Amadeus to offer VR search and booking tool

BTN News
Thursday, 27 April 2017

Travel IT company Amadeus is developing a 'virtual reality' (VR) travel search and booking experience that it claims is a first for the industry and could change the way travellers shop for and purchase trips, helping airlines and other travel companies become next-generation retailers.

The innovation allows travellers to spin a globe of the world, visit a destination, search for flights, walk through a plane to select their seat, check out different rental cars, and pay for their entire trip on line.

“I see a future in which the internet will be a 3D experience, and everyone will have their own portable 3D headsets. This will be a much more natural experience for us, because the world we live in has three dimensions. I think technology and the way we design user experience on line should reflect that too,” said developer Justin Wilde.

The VR booking experience begins with the traveller standing on a platform in the clouds facing a giant globe of the world. The user can spin the globe to select a destination, and suddenly there they are, staring at the London Eye for example. If the traveller likes what they see, they can purchase a flight and go through the entire booking process right through to payment. When selecting a flight, the traveller can walk through the plane cabin to find the right seat, and when booking a rental car they can hop in and try different cars. In the future, the VR experience could include hotel booking features, and even social functions so the traveller could see where their Facebook friends have been as they spin the globe.

Wilde completed the first booking using his VR search and booking web application on December 31, 2016 in the Amadeus subsidiary Navitaire's offices in Salt Lake City.

It is still in project phase, with a patent pending.

Amadeus to offer VR search and booking tool

BTN News
Thursday, 27 April 2017

Travel IT company Amadeus is developing a 'virtual reality' (VR) travel search and booking experience that it claims is a first for the industry and could change the way travellers shop for and purchase trips, helping airlines and other travel companies become next-generation retailers.

The innovation allows travellers to spin a globe of the world, visit a destination, search for flights, walk through a plane to select their seat, check out different rental cars, and pay for their entire trip on line.

“I see a future in which the internet will be a 3D experience, and everyone will have their own portable 3D headsets. This will be a much more natural experience for us, because the world we live in has three dimensions. I think technology and the way we design user experience on line should reflect that too,” said developer Justin Wilde.

The VR booking experience begins with the traveller standing on a platform in the clouds facing a giant globe of the world. The user can spin the globe to select a destination, and suddenly there they are, staring at the London Eye for example. If the traveller likes what they see, they can purchase a flight and go through the entire booking process right through to payment. When selecting a flight, the traveller can walk through the plane cabin to find the right seat, and when booking a rental car they can hop in and try different cars. In the future, the VR experience could include hotel booking features, and even social functions so the traveller could see where their Facebook friends have been as they spin the globe.

Wilde completed the first booking using his VR search and booking web application on December 31, 2016 in the Amadeus subsidiary Navitaire's offices in Salt Lake City.

It is still in project phase, with a patent pending.