TRAVEL TECH INNOVATION: MARKET REPORT THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL BOOKING AND PAYMENTS 15+ 2 3 4500+ 2EXECUTIVE SUMMARY New technologies and innovations continue to disrupt the travel landscape. While most of the industry buzz has focused on how airlines and travel providers are leveraging new technologies to revolutionize the travel experience, there's another variable at play: the potential entry of outside tech leaders into the market. In our last report the first in OAG's two-part series looking at the future of travel technology OAG took a detailed look at the anticipated adoption of several disruptive technologies, including predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, supersonic planes and autonomous vehicles. This report continues the conversation by exploring the future of travel booking, modern payment methods and the growing role of social media and consumer platforms in the industry. The research is based on an OAG survey of more than 2,000 U.S. travelers and provides insight on: The evolving methods and channels for travel booking The role of smart, connected devices The potential market entry of Amazon, Facebook and social brands The evolution of blind booking Modern payment methods If you missed the last report, Evaluating Travelers' Appetite for Tech Adoption, get your copy here.Survey Demographics Total respondents: 2,164 Leisure travelers: 67 percent Business travelers: 33 percent Timing: December 2017 January 20183THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL BOOKING The digital travel market drives a significant portion of the industry's revenue. According to Statista, online travel sales are expected to top $693 billion in 2018. While most purchases are made directly with hotels and airlines, or through online travel agents (OTAs), new options are beginning to come into play. Given the market's size and rapid growth Statista expects sales to reach $817.5 billion by 2020 new entrants are a formality. But who will emerge as the next key player and how will they connect with consumers OAG asked 2,164 travelers to identify which platforms and methods they would be comfortable booking travel through. The results: Research firm eMarketer estimates mobile messaging apps were used by 1.6 billion people in 2016 with expectations that number will reach two billion this year. When combined with the popularity of social media, the opportunity to connect and book through non-traditional channels continues to grow. Many OTAs are already capitalizing for example, travel providers like Expedia, Kayak, Skyscanner and others are allowing customers to book flights and hotels over Facebook Messenger. Booking through messaging apps and social channels represents a natural evolution for the industry, as many travelers are already relying on social tools like Facebook and Twitter as a preferred customer service channel for interacting with airlines.Consumer platforms like Amazon, Facebook and Google (32 percent) Automated chat agents on websites (28 percent) Mobile assistants like Siri and Okay Google (25 percent) Text messages (20 percent)Voice automated systems like the Amazon Echo and Google Home (18 percent) Social media messaging apps, like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp (9 percent)According to Statista, online travel sales are expected to top $693 billion in 2018As a group, business travelers were more inclined to use just about every non-traditional booking method listed above compared to the general population.4SMART AND CONNECTED BOOKING OAG found that a quarter of the population would be comfortable booking travel through mobile assistants like Siri or Okay Google. Another 18 percent said they would be comfortable using voice automated systems like Amazon Echo or Google Home. Today, however, only two percent of travelers surveyed have actually booked through these devices. As for millennials, 18 percent indicated they would be willing to book through an Amazon Echo- or Google Home-like system in the future, in line with the general population. OAG also asked travelers to look down the road and if they'd be comfortable with a smart device leveraging artificial intelligence to learn their preferences and automatically create an itinerary and book a trip without their review. In other words: travelers could say Hey Alexa, book me a flight to San Francisco for next Monday morning and leave it at that. The result: 13 percent of travelers said they would be very comfortable with this approach. Thirty-seven percent weren't sure, but they would be willing to try it, and 49 percent indicated they can't see themselves booking in this manner.。。。。。。