How is mobile impacting the group travel experience?

How is mobile
impacting the
group travel
experience
November 6, 2014
2014 © Mira Vitae Inc. mobile made easy for groups

Today’s voices
Mark Lesiw
Presenter
15 years in software with travel
to over 25 countries. CEO &
founder of bundle and looking to
help companies grow their
business one great customer
experience at a time.
Lyndon Johnson
Moderator
Toronto-based communication
specialist focused on helping
small & early stage companies
grow.

Help us understand you, our audience
POLL
How would you best describe your group travel
business?
• Tour operator
• Activity Provider
• Travel Agent
• Technology Supplier

What is mobile
Personal
Devices
+
Delivery
Platforms vs
About making
Information
& Services
accessible
anytime &
anywhere
53% of OTAs, 47% of travel suppliers plan to increase investments in mobile”
– EyeForTravel 2013 Travel Consumer Report

Why you should care
Changing Traveller
Expectations
Evolving Traveller
Behaviours
New Operational
Challenges
Staying connected during
trips
"35% of UK travellers, 33% of
US travellers and 27% of
Canadian travellers refuse to
disconnect while on vacation”
- Hotel.com Disconnect Survey
Feeling empowered
& compelled to review
"Travellers are not only researching &
booking trips on mobile, they’re also
complimenting their meals, showcasing
their adventures & capturing every trip
detail. This is the new normal when it
comes to travel.”
– Sean Shannon, Expedia Canada
Access to information
before, during & after
"More than 75% of British
people take at least one mobile
device on holiday,70% use their
devices throughout the trip to
when they return”
- Expedia: 2014 Mobile Index
Using multiple devices
seamlessly
“90% of online shoppers start
their shopping with a handset
or a PC and then go to a
tablet, then they go to another
device.” – Dara Khosrowshahi
Real-time sharing direct
from destination
“Millenials share trips on social
networks while travelling 40% of
the time, age 31 to 45: 34% of
time & age 46 to 65 23% of
time”
– Expedia Future of Travel 2013
Relying on internet and
family to plan travels
“64% of Adventure Travellers
consulted friends & family to
help prepare for trip, 69%
researched online”
- ATTA Market Study 2013
Supporting traveller mobile
demands
“Besides price, what would make
you more likely to book directly with
a non-airline provider? 42% ease of
managing itinerary on web/mobile
app during trip”
- Flight View
Accessing & leveraging
traveller content
“The challenge is to work with travellers
to structure this content in a way which
can be usefully combined with other
information to enhance the travel
experience for future bookers”
– Expedia Future of Travel2013
Providing relevant
information to travellers
"During a trip UK travellers
crave content: 46% weather,
44% restaurant info, 37%
activities to do, 32% hotel info,
29% destination photos”
- Expedia Mobile Travel Report

Change means opportunity…
…mobile is
simply a
catalyst
What’s changed Opportunity for you
More willing to share on
device
Gather more feedback, photos, comments to
help market your trips
Comfort with digital
information
No longer need to print things
Save printing costs – save trees
More information at
traveller fingertips
Present information when relevant so it sticks
Run safer trips with emergency info in hand
More information from the
individual traveller
Open two-way communications
See what is being shared
Ability to notify travellers
‘instantly’
Make sure travellers don’t miss the bus -
literally
Instant purchase
capability
Cross-sell, upsell when traveller is ready to
buy

The Traveller Process
Mobile = Information and services, anytime & anywhere
“Mobile activities throughout the travel process”
Millenial Media & Comscore, 2014 Mobile Intel Series: Travel
Mobile devices are
quickly becoming
an integral part of
the travel lifecycle,
essential tools for
planning and
managing trips
~Maggie Rauch,
PhoCusWright

The Group Traveller Process
68% of adventure
travellers planned
their trip four or
fewer months
before departure,
and 22% planned
their trip less than
a month before
departure
- ATTA Market Study 2013
Mobile = Information and services, anytime & anywhere
eCommerce Delivery

Poll
POLL
Do you offer a mobile booking experience for your
customers?
• Yes we do offer mobile booking
• We have online booking, not sure if it's mobile-friendly
• We have a project under way to add mobile
• We have it on our radar but haven't started
• We don't offer online booking, let alone mobile

Research: Get their attention!
Sources of Inspiration
62%
61%
39%
Family, Friends
& Colleagues
Internet
Television
Travel Planning Sources
80%
Internet
49%
28%
Family, Friends
& Colleagues
Informational
Brochure
- Google: The 2013 Traveller
Challenges Opportunities
Getting your trips
discovered on the
internet
• Make it easy for travellers to find your trips: SEO, targeted
social media, and integrate with channel partners
• Personalize offers by taking advantage of mobile information
about traveller
Driving more referrals
from family, friends,
colleagues
• Provide Incentives – not necessarily $ or product
• Make it easy to share trip “brochures”
• Share stories from completed trips
Staying engaged with
prospective travellers
• Be a resource
• Be top of mind even before travel decision
• Offer a newsletter services
• Let prospective travellers save trips so they can come back.

