Traveltainment, the leisure arm of GDS and travel technology provider Amadeus, will unveil its first iPad app at the Travel Technology Europe show that takes place at London’s Earl’s Court on February 8-9.
Tablet technology, its future and application for travel firms, will form part of a panel debate organised by Traveltainment on the second day of the show.
Panellists will include Leo Purcell, commercial director at Opodo, one of Travolution’s Rising Stars of the Year of 2010, Amadeus managing director Tim Russell, Yahoo travel category director Tracey Cheffey and Stuart Jackson, Monarch Group distribution director.
Traveltainment managing director Andrew Nicholson, who will chair the session, said tablets have the potential to revolutionise travel distribution.
“We are building our app on an incredibly flexible platform to allow our customers to change it how they want,” he said. “Tablets are more engaging; you can share information and more easily access information like video, images and social media contributions.”
The future challenges of travel distribution session will also look at how technology will help travel firms meet the challenges of social media and how it will impact on the split between offline and online sales.
Nicholson said he expected mobile devices such as tablet computers, web-enabled televisions and TV on demand to increase the amount of travel product sold to customers in their own homes.
“There will be a big push forward in these technologies in the next five to eight years and that’s going to clearly influence how and when people buy,” he said.
“More and more travel will be bought from home. People may still want to talk to experts either in call centres or virtual call centres, the challenge is how technology will evolve to enable that.”
Delegates can sign up to be at Travel Technology Europe for free.