Anupam Bokil, Sabre’s vice president of technology for Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific, shares with WIT an exclusive preview of the top five hacks he hopes to see come out of the two-day race against the clock to code a new application that has the power to really disrupt travel.
Today the number of developers globally is estimated at around 21 million, a rapidly growing figure expected to reach 25 million by 2020. That’s the equivalent of five Singapore’s, and much of this growth is expected to come from within Asia Pacific.
So it’s not surprising that Sabre, one of the leading technology companies serving the global travel industry, is preparing to run its first Asia Pacific travel tech hackathon this October.
Destination Hack, a global hackathon, will take place in Singapore from 14 to 16 October with the goal of ‘reinventing travel’.
#1: Voice interface solutions
With the advent of products such as the Amazon Echo, we see tremendous potential in the future of voice interfaces within travel technology applications. As a result, it would be amazing to see what sort of innovation could be created around this model.
Amazon recently paired the Dot with its Echo speaker, extending the voice activation even further.
Even more relevant, Apple has recently announced that they’re opening up the Siri API with iOS 10. This sort of innovation could reach across both consumer and business segments, from air shopping and booking to even business management. Imagine simply booking a flight to Barcelona with Siri or a hotel manager checking property inventory. All of these use cases are quite possible, and not just on Android. Whether it’s Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Now or Microsoft’s Cortana, voice is a critical interface in travel for the next five years.
#2: Chatbots
Recent trends suggest that chatbots will dominate social media. We’re starting to see numerous businesses and brands using them (Taco Bell with their “tacobot” for example, or chabots to serve as hotel reservations agents, already adopted by the likes of Booking.com and Starwood Hotels).
The impact of chatbots could be huge within the travel industry, but to see them really become adopted travel technology companies, and developers, must understand the end-user touchpoints and expectations. Only then can they prioritise resources efficiently. And as technology evolves, a regular reprioritisation is required. This process keeps the product roadmap pointing towards current and emerging traveller preferences.
Incorporating chatbots within Facebook Messenger, for example, could make searching for travel options easier than ever before. Imagine using a chatbot to book a flight from Singapore to Hong Kong from the back of a taxi on the way to a meeting. Meanwhile airlines could use chatbots to sell add on ancillary services or hotels or rental car companies could use them for reservations and upgrades.
#3: Augmented reality apps
We all know the Pokémon GO craze is/was huge. The app basically took the world by storm. (Just don’t play it while driving)! Now while augmented reality is great when it comes to games and entertainment, it could be even more instrumental in shaping the future of travel.
Hyper reality” featured heavily in this provocative film on the future of AR
One instance where it could be particularly useful could be for translation capabilities. Anyone who’s ever travelled abroad knows how overwhelming it can be when you’re out of your comfort zone. Adopting translation services within augmented reality could save valuable time and would certainly enhance the overall experience.
Of course, it doesn’t just have to be limited to translation. This sort of technology could enhance the travel experience across shopping, dining, travel booking, and beyond. Imagine an interactive map that showcases the top spots to pick up mooncakes to someone passing through Singapore during the Mid-Autumn Festival – the opportunity to add value to a traveller’s experience while keeping an aesthetic intact is vast. Brilliant!
#4: Virtual reality apps
We can’t have an emerging travel tech discussion without mentioning virtual reality.
Imagine shopping for travel and having the ability to experience your seat selection on an airplane before you choose, or to get an interactive tour of a hotel or a shortlist of tourist attractions. As VR becomes more accessible, more travel companies will be able to utilise this technology to influence purchase decisions.
And with driverless cars poised to revolutionise transportation, there could be many more hours in the average commuter’s week. Media and inspiration, potentially through VR, will fill this gap. The question for developers is: How does travel best fit into this space?
#5: Preference-driven shopping apps
One of the more recent trends we’ve seen is preference-driven airfare shopping, which you can see here on the Innovation Hub. The idea is to provide more control to the shopper to customise travel search results based on a series of nuanced preferences.
The preference-driven air shopping app on Sabre Innovation Hub
If an app or website is able to help provide more relevant shopping results, it changes the whole search experience.
Maybe a traveller values low fares over time of departure, but the length of a connection is also quite important to them. With preference-driven shopping, a traveller can add the exact degree of importance against all of these categories so that the results presented are curated to match their requirements exactly.
These are just some of the hacks we’d love to see at this year’s Singapore hackathon!
• Spaces are still available but filling fast, so Anupam suggests registering as soon as possible if you would like to be in with a chance to walk away with the US$10,000 prize money from Sabre’s first Asia Pacific Destination Hack.