Do you travel often? Or are you helping travelers enjoy their experience? Regardless of which end of the scale you are, you must be aware of some emerging developments to enhance your experience or stand out in your industry.
With the rapid and continuous changes that define this highly competitive industry, the only thing that seems sure nowadays is that complicated requirements at border crossings, international air travel gates, security checkpoints, etc., aren’t going away anytime soon. Even so, there are difficult ways through the labyrinths of traveling and easier ways. And, obviously, you want to know the easier ways and take advantage of them.
With that preface, here are some of the IT solutions for the travel industry that you’ll want to know about – and we’ll talk about:
1. Voice-activated search and control
2. Robotic handling of various mundane tasks
3. Virtual reality and augmented reality
4. ID scanners, electronic recognition, etc., to speed up services like those offered by Adaptive Recognition.
Activating Search and Control With Voice Commands
When using apps on your smartphone and on many computers, it’s convenient to use voice commands to make things happen. Your hands and eyes remain free for other functions. As such, up-to-date websites must have the capability to entertain voice commands or be “left in the dust,”
As a traveler, voice command capability adds to your website flexibility. Its presence or absence can tell you whether the website belongs to a forward-thinking company that is likely to have other modern IT solutions for the travel industry.
What Can a Robot Do For You?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has enabled robots to take over many tasks that traditionally required human involvement. As they are for many functions in life, robots are helpful IT solutions for the travel industry.
A robot is essentially a computer connected to some mechanical function that allows it to pick something up, turn a knob, flip a switch, vacuum a room, or perform numerous other physical tasks. While its capability is limited to what it’s programmed to do, it does those things accurately. Such human frailties as distractions, fatigue, or forgetfulness don’t hamper its functions.
AI is what gives robots the capability to learn how to do new things without being reprogrammed. Traditional robots were programmed to do things and could do only those things. AI helps them learn when their action leads to an incorrect result. With AI, robots can recognize speech, solve problems, and improve their function based on physical or human feedback. As they experience more speech and results-based learning, they become “smarter.”
“Smart” robots can:
- Greet guests and provide concierge-style information in hotels and airports, even checking guests into the accommodation
- Handle luggage and follow you with it
- Do some food preparation tasks
- Screen travelers for weapons, drugs, etc.
AI-enabled robots add a whole new dimension to IT solutions for the travel industry. A byproduct of using robots is that human-to-human contact and concerns about infection are reduced to the absolute minimum – something the post-COVID era will likely appreciate.
ID Scanners and Other Electronic Recognition Tools Are Critical
Hundreds or sometimes thousands of travelers must board relatively quickly to keep schedules on track in major airports, cruise ships or ferry terminals, large train stations, etc..
The manual document handling that did the job only a few years ago no longer suffices to process all these people. With more sophisticated passports, visas, vaccination certificates, and other documents to check, officials and gate agents need a much faster way. ID scanners like those of Adaptive Recognition are the answer.
When ID scanners first appeared on the scene around the beginning of the 21st century, they were an excellent convenience and could speed up the flow of travelers through a terminal, but more traditional methods could still handle the job. Nowadays, with the proliferation of electronically readable IDs and other documents, these tools are indispensable IT solutions for the travel industry.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Want to experience the view from a mountain overlook in the Alps or see what the rooms are like in that fancy hotel you’re considering in Paris?
With virtual reality – or, more commonly known as VR – you can do that from your living room or smartphone with striking realism. Though VR has been around for a few decades, the faster internet and better photography have made it much easier to share and made the images more realistic by quantum leaps.
Virtual reality can help you decide where you want to go on vacation or where you’d like to hold a corporate event. It could also help you decide which hotel to stay in. Of course, if you happen to be in the travel business, you can use these IT solutions to great advantage in helping your customers have the experience of their lives – without even leaving the country or settlement they live in.
In augmented reality, or AR for short, the physical view you’re experiencing can be overlain with textual or pictorial information. It could relate to services available or how the scene would look in a different season.
The IT solutions for the travel industry mentioned here are just the tip of the iceberg. Google searches can help you identify others that will improve your experience or that of your customers and clients. Here’s a great resource to start from.
As mentioned in this article, ID scanners and other electronic document readers are essential for improving the travel experience, particularly for international travel. Adaptive Recognition offers many of the highest quality and most flexible tools. Learn more about their offerings and contact them to discuss your application.
