Arabian Travel Market: tech promises to change holiday experience from door to destination
DUBAI: For most tourists, travelling is about creating memories and telling and retelling stories from their adventures.
That's why the travel industry is turning toward technology to enhance their experiences. Many such technologies were on display at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2025, which took place in Dubai from April 28 till May 1. The event observed the theme 'Global Travel: Developing Tomorrow's Tourism Through Enhanced Connectivity'.
Keeping this theme in mind, The Klick Agency set up an innovation zone in Za'abeel Hall 1 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
Tourism contributes 12% to UAE's GDP in 2024, surpassing US and Europe
'We are showcasing a variety of experiences that highlight storytelling and destinations,' said Klick Agency's chief technical officer Bram van de Ven, talking to Business Recorder on day two of the event.
'We've got some augmented reality (AR) experiences that allow you to step into a destination. We are really trying to use technology to bring stories to life.'
This technology was giving visitors the ability to step into different worlds using virtual reality (VR) demos. These kinds of close-to-life experiences enhance the journey before it even begins, said van de Ven.
'I think it helps with the travel experience, because people get a much better sense of the destination that they are experiencing,' he explained. 'For example, you can actually step into a hotel room and you can visualize it. You can see what it looks like, and get a much better feel than you would get by just looking at pictures or a description online.'
It's all about adding value to a traveller's experience, said van de Ven, adding that Klick's AR and VR add-ons are currently offered through digital and social platforms, such as Snapchat, TikTok and websites.
'Our approach is to try and stay away from apps,' he said, adding the company also knows not everyone has access to a VR headset. 'We try and keep everything web-based. You scan a QR code, it opens up a web page, and right then and there, you can experience what you want to see.'
Unlike Klick's technology that is front and centre with customers, IDeaS Revenue Solutions offers more behind the scenes remedies for the travel industry.
'We've been in the business of helping hotels with automating their pricing for 35 years,' said Klaus Kohlmayr, the US-based company's chief evangelist and development officer.
The industry leader, he said, works with 35,000 hotels around the world, one of them being the Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts chains, which has two locations in Pakistan.
'We take in external data from various sources, and we feed that into our system,' explained Kohlmayr. 'Then, together with data from the property management system and the central reservation system, we run that through our algorithms and mathematics and determine what should be the optimal pricing for hotel rooms for the next 12 months or 24 months ? by segment, by length of stay, by room type, and many other variables.'
These prices, he said, are displayed on any third-party platforms the hotel is affiliated with and also on their own websites.
Some data points used include prices set by competitive hotels, reviews, flights and weather.
The company's latest product will go beyond pricing.
'We've just launched a new product where marketing people can look at a dashboard, which will tell them where the 'need periods' are [specific times when demand for certain is typically low] and what return they could expect if they would spend marketing budgets for those periods,' explained Kohlmayr.
However, all these services are only useful if hotels are occupied, for which travellers need visas. That's where One Vasco comes in.
Much like the previous two vendors, it is also trying to leverage technology as best as possible.
'We have recently launched our app, where you can search for visa requirements based on your nationality and apply online,' said Arshad Shaikh, senior manager sales for One Vasco's Dubai hub.
Right now, said Shaikh, their AI use is limited to administrative tasks, such as capturing data from passports and filling out relevant fields on forms.
In the future, one of the tasks that AI could help with is aggregating information on visa requirements from various government websites and information portals to track changes and update their websites as soon as they happen, he said.
Shaikh said his company had seen good return on investment last year from ATM, giving him reason to return.
According to a press release, ATM 2025 featured more than 200 speakers and hosted over 55,000 travel professionals from 166 countries.
'ATM has firmly established itself as a key event on the global tourism calendar,' said Dubai's Crown Prince H.H. Sheikh Hamdan.
'This year's ATM once again reflects the UAE's role in bridging global markets and shaping the future of global travel,' he said, adding that 'the exhibitions and conferences sector is a vital engine of the UAE's economy. It plays a crucial role in attracting investment, enabling knowledge exchange, and creating high-value opportunities across a wide range of industries.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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