UK not quite ready for mobile phone holiday bookings

Travel companies should focus on using mobile phone technology to improve their customer service levels until the public is ready to start buying through their handset, delegates at World Travel Market were told.

Gerry Samuels, founder and executive director at Mobile Travel Technologies, told delegates at an EyeforTravel seminar that right now it was only the developing countries, who had leapfrogged the PC, that were booking travel in large numbers on the mobile phone platform.

Mobile users in developed countries instead saw their phones as a means of emailing and searching only, with some responding well to promotional offers which meant they could react immediately to offers.

ââ¬ÅâœGeneric booking will take longer in the developed markets, but not that long," said Samuels.

"If you look at Japan, which is accepted as being a few years ahead of us, in 2006 it reached a tipping point where there are more people accessing the internet through mobiles than PCs.

"This is because they have 3G networks everywhere and itââ¬â¢s cheap. While we still see mobile phone internet as a means to check emails in dead time on the road, the Japanese are out and about making travel bookings.ââ¬~

ââ¬ÅâœFor now the sweet spot in the UK for mobile is improving service levels but this will change pretty soon.ââ¬~

by Dinah Hatch