5 New Google Features for Tourists and Business Owners in 2022

See the rise of the revenge traveler†

After being locked up in our homes for two years due to the pandemic and unable to travel anywhere other than to the grocery store, travel restrictions have finally been relaxed in recent months. Traveling in and out of the country is now possible as other destinations are opening up to tourists, paving the way for the so-called “vengeance travelers”.

Revenge travelers are the ones who now travel and travel hard to make up for the lost times when they were itching to explore but couldn’t.

However, travel is not the same as it used to be. Well, not exactly. There are more things to consider, such as travel requirements and protocols, many of which vary from country to country and city to city. Planning takes more time because you would have to research a lot more information to make your travel experience as smooth as possible.

Data from Google shows how much travelers’ needs have changed and become more complex. People now spend more time researching, planning and looking for more options. The surge in insurance-related searches in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia also shows how travelers now make sure they’re covered if something happens, which also gives them peace of mind while on holiday.

Since planning vacations is more complicated now, we will share with you some things that will help you plan your trip. We already know how essential Google Mapsgoogle street viewand Google translate have been for travelers! But in this post, we’ll discuss new Google features that you can use when planning a vacation.

This Google feature can help you find your best option for flights, give you plenty of hotel options, and show you what to do in a destination. It also includes travel guidelines and restrictions on every place you look up.

on Google Flights, you can search for a flight to a particular destination and see different options from different airlines. Here you can filter your search by stops, airlines, prices, times and more. To find the cheapest available flight, you can also view a date grid or price chart that shows prices for the weeks or months around your desired travel date.

If you’ve chosen a date for your trip but don’t want to book yet, you can track prices for a specific date and receive email updates when prices change. If your travel dates are flexible, but you’re on a budget, you can also track dates and receive email updates when the prices for the flights you’re looking for are low.

Google Hotel shows you available hotels in a destination and shows you the prices of different booking websites. After choosing a hotel and a booking website, you will be taken there and ready to start the booking process.

These are not new features. But what’s new is that both the Flight and Hotel sections now include information about COVID-19, giving travelers the ability to search for more flexible booking options.

The Google Travel Help page helps you find travel policies, restrictions, and requirements related to COVID-19. It has a section where you can find information about travel advice from different countries.

Google Travel’s To discover tab helps travelers to look up more destinations and easily see more details about each destination. When you look up a place you want to visit, you’ll see things to do, flights and hotels on one page. For some destinations, it also shows when it is high and low season, which can help you decide when to visit.

The Things to do section you can look up places to visit in a destination. Here you can read information from the place’s wikipedia page, as well as reviews people have posted on Google.

If you don’t have a specific destination in mind yet, you can also choose to explore nearby destinations. It shows you places near your location where you can go.

Aside from tools for travelers, Google also has a feature intended to help partners in the tourism industry gain travel insights so they can plan for the future. In Travel Insights with GoogleTravel industry companies can access information including destination insights and hotel insights using data from Google Analytics.

Another feature that would be useful for companies in the travel industry, even the smaller ones, is the Hotel Center† This could help hotels and travel companies include free booking links in their profiles. These links appear along with hotel ads when travelers search for hotels on Google.

Business owners can also view the performance of their free booking links.