The Ultimate Travel App Development Guide: Features, Cost, and Development Process

The travel business is changing. Before people traveled physically to their desired destinations, but now they visit them virtually through travel apps. 

In 2023, a whopping 76% of travelers said that they use mobile apps to make their travel plans and organize their bookings for a smoother travel experience. 

Thus, travel apps have become the perfect doorway for more tourists to reach novel and remote destinations.

So, how can you join the travel revolution and keep up with the changing tourism industry? In this blog, we’ll tell you all about travel app development, what it takes, how much it costs, and how you should go about it with the help of a professional travel app development company. 

So, if you’re wondering how to create a travel app, read on and find out!

Five Key Takeaways

• Travel Apps Have Revolutionized the Tourism Industry by Making Travel Planning Simpler and More Engaging

• Web 3.0 and AI Have Exponentially Increased the Reach and Potential of Travel Apps 

• Smart Travel Software Development with User-Friendly UI Can Unlock the Hidden Potential of Travel Businesses

• Expert Development Services Have Brought Travel Application Development Within the Reach of All Travel Businesses 

• The Cost of App Development is Falling, but the Price of Not Having a Travel App is Rising

The Tourism Industry Takes Flight with Travel Apps

More than 1.5 billion travelers took flight in the last year, surpassing the number of tourists recorded thus far in any year. And it’s not just the number of travelers: international visitors spent 33% more money on traveling in 2023 than in 2022. 

Thus, trends suggest that the tourism industry is riding on a high. And if you’re wondering what travel app development has to do with all this, here are three compelling reasons why now is the right time to develop a travel app.

More and More People are Planning Their Trips On their Phones

Travel apps generated $629 billion in revenue in 2023, notching an annual growth of 13%. In the same year, more than 850 million people used travel apps to plan and organize their travel plans. 

These trends suggest that travel apps are on the rise, and the time to create one to gain an early advantage is now.

Tapping into the Smartphone Revolution

Before people travel physically, they travel virtually. The statistics above paint a clear picture: people find it easier to make travel plans on their phones. Imagine the convenience you can deliver to tourists by helping them plan their trips, book their hotels and flights and access AI-powered itinerary-building options all in one place! 

Thus, travel software development can help your app become the travelers’ doorway into the world of tourism.

And it’s not just the tourists that can benefit from your travel app. Through it, you can take advantage of the latest breakthroughs in technology, including AI and Machine Learning. Such technologies provide insights into what your customers are looking for so you can include relevant features to attract more travelers to your business. 

Apps Can Cross Borders, Unlock New Segments

A travel app can help you diversify your travel business by unlocking new opportunities that are arising in the travel industry. Given that 76% of travelers like to make their travel plans online, your travel business must have an online presence. 

However, 50% of online searches and organic traffic are generated through mobile devices. So, if you don’t have a travel app, you’re missing out on 50% of your market! 

Moreover, the scalability of a travel app holds infinite untapped potential for your travel business: 

• Where your customer service agents can address one tourist query in ten minutes, an AI-powered chatbot can tackle one hundred! 

• Where one travel agent can help a traveler plan a trip in half an hour, an AI-driven itinerary planner can cater to a thousand queries! 

So, now is the perfect time to start developing your travel app with a trusted travel app development company.

Non-Negotiables of a Travel App: The Must-Have Features 

The utility of a travel app rests on its features. Apps like Booking, Expedia and Trivago offer a host of features that allow users to search for unique destinations, review their itineraries, reserve hotels or flights and access their booking details. 

A travel app lets you present your customers with all the features required to plan and organize their trips in one place. 

Let’s take a look at some of the most important features that your travel app must have: 

Search, Sort and Filter Trip Options

The first thing a travel app user wants is to be able to search for different trip options. Your travel app must allow travelers to discover different travel experiences, hotel options, flight alternatives and amenities. 

It must engage the user by including different search options. They must be able to:

• Search for unique destinations that offer novel experiences for their travel needs depending on constraints like time, distance and duration. 

• Compare different hotels by their locations relative to tourist attractions and the quality of the rooms they offer.

• Analyze alternative routes and ways of traveling to their destination through flight search and rental car options. 

• Understand the different amenities they can enjoy during their trip and choose where to go accordingly. 

Itinerary Builder 

Often, people know where they want to go but want exclusive suggestions for what to do when they get there. For instance, everyone has heard of Denver’s famous mountain parks or Nappa’s renowned vineyards. 

But which park or vineyard should they visit first? How much time should they spend at different locations? How long should their trip ideally be? 

