It’s no longer just packing your bags, heading for the train station, and setting out on a new adventure. Technology has made its way into the adventure tourism industry, and we fellow travelers couldn’t be grateful enough. Recent technological advancements have changed the way people travel, and the upcoming advancements are expected to offer us an even more interactive and exciting experience.
The importance of technology in the tourism industry is undeniable, especially in adventure tourism. From choosing the destination to booking hotels and resorts, people can plan their vacation without any hassle as the necessary information – thanks to the internet – is available at your fingertips. In fact, more than 70% of travelers plan their trips on the internet. Thus, the incorporation of innovative technologies in your adventure tourism business has become more essential than ever.
According to Allied Market Research, the global adventure tourism market(opens in a new tab) is expected to garner $1.34 billion by 2023, due to the surge in Internet usage over the last few years. Increasing prominence of the Internet, smartphones, and innovative mobile apps have supplemented the progress of adventure tourism and allowed the market to skyrocket to an unprecedented level. To understand more about the impact of technology on adventure tourism, let’s have a look at the not-so-distant technological trends in adventure tourism.
1. Smartphones for your smart business
Smartphones have become the most irreplaceable component of today’s ways of travel. The small skinny computers in our hands have become our tour guide, travel agent, locator of destination, and sidekick in every adventure, recording every moment of it in the form of photos, videos, messages, and more. Smartphones are the primary cause for the tourism industry’s need to adapt to corporate services and communication to a variety of devices.
Most travelers draw a potential roadmap at the beginning of their adventure, outlining how to travel, where to stay, and what to eat prior to arrival with the help of various apps such as Airbnb and Yelp. They have firsthand access to adventure destinations, facilities available at said destination, reviews of the service providers, even the weather forecast. In short, if you’re someone who wants to boost your revenue, make sure that your adventure facilities appear in online searches. Moreover, see to it that you have good reviews and the availability of good restaurants and hotels near your location.
2. Virtual reality can help traveler’s imagine the actual reality
The euphoria of virtual reality has entered into the adventure tourism business with gusto. Virtual reality (VR) allows tourists to visualize their destinations; not only can they get a feel for its natural settings, but they can also sample the surrounding culture that may be difficult to convey through blogs and advertisement. In fact, the VR experience drives traffic to an adventure destination — according to a study in Wales(opens in a new tab), around 85% of people who tried a VR demo of a wildlife habitat wanted to visit a wildlife sanctuary in person. As VR technology has become increasingly accessible (read: affordable), incorporating it into your adventure tourism business is an idea worth considering, since it’s an extremely attractive feature to lure travelers.
3. The ever-present, soon-to-be-dominant Internet of things
Yes, the Internet of things (IoT) is not far away from adventure tourism. IoT offers some promising updates that will revolutionize the industry completely, like integrating sensors that can connect the Internet to certain items. For example, several hotels now offer a dedicated app that allows their guests to interact with the room’s thermostat. As another example, tech-savvy suitcases have been created to follow their owners when connected to their cell phones; this is especially useful in public places, such as an airport.
4. Virtual assistance to reduce human interaction
Adventure tourism is not far away from the touch of artificial intelligence (AI), either. In fact, most websites now use AI-based chatbots to answer and solve customer service problems, offering service providers more time to focus on those tasks where human interaction is absolutely necessary.
An AI-based chatbot is a computer program that emulates human conversations and learns from every human interaction. Over time, chatbots have evolved to offer more immediate, personalized, and meaningful answers to the queries of the audience. This seemingly small innovation has helped adventure trip providers improve their services in sales, marketing, as well as customer service. As most adventures seekers tend to ask about the destination, trip packages, and policies toward clients, chatbots can provide instantaneous support that doesn’t require human assistance.
5. Big data for big adventures
There have been discussions about how big data could help boost adventure tourism, though any specific opportunities have yet to hit the market. Nonetheless, several market players are incorporating big data into their business module. For instance, major hotel chains now use the information they gather on their guests to gain insights about where the target audience is and what marketing campaign would benefit their business most. This way, they can efficiently make segmentation for their campaign and optimize their investment.
6. SEO: most vital to get recognition
When most of the adventure junkies are using the Internet for planning their trip, your company’s website must rank highest on the Google search.Implementing SEO strategies in your business framework, you can lure the quality of traffic to your website by ranking on Google’s first search page. The search result ranking is based on hundreds of different factors. However, the most important thing is organic results are deemed by Google to be the most trustworthy and authoritative websites. For this, you would need healthy user interaction on your website, for which social media plays a vital role. To achieve that, search engine optimization (SEO) has become extremely important. What’s more, using social media platforms to the fullest is an absolute must. Social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram have given users a simple way to plan their vacation and spot the destinations to get ahead of the rush. Thus, your company must catch the eyes of adventurers using a few simple SEO tactics(opens in a new tab).
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