Book/ Purchase: Complete the sale
Leaving site before
completing their
purchase
• Make it easy to buy anytime, anyplace
• Integrate your online inventory with booking engine
Customers not able to
purchase on your site
• Update your site
• Free & paid options
67% of smartphone
users said they
were more likely to
purchase from a
business' mobile-friendly
site, while
61% said they'd
most likely leave a
site that wasn't
optimized for
mobile"
- Tourism Research
Australia
”Only 55% of adventure companies indicated they provide
customers an online booking option”
– ATTA Industry Snapshot 2014

Pre-trip: Prepare your travellers
Ensuring travellers
are fully prepared for
their trip
• Provide packing lists and gear lists
• Make confirmation & booking information easy to find
• Provide weather updates leading into the trip
• Provide local news updates leading into the trip
Manage expectations
while building traveler
excitement
• Gather questions and feedback before trip starts
• Facilitate travellers meeting each other -> start conversations
• Provide trip facts, information and images that excite
• Make the trip easy to share
Managing risks &
meeting legal
obligations
• Remind of visa requirements and provide links/forms
• Terms & Conditions
• Waivers / Medical release forms
Open additional
revenue channels
• Incent travellers to share their trip before it starts
• Position and sell add-on activities before trip starts
• Make partner / affiliate offers part of experience (linked gear
stores, insurance providers, etc)
For travellers
requesting more
information about
an upcoming trip:
58% computer,
34% smartphone,
39% tablet”
- Google, The 2013
Traveller

In-trip: Capture an amazing experience
42% of leisure
travellers are more
likely to use their
smartphone or
tablet for travel or
vacation related
information while
on a trip in 2013 vs
33% in 2012
- Google, The 2013
Traveller
Communicating
unexpected changes
to itinerary
• Provide your schedule digitally so changes are immediate
• Leverage notifications to communicate changes
• Use digital schedule to keep family members informed (and
offload from call-centres)
Ensuring the safety of
all travellers
• Provide local information – maps, guides, landmarks
• Make contacting your team easy
• Make medical traveller information available to guides
Capturing the
experience delivered
• Encourage and make sharing easy between travellers
• Capture feedback throughout the trip as part of the trip
• Managing messages out to friends and family
Open additional
revenue channels
• Sponsor vouchers
• Suggest activities – make it easy to pay!

Post-trip: Drive More Business
The challenge for
travel businesses
is to work with
travellers to
structure this
content in a way
which can be
usefully combined
with other
information to
enhance the travel
experience for
future bookers
- Expedia: The Future of
Travel (2013)
Getting quality
feedback so you can
improve future travel
• Analyse trip performance – Were things on time? Did
travellers have questions?
• Incorporate feedback gathering into the trip experience
instead of blasting surveys
Leveraging the story
of the trip to sell future
travel to others
• Share the whole story not just moments
• Analyse the story of the trip to identify your most engaged
travellers and advocates
Extending
engagement with
travellers after trip
• Thank you messages
• Find and ask permission to use content – reason to call
• Share follow up information about the trip
Open additional
revenue channels
• Associate offers with the experience
• Tailor offers based on user’s preferences, needs and
experience on trip completed
• Identify who is engaging on social media about your trip

Turn your process into a cycle
Can you get
your traveller
process to
this?