To answer such burning questions, you must integrate an itinerary builder with your travel app. It will help your users plan and organize their trips. And if you’re looking to carve out an early advantage in the travel app business, you must deploy an AI-powered itinerary builder with your app. It will provide users with an interactive experience in planning their travel. 

AI leverages users’ travel history to give them personalized suggestions for their upcoming trips. Thus, this will help your users get a smooth planning experience. 

Registration, Login and Profile Page

Once your users have started planning their trips on your travel app, you don’t want to lose them. For this, you must convert them from prospective clients into leads. One of the best ways to do this is to get them to register with your travel app.

While the customers can get timely updates on their travel plans and booking options, you can get a list of leads. You can then focus on converting them into enthusiastic partners of your travel app. 

Through the profile page, loyal customers can collect travel points and incentives while keeping track of their trips.

Booking and Reservations Page

With the features you have integrated thus far, your customers can:

• Search for their desired destination, 

• Itinerant their trips, and 

• Register for your app.

The next step is to allow them to reserve flights or book hotels. 

Thus, a booking and reservations page is essential for your users. It’ll allow them to complete the booking process at their convenience and review their reservations whenever they want. 

Booking and reservation are important features of your app. Thus, your travel and mobile app development must prioritize integrating these features properly. 

Payment Integration

Just as the travel business has pivoted and is now online, so too have finances. To provide a smooth booking and reservation experience, you must integrate payment platforms like Venmo, CashApp, and PayPal. This will require robust travel software development. 

Payment integration is especially essential for international customers. They’ll need currency converters and secure international payment options. The absence of such features will lead to a direct loss of revenue as users will flock to other platforms for their reservations. 

Testimonials and Customer Reviews

When it comes to travel apps, people don’t just look for destinations; they look for experiences. And nothing can inspire confidence in prospective customers like reviews from past customers. 

Reviews and testimonials are the currency of credibility. Integrating reviews and testimonials into the app can help users recommend the best hotels, restaurants, and flights, providing valuable insights to potential travelers. 

For instance, your users will be able to tell other travelers that they had a smooth booking experience. Alternatively, they will be able to give you feedback on the difficulties they faced while organizing their trip on your app. 

Maps and Translations

Travelers are motivated by the desire to experience new destinations and novel flavors. Thus, they will want to see maps showing their desired destinations to understand what to expect from their trips. For instance, they’ll want to know how far their hotel is located from airports and popular tourist destinations. 

Further, if they can locate different hotels on a map, they’ll be able to make more informed decisions on where to stay depending on their preferences. Some might want to live in the heart of their destination, while others prefer a more secluded vibe, but your app’s map feature will help all such travelers. 

Further, international travelers may need to translate the names of their destinations, the details of their travel plans and the customer reviews of previous travelers. In fact, your app can even offer user experiences in diverse languages to attract international travelers. 

Alerts: Weather, Delays and Notifications

Once your users book their flights and hotels, they’ll periodically review them till they embark on their journey. Naturally, they will be anxious about delays and watch for weather alerts. 

A notifications tab is necessary to ease their anxiety and update them with the weather. Even if they miss some notifications (who doesn’t?), a dedicated tab will help them keep track of such alerts. 

Thus, a notifications tab is an essential feature to consider during your travel application development.

User Support and Customer Service 

Many times, customers might want to reschedule their travel plans, rearrange itineraries or cancel their booking entirely. The user support tab is essential to ease your customer’s worries regarding cancelations or rescheduling. 

With the rise of AI chatbots, you can easily scale up user support services without draining valuable resources. Where one person can only handle one query at one time, the AI Chatbot can handle a hundred or more. It is an efficient and effective feature of any contemporary travel app.

AI Integration

Machine learning and artificial intelligence have transformed customer relationship management. In travel and tourism, where the adage “customer is king” still holds, both ML and AI are very useful. 

For instance, your travel app can integrate AI for weather updates, travel itineraries, price tracking and predicting congestion at the most visited tourist destinations.

What Type of Travel Apps Can You Develop? 

No matter the type of travel business you operate, there’s a travel app that suits your needs. Let’s take a look at some prominent examples:

Travel Booking

Some people prefer booking their hotels the old fashioned way: by calling them and asking for reservations. However, even these people will look for a simpler alternative to book their travel. They would rather just open their phones and book their flights or cabs with just a few clicks. 

Thus, an app that helps users book flights, trains, buses, cruises and ferries is the first example of a lucrative travel app you can develop. To build such a consumer experience, travel mobile app development is essential! 

Trip Planner App

Sometimes, people want to explore the unknown. For this, a trip planner app is ideal. It suggests novel destinations, new experiences and exciting activities. It sends users notifications about new destinations that are becoming popular in their regions. 

