easyJet's New 'Look&Book' Feature Looks To Capitalize On Instagram's Influence On Travel
Instagram is one of the most influential platforms especially when it comes to travel. In fact, there are nearly 400 million posts tagged with the #travel hashtag.
EasyJet, a budget airline is hoping to capitalize on the platform’s influence in the travel space by launching a new feature in their app called Look&Book.
The feature helps users find out the exact location of where an Instagram photo was taken and book flight tickets to go to that destination.
To use the feature, users must take a screenshot of an Instagram photo and then share or upload it to the Look&Book feature within the easyJet app. It then will analyze the photo using advanced image recognition technology and search for the destination. When it finds the destination, users can see relevant airfare by tapping “Start Booking.”
Since easyJet doesn't currently offer flights outside of Europe, the feature has limitations. In cases, where users share or upload photos of destinations outside of Europe, the app will still find the location, but users will be notified that the airline “doesn’t currently fly there. “
Even with easyJet’s destination limitations, Look&Book is a great example of a company seeing an untapped opportunity and building something around. With Instagram playing a huge role in not only people traveling more in general but as well as where they travel to, it’s surprising that some of the more well-known airlines like American Airlines and JetBlue haven’t launched a feature like Look&Book. Chances are those airlines will roll out their own versions of the feature in the future, but for the time-being, easyJet deserves some credit for being innovative, but most of all, for seeing a niche and filling it.
If Instagram allowed airlines and other travel companies to add a booking tag to photos in a similar fashion to how clothing brands can add shopping tags to photos, it could be a game-changer for the travel industry and big money for travel providers.
In other travel related news, companies like Google and TripAdvisor are also paying attention to the role that social media plays in travel. The latter recently rolled out a new travel guide website called Touring Bird while the former is launching a new website and app that features “the world’s first travel feed.”
SOURCE: easyJet
