Travel portal development a round trip journey

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Travel Portal Development A Round-Trip Journey
If theres one sector which is resilient, its
the travel industry. We can be certain that they
will be back in full swing. The trick in the
current situation is to reposition yourself and
think creatively about what you can do to
attract, convert, and retain customers. It can be
about bringing health and wellness to the
forefront with no-touch technologies like the
one found at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport in China.
They have kiosks that use facial recognition to
help travelers check their ?ight status and ?nd
their gate.
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• Or, you can streamline your marketing and
  operational processes with travel portal
  development. It will help you streamline
  operations, reevaluate customer service,
  demonstrate empathy, earn customer trust, and
  improve inventory and products.
• All you have to do is reposition yourself,
  understand customer needs, and develop a
  customer-centric portal. This article will guide
  you through the entire process of travel portal
  development covering what, why, and how.
• Introducing the Travel Portal
• Why Travel Portal over Travel Website or Agents
• Approach to Travel Portal Development
• How CRMJetty Can Help You
• 1. Introducing the Travel Portal
• In laymans terms, a travel portal is an online
  engine that lets your customers come together
  and interact for information, bookings,
  services, and sharing experience. They can book
  ?ights, hotels, packages, and other related
  services, compare prices, seek help, and do a
  lot more.
• Travel portal development is the process of
  developing that solution for your customers. It
  includes researching features and technologies,
  designing prototypes, developing the

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software, integrating tools, testing the
compatibility, and displaying services in users
preferred way. Travel agents are adopting this
sustainable way. Let us ?nd out why in the below
section 2. Why Travel Portal over Travel
Website or Agents Customer convenience,
satisfaction, and retention are the reasons you
should go for a travel portal. While your agents
can of?oad some of your customers tasks, the
options they will be able to provide are
limited. Besides, your customers have to visit
in-person or call you for their bookings, which
they can do anytime with a portal. Plus, they can
browse through multiple options and manage their
bookings and status themselves anytime with just
a few clicks. Your customers can book through
your travel website. However, it is more about
the information of your company, packages, and
services you offer. A travel portal is
customer-centric. It facilitates user experience
and demands. The features are built from the
customers point of view. Take the knowledge
base, for example. It provides your customers
information about bookings and other information
related to it. They can even solve their queries
themselves. If I want to know more about the
work from home package, well, I dont have to
contact the customer
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support. Articles and FAQs related to the topic
would be enough.

• Around the Clock Support
• You may have customers from different countries
  and time zones. You and your support team cant
  be available all the time. A portal acts as an
  online support rep that attends your customers
  247 without a break. It helps them in a way
  they like, i.e., self serve. They can book
  anytime and even cancel their trips instantly
  without reaching out to you. If theres an
  urgency, the portal provides them with relevant
  information and features like chatbot.
• Most importantly, travelers can collect the
  relevant data for their itineraries from
  anywhere in the world and anytime.
• Customers Insights

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• Managing and tracking a large number of clients
  with antiquated ways is challenging. Portal
  offers a centralized solution where you can
  manage all the customers information,
  interests, itineraries, and booking history. It
  also helps gather customers data across all the
  digital touchpoints, which you can use to
  understand their needs and preferences. The data
  helps you provide customers with the packages
  they are likely to go forward with.
• Reduces Operational Cost
• As a virtual platform, travel portal helps you to
  save time and money spent on training, marketing
  ?yers, brochures, and hiring the right people.
  It automates most of the tasks, taking off the
  burden from your support team. Next,
  self-service encourages your customers to help
  themselves. They can immediately ?nd answers,
  which leads to higher satisfaction rate and
  reduction in the total number of tickets.
• Brand Building
• Building your identity is important for your
  business. With a portal, you can target millions
  of customers at one time. You can provide them
  with answers and services in the most convenient
  way. This is how you can draw the attention of

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potential customers, and retention
rate. Travel portal makes your
increase your visibility and
customers life easier by

