Ben Goodman, New Relic Asia-Pacific & Japan SVP und General Manager
Despite a recent spike in the number of Omicron cases, international tourism is slowly starting to reopen and the industry (socially distancing) breathes a sigh of relief as we step into a new era of travel.
At the beginning of the pandemic, governments used technology to stop the spread of the virus by launching check-in and contact-tracing apps, and also activated online vaccination booking services and certificates. But the world isn’t what it used to be, and technology must continue to be resorted to to allow for safer travel and prevent the spread of Omicron and other possible mutations.
While discrepancies in travel policies between nations can create frustrating experiences, developing apps that offer an all-in-one service for contact tracing, quarantine requirements, government entry policies and more will be critical to the new era of travel; Customers can navigate multiple state jurisdictions and policies, eliminating any confusion about testing requirements.
The importance of data
We all carry cell phones with us, and these devices are capable of broadcasting our location and who we’re interacting with via Bluetooth and geotagging. Singapore’s COVID-19 contact tracing app, TraceTogether, does this by generating anonymized IDs that can be used by contact tracers to send alerts about possible exposure to COVID-19 and recommend next steps.
Governments have used contact tracing technology in their respective countries to try to stop the spread of the virus, with New Relic’s customer, the Government of India, working with industry and academic volunteers to develop and deploy it Aarogya Setu contact tracing app.
After launch, the digital first responders behind the app’s development recorded 50 million downloads in 13 days and at one point recorded 7 million server requests in just one minute. Thanks to the contact-tracing app, the government was able to quickly scale services and understand the digital state of customer engagement.
the Service NSW app in Australia is another example of how the government has responded quickly to the changing conditions of the pandemic. Originally created as a place to view license and registration information, the app has been updated to include a check-in feature. Alerting users who were at a COVID-19 exposure site. In addition, it includes vaccination certificates and other COVID-19 resources.
Creating a one stop shop for travel
A one-stop shop requires end-to-end observability to manage the sophisticated nature of modern architectures. Observability builds on the foundation of traditional APM and infrastructure monitoring, helping to generate the data governments – and travelers – need to respond and react quickly to issues, while providing the right level of oversight around collection sensitive information is guaranteed.
While the creation of COVID-19 contact tracing apps has been critical in combating the spread of the pandemic, the often standalone apps for different countries – and even different apps for specific cities within those countries – have in some cases made the end-user experience cluttered . The travel industry must try to create a scalable platform that includes multiple services such as flight information, vaccination certificates and quarantine requirements.
Using telemetry data collected from citizens’ mobile devices can provide governments and travel providers with information to enable a seamless travel experience. Gathering this information will enable tech teams in the travel industry to start creating dashboards that clearly show how safe the global landscape really is.
By developing mobile apps that leverage this data and make it easy for travelers to know what to do before, during and after their trip, the industry can break through confusion to reveal risks in real time. This information can be fed back to governments looking to monitor high-risk travel zones, providing travelers with clear, consistent information about their needs in these situations.
An era of the travel super app?
Super apps are plentiful in Asia, with GoTo in Indonesia, Grab in Singapore and WeChat in China being just a few examples of industry leaders. Their popularity stems from their ability to allow users to send messages, order food and takeout, rideshare, and even purchase insurance all in one place.
When it comes to travel, an integrated app would be a game changer. Imagine being able to purchase travel insurance, arrange airport transport, shop for duty free and book a COVID-19 test upon arrival at a destination country – all from a single app. Curating these services in an app creates a virtual travel checklist; remove the risk and guesswork, enabling the travel industry to build simplicity into the customer experience.
The devastation of the pandemic has given us an opportunity to rethink and innovate. While it will require cross-border collaboration between tech companies, the public sector, airlines and hotels, if the ecosystem is able to focus on app development to make travel easier and safer, the recovery will the whole industry can still be far smoother.
Reference-www.nach-welt.com