Content hot for future mobile travel planners

September 2008

The world’s 3.2 billion mobile phones could be transformed into “indispensable” air travel tools within five years, new research shows. Mobiles used as personal travel folders have the potential to hold boarding passes, baggage tracking information and payment data, making travel truly paperless and location independent. There is also the future possibility that they can be used to store visa and biometric information, according to specialist IT provider SITA. For the air transport industry this opens the door to a new way of doing business as mobile phones are currently used by 90% of airline passengers.

SITA chief technology officer Jim Peters said: “These ‘digital travellers’, will have on-demand access to a range of mobile-enabled services such as real time flight updates; self-service booking, check-in and boarding; and mobile payments.

This means that personalized travel destination content will soon find its way to mobile phones as well. Global travelers will expect to receive their personal event listings, restaurant and hotel information together with their digital tickets and booking confirmation.