How we socialise, communicate, do business and travel has been dramatically changed by mobile and we live in a “mobile culture’ that did not exist five years ago.

NB This is a viewpoint by Brendan Bourke, digital consultant at MTT, part of Travelport Digital.

We now have mobile-only companies such as Uber, Hailo and HotelTonight; mobile-only communication platforms such as Whatsapp and Snapchat, a constant flow of new technologies – the Apple Watch, Samsung Gear, mobile payments (Apple Pay, Android Pay), virtual reality, augmented reality, bots, artificial intelligence – all of which are shaping new “mobile only” ways for airlines and TMCs to interact with the end-traveller.

These changing technologies and pervasive behaviours are creating a myriad of new opportunities for airlines and TMCs to support, engage and empower their customers via sophisticated apps and mobile services.

With mobile at the center of how we communicate and interact, it also must be at the center of the digital travel strategies of airlines and TMCs. But, with demanding, hyper-mobile customers and advances in mobile travel at every turn, keeping pace with this changing landscape and maintaining a sophisticated mobile experience is not an easy feat.

To help airlines and TMCs to prioritize their strategy investments, MTT of Travelport Digital has devised The Evolution of Mobile (EVOM) framework.

This framework enables airlines and TMCs to understand how they can manage and roll out their mobile investments more effectively and how to prioritize what they want to do on mobile, based on their key objectives for customer engagement and revenue generation.

It also enables them to benchmark where they are at in their own strategy, and how they compare to that of their competitors.

We have identified five pillars which create a structure for the evolution of mobile travel:

1) Foundation

Getting the basics right. Focus on simplicity delivered beautifully.

2) Revenue- generating ROI from your app

How to increase the value of every interaction with every customer via mobile.

3) Acquisition and engagement – ensure your customers find the app and keep coming back

Build it and they will come? If only it was that easy! Getting a great app to market is the first step, making sure that your customers find and download your app needs investment and effort to ensure you get the engagement level that you want.

4) Owning the traveller – engagement at every step of the journey with personalized and timely mobile services

Providing an end-to-end travel experience with great mobile travel services, on every device, across all touchpoints of the travel lifecycle is the key to maintaining ownership of the traveller.

5) Mobile first – staying above the paradigm shift

The final pillar is about refining the mobile experience by constantly iterating and demonstrating a mobile-first mindset as well as introducing mobile firsts.

To find out more about each of the five pillars of the Evolution of Mobile Travel, examples of how to succeed in each pillar, a look at what leading airlines and TMCs worldwide are doing at each stage, how to prioritize investments in each pillar and to hear about some of the next big trends impacting mobile travel – register now to join MTT’s webinar on October 27th,  The evolution of mobile travel: Where to invest next?

More details here.

NB This is a viewpoint by Brendan Bourke, digital consultant at MTT, part of Travelport Digital. It appears here as part of Tnooz’s sponsored content initiative.