Bring Your Augmented Travel Agent Along For The Ride

Often, planning a trip can call for using a travel agent. Venturing to unknown lands armed with the advice of someone who has been there before is always a good idea. Now, one travel organization is making it possible to take their agents along with you on your trip.

Travel Leaders Franchise Group will soon be releasing a travel app designed to arm their customers, and only their customers, with customized travel information.

At the time of booking, agents at Travel Leaders will provide a link that enables their clients to download the app prior to their departures. Armed with an augmented reality function, travelers point their devices at a landmark or location to instantly learn about the area’s top sites to visit, along with admission prices, hours of operation and reviews.

The app enables clients to “take their agents with them virtually on a trip,” Roger Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group told Travel Weekly.

Destination content will be fully loaded at the time of the download so clients won’t incur any international roaming charges.

Feeling left out because you don’t have a Travel Leaders agent in your back pocket? Don’t. While this agent-loaded app is personal, so is the do-it-yourself version from TripIt.

The TripIt app takes travel-booking information – via direct entry or by forwarding confirmations from airlines, hotels and other travel service providers – and forms its own itineraries, complete with destination information.


[Flickr photo by U.S. Army via Compfight]