f you’ve been traveling internationally for a decade or more, the vast amount of innovation has been amazing. Most of it has been driven by technological advancement and come to the fore just in the past few years. From the planning and booking stages to the actual arrival at your destination, here are a few of the innovations currently reshaping international travel by leveraging state-of-the-art technology.
AI-Aided Biometrics
Security has always been a crucial part of traveling, and the focus placed by countries on identifying and ensuring the safety of people who want to travel has been increasing, along with technology available to the authorities. One of the ways that this is being done is by employing a combination of biometric technology and AI to identify and match passengers to manifests. These systems typically employ fingerprint and iris scans, as well as facial recognition, and are currently being used in the U.S., China, Australia and UK. And the technology is certain to spread out even wider as more countries take the chance to improve security and increase efficiency at the same time.
Related: How Technology Startups Are the New Face of Travel
E-Documentation
Before, the process of applying for passports or visas was a complicated one that involved a lot of waiting time and anxiousness. Now, the advanced integration and communication features of the internet are being leveraged to ensure that you can essentially skip the red tape and have all the documents you need for smooth travel between countries delivered within a short period of time.
This represents a significant advance from the days of paper-based documentation to a position of full synchronization with the digital-first world. As a business traveler, it’ll make your activities so much easier and more efficient. From the perspective of businesses and other organizations, the savings in terms of time and cost could also be very significant, especially at scale.
Big-Data Analytics
Data science and its cousin, machine learning, have been facilitating disruptions in a variety of industries, and the travel industry is one of those that are ripe for attendant innovations. The travel and tourism industry, being as dispersed as it is geographically and otherwise, is poised to benefit from the increased efficiency that comes with being able to analyze big data in order to understand trends and predict the market effectively.
Nowadays, property management systems are able to predict with remarkable accuracy the amount of business that a hotel, restaurant or other travel business can expect over a particular period of time, thus enabling them to make better plans with regards to catering for their customers’s needs, according to Yolanda Ceron, CEO of Voyagers Travel. She adds: “In addition, the data can also be used to derive behavioral analytics that paint a clear picture of the interaction between the business and its customers. Are customers waiting too long to get a service? Are they avoiding one area or focusing on another? That will help the management set its eye on more profitable services and improve on those that are not so profitable.”
Related: This Traveltech Company Is Aimed At Disrupting the Market
In all, it is clear that the travel industry is currently in one of its most dynamic periods, with tech-driven innovations upturning the standard practices and replacing them with high-tech solutions. The winners will be those who are able to leverage various aspects of mobile technology and the internet to provide convenient answers to the problems of travelers around the world.
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