The travel apps that could make your next holiday cheaper, easier and better

Mobile phone apps that use personalised ‘metasearch’ engines will change the way we organise and book trips; for now, it seems most Hongkongers still use a computer to buy tickets and relatively few use mobile check-in

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Travel planners such as Rome2Rio provide options using various modes of transport. Photo: Dariusz Sankowski

Published: 12:36pm, 13 Dec 2016Updated: 12:35pm, 13 Dec 2016

The massive amount of information and travel booking services now available online and via apps is fast making independent travel the way to go.

Or is it? Trying to book a flight, find some decent hotels and design an itinerary for a trip all by yourself can be an exhausting and repetitive process. By the time you’ve perused multiple search engines and websites, checked out hotels on TripAdvisor, and mapped your trip on Google Earth, you’re going to need that holiday just to recover from the stress of it all.

In May, travel search engine Kayak (kayak.com.hk) reported nearly half of Hong Kong travellers are spending more time planning trips despite recent technological innovations. But its mobile travel report revealed that use of traditional travel agents has collapsed from 56 per cent a decade ago to a mere 22 per cent in 2016. A whopping 84 per cent of Hong Kong people now make their travel plans online, according to Kayak.

A new service from Google Flights tells you when the fare for the flight you want is dropping, or about to increase.

The internet is fast moving towards personalised “metasearch” engines for travel services. Perhaps the most high-profile new addition is Google Flights (google.com/flights), a service from the search engine giant that monitors trends in price rises and notifies you when the flight you want is dropping, or about to go through the roof.