Tourvest Travel Services (TTS) brands are implementing a mobile technology strategy, which is said to be a first for any travel management company in SA.
As of today, key customers and suppliers of Seekers, American Express, Cummings Travel, Maties and Indojet will have the opportunity to put the first phase of the TTS mobile strategy to the test.
According to Louis van Zyl, chief information officer of TTS, the first phase focuses on post-air-travel documentation. “Our objective is to give travellers access to their car and hotel booking information via their mobile devices.”
Digital images of travellers' booking vouchers will be sent to their cellphones, via text messages. Customers with Web-enabled smartphones will be able to download their vouchers directly to their devices from a URL while customers with non Web-enabled devices with receive the URL that in turn can be presented to the supplier, on demand, he says.
The car rental company or accommodation establishment can then access the URL via an ordinary Internet connection to retrieve the customer's vouchers.
Van Zyl says this is a significant step towards a paperless environment and also eliminates the hassle of having to carry hard copies of travel documents.
“It also eliminates any potential delays in having to contact agents or after hours support facilities when a customer does not have their vouchers at hand when required by the supplier at check-in or when picking up a rental car,” says Van Zyl.
The pilot phase of the strategy's first step is expected to last approximately four to six weeks, after which both customers and suppliers will be invited to give their feedback, enabling the different TTS brands to refine their offerings, according to the company.
“As soon as we have perfected the post-air-travel phase, we will pursue even closer collaboration with our suppliers,” says Van Zyl.
He explains that TTS wants to provide them with a secure environment where they can access and retrieve travellers' relevant documentation. “Ultimately, we will be looking to work with airlines who are currently [doing trial tests on] mobile solutions, such as Etihad, British Airways, United and SAA domestically, to enable our customers to leverage their systems and have boarding passes delivered to their mobile phones - no more queuing and waiting.”
TTS is working in with existing partners, such as Amadeus. The latter's mobile strategy, called Mobile Travel Assistant, gives the TTS brands access to features such as Mobile Check My Trip.
“In a nutshell, the global vision for mobile travel services is that sooner rather than later a traveller will only need his or her passport and a mobile device to travel the globe,” explains Van Zyl. “Even visas will be delivered to a person's phone.”
However, the unreliability of mobile technology can hinder the process. One frequent flyer says he's dubious about using something like this because the system can go offline at any moment. “And then I'd be stuck at the airport, waiting for something that would take me 10 minutes to do if I had hard copy.”
Share