Apple watches: a new IT revolution on the tourism market or just one more gadget?

The new Apple watch just went out on 25^th april and it seems that tourism actors rely on this new product. Even if it is not an innovation as the same kind of product already exists on the market since more than 2 years, the brand fame can bring a positive change for the development of smart watches. Thomas Husson, vice-president of the Forrester Institute, estimates that about 10 million Apple watches will be sold in 2015.

An article of the French online newspaper “L’echo touristique” by Souen Léger, shows that the different sectors of the tourism industry want to benefit from this product in different ways and some big players already launched their application compatible with the Apple watch. 

You can now use the Apple Watch with different transport applications: voyage-sncf, airline companies such as American Airline or Air France but also Uber and Taxis G7. Hotel chains are also innovating. As an example Starwood makes it possible for the guest to open his door with the Apple watch. Accor also bets on the Apple watch to improve services and make all the information easily accessible to the customers. Even GDS are now on the trend as Sabre made its application Tripcase compatible with it. Finally users of the Apple Watch will be able to use geolocation in cities to orientate themselves, take transports but also use something as useful as Tripadvisor.

What if smart watches were the next revolution in the IT world? Until now it was nothing but a revolution. However Apple has shown its brand power through the years and its new product follows the same path than the previous launches in terms of design and elegance. As an Apple watch cannot be used without an iphone, some experts already question its real utility. However the target is the same than people having an iphone, in other terms people that can afford having an iphone could afford having an Apple watch. Having an Apple watch can become a fashion trend. If it gets the same success than the iphone, it will be sold in mass and tourism actors will be more and more willing to adapt their offer to this small feature. The possibilities brought by the product will increase and it will become more and more convenient to have one. We are not yet at this point and smart watches have to prove themselves.

Do big companies of the tourism industries really choose to invest on this new product only because its functionalities enable to improve the customer comfort? It is quite questionable. I-watches are the perfect device to get even closer to the customer in a time when the big challenge for companies is DATA. If we take for example a guest hotel, smart watches could enable hotel chains to know their customers habits and behaviours much better. These data would enable to market better the offer to the customer and personalize it to finally make higher sales and increase the profit. What about privacy? Technologies evolve; our world change and we are getting more and more manipulated without knowing it. It would be useful to think critically before buying this kind of device. Will it be useful? Will it really make the difference? 

Laetitia BURET

Alexis BLOTTIERE

Sources:

http://www.tourmag.com/Le-tourisme-se-met-a-l-heure-de-l-Apple-Watch_a73632.html

http://www.etourisme-feng-shui.com/2014/09/15/iwatch-quels-grands-enjeux-pour-le-monde-du-voyage/

http://www.tourmag.com/Apple-Watch-opportunite-en-or-ou-en-toc-pour-le-tourisme_a72724.html

http://www.lechotouristique.com/article/tripadvisor-succombe-a-l-apple-watch,73970

http://www.lechotouristique.com/article/ces-entreprises-du-voyage-qui-parient-sur-l-apple-watch,74159

http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/internet-mobile/accor-apple-watch.shtml

Near Field Communication (NFC): All for Event Success

The development of mobile technology bring lots of convenience and surprises to people’s life; meanwhile, some special mobile techniques, like NFC, injecting new vitality to events. Inadvertently, NFC has come around our life. In recent years, plenty of the Android and iPhone use this technology on their phone. People have to admit that with the popularity of hardware, NFC become the first choice of file sharing, data exchange and device connection, etc. which also bring great convenience to event attendees and event planners.

NFC (Near Field Communication), also known as the short-range wireless communications, is a short-range high-frequency wireless communication technology, allowing for non-contact-point data transmission between electronic devices (within ten centimeters) to exchange data. The technology consists of a contact-free radio frequency identification (RFID) evolved, backward compatible with RFID, first developed by Sony and Philips, mainly used in mobile phones and other handheld devices to provide M2M (Machine to Machine) communication.

In event, NFC technology helps event planners to coordinate all aspects of planning matters, such as the collection and integration of more effective information without communicate with attendees, omitted a lot of manual processes, speed up and improve the efficiency. Also, the NFC technology Offer gamification features such as scavenger hunts, so that more participants enjoy the feeling of participating in event. It can also be smart send useful message to attendee roles directly, making the whole event process more simplify. For event attendees, NFC can facilitate automatic social media posting, if attendees participate in fun events like photo booths, they also could get more information about this event during the presentations through their smartphones. When they want to have meals and drinks, they can use smartphone to pay for the meals, it is more free style, giving the attendees more choices.

In Conclusion, NFC technology allows event attendees to have more channels to get information about their events, they can understand more and enjoy their event participate process. Meeting organizers can easily access the more effective information about the attendees to perfect their customer database, and more understand their participants’ mindset and needs, better serve them.

Resources:

http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/near-field-communication