Poll
POLL
Where do you see mobile impacting your
business most?
• Helping travellers discover and book trips
• Helping travellers prepare before trips begin
• As a complementary resource during trips
• After the trip ends to extend the experience

Getting more mobile
Traveller Stage ‘DIY’ (Do-it-Yourself) ‘Rent’ ‘Build’
Research • Update your Website! Wordpress is free
• Look for “Responsive” templates
• Create great content
• Learn & apply SEO (uDemy has free
courses)
• Online tour booking
software: i.e. Rezgo, Rezdy
• Look for SEO, content
management, booking
engine, customer
management all in one
• Good software will help add
content consistently and be
able to book immediately.
• Should be capable of
working on mobile browsers.
• Build your own +
• Purchase Enterprise
Software that IT manages
• Mobile app + Backend
Admin System
• Work with consultants or
internal team of developers
to build:
• Mobile web
• Mobile apps (if needed)
• Admin tools
• Integrations with 3rd party
providers
Booking • eCommerce plugins
• Paypal, Stripe plugins
Pre-trip • PDF Itinerary w/ links
• Create dedicated trip webpages with
emergency contacts, forms, etc
• Train guides to use a service like
dropbox for sharing photos across group
(why? Because not all on FB)
• Group activity management
software: i.e. bundle
• Can it integrate with booking,
content and scheduling if
needed
• Personalize to each trip and
trip leader
• Facilitates two way
communications, and keeps
everything in one place
In-trip
Post-trip • Use a mail service like Mailchimp to
record & track Thank you messages
• Ask permission to share group photos on
your social media (reason to engage)

Getting more mobile
‘DIY’ (Do-it-Yourself) ‘Rent’ ‘Build’
Benefits • Cost is your time
• Immediate benefits
• Make updates in stages
• Immediate benefits
• All in one place
• Consistent experiences
• Less ops impact than DIY
• No yearly development and
up-keep, service improves
over time
• Little to no IT required
• Fully customized to your
business
• Data may be all kept “in-house”
versus cloud
Considerations • Create own content structure
• Consistency of experience when using
multiple services to deliver
• Management overhead of having to
maintain multiple service providers
• Where is your data stored?
• Cost is usually variable with
your business
• Need to create own content
• Where is your data stored?
• What integrations with 3rd
party services do they
support?
• Cost is upfront and
typically high investment
• Time to implment is 4 to 8
months (if all goes well)
• Regular maintenance for
new versions, to keep
modern, to address
different mobile devices &
platforms
• Need to create own
content
• Be aware of working in
admin requirements

Live example of mobile for group travel
Setting the stage
• My Travel Co delivers urban adventures – multi-day
tours of cities in North America
• Imagine you have just registered as a confirmed
traveller for their Toronto Explorer trip that starts
tomorrow morning at 9 AM Toronto time
• Toronto Explorer is a 3-day trip ending Sunday night at
5pm
• You will be able to experience a pre-trip, in-trip and
post-trip mobile experience
• Starting now 
View and request
access to this
example at:
bndl.info/f10kr

Q & A
“Consumers expect a mobile-friendly experience when accessing travel
content. Seamless integration across devices, such as saving account
information, mobile boarding passes, and consolidated itineraries gives
travelers the mobility they need to stay connected on the go, which in
turn helps attract, engage, and retain loyal mobile travel consumers.”
- Comscore, Mobile Intel Series: Travel

Thank you for joining us
Summary
• Mobile is about making information & services
accessible anytime & anyplace
• Statistics show Traveller expectations and behaviours
are changing - presenting operators with new
challenges
• Challenges open opportunities to form deeper
relationships with travellers and drive more revenue
• Enable Mobile throughout group traveller process:
Research -> Booking -> Pre-trip -> In-trip -> Post-trip
• You have options for leveraging mobile for your trips
from DIY to Rented to In-house solutions
• Let’s talk mobile for your groups
Mark Lesiw
CEO & Founder, bundle
mark@bundlemanager.com
+1.416.209.8794
Twitter: @mlesiw

Resources
Some of the great resources used in preparing this presentation
• http://travelblog.expedia.ca/expedia-ca-mobile-index-2014/
• http://press.expedia.ca/press-releases/unplugged-no-more-25-country-expediacaegencia-
study-examines-how-mobile-devices-imp-2
• http://www.wysetc.org/2014/02/05/mobile-is-beginning-to-define-the-multitrillion-dollar-global-
travel-industry/
• http://www.wysetc.org/2014/01/08/sta-travel-aims-high-with-new-products-and-platforms/
• http://www.phocuswright.com/research_updates/mobile-to-represent-over-one-quarter-of-
us-online-travel-market-by-2015
• http://www.tnooz.com/article/mobile-travel-infographic-somo/
• http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/278711/file-954903661-
pdf/docs/FlightView_OTA_SurveyInfographic_June2014.pdf

How is mobile impacting the group travel experience?

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