Not so long-ago travellers would have found themselves heading to the local travel agent to book their holiday before packing their phrase book and heading off with only word-of-mouth recommendations to determine their choices. Now, following the progression of technology and the internet, travellers can book flights and accommodation online, scan online reviews to find the best hotels, excursions and restaurants and use their smart phone to navigate almost anywhere in the world.
Not to mention the invention of Smart Luggage Locks (forget keys, this suitcase locks using Bluetooth!), the rise of Airbnb and regular reminders from Alexa that your flight leaves in an hour.
Digitalisation has given us more access to the world and with EasyJet’s latest innovation, visiting those Instagram-worthy locations couldn’t be simpler.
Ahead of the rest of the market – and unlike anything we have seen before, EasyJet’s new service allows the budding traveller to screengrab an image from the photo-sharing social media platform and upload it to the EasyJet App. The App will then recognise the destination and locate the nearest airport – easy!
The appropriately named ‘Look&Book’, created by VCCP and Travelport Digital, will be rolled out and advertised across social media platforms in the near future.
With holiday bookings evolving from face-to-face planning, online reservations and now to social media influencing it won’t be long until travel insurance follows suit.
Traditionally travel insurance was purchased through an independent broker who approached your door and asked if the product was needed. Today, we have thousands of companies and a variety of comparison sites to choose from – but what are the next steps?
Signposting towards travel insurance policies that are suitable for the consumers’ needs is at the heart of what Travel Insurance Explained is working towards, but in order to do this the technology advances must be met.
Several companies have tackled the topic of travel insurance using a smart phone, usually an app service, but with so many travel insurance policies to choose from, and the individual requirements of each and every traveller needing to be met there is still a long way to go.