I’ve been traveling a lot this year.  More than just my usual summer road trip, or a holiday reunion with family.  And it’s simply because I can.  I can pack a weekend bag, throw my laptop in my purse (my laptop is that small–incidentally, my purse is also that big), turn on my mobile hot spot, and convert the car into a moving office.  Airplane rides don’t even slow me down.  Most carriers offer on-board WiFi, and as many have learned, travel time can become productivity time.

So with all the technological advancements we’ve witnessed in mobility, you’d think the travel industry would be among the first to jump all over this.  Slap the term “location-based” on anything mobile, and it gets a power boost in marketing prowess.  GPS-enabled anything seems to be far more valuable than an app or service not tied to location, and seeing as mobile tech enables more people to remain effective during travel, the expectation is that the travel industry would be more accommodating.  But as Giles Granger, founder and CEO of Vinivi points out, many of the travel services that currently dominate the web are owned by large conglomerates, and “are slow to change.”

“Mobile is convenient to do some searches, but what we found out is consumers are using mobile more as a planning stage, which is unusual because mobile is usually used to redirect,” Granger explains the current state of the mobile travel industry.  “What we found was most of the sites we’re redirecting to on mobile aren’t good at mobile.  They’re not cutting edge.  So this was a good surprise that consumers are looking to plan with mobile tools.”

Mobile tech influences the travel industry, far and wide

Indeed, mobile tech has influenced the travel sector.  Many of those  large conglomerates have mobile apps for searching flights and nearby hotels, though many lack a mobile-specific interface for making ticket purchases or reservations.  The lag in features has spurred Kayak to update its iPhone app, enhancing it with integrated search options where it once redirected a good portion of this functionality to third party sites.  While Kayak only recently added Explore feature to its iPad app, several startups are filling the gap with location-oriented mobile applications.

Stay, a Norwegian travel startup, launched its website during a time of consolidation in the travel industry, witnessing the major shift into the mobile sector.  Indeed, mobile has encouraged a good amount of innovation from the startup sector, as Stay takes an early opportunity to leverage iOS capabilities for specialized travel features.

Stay centers its mobile app around the user experience, letting you create your own city tour guide for offline access.  With search features, integration with Open Table, and a range of highlighted guides, users can filter through neighborhoods based on the experience they’d like to have in a given city.

As Stay builds up for an expanded US app and more features to incorporate the personal cloud, it’s clear that Stay is looking ahead of its large conglomerate competitors.  It’s this dedication to use mobile devices for their own unique capabilities that demonstrates Stay’s desire to extend the most useful features to its users.

As you can see, the mobile sector is influencing travel innovation on an international scale.  China-based search engine Baidu is investing $306 million in travel search site Qunar, with ultimate goals around mobile search.  And devices like the iPad are just as encouraging.  San Francisco-based Hipmunk is developing a specialized travel search engine with a series of filters for a behavioral-based search tool.  Hipmunk actually considers some of the difficulties Granger mentions, looking to bridge the web and mobile experience around search and booking.

Mobile is changing the very business of travel

Mobile is stirring up all sorts of inspiration, and even the slow-to-change companies are learning the needs of today’s market.  A recent TripAdvisor study shows that lodging owners find mobile marketing an increasingly important part of their strategy, as they must reach “discerning travelers” on-the-go.  The increase in connected devices is changing consumer demands, and modifying  marketing tactics as a result.

The airline companies themselves are learning that mobile devices can act as more than a marketing outlet.  With mobile check-ins, 2D bar code boarding passes, SMS notifications and itinerary management, companies like Delta and American Airlines are finding ways to improve the logistics of their business, developing a new form of customer service along the way.  In many ways, this is a justification on investments for mobile initiatives, making more of the airline industry a self-service activity.

Travellers are increasingly using their mobile devices to plan, book and pay for their trips, with the connected traveller in particular seeking ready access to relevant information.  Geo-location marketing is finding its way into this demographic as well, with mobile hot spot provider JiWire taking advantage of the travel sector, noting a cause-and-effect relationship with mobile commerce.  The expectation is that the association between mobile and travel can be used for for location-aware promotions, flight details, baggage claim, airline gates and more.  From airlines to hotels, mobile commerce is all about the consumer being able to buy what they want, when they want it.  Fitting the travel industry into this trend is not only a necessity, but an inevitable opportunity for startups and conglomerates alike.

Startups, HTML5 filling in the gaps

And it’s not just the existing travel services that are seeking ways to take advantage of emerging mobile technology to improve the travel sector.  Startups like myTab leverage social media to set up travel wish lists that friends can gift towards, offering a portion to eco-friendly charities.  myTab takes a specialized approach in order to combine two developing areas of the mobile industry.  Both travel and social media are steeped in knowledge-based search and recommendations, benefiting end users with their collective outputs.  Layering in the planning and saving aspects of myTab, along with cash-matching options for booking trips, and you’ve got a comprehensive solution that considers several sides of the social and travel potential.

With the innovation that’s taking place around the travel sector, there’s clearly a great deal of drive towards solving the issue of low mobile usability for traditional travel web portals.  But web technology still needs to do its part, and the rise of tablets is creating some headway in this regard.  Larger screens on these mobile devices provides a comfortable interface for accessing the web we’re already familiar with, leaving apps as specialty pieces of software to serve specific needs.  Unifying standards around HTML5 certainly shows promise for bringing the web to mobile devices, and this is something that could bring the larger travel companies full circle with their mobile experience.

But HTML5 isn’t a solve-all.  Mobile tech has too much to offer to just think that accessing the web on a tablet makes everything all right.  One of the greatest things about machines is their inherit ability to fulfill their designed function.  For mobile, that means incorporating location, a great deal of personalization, NFC integration, and a wealth of functions we haven’t yet thought of.  As the travel industry continues to explore all that mobile has to offer, a new infrastructure will show itself.  Then we’ll really have something to talk about.