For all the promotion, PR in the mainstream media and buzz on social media, it appears travel guide applications on devices are not resonating so much with travellers.
British Airways tested the pulse of 2,000 consumers to discover what is hot (or not) in their world of travel tech and the various services and devices they use on a trip.
Unsurprisingly, a mobile is the most essential item travellers now take with them on a trip, ahead of books, iPods, tablets and Kindles.
Focusing on the applications that users have on their mobiles, spare a thought for the travel guide - finding itself way down the pecking of popular services selected by travellers in the poll.
Perhaps understandable given its importance sometimes to the success or otherwise of a trip, weather forecasting apps are the most used services on mobile devices, according to the study.
Still, there is no single killer app, it appears:
- Weather app - 32%
- Camera app - 29%
- Map app - 23%
- Social media app to share updates - 21%
- News app - 16%
- Social media app to find out what’s going on - 14%
- Translator app - 12%
- Local travel guide app - 11%
Perhaps the poor performance of travel guide apps is down to a number of factors, such as how often the user needs to check details about destination compared to the frequency of taking pictures and checking maps.
Nevertheless, BA doesn't appear to be put off by such worrying signs of low usage of travel guides - alongside releasing the results of its study, officials were talking up its Perfect Days service, an app "offering personalised travel guides"!
NB:Mobile app image via Shutterstock.