Here is an article to introduce you to the tool that is the QR code, its history but above all its multiple uses for the Tourism, Hospitality, Catering and Leisure industries. The advantages are multiple and you can easily find a use for it to develop your business !
A great barcode
The QR code is much more than a simple barcode. This square, made up of black and white dots and lines, can contain up to 177X177 elements, i.e. half a page of text in A4 format. Thanks to its two dimensions, it carries about two hundred times more information than standard barcodes. It can be read 360 degrees in any direction, even when surrounded by colors, words or pictures.
Finally, the QR code’s margin of error is low: even dirty or damaged, it will still work.
If your business relies heavily on tourism and you need to upgrade your means of operation, here are some ideas on how to use QR codes for tourism.
The inventor of the QR code
At the origin of the creation of the QR code, is a Japanese engineer. It was in 1994 that he invented this black and white pattern while working for a Toyota subsidiary. To do so, he draws inspiration from the game of Go, a Japanese strategic game that involves placing black and white stones on a square board. He is then convinced that this simple design can be a simple way to convey more information than in a barcode.
First used to facilitate inventory management of spare parts for cars, the QR code spread to Japan from the year 2000. However, the craze was barely felt, and a decade later, the use of the QR code declines considerably in Europe and the United States.
This pixelated and unique image stores digital information like a mini barcode and makes it accessible through the photo sensor of smartphones. As the phone approaches, the sensor scans the code, which triggers an action on the screen. The code often refers to the opening of a website but also to an app store, or anything that can be online.
So there are many uses :
- Display text, pdf, image, video, GPS map, email contact, social network…
- Forward to a website,
- Indicate a geographical point on a map,
- Connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot,
- Initiate a call to a phone number or send an SMS,
- Open an email,
- Pay using your smartphone,
- Adding a virtual business card (vCard, MeCard) to your contacts,
- Save an appointment or an event in your electronic diary.
How to generate a QR code easily ?
No need for a web agency or a communications agency to create your QR codes, there are free tools to generate them in seconds. You can use the sites in French Canva, Unitag, QR Code Shopify, QR Code Generator, QR Code Monkey (not 100% in French). You will also find plugins under WordPress or Joomla to generate your QR Codes directly in your CMS.Â
The creation is quite simple to carry out and allows you to obtain the image of a QR Code to print it wherever you want. Consider testing the QR code with several smartphones, Android and iOS, before distributing or printing it !
You will have the choice between creating a static (often free in low definition) or dynamic (paid) QR code. The static format cannot be modified subsequently. If you change the target URL of the code, the latter will no longer work. The dynamic format is scalable. You will therefore not need to reprint and display the codes already in place if your marketing and communication campaigns change. Much more practical, these dynamic QR codes are generally chargeable (from €5 per month for 10,000 scans). Static QR Codes in high definition (to print large or on fabric) are often also chargeable.
You can then follow the ROI of a QR code and the success of a campaign thanks in particular to the audience analysis tools of Google Analytics by following the URL used for the QR Code. This analysis will allow you to refine and improve your digital communication actions towards your customers.Â
Concrete example to create a QR code for yourself
Wondering how to get a QR code for traveling? Here are six easy ways to make them.
1. Open www.qrcode-tigre.com
QRTiger is a professional online QR code software with an easy-to-navigate, ad-free Q code generation interface, ideal for existing and new QR code users.
2. Select the category of your tourist equipment and complete the required fields
After opening the QR code generator, proceed to select the category of your tourist support and fill in the required fields.
With a wide range of solutions available in QR code generation, tourism businesses can become a technology-driven business for tech-savvy tourists.
3. Generate as dynamic QR code
Once the required fields are completed, continue generating your QR code.
As tourism is more about tracking their movements over a period of time, the use of dynamic QR codes is highly recommended.
4. Customize your QR code in the tourism and travel industry
Customize your QR code to match your brand by selecting any set of designs, eye shapes and colors.
For a more branded QR code look, adding your logo and a call to action would be great.
5. Run a scan test
To ensure that your QR code displays the correct content and can be scanned beforehand, running a test scan is an important step that new and existing QR code users should always follow.
With this, you can detect any scanning issues earlier and change them before uploading your QR code.
6. Download and deploy your QR code
Once you are satisfied with your test scan, download your QR code and place it in your business establishments.
To ensure high quality QR code output in the printing paper, uploading your file as an SVG is strongly encouraged.
How to use a QR code in the tourism and travel industry ?
As QR codes become a part of a community’s daily routine, their use in various fields is present.
For use in the tourism and travel industry, here are 8 QR code ideas you can use in your business.
1. QR code as your tourist’s travel card
With the use of QR codes, travelers will no longer engage in a one-on-one interview with the immigration officer and more.
As the need for safe travel is a top priority today, a QR code travel pass is important for all travelers who will be traveling to sensitive destinations.
Through this, tourism staff can update important travel data of the traveler such as travel history, health conditions during travel and their visit history.
By simply performing a scan and updating the code data, travelers can easily travel from one location to another without having to fill out more paperwork for their health declarations and travel history at the airport.
2. Menu QR codes
As most travelers like to enjoy the food of the place they are visiting, using menu QR codes is interesting to have the information immediately and benefit from a faster ordering system.
For this reason, many restaurants are now integrating the use of menu QR codes into their systems.
3. Hotel check-in
Hotel check-ins are one of the intense and stressful parts of travelers’ travel itinerary.
As they have to wait in line to finally check their bags, the time spent relaxing is subtracted.
For this reason, many hotels are integrating the use of online hotel check-ins for their guests from other parts of the world.
But as entering the check-in URL can also be a burden for the customer, using QR codes can help speed up their online check-ins.
