Research shows travel industry lacks mobile payment knowledge

mobile commerce services

NFC technology and mobile marketing

Only 5 percent of businesses are using this technology for traveling on business.

A study performed by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) and AirPlus International has shown that while only 5 percent of companies are making use of mobile payment for their business travel needs, nearly half of them feel that the technology would make the experience easier.

Furthermore, only 18 percent say that using it would make travel managers’ jobs easier.

Equally though, 53 percent felt that they had only a very rudimentary understanding of the area. The poll was conducted with the participation of 73 members of the ACTE, who had been asked various questions regarding the ways in which they use smartphone and tablet solutions for completing transactions.

Volker Huber, the executive vice president of global sales at AirPlus stated that “Our survey showed there are still big knowledge deficits in the industry as regards mobile payment solutions.” He went on to explain “But this topic is becoming extremely important for business travel and will completely transform the way we pay.”

These results were of interest to AirPlus, which intends to launch its AirPlus MobilePayment prototype solution in March 2013. Huber stated that this new offering demonstrates how this type of smartphone transaction can help to optimize the processes for travel management. He also added that with it, it is possible to capture all transactions within a company’s account within real time. Therefore, all of the important information needed by a travel manager can be maintained within a single package.

The mobile payments here don’t require a traveler to use any cash or credit cards.

Instead, he or she would need only to keep the smartphone available and tap it against the contact surface of the reader device in order to make a ticket booking. This technology uses near field communication (NFC) which is currently installed in a small percentage of smartphones, but that is also expected to take off over the next few years.

According to AirPlus, experts feel that by the year 2014, there will be $50 billion in mobile payments through NFC enabled devices.

 

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