Technologies have taken almost every industry by storm, fuelling its growth and digitizing its operations. Banking and finance and automotive are always the early adopters of the latest technological advancements, and now, the tour and travel industry is also making way to join the club. The global travel and tourism industry is accredited for the contribution of 10.4 percent to world’s GDP creating over 300 million jobs worldwide. With Digitization backed by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality, and Big Data, travel companies are now delivering a world-class experience to the customers. Intelligent chat bots that handle uncountable bulk customer queries in a human-like way, VR Hardware or 360-Degree video creation using VR to entertain travelers or guide them on cruise interior, and real-time tracking of the luggage are some of the examples how technology is being used in the sector. Clearly, the future of the travel industry looks promising enough from technology’s point of view where automation and agility will invade the traditional landscape.
The emergence of the following technology trends in the adventure tourism market will significantly spearhead the industry.

Digital – the key driver

Digital platforms are rapidly disrupting the tour and travel industry. They offer global access to travelers and equip travel companies with the latest marketing and quality control tools. On the one hand, customers have more options and better choices, and on the other hand, service providers have better opportunities to engage and understand their target audience.

Exploring the ways to generate value for the customer in every marketing strategy, tour operators are planning to use Virtual Reality as a useful marketing tool.

Digitally transformed travel companies are serving everything through websites and mobile apps. From visa processing to currency exchange, they provide a complete holiday package, and all the details can be checked by simply clicking on the relevant tabs. Also, as per the data shared by World Economic Forum (WEF), between 2016 and 2025, digitalization in aviation and tourism sectors is expected to add US$305 billion of value to the industry, out of which US$100 billion will come from online platforms only.

Furthermore, the recent report by eMarketer conveys that global digital travel sales rose by 11.7 per cent in 2017 to nearly US$613 billion, and it will rise up to US$855 by 2021. These figures help in understanding how rapidly the business is shifting from brick-and-mortar to the virtual market.

AI – the growth accelerator

Though AI-powered chat bots are being widely used by other sectors, it is relatively a novice concept in the adventure tourism industry. One of the reasons behind the delayed entry into the industry is that chat bots are often not capable of handling complex conversation online in a way that humans can do. Handling the questions like which adventure destination would be suitable for a particular season or budget, or what sort of activity will bring more value to the customer is not correctly answered by the chat bots as these require close communication and better understanding with the customer.

However, tour operators have started replacing the human customer care executives with the advanced version of AI chat bots that are specifically developed for providing personalized and meaningful responses to the peculiar queries of the customers. For this, the data becomes the upshot for tour operators. The chat bots collect the relevant data from customer interactions, which can be mined for designing viable product and marketing strategies. In the next couple of years, travel industry will offer more hi-tech AI-integrated chat bots for delivering compelling customer service so their skilled workforce can work on other important tasks.

VR – the value creator

Exploring the ways to generate value for the customer in every marketing strategy, tour operators are planning to use Virtual Reality as a useful marketing tool. Offering a realistic virtual experience of natural surroundings and adventurous activities to the potential customers is like a new-age mode of storytelling. The entire business of travel & tourism works upon the ability of the service providers to provide the travelers an engaging, delightful, and amazing experience. For convincing the customers to visit a destination in person, VR experiences are proven effective.
In fact, a research study in Wales underlines the fact that 85 percent of people wanted to visit the wildlife safari after giving VR experience a try. While some tour operators use VR headsets and tools like Oculus Rift at consumer shows, a few prefer uploading VR videos online for attracting the visitors and getting leads. In 2017, Visit Wales invested £290,000 to six VR projects under its Tourism Product Innovation Fund.

Big Data – the big advantage

The travel industry is growing at a rapid rate, thanks to the cut-throat competition in the market and the wanderlust of the people. Industry players in the market are increasingly using cutting-edge technologies like Big Data Analytics to stay ahead in the race by giving personalized and world-class experiences to the potential customers. An in-depth analysis of large data sets, collectively called Big Data, the adventure tour operators are able to get fresh insights, new trends, opportunities, challenges, and risks. Travel advisories, activity trackers, reviews sites, tourism satellite accounts, and tourism satellite accounts, collect data which upon analysis greatly help the companies to plan and tailor the spectrum of their offerings. The well-informed tour operators, who know the likes, dislikes, changing expectations and demands, budget constraints of a customer, always introduce exemplary services and innovative marketing strategies in the market.