Half a billion people worldwide will use their mobile devices as travel tickets on metros, subways and buses by 2015, according to new forecasts from Juniper Research.

Published: 28 Apr 2011

Half a billion people worldwide will use their mobile devices as travel tickets on metros, subways and buses by 2015, according to new forecasts from Juniper Research.

This figure is over five times the number generated last year but crucially Juniper is expecting usage to spread widely from the current concentration in Japan and several European countries. Outside Japan, systems in operation typically use SMS or bar codes.

Whilst SMS ticketing has been in operation for several years in large cities in Scandinavia and Central & Eastern Europe such as Stockholm and Prague, Juniper believes that recent momentum in Near Field Communications (NFC) will only add to market growth. As metro authorities begin the transition to open contactless payment systems, NFC ticket usage is forecast to grow significantly beginning in 2013.

According to Juniper, whether by expansion of SMS and bar code delivery or by NFC, it sees convenience and choice for users as key advantages of mobile ticketing.

Furthermore, mobile ticketing also has potential across train and air travel, the latter driven by mobile delivered bar coded boarding passes.

Earlier this week, in an interview with EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta, Fergus Boyd, Acting Head of eBusiness, Virgin Atlantic Airways, mentioned that services offering mobile check-in and even mobile bar-coded boarding passes are very popular as they put the customer in control.

“Selling transactions on mobile are still the exception. They make sense for short haul trips where small amounts of money are involved but are less of an obvious advantage for long haul where the ticket price makes it a very considered purchase,” said Boyd. “Also, most long haul travel involves friends, family, work colleagues and a lot of research which isn’t best delivered via mobile.”

M-commerce is the new way to shop

M-commerce is a transformative new platform quickly changing the way consumers interact with travel brands, says Brett Henry, VP Marketing, VP India, Abacus International.

“Although it may be hard imagining that travellers will book for their vacation from start to finish using only mobile devices, the fact is that they have already started to research and buy travel options and upgrades while on the go. M-commerce will eventually become as common as online shopping. It will come as no surprise to travel providers that mobile devices such as smartphones offer an enormous opportunity to be leveraged as a mobile tool to manage customers’ post-booking activities,” according to Henry.

The value of goods and services people will purchase through their mobile phones will reach $200 billion globally by 2012.

“Much of this will be coming increasingly from mobile payments and the use of NFC. The number of these NFC-ready phones will rise from 700,000 in 2009 to 247 million in 2015. As mobile-enabled NFC devices become more common and the reader infrastructure is installed at airports, hotels and merchants, the NFC process will become commonplace and change the travel experience at multiple customer touch points. Mobile boarding passes, payments, public transportation and social networking will allow travellers to be more connected as well as offer the convenience and speed that travellers often seek,” added Henry.