Skyscanner gets phygital

Skyscanner gets phygital
By admin


Leading global travel search site Skyscanner predicts a new kind of airport is well on its way to becoming reality. Picture an airport where the walls around you are interactive and you would rather shop then stay put in the lounge.

According to Skyscanner’s Future of Travel report  by 2024 shopping and eating experiences will be transformed by the convergence of a new format of transit retail called ‘transtailing’. This will be used in conjunction with a mixture of physical and digital retail techniques called ‘phygital’. 

Tesco’s virtual grocery walls, first tested in subway stations and bus stations in South Korea before being introduced at Gatwick airport, have inspired retailers at India’s New Delhi airport to follow suit. Here, shoppers can use their smartphones to scan QR codes to purchase luxury goods. Similar initiatives are being tested in Frankfurt, and in domestic departure lounges in many of China’s second-tier city airports and terminals.

The report further declared that phygital transtailing will become a reality through the use of haptic technology-which provides people with a physical sensation in response to touching their finger on the screen.

Haptic technology is already well on its way with Tokyo’s university of agriculture and technology releasing a ‘Smelling Screen’ in 2013. The TV screen emits an odour when people interact with specific areas of the screen.

By 2024, the concept of the smelling screen will have evolved so rapidly that not only will travellers be looking at a bottle of Chanel No.5 on a screen, but they will be able to physically interact with it, holding it and even touching it, whilst they can smell the exact scent of the perfume.

Skyscanner’s marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand, Dave Boyte described that The Future of Travel Report was conducted to highlight where technology meets travel. “Tomorrow’s world airports will rival traditional shopping malls and phrases like ‘phygital’ and ‘haptic’ are going to be a part of the airport retailers’ vocabulary.' Boyte said.

Elements of the future that can be found in some of the world airports today are futuristic artworks and sculptures, digital bag tags, virtual assistants or holograms, biometric scanners, green spaces in departure lounges, visual spaces at airports and personal guidance systems.

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