FormerExpediaexecheraldsvoiceasthenextbigthing

Listen up, voice search is being tipped to have as big an impact on the travel industry as mobile.

Or, at least so says Simon Breakwell, who founded Expedia’s European operations, and has also worked for a string of major travel brands including BA, Thomas Cook, Uber and HomeAway.

Breakwell, currently chairman of bd4Travel, was on stage at the Phocuswright Conference  in Los Angeles as a venture partner for investment house Technology Crossover Ventures.

When asked about the new technologies impacting travel, he says:

“Within five years everything will have been turned on its head by voice search. Its impact on travel  will be as big as mobile. At the moment is just geeks talking to geeks, but absolutely mass adoption will happen. There are use cases waiting to be developed.”

He adds that machine learning, artificial intelligence and chatbots were part of the voice phenomenon and that these channels would also be widely demanded by consumers.