Interactive Travel Consulting: Is Tourism Industry Ready For It?

Travelers have the full globe open for exploration. Alaska to Australia, Siberia to Sri Lanka… A traveler, who rides on his hunch and has wanderlust, is unstoppable. A large number of travelers do not plan their itinerary and stroll down to some of the most unconventional places.

This is the genre of tourist who may need consulting at any given time and at unusual places. And here is where the interactive travel counseling takes birth. Internet and mobiles are the two powerful and effective medium that can be a handy tool for interactive travel consulting.

Travel and tourism service sector still need to evolve in this aspect of tourism. Most of the agencies and tour operators often end up in drawing the tour schedule and arranging for stay and food. However, actual help may be needed in dire straits when no other source of information and guidance is available.

• Travel and tourism sector must consider setting up toll free numbers that can be reached from anywhere in the world and at any time irrespective of the time and zone a tourist is in. Providing around the clock direct contact with the agency from where the tourist started, that too in his / her native language will ease many troubles of the tourist roaming thousands of miles away.

• Making customized tourist plans and information available for internet access; and / or providing it on any portable medium like CDs and flash drives shall be very handy. Tourists can inform the agency in advance about their likely area of operation and seek maximum information about the same.

• Tourism must also collect the tourists who are willing to share their travelling experiences. Their information about the common problems faced at various areas they have recently visited may prove to be very useful interactive travel consulting source. Availability of contact numbers of previous visitors to the places where a tourist is planning to visit may be useful in seeking information in the need of the hour.

• Tour operators must also plan to setup consultation centers for the incoming tourists. Locals who had visited various places previously shall be made available to guide foreign tourists in solving problems and providing crucial information that common tour operators fail to give.

As more and more tourists are willing to trade the unbeaten path, interactive travel consulting is what is going to help them immensely. Tourism industry must gear up to for efficient interactive tourism consulting in near future.