The one thing everyone agrees on this year is that mobile travel has finally come of age and delivered after years of false hype. As a result, there is going to be a huge surge in the number of travel companies and the kind of mobile travel services that become available to consumers in the near future.

Ronnie Gurion, President Orbitz Worldwide Distribution, tells EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta that “travelers will soon have the ability to make, modify, and pay for travel reservations on the fly and use real-time location-based data to determine the best possible deal given their current location. Imagine a service that alerts customers once they land in an airport with specific hotel or car offers for that evening based on their real-time availability. It’s really the next generation of opaque type offers.”

In keeping with this tremendous upsurge of enthusiasm about mobile in the travel industry, the Mobile Technology & Travel conference at TDS has a forward-looking agenda. The theme for the conference is “Essential Growth Strategies for a Changing Travel Market.” A few highlights from the agenda:-

Mobile Strategies and Opportunities in Travel: Experts on this panel will discuss the resources required, and the goals and risks associated with wading into the mobile ecosystem.
They will show how to find the most relevant and lucrative mobile options and how to integrate them into an existing commercial strategy. They will point out the differences in targeting business vs leisure travelers via mobile, and there will also be a discussion on the future of mobile – how the evolution of mobile and social media will change the travel landscape.
Speakers for this session include:-
Gregg Brockway, CEO, TripIt
Max Starkov, Chief eBusiness Strategist, Hospitality eBusiness Strategies
Chris Brown, Vice President of Product Strategy, Orbitz Worldwide
Expert Questioner – Fraser Campbell, CEO, Wcities

How to Make Money with Mobile: There will be 1.6 billion smartphone users by 2013, and even today travel companies are seeing ROI to the tune of $40 per dollar invested in mobile. This panel will point out which mobile revenue models are reaping the greatest rewards, and show companies how to increase bookings & ancillary sales, offer location based offerings and customer service to consumers on the fly.
Speakers for this session include:-
Jared Miller, Sr. Director, Customer Self-Service, Continental Airlines
Kerry Kennedy, Vice President, Omni Hotels (panel only)
Jim Davidson, CEO, Farelogix

See the full Mobile Technology & Travel agenda of EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America.