How to Build Travel App that Earns Revenue for Your Business

Expedia, TripAdvisor, and Minube- every traveler must have heard these names. These travel apps have gained ground for their comprehensive city guide, features like Things to do, and useful reviews. Startups and ambitious entrepreneurs can focus on online travel market which is expected to reach over USD 565 billion by 2020.

If you want to grab the opportunities offered by booming traveling industry, customized travel mobile app solution can remain handy for you. Yes, a feature-rich travel app is designed for travelers and includes all necessary travel-related features. From finding places to stay and eat to getting routes to landmarks and enjoying the nightlife- the travel or city guide apps can help travelers in every way.

• Benefits of Travel Application Development

Travel agency, museum, city-related services providers, and tour operators can leverage the benefits of travel application. Though the tour and travel industry is thriving, it is full of challenges and competition. Particularly startups, small, and mid-size travel businesses find it difficult to cope with growing challenges and changing requirements.

Established players have grabbed the sizeable chunk of travel industry market share. There, SMBs can take advantage of a mobile platform through a seamlessly-performing travel app and attract new customers. It is easy to convert people into regular customers with a custom travel mobile app solution.

Do you know the city guide app or a tourist app can also offer real-time information about the city’s activities and famous places, amusement parks, malls, hotels, etc. to the local residents. In other words, the travel app is useful for first-time visitors and local public alike. The app can give your business a boost and a new identity while generating revenue.

Here we give a step-by-step guide to building a travel or city guide app that can benefit your business.

• How to Build City Guide App

The city guide or travel app needs the following essential features to get success amid increasing competition.

– Offline support
In today’s internet-driven world, the offline mode may seem weird, but the travel app needs it. The reason is simple: It is possible that the visitors may not have data or continuous Internet access in various places. There, the travel app with an offline mode can remain handy. The app users can readily use the app with or without Internet connection anywhere.

– Multilingual support
Let’s take an example of Paris. People from across the world visit this “City of Lights”. How about targeting visitors from different countries by providing multilingual support in your app? You can include both local and foreign languages in your app. Here, you need to pay attention to highly popular and widely spoken languages.

– Complete transportation information
It is really helpful for people to get complete details regarding public and private transportation especially if they visit the place for the first time. A timetable of bus, train, and other public transport services should be included in the app. Also, other useful information like taxi fares and schedules needs to be added.

Related Reading- Most Useful Tips to Maximize ROI of Your Business Mobile Application

– Important Information
We have discussed transportation-related information. Now, you may wonder which important information you should include in your travel app. Well, you can add city-wise emergency contact numbers like hospitals, airport, railway stations, police stations, etc. Also, you can include parking-related information along with charges. Be it a metro city or a small town, the parking issues loom large on people, and therefore, if tourists visit a particular city in their own or rented vehicles can find the parking information very useful.

This important information can attract more people to download and retain your app in their smart devices.

– Geo-location services
GPS or geo-location feature is one of the must-have features for travel apps, cab-hailing apps, retail apps, and order-booking apps. The geo-location services can boost your business and increase profitability. Your app users can find real-time information about the place and get the right direction. It is easy to send personalized notifications to the app users based on their current locations. Also, your city guide app can suggest nearby places to visit and show their route immediately.

– Search option
This is another benefit of geolocation or GPS functionality. Your app can have search functionality and the users can readily find a particular place on the basis of their current location. You can also provide filters to narrow down the search or make it more specific. For example, you can give an option of finding nearby restaurants, airport, or hospitals within the search menu. The app users can use relevant keywords to get the necessary information.

The search option can be integrated with Google Search. Mobile app development services can do it for your app. In a way, you can give your city guide app a wider outlook.

– Social Media integration
Social media integration is the need of the hour for any business app. When you opt to build a city guide app, you should consider this feature to attract more people. Social media integration enables app users to share images, videos, and experiences of particular places. It can certainly make your app more reliable and richer than other similar travel apps that have no social media support.

In this social media-driven age, people tend to rely on recommendations of their friends and relatives. When satisfied app users will post their experiences on their social media accounts, your business can get the benefit of word-to-mouth publicity. You can make the most of social media network as a promotional tool. What’s more, you can also share attractive images and engaging posts regarding various places on your company’s social media account to promote your app and business.

– Reviews and recommendations
Reviews and recommendations matter the most when it comes to the travel application. Tourists can freely their views, experiences, and suggestions in this section, which is useful for other prospective tourists. Also, you can get valuable feedback regarding your app’s functionality and feedback. It assists you to improve the performance of your app. Also, positive ratings can encourage people to download your app.

After going through key features, let’s have a brief idea on the app development team and cost of a feature-rich travel application.

• Development Team

The development team to build a bespoke travel app consists of a project manager, two app developers including one back-end and one front-end developers, app designers, and quality control executive. If the app project is big and you want to integrate complex features, it is beneficial to hire an extended team of developers to meet the deadline.

• Travel Application Development Cost

It is advisable to consult a reputed mobile application development company in the USA to get a clear idea about the travel app cost. Just like traditional apps, travel app development cost also does not include the charges for app maintenance and support.

Travel app development company considers various factors while deciding the app cost. Some of these factors include the selection of platform, features to be integrated, and overall complexity of the app. Also, MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or a full-fledged app also makes the difference.

Finally, when you hire travel app developers, the charge is decided on an hourly basis. For example, if you hire the US or Canada-based developers, they charge around $150-$200 an hour, whereas Indian app developers charge around $25 to $50.

Altogether, travel mobile app solution costs you between $12000 to $25000. However, if you want to make the app more robust and complex, the cost can go significantly high.

• Concluding Lines

A city guide or travel app can enhance and retain the reputation of your business. It assists tourists and helps you cooperate with travel agencies, hotels, and other tour-related business. You can draw the attention of many people by providing real-time information about the latest happenings, gatherings, and cultural events with the help of an app.

Your search for a reliable mobile app development partner ends here! We have served over 400 global corporate clients across various industry sectors with customized, high-end app solutions. If you want to build a user-friendly traveler app and boost your business, we are here to help. Just drop us a line at sales@solutionanalysts.com and our executives will get back to you soon.