Once dominated by paper brochures and manual bookings, the travel industry is now a world led by smartphones and instant gratification. Personalized, seamless experiences are what travelers want and are attracted to.
80% of global travelers prefer booking their trips online, with 86% of Millennials and 83% of Gen Zers leading the way. – Source.
With this paradigm shift comes a golden opportunity for travel companies that want to be travelers’ first choice. Travel app development is your gateway to grab this golden opportunity. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analytics are leading technologies that can help you offer an unparalleled personalized travel booking experience across devices.
The personalized experience your travel app delivers will meet the evolving expectations of customers, making them feel more valued. As a bonus, your travel business will continue to thrive in the modern world, where mobile devices are the go-to solution for people.
Drawing from my experience as a travel app development company, we’ve compiled this guide for travel businesses. Our purpose with this guide is to provide insights into how travel apps are created, how much it costs, how such apps earn, and more.
So, buckle up to explore types of travel apps first!
Before your travel app development, define Which One Is Right for You?
In 2007, two struggling roommates in San Francisco saw a chance to rent out air mattresses during a busy conference. It sparked the idea that transformed into a global travel sensation known as Airbnb today.
The gist is, that all you need is a great idea that fills the gap between customer engagement and experiences. The travel industry has many customer touch points that you can explore and niche down your solution. Let us give you some examples.
Travel Booking Apps
Travel booking apps are the powerhouse. Such apps enable users to book flights, rental cars, and hotels from one place. Expedia and Booking.com are examples of travel booking apps. If you want to accelerate and smoothen the booking process, you can find and fill the gap in your target market by building a travel booking app.
Travel Itinerary Apps
Has it ever happened to you that you were trying to plan your journey with a million tabs open? It’s a nightmare. And here comes TripIt, along with other itinerary apps.
Trip planner apps like TripIt keep all travel bookings, reservations, and activities in one package for easy access. Well, if there is any way you can help travelers stay well organized, then that’s half the battle.
Navigation Apps
Getting lost in a new city can be fun until it isn’t anymore. For example, Google Maps ensures that users always have an idea of where they currently are and directions to the next destinations.
Creating an advanced navigation app with contact synchronization, traffic highlights, and other useful features can surely attract tourists. And for sure, everyone will require your app if it does direct tourists on how to find their way around.
Local Experience Apps
Today’s global explorers yearn for something more than touristy attractions only. They want local experiences, too, and use apps such as Airbnb Experiences or Culture Trip, where they discover unique activities or connect with locals there through virtual reality (VR). Developing a travel application that helps travelers learn more about places they go will help you target specific audiences who love to explore less-traveled places.
Travel Expense Management Apps
Nobody wants to go back home and get a big bill from their credit card as a result of excessive spending while traveling abroad on vacation or during business trips. Thus, travel expense applications, like Splitwise, come into play.
A travel expense management app that helps tourists keep track of all spending and even split expenses among friends can be a potential solution in the industry.
Challenges in Travel App Development and How to Overcome Them
Creating a standout travel app is like crafting the perfect itinerary—it requires careful planning and a knack for overcoming unexpected hurdles. Here are the top challenges companies face and how to overcome them.
Managing Regulatory Requirements
Travel practices vary from one country to another, and they impact everything from payment processing to data handling. And failing to adhere to the law can land you in trouble. However, the use of compliance ensures that a customer trusts you with their needs.
Hence, incorporate a compliance framework into your travel app and update the app with changes in the law.
Tip: You should have constant consultation with the legal practitioners to be updated on the new regulatory changes.
Handling Peak Traffic and Scalability
High traffic on travel apps during peak times and holidays puts the app infrastructure under pressure. Downtime at such moments would cost you revenue and your brand reputation.
You need to create a scalable backend for your travel app that scales with traffic on its own.
Localization and Multi-Language Support
Offering global travel services means that your app appeals to several languages and cultural contexts. Localization is what produces better customer satisfaction, and this is what leads to greater engagement and more bookings. So, you must focus on professional translation and design that adapts according to the region.
How to develop a travel app?
Developing a travel mobile application requires thorough planning and brainstorming. You must learn about your target audience, target locations, features to incorporate, team to hire, and more. Let’s drill down the entire travel app development cycle in proper sequence.
