costs of such a package are totally flexible and can be
set by each travel provider. However, packages can also be
delivered free to the customer if they are a valued, repeat, or
‘premier’ customer, for example.
This mobile business model means that a packaged service
requires no investment by the travel provider, is transacted on
a revenue share basis, giving travel providers a zero cost of
entry and it is available NOW.
travellers and have a unique delivery system which is
completely flexible and can be tailored to the
requirements of the travel provider.
If you wish to find out some more information or would
like us to assist in defining your mobile strategy then
please contact us.
adam@travelbuddy.co.uk
Mobile: 07808 940060
Office: 0208 939 8714