Such an app must be backed by solid back-end tools, including mapping apps and a people-centric interface that enables easy exploration of different destinations. It must allow travelers to discover new destinations, plan their travel and find the best places to stay, all in one place.  

Tour Guide App

Several travelers like to immerse themselves in the local culture of the places they visit. They want to see a city through the eyes of the locals or visit the most popular tourist attractions. They might also want to know the best method of traveling in a city, and what language to use for local communication at the local markets. 

A smart tour guide app powered by AI can gather insights from local apps and reliable sources. It can distill such information into crisp ideas for the users and give them highly relevant suggestions. 

Thus, a tour guide app can be very useful for users. It can help them understand the importance and history of their destinations. It can tell them where to get the iconic burger, which bar to visit and how to pay while shopping at the local markets. 

Tour guide apps covering several cities and important tourist destinations can garner a large following.

Concierge App

Modern travel has changed the way people consume auxiliary services. Tourists don’t just want to visit the beach; they want relaxing experiences like:

• Massages on hammocks,

• Shaves accompanied by harp music,

• Luxury baths,

• Watersports rafting and fishing,

• Wine Tasting, 

• Elite Dining.

But how can they undertake such adventures in places unknown? Their experience is limited by the services that their hotels can provide or local guides can suggest. 

Here’s where a concierge app comes in. It can help users explore and experience the best leisure activities that any tourist destination has to offer. Such an app lets users discover their destinations' local gems and hidden luxuries. 

Central Reservation System and Hotel Management Software

The travel industry is huge. Hotels need to efficiently manage their resources and employees. Thus, the B2B tourism game has as many players as the customer-facing segment of the industry. 

And while huge corporations may monopolize the SaaS segment of tourism, their strength is also their weakness. An app that helps hotels and other travel businesses manage their customers' bookings and employees’ time at minimum cost is bound to do well. 

In fact, the hospitality management software industry is worth $2540 million and growing at 5% per annum. Thus, CRS and Hotel Management Software services that can cut through organizational clutter are in huge demand. However, such an app will require heavy travel software development, so we recommend you hire a trusted travel app development company!

Revenue: Grow Your Travel Company Sustainably with a Mobile App

Making a travel app is one thing, but generating revenue and sustainably growing your travel business is another. So, integrating revenue models is also an essential precondition for travel app development. 

So, how can you not just make a travel app but also use it to make your travel company thrive? Let’s examine some common revenue models: 

Commission-Based Model

The most common revenue model for travel apps is to charge commissions from customers and businesses. For instance, as a booking company:

• You charge a booking fee from customers who use your app to book flights and reserve hotels. 

• You also charge an equivalent commission from the airlines and the hotels whose services you list. 

This model is ideal for booking and reservation aggregators. 

The Merchant Model

Concierge apps can utilize this model to generate revenue. The idea is to connect users with vendors or specialized service providers. For instance, tourists visiting beaches or islands might want to go scuba diving or snorkeling. Alternatively, tourists visiting mountainous regions might want to conquer a famous peak. Your app connects users with such guides or scuba instructors for a small fee. 

How does this differ from the commission model? Commission is for long-term businesses with steady clientele looking for primary services (accommodation and travel). The merchant model is for entrepreneurs selling auxiliary services that might need marketing. 

The Listing Model

The listing model is for apps that connect traditional businesses with online customers. Apart from hotels that can have their own websites, the listing model is for establishments that aren’t online themselves. 

This includes rentals who want to offer their premises to occasional visitors. For instance, luxury villas and vacation homes. In the listing models, businesses and owners pay an upfront fee to list their properties and services on your platform. 

Thus, your revenue is not tied to reservations or purchases. Rather, it provides access to a market of tourists who believe in your app's credibility and authenticity. 

In-App Purchases and Pay-to-Play Features

Another way to generate revenue is to offer in-app purchases. For instance, your app can offer special guides to iconic tourist attractions that can be unlocked for a fee. It can also work for SaaS businesses, such as:

• Tourism-centric CRMs, 

• Booking management systems and 

• Hotel management software. 

This model works best for apps that are services in themselves rather than apps that connect tourists with businesses. 

Advertising

If your app and its services are free, the customer is your source of revenue. To take advantage of the advertising model, your app must provide an excellent curation of services to which the customers get hooked. 

This model is versatile because it can work for all travel businesses: 

• Niche travel guides, 

• Aggregators, 

• Listing platforms and 

• Concierge services. 

