Travel and touring service providers want to stay on the pulse of their clients’ journeys when they jet off to explore southern and East Africa. And with the explosion of smart applications (apps) globally, accessible by travellers who take their smart devices on their travels with them, staying in touch and ahead of your clients’ expectations is easier than ever.
In an increasingly competitive environment, where travel agents and tour organisers are vying for business and client loyalty to their brands, having an app – which is essentially a constant connection to each client in the palm of their hands – is like gold.
Here are the top apps to look out for, to keep you connected, relevant in the digital age, and ahead of the game.
TripCase organises traveller’s plans and itineraries on their smart devices. It provides real-time alerts to both travellers and agents on flight status, delays and cancellations, and gate changes.
The new mobile platform allows travel companies to better manage customers' travel experience through powerful mobile tools, including a smart itinerary manager, day-of-travel assistant, push-notification engine, real-time alert system, and the ability to contact an agent from within the app.
This solution is tailored to each agent’s individual brand, offering comprehensive offline-enabled travel guides, detailed itineraries, navigation and maps, Trip Journal, and Facebook integration. It also covers group tours, and allows agents to send pertinent information via push notifications.
Travefy offers agents the option to send customised itineraries to their customers, as well as send professional tailored quotes. The app also allows agents to chat to their customers via the integrated chat function. Any changes to itineraries will be automatically updated.
Tineri connects agents and clients with interactive itineraries, displayed in summary, calendar and detailed formats. Links to more detailed information are available from the front interface, with additional tips on things to do and see when clients arrive at a destination. Daily surveys allow clients to respond to problems as they happen, ensuring a trip is as seamless and problem-free as possible. Tineri also offers storage of important travel documents such as passport information, flight reservations, insurance details and hotel vouchers; and a chat functionality allows an agent’s operations team to keep them informed of any changes happening with clients, so agents can manage these. Group tour communication is also in place, ensuring all members in a group are on track and informed of what’s happening in their journey.
Q2B is an all-in-one solution for venues to manage calendars, quotes, invoices, booking reports, payments, and many other functions within the functions, conference, accommodation, activities and adventures, shows and entertainment spaces.
Working in partnership with Q2B Solutions, Travel Hub Africa connects travellers, suppliers and supporting businesses in a co-operative hospitality hub, allowing suppliers to update facility details, and travellers to make bookings, at venues which have been verified through Travel Hub ambassadors.
There are hundreds of apps available for agents and operators – it’s just a matter of deciding which works best for your business.
Tour operator and travel agency software solutions are also available, to make working with clients seamless and constructive. Here are some options to consider:
- Lemax automates your travel business.
- Booksteam is an online appointment scheduler, for if your clients are on business trips.
- FareHarbor helps tour, activity and rental businesses manage and grow their online presences.
- Peek is an end-to-end solution for activity and tour operators, who can now run their business on as well as off their smart mobile devices.
- Xola equips tour operators, activity providers and other businesses offering lifestyle experiences with a powerful tool to manage their back-office and online reservations, payment processing, calendaring, inventory and guide management, and customer relationship management.
- Starboard Suite is a web-based reservation system for passenger vessels and water sports operators.
- Rezdy is a cloud-based reservation booking and software system, designed for activity, rental, shuttle bus, tour and sightseeing operators.
- Checkfrontoffers online bookings for tours, rentals and activities.
- The Flybook is a reservations and marketing solution for adventure parks, ziplines, rental agents, and tour companies that require smart ticketing, lodging booking, and calendar-based scheduling.
- Mixtix is a ticketing solutions provider offering events organisers an online platform to manage event sales.
