A Look Back at How the ‘Silent Travelers’ of 2014 Influenced the Entire Travel Industry
Photo Caption: A growing number of travelers are turning to their own mobile devices instead of seeking assistance from customer service professionals during trip planning. Source: PxFuel.com
Skift Take
Mobile-first consumers have played an enormous role in the travel industry and their influence is showing no signs of slowing down. Here's a look at how Skift has covered their impact on the travel industry.
A 2014 Skift Research report projected that "silent travelers," namely younger consumers who turned to their mobile devices first to obtain solutions to problems, would upend the travel industry.
To a substantial extent, they did.
Skift argued at the time that silent travelers were using mobile tech to augment and even replace the traditional in-person customer service staff that travel brands historically relied on.
Look no further today than the hotel industry’s emphasis on pushing more customer service features through smartphone apps, the bypassing of front desks at many hotels, and even the proliferation of chatbots, generative AI-powered or not, as accommodations to the rise and maturing of the silent traveler of 2014.
The push to get hotel guests to use smartphone apps and the travel habits of Millennials are having a long-term impact on how properties get developed. Lobbies, fitness centers and even facilities that only empl
