For the first time in the race between man and machine, connected devices outnumber humans, with the tally of active devices worldwide standing at around seven billion.

“Technology is coming at us at a velocity we have never seen before,” innovation manager at global technology company Sabre Labs, Joakim Everstin (right), told an audience of delegates at ITB Berlin on Wednesday.

With consumers increasingly connected to their smartphones and tablets, Ekerstin’s message to the travel industry is clear: if you want to reach your core audience, sparing the time �" and money �" to pay attention to consumers’ personal devices, too, is essential.

In his presentation, Everstin identified three key trends in today’s digital candy store for the travel industry:

1. Geo-location: ‘Engage with customers at the right time’

“Travel agents. Can any of you say you know the exact whereabouts of your customers at the exact time? To see if they are running late?” Everstin asked. “Not many people can.”

The advent of GPS chips, he said, enables businesses to “engage with customers at the right time.”

For example, if airport security is particularly busy, airlines could track incoming passengers and send a push notification to passengers en route offering a fast-track option. In this way, a potentially negative experience could turn into a positive one.

“To personalize, you need to understand what the client needs,” Everstin said.

2. Photo sharing: ‘A photo says more than 1,000 words’

Photo sharing, or “real-time customer data,” as Everstin termed it, is proven to generate more interaction on social media channels than stand-alone text. With the discerning connected traveller glued to their smartphones, click-rates are key to a business’ pulling power.

“You know that saying, a photo says more than 1,000 words? Well, today a photo is worth more than 1,000 cookies,” Ekerstin said. “Who knew a selfie would be a marketing opportunity today?”

Beyond social media benefits, Everstin added that available image analyzing tools turn photos into powerful, lucrative insights into guest experience.

“Imagine you have a hotel. And in that hotel, you have a bar with hopefully a lot of guests. You can take all the pictures posted from your bar, and analyse them to see how many people are in the picture, are they happy, is it at night?” Everstin said.

“By understanding your customer you can then optimize everything from the menu to interior decoration, and thereby create a better environment for the customer. The point being to sell more because people feel more comfortable in your bar.”

3. Virtual reality: ‘Know what you’re buying, before you get there’

“Today, it’s about experiencing real places and real people �" only virtually,” Everstin said.

“Imagine if you have a young person coming in to see you, and they say, ‘I want to go on a world trip.’ Now, there are 25 destinations to choose from, but in a year you could probably fit in about 7 or 9,” Everstin said.

“So, what if a travel agent could say: pick 15 destinations, and I will take you through these different destinations and from that experience, you’ll be able to make a choice.”

“It could be about making the sales process and pre-trip period much richer,” he added. “So you could know what you’re buying before you even get to the destination.”

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