1. Deep Dive in Market Research
Before you get down to development, you’ve got some homework to do. Research the competition, talk to your potential users, and understand where the gaps lie in the market. This research phase is crucial to make sure that your app doesn’t turn out to be just another drop in the ocean.
2. Define Your Features
Now that you have a clear view of what is out there define what you will offer with your travel app. Be practical about what you can achieve with your version one. You will always have time to enhance, but keeping things simple at first will save time and resources.
3. Build Your Dream Team
You can either hire travel app developers or partner with a travel app development company with industry expertise. If you hire in-house developers, you will be responsible for all their software and hardware requirements and salary, of course.
However, partnering with a software outsourcing company lets you hire their team based on the flexible engagement model. The call is yours.
4. User-centered Design
Make your design phase oriented toward user experience. Sketch wireframes and prototypes to get an idea of how the app would look and work. Do not be afraid to seek feedback and make iterations before development.
5. Develop, Test, and Tweak
Now, the actual construction of the building begins. During development, you will need to test and improve constantly. The idea is to catch all the bugs and problems at the beginning so that by launch time, everything will be perfect.
6: Launch and Market Your App
Once your app is ready, it’s time to launch! But don’t just throw it out there and hope for the best—have a solid marketing strategy to get the word out. Leverage social media, partnerships, and even influencer power to stir up a buzz.
7. Maintain and Update
Even after launching, the work doesn’t stop. It’s regular updates with new features and constant improvements that will have users coming back for more. Stay engaged with your users, and remain fresh on their feedback.
At this stage, software outsourcing companies can help you stay competitive with post-development services if you have partnered.
Cutting-edge Features for developing a travel app that stands out
App features make your travel app functional. And what features you choose to build in your travel app can define its user-friendliness. So, let us dive into the list of features that you can build into your travel app.
User-Friendly Interface:
Your app should have a sleek and intuitive design that makes navigating and finding the right travel services and deals a breeze for users.
Seamless Booking:
Create a booking engine that makes flights, hotels, rentals, and other travel-related booking smoother and hassle-free for everyone.
Payment Integration:
You should consider what payment method your target audiences prefer to make it quick and easy for users to pay for travel services.
Real-Time Updates:
Keeping travelers informed about their flight times, hotel bookings, weather updates, and other travel info is crucial to enhance engagement and satisfaction.
In-App Chat and Support:
Harness the power of AI in your travel app to offer a chatbot that answers customer queries in seconds.
Location-Based Services:
Make your users feel more connected by showing nearby attractions, dining spots, and special deals available in their travel destinations with a tap.
Multi-Language Support:
Integrating multiple-language support into your travel app is necessary, specifically, if you offer global-level travel services.
Multi-Currency Support:
Offering multi-currency support can help you gain a competitive edge as customers can use your app to pay while traveling to different countries. Imagine how much hassle you can save for them with this feature!
Review and Rating System:
Let users share their experiences through ratings and reviews that other users see and feel confident in planning and booking their trips on your platform.
Personalized Recommendations:
Leverage AI in your travel app to suggest destinations and activities based on user preferences, offering tailored travel ideas.
Offline Access:
Ensure your travel app allows users to access crucial features like maps and itineraries, even without an internet connection.
Push Notifications:
It’s the best way to send timely alerts about deals, updates, and essential travel information that you provide.
Travel Itinerary Management:
Make your travel app an ultimate solution that also lets travelers keep all travel bookings and plans organized in one convenient location.
Travel Expense Tracker:
Make it easy for travelers to keep track of their travel expenses on the go, helping them stay within budget.
Weather Forecast:
Integrate a weather forecast feature that provides up-to-date weather information for users’ destinations so they can plan accordingly.
Loyalty Program Integration:
To increase your loyal customer base, offer loyalty programs. So, users can effortlessly earn and redeem rewards as they travel.
Push-to-Call Functionality:
This is an important feature that comes in handy for users to make quick calls to travel hotlines and emergency numbers with a single tap.
Technology Stack for Travel Mobile App Development
Now that you’ve got a solid understanding of what your app needs to do, let’s talk tech. The technology stack you choose is like the foundation of a house—get it right, and everything else will fall into place.