If your app has useful content that attracts users, advertising can help you grow exponentially. By including ads only from the tourism industry, you can create a synergistic revenue model that doesn’t distract users from the core message. 

Thus, travel mobile app development can become a lucrative opportunity for integrating different segments of the tourism industry. 

Zero to One: How to Build a Travel App in Seven Simple Steps

Developing a travel app may seem challenging. To help you answer this challenge, we have broken down the process of developing a travel app into seven simple steps. Let’s check them out: 

Step 1: Zero in on Your Objective

The first step is to determine your reason for making the app. Which segment of the travel industry do you find the most promising? What area of the industry has your business been operating in? 

You can examine the industry statistics by profitability and revenue to answer these questions. You should also consider the kinds of travel apps you can build and how you can monetize them. 

Step 2: Identify Your Niche

Next, you’ll want to understand who your customers are. Are they regular travelers? Occasional tourists? Hotels that need management software? Other apps that need customer or hospitality management tools? 

If you run a traditional tourism business, you can diversify your operations with the new features and potential that a travel app can provide. Identifying your target market and segment will give you a foundation for building your travel app. 

Step 3: Make a List of Your App’s Features

Now, it’s time to get into the specifics of your travel app development project. The features you should include depend on your target market. What features are most likely to attract your customers? 

You can also brainstorm innovative features, such as destination comparison. For instance, you can draw up radar charts comparing destinations based on:

• Ease of access,

• Travel time,

• Average trip cost,

• Ideal trip duration and 

• The number of options for stay. 

This is one example of an innovative feature for tourist-facing apps. You can repeat the exercise for SaaS tourism, travel apps, and listing or merchant apps. 

Step 4: Assemble the Development of the Avengers

It is important to choose a reliable development team that aligns with your travel app vision. When choosing your travel app developers, you must consider your segment, niche, and features. 

Select your development team based on their experience, expertise and cost. For instance, you might need a UI/UX team to design an app with an immersive tourist-facing experience. On the other hand, you might need a back-end developer to integrate the latest AI and ML technologies in your travel app. 

One of the best ways to solve the problem of hiring developers is to contact a travel app development company that can cater to all your requirements.

After you have chosen your developer team, you must create a timeline to develop your app that involves periodic communication and timely updates on the development process. 

At Green Apex, we provide all-round travel app development services that cater to a diverse set of travel businesses and segments. We also offer different development strategies that involve stepwise development and continuous collaboration with our clients. 

Thus, review the developers carefully. You might also want to hire an internal development expert. They can liaise with the development firm to which you can outsource the actual task of the travel mobile application development. 

Step 5: Create a Development Timeline

Next, it’s time to make a timeline within which you want to create and deploy your travel app. 

It is not just features that determine the development timeline. A good development process accounts for the time required to:

• Research and Ideation

• Planning and Documentation,

• Design and development,

• Testing on different server stages

• Pre-Launch and Launch Preparation

A timeline is important: you can base your expectations on it and account for possible delays that might inflict the development. 

Step 6: Implement the Plan, and Market the App

Once you have a development plan, a timeline and a team of developers, it’s time to begin the development process. During the development process, you can also market your travel app. 

For example, you can organize forums for your chosen niches and customers. This will help you test features, gather feedback and decide which features to include or exclude. 

Step 7: Update, Upgrade and Upscale

A travel app is never completely out of its development phase. Sure, it might be ready for deployment, but a travel app that stands still eventually gets overtaken by competitors. 

Thus, you must analyze the data that your app collects and use the insights to tweak the app periodically. For instance, older apps have had to integrate AI chatbots with their user interface. Similarly, your travel app will have to evolve depending on the technological breakthroughs and trends in user behavior.

Tech Stack: The Foundations of Your Travel App

You must have seen several travel apps like Expedia, Booking and Airbnb. What does it take to make a similar app? Let’s take a quick look at some of the technology that underlies these masterful travel apps. 

UI/UX Designs

UI/UX design refers to the images, fonts and designs that the customers see and interact with on a travel app. A smooth, attractive and consistent design inspires confidence and increases the time users spend on your app. 

For this, software such as Adobe, Figma, Webflow, Axure, etc is recommended. 

Front-End

While UI includes visuals, front-end programming refers to the information and features that the customers use. For example, curating hotel listings or airline bookings on a travel app requires you to use front-end development. 

We utilize technologies such as Javascript ReactJS, NextJS, etc. These programs help us create client-facing utilities on a travel app.

Back-End

The third element of the holy trinity of development is back-end programming. It refers to the programs that help you program and organize business-oriented internal data. It also helps you compute and analyze the data you collect through the app to understand user trends and consumer behavior. 

