The application allowed users to easily manage their travel itineraries while on the move. Information available included the status of flights, TSA security point wait times, local weather, maps, traffic and airport driving directions. Jeffrey Glueck, chief marketing officer of Travelocity justified this movement by saying that: “As we continue to focus on great travel experiences for our customers, we’re proud to offer such an innovative and informative mobile travel solution for iPhone and iPod touch users.” The first step was done.

Almost one year later, Kayak, another online travel agency followed the same pattern and launched its iphone application. iPhone users was able to search more than 200 travel sites for rates and availability for flights and hotels from anywhere in the world. Once the users made a decision, Kayak.com offered a choice of where to buy—directly from the supplier or from an online travel agency—and send the user directly to that site to make a purchase. So every iphone user was in position to buy his tickets or book his flight directly from his iphone. “If you’ve ever been stranded along with dozens of other passengers after a cancelled flight, you’ll know that the mad rush to the ticket counter and long wait to be assisted by an agent is a terribly helpless feeling,” said Bill O’Donnell, Ultra VP of Code for Kayak.com for explaining the reasons why his company entered the apple store.

History doesn’t stop here. A month ago Tripology, which is also a travel agency decided to launch an iphone application using a different philosophy. The difference in philosophy has to do with the way that this new application works:

• Consumers tell the company about their desired dream vacation, completing a trip request form.

• They get contacted by up to three travel specialists who will build them a customized trip itinerary.

• They select one of the travel specialists and an itinerary.

It is clear that apple store offers a unique opportunity to travel agencies that wish to offer something new to everyone who will download their application. In addition, it is important to mention that the above companies offer their applications for free, because they don’t seek for profit but they try to achieve customer’s engagement and loyalty. In other words, their target is to obtain more and more customers that will use their services regularly.

Another important aspect of this subject is how the travel agencies count the success of their applications. The success of an iphone application of this kind is measured in two strictly connecting ways: The number of downloads that the application has and how often they use it; how many tickets they book through the application. Iphone application is not used only to advertise the travel agency and its services (ok of course, this is a target too) but it is used to make the customers use the actual services of the travel agency and facilitate the communication between the customer and the company. The company wishes its customers to feel safe and to have the opportunity to find a flight, a ticket or any other kind of information they need only by checking their iphone.

Apple store is a niche marketplace for every interactive travel agency in terms that few travel agencies explores the potential that Apple store offers. Online travel agencies need to find new and dynamic markets to use in order to become popular and expand their services in as many ways as it is possible. Iphone apps could be one of them.