Tourism & Hospitality | Wednesday 12 December, 2018 4:18 pm |

Innovative, tech-savvy travel capabilities are now essential for travelers in the  Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), as four in five (80 per cent) are now open to offering their biometrics to reduce waiting in security lines, according to an independent global study commissioned by Travelport (NYSE: TVPT), the leading travel commerce platform. As biometric security and passenger processing systems continue to proliferate across more airports around the world, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is aligned in facilitating and enabling swift passenger screening.

Launched today, the annual Global Digital Traveler Research surveyed more than 16,200 travelers in 25 countries who took at least one return flight last year, and revealed that over half (61 per cent) of KSA travelers now use voice search to research their next trip. The compelling findings also highlight that KSA travelers are now most reliant on their smartphone when researching their trip (85 per cent). Furthermore, 61 per cent admit they feel lost without their smartphone when traveling and nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) express worry about their technology failing or running out of battery.

The results of the study, undertaken by Travelport to identify demand for digital travel tools, also revealed that the majority of KSA travelers now research (85 per cent) and book (73 per cent) all travel arrangements via smartphone, and that they use an average of 13 different types of apps when researching, booking and experiencing their trips.

Mohammed Khair, Travelport’s Country Manager for Saudi Arabia commented: “Guided by its Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has already made great progress with embracing digital transformation, and the tourism sector is one of the most promising focus areas in the Kingdom’s diversification efforts. The understanding that new digital tools have completely transformed the way travelers seek to plan their next trip, has resulted in Saudi Arabia implementing new features, such as biometrics, to enhance convenience and ease-of-travel.”

The research also underlined the importance of airline mobile apps to KSA travelers, particularly those with capabilities to not only search and book flights (70%) but receive flight alerts (69%), check-in (68%), and buy extras such as WiFi, baggage allowance, and priority boarding (64%). It also showed more than half of KSA travelers (60%) prefer seeing all their trip itinerary in one place, while 37% now feel that not being able to access bookings on all their devices is inconvenient. Nearly three-quarters (68%) of KSA travelers also said a good digital experience, such as online check-in and access to gate information on their mobile device, is important to them when choosing an airline for leisure travel, more than those in France (58%), Germany (55%), and Japan (39%).

Despite the high use of digital channels, including smartphones, tablets and computers, the study did reveal KSA travelers have some frustrations when it comes to booking trips online. Nearly two-fifth cited pain points such as not knowing the companies they can trust and often not knowing what is included, for example, number of bags, or meals among other details, at 36%. Nearly one-third (30%) also referenced concerns regarding booking everything separately, such as flights, accommodation, and ground transport, as well as questioning whether all online reviews are genuine (39%).

Commenting on the research, Travelport CEO Gordon Wilson said: “We can all see the way technology is changing almost every aspect of our lives. The travel industry has always been about new experiences and adopted new technologies early. This is as true today, with such high demand for voice search and biometric screening, as it was when I joined this industry [30+] years ago.

“At Travelport, we’ll always provide choice for customers and travelers, drive performance and use the intelligence in our platform to personalize and tailor your travel experience. But we’re also busy innovating, inspiring and experimenting with ways to use new technologies to make buying and managing travel continually better. It’s great to see confirmation that today’s travelers are already as excited about future technologies as we are about making them.”