Use platforms such as Java, Node.js, and RoR for back-end development.

Mobile App

Cross-platform development allows travel apps to reach a wider audience by supporting both iOS and Android users with a single codebase. By leveraging frameworks like React Native, Flutter, and Native, you can build high-performance apps that deliver consistent experiences across multiple platforms.

For this, use platforms such as React Native, Flutter, Native, etc.

Cost of Doing Business: Factors that Affect Travel App Development Cost

Now, we get to the business end of app development. Let’s understand what affects the cost of your travel app and how to minimize its impact on the bottom line. 

Features

For instance, integrating AI and ML-driven tools will be more expensive than developing a simple tour guide app that curates different travel experiences. Thus, including an AI-powered itinerary builder will add to the cost of your travel app. 

Further, developing and providing unique features that no other travel app provides will also increase the cost of your travel app development. 

Timeline

Time is a valuable resource: urgent development is possible if you want to develop a travel app urgently to not lose time. For example, a basic version of your travel app can be up and running within 2 months. 

However, what you’ll save with time, you’ll have to spend on fast development. On the other hand, the revenue your app generates after two months can easily offset the cost of urgent development. 

Complexity

For instance, a simple travel app that provides reservation and travel booking facilities is relatively simple to execute. Alternatively, an app that relies on managing large amounts of data and databases will make the development more complex and expensive. 

UI/UX Designs

Apps with heavy UI/UX designs will be more expensive to develop. To keep the cost minimal, spend time finalizing a theme and sticking with it. Consistency will decrease the time and cost required to develop the app. 

Regional Variation

Apart from licensing software required to build a travel app, the main cost is that of hiring developers. Plus, you don’t have to pay for licensing software if you hire a travel app development company, Thus, the cost is dictated largely by the hourly wages of software developers, which vary regionally. 

Estimates suggest that the same travel app development costs $150,000 in America, $80,000-$100,000 in Europe and Australia, $50,000 in Eastern Europe and $30,000 in Asia.

How is AI Transforming the Travel Experience?

The rise of AI is transforming several industries, and the travel app industry is at the forefront of the revolution. AI can help simplify and change the travel experience for users and business owners. 

From chatbots to automated itineraries and booking alerts to travel planning, AI can radically improve several aspects of travel and travel apps. Let’s look at some AI features that can make your travel app the most popular in the industry: 

Personalized Travel Experiences 

Generative AI will change how people plan their next trip. Until now, users have had to do primary research while making their travel plans, which limits their ability to reach new destinations and experiences. 

However, with generative AI, planning a trip is like talking to a friend with the most intimate knowledge of traveling and this friend is your travel app! 

Like Spotify and Amazon give their users suggestions on music or products they might like, your app can suggest travelers where to go based on their personal preferences and travel history! 

Booking and Travel Deals

With AI, your app can offer customers a new way of booking their flights and hotels. Instead of calling an agent or going to an office, customers can make their travel arrangements by simply interacting with a chatbot. It can help them find the best hotel deals, discounted flight tickets and the cheapest rentals in their destination. 

Thus, AI can help you offer unique features such as dynamic price tracking, room mapping and instant rescheduling at the cheapest rates. 

Chatbots and Customer Service

Scaling up and keeping your customers satisfied has never been easier! With AI Chatbots, your users no longer have to depend on the constant availability of customer service agents to answer all their questions. 

AI chatbots can offer: 

• Real-time support to customer problems,

• Response to customer questions regarding their booking status, and

• Travel tips and advice to the customers depending on their destinations. 

This will free up your customer service agents and will be freed up to respond to more complex queries with a human touch! 

Sentiment Analysis

AI can also help you track your customers' moods throughout their journey with your app. By connecting with your customers through their social media, your travel app can understand the problems that travelers are facing in real time. 

It can help you anticipate complaints and prepare solutions before your customers even report them! This can help you retain customers and provide excellent support services. 

Thus, travel mobile app development is essential if you want to take advantage of AI's growing influence in tourism and travel. Estimates suggest AI can help the tourism industry unlock $2 trillion in revenue. 

Start Your Travel App Development Journey

So, are you ready to join the trillion-dollar travel app industry and embark on your own travel app travel app development journey? We think you are! 

The only thing you might be missing is a reliable partner who can lay the foundations for your travel app with you. And that’s where Green Apex comes in! 

At Green Apex, you’ll find the perfect travel app development company you’ve been looking for! We specialize in helping our clients create simple, smooth travel apps that can bridge the gap between travel businesses and users. 
Let’s visualize your travel app development journey from zero to one with us.