By Robert Carlsen

With new travel apps being introduced on a regular basis for quite some time, travel professionals have spent the past few years trying them out and narrowing the field based on ease of use, accuracy and profitability.

Many new apps are helping agents stay competitive by giving them “cutting-edge tools and technology to generate new leads, wow their customers and streamline their workflow, allowing them to spend more time on what they do best—servicing travelers at a level that technology alone still can’t match,” said Michael Coletta, manager of research and innovation for Phocuswright, the travel industry research firm.

Here are six apps that Coletta and agent technology experts recommend:

GEOSURE GLOBAL

Originally introduced in 2013, GeoSure was recently relaunched as GeoSure Global (geosureglobal.com). The app uses proprietary and nonproprietary data from such organizations as the Centers for Disease Control, Interpol, World Bank, World Health Organization and the United Nations to rate more than 7,000 worldwide cities and neighborhoods on a 1-to-100 scale on such subjects as safety, theft, basic freedoms, disease and medical issues, and more.

GeoSure Global’s goal is to move beyond the traditional government travel warnings, which are sometimes politically motivated and exaggerated with travel advisories tending to scare travelers, according to CEO Michael Becker. “We encourage smart, informed travel by being more geographically specific,” he said. “Destination awareness expands and enriches every dimension of the travel experience.”

The company receives feedback and recommendations from a team of advisors, including Marybeth Bond, contributor to National Geographic and founder of The Gutsy Traveler blog, which frequently focuses on a safe women’s travel environment.

LAYER

Founded in 2013, Layer (layer.com) is a customer conversation platform, which enables agents to communicate with their clients how and where they want. It is a scalable and open cloud service for communications that utilizes carrier-grade VoIP systems. Since its launch and a “conversation design system” upgrade last year, Layer said messaging has become the dominant mobile user interaction, with people sending and receiving messages more frequently than any other activity on their phones.

Layer works across mobile messaging, web, email, voice, video and smart home devices to deliver unique, brand-consistent, customized experiences, according to its founders Ron Palmeri and Tomaz Stolfa.

Clients no longer want to pick up cold calls, email back and forth with agents, or drop questions into impersonal contact forms—they want one-on-one conversations, said Michael Greeves, the company’s senior director-digital marketing and demand generation.

MEZI FOR BUSINESS

Created in 2015 as an artificial intelligence-powered consumer travel service based on messaging, Mezi (mezi.com) launched Mezi for Business in July 2017 for the corporate travel vertical. The new booking and management platform comprises a Travel Dashboard for partners and iOS/ Android apps for travelers.

According to Johnny Thorsen, vice president of global travel strategy and partnerships, Mezi enables an “open style of conversation rather than a fixed limited form that the user uses to expand services beyond the air, hotel and car verticals, and this is where the hybrid solution of AI [artificial intelligence] and human experience delivers amazing value and results.”

Mezi for Business customers include American Express (which acquired the app in January 2018), Bluefish and travel management companies Adelman Travel, Casto Travel and W Travel.

ROME2RIO

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Rome2rio (rome2rio.com) is a multimodal travel information and booking engine that has been adding increasing numbers of flights, trains, buses, ferries, rideshare information and rental cars on almost a daily basis.

Rome2rio, which debuted in 2011, last year launched rail bookings for travel within a number of major marketplaces, including France, Germany, Canada and Sweden, along with Japanese highspeed rail, a range of new coach operators across Western Europe, and bookings for ferries in Europe and Asia.

TRAVEFY

Founded in 2015 and based in Lincoln, Neb., Travefy is an itinerary management and client communications tool for travel agents that recently announced partnerships and integration agreements with Project Expedition (a platform for booking excursions, tours and attractions globally) and GOGO Vacations. Travefy has other integrations with Worldwide Traveler, Qantas Vacations and Travel2, as well as the integration of more than 600 new city guides. TravAlliancemedia’s Agent Studio is the only website and marketing solution that features Travefy’s itinerary builder, enabling you to easily integrate your custom itineraries onto your website.

Travefy enables agents to build travel quotes and itineraries in their brand that can be delivered via mobile app, responsive web page or PDF. The app was the recipient of the Brand USA Marketing Innovation Award at Phocuswright and the 2017 ASTA Entrepreneur of the Year award.

UMAPPED

Umapped is a collaborative B2B2C online itinerary builder for quotes and final itinerary documents that is agent-centric, GDS-agnostic and mobile-first, according to Jason Sarracini, chief business development officer. It connects with hundreds of suppliers so “it is easy to import bookings from external sources into a central platform to build proposals and send itineraries,” he added.

The platform includes license-free photos, as well as destination content and guides from AFAR and Wcities.

Robert Romano of Fugazi Travel in San Francisco said that Umapped enables agents to seamlessly increase productivity. “We now complete 15 itineraries in the time it used to take us to do one.”