• eliminating the time wasted on browsing the web.
  Besides, the latest trends like AI, AR and VR
  are shaping the customers approach towards
  travel. That is why most of the travel companies
  look forward to travel portal development.
• If youre in the travel industry, developing a
  portal will be fruitful. And you can learn how
  to develop a feature-rich customer-centric
  solution in the below section.
• If you need a quick answer and want to go ahead
  with the custom development, we can help you.
  Our team of experts will guide you in choosing
  the solution best suited for your business
  needs.
• Get Free Consultation
• Approach to Travel Portal Development
• Self-service features integrated with latest
  technologies like AI, AR and VR are shaping the
  customer experience. So, while undergoing the
  development process, the ?rst step is to choose
  the type of portal you want to develop.
• A. Types of Travel Portal Development

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• In practice, there are 5 popular types of
  developing travel portals for tours and travel
  industries including DMCs, and TMCs.
• White Label Solution
• This is a pre-developed portal solution with all
  the features and services integrated in it. You
  can just rebrand it as per your companys name,
  logo, and other highlights. In simple terms,
  its a readily available solution that you can
  claim to be yours.
• Extranet

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• Extranets are a kind of CMS where you can manage
  content and inventories. You can use it for
  different services like hotels, ?ights, tours,
  buses, and more.
• GDS/API Integration
• GDS is a global distribution system that provides
  bookers and suppliers with all the required
  information like live rates, ?ights, room
  availability, etc. Integrating it allows you and
  your customers to access all the information from
  a single point of contact. Apart from GDS, you
  can also go for third-party API integrations
  like payment gateway integration and social
  media integration.
• Meta Search Engine
• If your purpose is to provide customers with
  information from all the available sites, then a
  meta search engine is the solution. It combines
  data of various search engines and gives
  appropriate data based on it.
• Custom Development
• A custom portal development is the combination of
  all the above development types with your unique
  set of features.
• Insider Tip Go for custom development as you can
  include everything in one pack whether its
  prompt service, automation, advanced search, or
  third-party integration.

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• B. Decide the Features
• Whether youre going for a custom solution or
  extranet, there are some essential features that
  your portal should have.
• Responsive Design
• Whether your customers access the portal on
  laptop or mobile, it should be easy to navigate.
  Ensure that the design is compatible with all
  the platforms and devices. In fact, you can
  customize a few things as per the device. For
  example, make CTAs and buttons easily visible on
  a mobile phone.
• Ease of Search and Selection
• Its necessary to include search options with
  ?lters in your portal. It helps customers in
  matching their requirements and ?nding relevant
  information quickly. For that, you need to
  include various parameters related to traveling
  like country, estimated budget, number of days,
  ?ights, and more.
• Now-a-days, predictive search has taken over
  manual search. With the use of AI, the system
  can automatically detect what customers are
  searching for and provide relevant information
  based on the one or two letters that

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• users enter. So, make sure that you include
  predictive search in your travel portal. Its a
  lot more helpful.
• Support for Third-Party Integrations
• Ensure that your portal allows integrating
  third-party tools like payment gateways and
  maps. This way, you can provide extra
  functionalities to your customers. Multiple
  payment gateways will make transactions easier
  and faster. Likewise, map integration will allow
  travelers to explore nearby places within the
  portal.
• Easy Veri?cation Procedures
• Your portal should provide online veri?cation for
  customers, helping them to complete their
  veri?cation process quickly during check-ins. It
  should also have similar functionality for
  agents. They should be able to upload documents
  and get it veri?ed digitally.
• Work?ow Automation
• Include all the features that self-service portal
  offers like knowledge base, community support,
  ticket management, case de?ection, etc. and make
  simple tasks ef?cient. De?ne the ?ow of the
  tasks. For instance, when a ticket is generated,
  auto-assign it to the relevant rep. Update the
  ticket status and notify the customers about it,
  and so on.

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• Here are some of the additional features that you
  should consider while developing a travel
  portal.
• Role-based access
• Multiple Sales Channels (Helpdesk, Frontdesk)
• Booking Management
• Document Management
• Customized Dashboard
• Reports and Analytics
• Have Some Unique Features in Mind? Share It With
  Us
• C. Look for Trends Shaping Travel Industry Post
  Covid
• After 2 years of lockdown and restrictions,
  people are ?nally optimistic about travel.
  However, their preferences in booking and
  traveling are likely to differ from pre-pandemic
  era. So, lets see what has changed since the
  pandemic and how you can adapt.
• Tech Adoption Accelerates
• In the past 2 years, the world has undergone a
  massive transformation. Technology and digital
  services have taken the front seat whether
  its shopping for groceries, clothes, or
  essentials. Even the work has shifted to remote.
  And now the fact is, it has become a habit.
  People have become used to doing everything
  online. This will apply to the travel

