Even though QR codes have been around since 1994, they couldn’t have been more relevant than they are now. Most people are mistaken when they assume that QR codes are restricted only to payment transactions. Today, they transcend the industry boundaries and have ushered in a revolution across sectors. One such example is the travel and tourism space. No other industry suffered a greater hit than travel, tourism, and hospitality when Covid-19 hit. In the wake of the global pandemic, and the challenges it has brought forth, QR codes have become a critical pillar and much-welcomed tool for reviving travel and tourism as they allow travellers to have touchless transactions and skip traditional queue through facilities provided by QR codes.
QR codes also have the ability to keep up-to-date health and travel data such as travel history, health conditions during travel, and visit records. In an effort to have touchless or contactless transactions, the travel, and hospitality sectors offer online tourist travel passes, QR code menus (in hotels, airports, restaurants, etc.), contact tracing (for their benefit), hotel check-ins, portals for travel-related information, image QR code landmarks, and more. Now travellers do not need physical copies of tickets or boarding passes (in case of airport travel) – while many of these facilities were yet to be acknowledged or used pre-Covid-19, but they could not be more significant now.
In addition, QR codes eliminate some of the self-service tasks such as check-ins, ticket or hotel bookings, payment transactions, help centers, customer portals, etc. in the travel process which leaves travel agencies to interact with customers on other important aspects while ensuring the transactional consistency they expect. Today, QR codes have the ability to enhance the consumer experience in the travel industry at large. Below are some of its characteristics that make it critical for the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry.
- If you are booking yourself a nice hotel for a staycation or travel purposes, you prefer to look online. You go on to pick the property of your choice and have a cursory look at the hotel brochures, booking website, etc. Everything from the standees, billboards, and restaurant menus, to even a hotel key or access card can be attributed to the QR code. Some hotels prefer to use QR codes in their elevators as well.
- The travel and tourism industry has many little aspects it must cater to ensure a safe and sound travel or stay experience for its consumers – language guidance for city tours, maps, and historic tours along with sharing addresses and locations. With the help of QR codes, most travel agencies can make such tasks smoother and more yielding from both perspectives, where agents need not have their hours occupied with customer interaction that can be automated.
- No consumer is very eager to particularly search for an online space for customer feedback, and owing to this very reason most travel agencies are unable to hear the complaints or positive feedback of their customers. However, now agencies can smoothly collect customer feedback since QR codes encourage participation due to their efficiency and quick response time.
- As we catapult slowly into the future, there is much need for innovation and new experiences, especially when it comes to tourism and travel. Travel is an escape for people – an escape from their nine to five jobs and the feeling of being mundane. With the help of advanced technology such as the QR code, consumers can now enjoy activities such as augmented reality for virtual tours. So that even if you may not be able to make it, you still make it.
- QR codes not only offer contactless transactions and cost-efficiency, but are also eco-friendly since there is no need to print receipts, vouchers, or even business cards. Customers or business individuals can now simply create a virtual business card with a Smart QR embedded in it.
- The use of QR codes can make logistic maintenance easy in the travel industry. QR codes assist hotels, travel agencies, airports and other transport companies in tracking and recording their consumer data in real-time so they may analyse and scrutinise the same to catch behavioural patterns. Thus, one can track who reads and clicks printed promotional collateral efficiently.
- Other facilities such as scan and go are specifically beneficial to tourists due to language differences, touchless transactions, and of course efficiency.
Travel and tourism follow a chain of chronological events – Explore – Decide – Book – Pay – Experience – Review – Recommend, all of which can be made 10x productive with the use of QR codes. The industry is reviving and that too quickly, the past year has seen a massive surge in travel and tourist expectations. The increased accessibility along with the convenience of direct digital actions offered by the QR code will lead to faster consumption and in turn more substantial returns.
Technology such as QR codes are also helping individuals brush up their tech knowledge while travelling, and for tourism and travel agencies, they prove to be a great tool to modernise travel and hospitality.