5 Recent Tech Trends That Are Making Travel More Affordable
Push notifications, layaway for vacations, and Bitcoin are all making it easier to become a globetrotter.
For years, international or airline travel has been as aspirational for some, and a simple privilege for others. Thanks to social media, increases in budget-friendly travel options, as well as more tools for research — travel in 2018 is less a verb and more so a goal.
As many of us scramble to keep up with our own vacation bucket lists and leisure plans, here are some interesting trends that are actually helping consumers turn their #travelgoals into reality.
1. The Airline Industry is Scrambling to Make Travel More Accessible with Retail-Like Tactics
Remember layaway? The retail process has been recently revived in the world of online shopping and no one is cashing in on the trend like the airline industry.
These days, travelers have the option to visit websites such as BookIt, FunJet or use web apps like Affirm to book flights or vacation deals. With these, consumers can make payments over time in order to fund their trip.
Even major airlines are realizing the benefits of staggered payment options for customers who cannot afford to immediately fund their vacations.
United, Southwest, and Expedia have all formed partnerships with the aforementioned Affirm in order to capture their share of the affordable travel market.
2. Travel Companies Will Happily Take Your Crypto Currency
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum are all the rage with tech savvy travelers.
In a nutshell, a cryptocurrency is a digital currency based on encryption techniques that are most commonly used in bank transfers — except instead of using a financial institution, cryptocurrencies are accessed directly using a blockchain.
In 2018 the use of crypto currencies in travel is expected to rise as more travel agencies, AirBnB, and booking websites move to using a blockchain to create crypto-based membership portals.
These will allow travelers to not only fund trips, but also access exclusive rebates, discounts, and vouchers.
3. Social Media Influencers Drive the Market
The travel industry has been using social media to its advantage since the early days of the Twitter whale and Facebook ads.
What has changed since the late aughts is the way that frequent travelers and bloggers influence vacation trends for budget-friendly consumers.
For example, The Points Guy routinely shares his tips for getting the most out of your rewards and cashback programs in order to fund dream vacations or getaways.
Adventurous Kate has crafted a niche for herself and her 150K followers as the go-to for solo travel tips, especially for women who may be traveling alone for the first time.
Even Twitter users are getting in on the trend — by regularly tweeting threads with tips for staying on budget, warnings about shady hostels or B&Bs, and what to expect when traveling internationally or outside of your culture.
4. Trip Planning Apps are Being Developed — By The Dozens
If the dot.com boom of the early 2000s gave way to the birth of online travel booking, then the mobile first domination of the twenty-teens are responsible for the multitude of travel planning apps available to help consumers make their vacations as affordable as possible.
Apps like Hopper help users find the most affordable flights for their destination, send notifications about price changes, and predict the best times to book based on your desired destination.
Other apps such as TripIt, manage all of your trip itineraries automatically and can even monitor your flight miles.
Roomer is an app that allows hotel customers to book cancelled rooms at a discounted rate.
Together, these new technologies are making it easier to travel and saving millions of consumers time and money in the process.
5. No Surprise Here — Google Wants in on the Action, Too
Google Flights is quickly becoming one of the most widely used travel tools on the Internet.
Aside from offering a monthly view of travel prices for your preferred destinations, they also let you stay up to date by setting up alerts for any price changes, which can be emailed to you prior to booking.
While other airfare search engines are certainly still around (Kayak, MoMondo, Orbitz, etc.), the beauty of Google Flights is that you can research, compare and book travel seamlessly from your Chrome browser or via mobile without all of the various pop-up windows, clutter UI or aggressive remarketing of before.
Google Flights also merges a host of its native features such as the “I’m Feeling Lucky” option which allows Google to plan your trip based on past browsing behavior. The “Best Flights” feature literally tells you which option based on take off time and layovers is the best bang for your buck.
This is all goes to show that while luxury travel is definitely still a thing, traveling itself doesn’t have to break the bank to feel luxurious. Try out one or all of these trends this year when you’re beginning to book travel, whether it’s for yourself or for a client.