By simply pointing their phone’s camera lenses and opening the built-in form, guests can seamlessly fill out their information so the hotel knows which one to follow or not.
4. Unboxing Information Portal
The use of QR codes can be used as a portal for unpacking relevant information.
Tourist hosts use these codes to store relevant information about the history of places travelers can visit and more.
Today Japan is taking the use of QR codes and integrating it into their gazes where a tourist can scan the history of the gaze.
5. Image QR Code Landmark
Images are always proof of the beauty of a monument. With social media helping to boost a tourist destination and attraction, using images of the location is ideal to grab the attention of an adventurer.
For this reason, tourist hosts attach a QR code of the image on a historical information stand, where people can scan the QR code and see more photos at the tourist site.
Through this they can increase their number of tourists using QR code technology.Â
6. Integration of the souvenir message
You can use QR codes to store your keepsake message so travelers can scan and view the message.
Giving inspirational messages to your guests can strengthen their recommendations to family and friends. For this reason, including a heartfelt message in every souvenir they buy is ideal for increasing the popularity of the place.
7. Tourism video campaign portal
While major destinations campaign on the tourism potential of their location, distributing them more quickly means this can be difficult to achieve.
But with the use of QR codes, the tourism board can integrate its tourism video campaign into its printed campaign materials.
With more campaign outlets means better information distribution, using QR codes is ideal for funneling offline visitors to your online travel page and watching the video campaign.
This way they can gather more tourists from the offline and online travel community.
8. Encourage tourists to donate to conservation efforts at tourist sites
Some beauty spots are much busier and more crowded, which can lead to environmental problems.
You can allow tourists and visitors to contribute to the conservation of these places by displaying a QR code at key locations in these areas.
For example, Cornwall Council has displayed large QR codes on message boards on beaches and footpaths so people can scan them.
It will open donation pages for local organizations responsible for conservation work.
To do this, you can use a dynamic URL QR code where you can convert the donation page URL into a QR code.
The Benefits of Using QR Codes in the Tourism Industry
The tourism industry can boost a country’s economy by increasing its travel potential.
With the use of QR code travel document in the tourism industry, the benefits it can offer to a tourism dependent business are as follows.
Provide travelers with easy access to their next destination
Using QR codes can help tourism hosts provide easy access to their travelers’ next destination.
In addition to providing travel visas for travelers, using travel QR codes can help travelers reduce their time at the airport.
Help track travelers’ travel history
QR codes, especially dynamic QR codes, have a useful feature that travel hosts can use to detect their traveler’s travel history.
By simply implementing the use of a unified QR code travel pass, travelers can travel to the country that supports the QR code travel pass without any hassle.
Eco-friendly
As the use of QR codes can minimize the use of paper, their use can have a positive impact on the environment.
Due to less material usage, the tourism industry can maintain an eco-friendly travel process for its travelers.Â
Thus, their popularity skyrockets and generates more tourist visits.
Profitable
Most tourism businesses are looking for a cost-effective technology tool to meet their modernization needs.
Due to this need, using QR codes can help them save more on material cost and get more inquiries through their use.
Additionally, through the use of dynamic QR codes, they can edit their data and track its analytics statistics without paying more to generate and print new ones.
More tourist use than others
Another thing that QR code data storage technology lacks is its ability to store more information and more than one type of data.Â
Due to the versatility of integrating data types, tourism agencies can embed an image or video into their QR code and distribute them across print and digital platforms.
Without incurring additional printing costs for images, its ubiquitous use allows tourism agencies to do more with less campaign material used.
In conclusion, here are 5 good reasons to use the QR code in your property !
1. Limit the harmful effect of paper on the environment
Stop using paper! There was a time when paper was something rare and precious, but today its production consumes far too much energy and increases the carbon footprint of your establishment.
Thanks to the use of QR codes, you eliminate recurring impressions. In fact, you only need to print the QR code once! It then has an unlimited lifespan. You thus reduce the ecological impact of your establishment and participate in the implementation of more responsible tourism.
2. Follow the trend and keep up with the times !
You just have to look around and realize that you see it everywhere. We find it more and more on the tables of bars and restaurants, on the communication media of certain companies and even on stamps !
In addition, large hotel groups like Accor or Four Seasons have already started implementing QR codes in their establishments for many years and customers appreciate.Â
The QR code has today become the best substitute for paper.
3. Organize your time effectively
Jobs in the hotel and restaurant industry are tough jobs that require a lot of patience and time. Today, speed constitutes one of the main key factors for success in your sector. By setting up a QR code that redirects your customers to the information they need, you can give them the answers to recurring questions and be able to spend your time on high value-added tasks! Gone are the days when you gave the code for wifi or the address of the best restaurant near the hotel 50 times a day.
In addition, the QR code is quick to set up, quick to scan and 100% personalized.
4. Facing another health crisis
The Covid-19 health crisis has strongly affected the tourism sector and in particular that of the hotel industry. A new health protocol and barrier gestures have been put in place. The paper documentation then becomes very restrictive, in fact to avoid the risk of contamination it is necessary to disinfect the room directories between each client. Implementing a QR code eliminates this problem. Customers therefore have access to the room directory directly on their smartphones.
In addition, the QR Code is used without contact and therefore without risk of contamination, unlike a terminal or tablet which could be a vector of contamination !
5. Make additional sales
Thanks to the judicious use of QR codes, you can highlight your services at the right time to your customers.
For example, you can put a small poster with a QR code for your drinks card on your deckchairs by the pool. Or a QR code in the rooms which redirects to the room service card. Or, a poster with the menu of treatments that you offer in your spa, placed on the tables in your lobby. So many opportunities to offer your services in a subtle way to your customers !