Travel & Tourism Technology Trends

The TripIt App was just released in the App store on Friday April 11th.  I received an email from Peter at TripIt letting me know about the app and within five minutes I had it installed on my iPhone.

A Closer Look at the TripIt App

Once installed you have to sign into your TripIt account using the Open Authentication method.  This means opening up Safari and allowing the app to access your profile.  I have to admit, I am not a big fan of this method of signing in because it is jarring to the user.  The first question that popped in my mind was “Why would I need to provide permission for the app to access my TripIt account”.  Given that this is a branded TripIt app, it seems a bit unncessary to go through the authentication procedure and use some other behind the scenes method for connecting the app to the user’s account.

Once connected, the app downloads all your itinerary information and makes it available for off-line use.  This is the most important part of the app, why? Because the earlier iPhone enabled web interface didn’t allow you to access your itinerary information when you were off-line or in airplane mode.  Trust me, paying $15 to download my itinerary was not an option when traveling abroad.  The TripIt app now gives you access to that information on the go regardless of whether you are connected or not.

The screen shots give you an idea of the interface, which is simple and to the point.  Busy travellers do not want to have to click through a multitude of screen to get the information they need.

This screen is the “My Trips” screen and gives you access to your upcoming trips.  These are sychronized with the trips on your TripIt profile.

When you choose the trip you want, you are presented with the details of the trips in a similar manner to the TripIt site, sorted in chronological order and identified by flight, hotel, restaurant, etc.

If you click on the flight item, for example, you are presented with a variety of details about your flight including where you booked it, confirmation number, and even customer service phone number.  Most of the components are tied into iPhone native functions such as the ability to one touch dial the phone numbers and one touch integration with Google Maps for location based information like hotel or restaurant address.

So what do I think?

I think it’s a great start and an excellent example of taking a purely web based application and porting it to a mobile environment.  One of my biggest pet peeves is applications that mimic exactly what a website does without taking into account the features inherent in mobile devices.  I think TripIt has a pretty good job of taking advantage of the iPhones native capabilities.  I think future versions of the app could benefit from a better sign-in process and a more branded interface (just from an aesthetic standpoint).  Additional functions that I think would be of benefit include:

1. Adding itinerary items from within the application and pushing them to the TripIt website when connected.
2. Emailing or sms messaging itinerary items to contacts. (This would be handing for things like meeting friends at a restaurant or hotel).
3. Synchronizing TripIt contacts with phone contacts (or using TripIt contacts to search iPhone contacts) so that you can call (or contact) friends who are “Close to me”.
4. The ability for the iPhone app to auto synchronize location data back to you TripIt profile so that you can see friends “Close to me” on a map interface.

Overall, the app is a great next step for the TripIt platform and I look forward to seeing the app evolve.  For more details or to download the app to your info, visit the iTunes App Store.