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industry as well. A lot of people already booked
trips online before the pandemic. Now, this
trend is going to be more pervasive and
travelers would expect an end-to-end digital
experience. One example is room service robots.
What you should do is bring in a travel portal.
It will make it easier for you and your staff to
manage the backend
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operations. Your customers can take care of their
own activities themselves. ii. Hygiene and
Safety are Priority Since the outbreak of
COVID-19, safety and hygiene have become
paramount. A Booking.com survey found that 46
percent of travelers are afraid of contracting
viruses during local transportation. There are a
number of trends like increased cleaning, social
distancing, availability of desired locations
and destinations, providing sanitizer, enforcing
masks, and vaccination certi?cates. While
choosing a destination, customers are likely to
consider these trends.
So, keep your customers informed about the latest
travel news and guidelines through social media
and blog posts. Be
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clear with your safety policies as this is a
vital marketing strategy now. Customers are
concerned about their health and safety. These
trends will give them an idea about what
measures you are taking to keep them safe. iii.
Shift from International to Local Trips People
are desperate to get out of their homes. They
just need a break. Initially, they are likely to
take road trips to nearby places. They might be
reluctant about ?ights, especially those with
infants.
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Hence, promote local hotels and accommodations.
Write articles on weekend getaway trips covering
lesser-known places and accommodations. You can
even partner with locals and let your customers
book private tours and travels with locals just
like WithLocals offers. iv. Need for Flexible
Booking Policies
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Even if travel starts in full swing, customers
will be uncertain about their bookings. What if
there is another wave? What if the destination
country bans the people originating from the
source country? What if they have to cancel
their trips because someone got infected? Trips
may get cancelled or updated. But you have to
ensure that its easy for your customers to
cancel or reschedule their booking. Provide
options like free cancellations/modi?cations,
fully refundable/partial refundable, and pay
later. Also, offer good travel insurance
policies. Together these trends will create a
dynamic relationship between you and your
customers. Hence, include these in your travel
portal development. Add safety and ?exibility
related features. Accelerate digitalization by
incorporating technologies like AI, AR and VR,
Voice Search, etc. D. Partner with a Development
Company Finding the right partner is challenging
as every development company has their unique
offerings. Some may offer services at affordable
pricing while another may have better
experience. Hence, here are a few factors you can
consider while choosing the travel portal
development company.
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• Portfolio Look at their portfolios, technologies
  they have worked on, and products they have
  developed. Also, check out the case studies, it
  will give you an overview of how they handle
  customizations, if asked for.
• Customer Reviews Check out the testimonials and
  other ratings and reviews. This way, you can
  learn about their pros and cons easily. After
  all, customers dont lie.
• Experience Know about their total work
  experience. This helps you sort if they have
  experience with technologies and features youre
  asking for.
• Project Communication Share your requirements
  with them and take their inputs. An experienced
  team will give you an honest opinion and even
  help you with additional features as per the
  market trends and your requirements. Also, it
  should be easy to communicate with them.
• Information Read their blog and other resource
  materials. This will give you a perspective about
  their thought process and development approach.
  An experienced, goal-oriented team will provide
  valuable information to their clients.
• Budget The more complex your features are, the
  more you will have to pay. Therefore, clarify
  the development

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cost before ?nalizing them. Request quotes and
know about their payment policies so that you
dont end up paying for the post launch support
because you didnt clarify if its free. You
also have to consider the factors that affect the
travel portal development cost features, type
of business model, platform type, booking
engine, integrations, technologies, and teams
expertise. Location of the development company
and the total development hours also affect the
expense of developing a travel portal. 4. How
CRMJetty can Help You We can develop a custom
travel portal for you considering all the
technologies and the latest trends. We have years
of experience in developing solutions for SMEs
and large enterprises from various industries.
Whether you need a B2B, B2C, and other niche
speci?c custom solution, our team can help you
with services that meet your requirements. Last
but not least, we follow agile methodologies. So,
youre always a part of the development process.
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Source https/ www.crmjetty.com/blog/travel-porta
l-developme nt-a-round-trip-journey/
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