It’s not just the most exciting wearable to hit the market this year — with the growing number of travel apps packed into its App Store, the Apple Watch is poised to become highly attractive to a specific market: travellers. Popular travel apps like Spottly and Expedia have already announced their launch for the Apple Watch, and just today, TripAdvisor announced that it, too, will be coming to your wrist on April 24.
If you’re someone who loves travelling, you’ve probably heard of TripAdvisor. The world’s largest travel site offers globetrotters an invaluable array of travel-related content, including hotel booking tools, reviews on flights and travel packages, and guides to attractions all over the world. With their new Apple Watch app, the company says, on-the-go jetsetters can look forward to an “even more elegant and effortless” travel experience.
TripAdvisor has shared that the app will have new features designed specifically for the Apple Watch. One of the most helpful is the TripAdvisor Glance, which makes use of the smartwatch’s “Glances” feature to give users recommendations for places worth visiting from a quick glance at their wrists. If you’re in Paris at noon, for example, the TripAdvisor Glance can provide you with a timely suggestion of some nearby cafés to go to for lunch.
Other features on the TripAdvisor Apple Watch app serve to make it easier for travellers to find and get to places of interest. The app will come with search options that let travellers search for must-see places near them, complete with sort options to rank these places according to popularity or distance — perfect for indecisive explorers. Since GPS definitely trumps paper maps these days, the app will also provide walking directions for sightseers to navigate using Apple Maps.
Through the TripAdvisor Apple Watch app, “users can now carry the invaluable insights of millions of travellers on their wrists,” says Adam Medros, senior vice-president of global product for TripAdvisor. “We look forward to extending our timely travel insights to even more people through the Apple Watch.”
And with the amount of convenience that TripAdvisor — along with the other travel apps soon to launch on the Apple Watch — can potentially bring to our travel experience, it’s easy to imagine that the smartwatch might soon turn into a handy must-have for frequent globetrotters.