Front-End Development
Programming Languages: Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android. These are the go-tos for native app development.
Frameworks: In case you want to create multiple apps from a single codebase, you can choose between cross-platform frameworks like Flutter and React Native.
UI/UX Design: The creation of aesthetic and user-friendly UI/UX design is supported by tools such as Sketch, Figma, or Adobe XD.
Back-End Development
Server: From AWS—Amazon Web Services—to Google Cloud and further to Microsoft Azure, some of these platforms offer a scalable and reliable environment your travel app needs.
Databases: In order to obtain and manage your user data, you may turn to database management systems, such as MySQL or PostgreSQL for relational databases or MongoDB for a more flexible NoSQL solution.
API Integration: Based on your travel app type, you may need third-party API integrations for flight, hotel bookings, and payment gateways. You can think of APIs as the glue between your app and external service.
Payment Gateway: The App needs to integrate payment gateways preferred by your target audience. It may vary with location and include Stripe, PayPal, or Braintree.
How much would travel and tourism app development cost?
You’re probably wondering how much all this is going to set you back. While the cost can vary depending on your app’s complexity and the expertise of your development team, here’s a rough estimate:
| Development Phase | Estimated Cost (USD) |
| Market Research & Planning | $5,000 – $15,000 |
| UI/UX Design | $10,000 – $30,000 |
| App Development (MVP) | $40,000 – $150,000 |
| Testing & QA | $5,000 – $20,000 |
| Launch & Marketing | $10,000 – $50,000 |
| Total Estimated Cost | $70,000 – $265,000 |
Remember, these are just ballpark figures. Your final cost will depend on your specific requirements and the development team you choose.
Ways to make your travel app earns for your business
It goes without saying that travel app development will also allow your travel business to generate revenue in many other ways. By selling your travel services digitally or being a platform where other tourism and hospitality agencies can put their services for sale, you can find multiple monetization models to make money with your travel app. Here are some of them.
Commission-Based Model
This model means charging a percentage fee for any booking that goes through the app. From booking flights and hotels to rental cars, a commission is made on every sale. This is a widely adopted strategy of big industry players like Expedia and Booking.com.
Merchant Model
In this model, your travel app acts as a reseller. You buy services as a reseller and sell these services at a premium. It is just a duplication of what travel agents perform in the physical world. Moreover, distributors often sell bundles of services/travel packages at premia prices.
Advertisement
Another popular way travel app monetization excels is through advertising. This method seems to show promise in the form of banner ads, interstitial ads, or native advertising within the app, and it could be useful for apps with big volumes of users but low direct sales.
Subscription Model
The subscription model is one where a customer is offered exclusive features in exchange for a fee paid regularly; an example in the travel sector would be a personalized service whereby the itinerary is the product, concierge, or offline maps. This works mainly to capture high-end travelers seeking specialized services.
In-App Purchases
The in-app purchase model complements the core app experience by selling appropriate and mostly relevant complementary products or services directly inside the app, be it travel guides, language packs, or even luggage-tracking devices.
Dynamic Pricing
In simple terms, dynamic pricing in the travel app changes prices relative to demand, competition, and user behavior using insights based on data. The offerings that best drive revenue are last-minute deals and dynamic pricing in line with user preferences.
Affiliate Marketing
Partnering with other travel-related businesses to promote their products and earning a commission on sales is the core of affiliate marketing. This model allows you to expand your offerings without direct investment and generate additional income.
Ready to revolutionize the industry with your Tech-pack Travel application?
Around 63% of global travel bookings were made through mobile apps in 2023, according to Business of Apps.
With the increasing preference to make and book travel plans online, the travel app market will continue to thrive. In fact, if you want to grab the competitive edge, this is the right time as the technology is evolving. Relying on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analytics, you can create an unparalleled travel app. Furthermore, these techs will empower you to understand your customers, predict the market, and more.
However, to make such an advanced travel app, you need an expert technology partner.
At Kody Technolab, we realize the pitfalls and chances that the travel sector offers. We have a team of experts dedicated to developing innovative, user-centric travel apps that drive business growth. Assisted by cutting-edge technology and the best practices in the industry, we will help you realize the potential of the mobile marketplace. Let us build a travel app that makes you stand out from your rivals.
Contact Information