The Travel Vertical

Weekly stories curated exclusively for digital tourism marketers

VisitScotland and TripAdvisor are Doing a Test Deal

by Leave a Comment

VisitScotland has bags of history. And now it has a new partner for touting its story. For the first time, TripAdvisor is partnering with a European DMO.

VisitScotland will have access to the TripAdvisor website and app to directly upload VisitScotland content to the TripAdvisor site. Those not considering Scotland but looking at something else on TripAdvisor will be shown material encouraging a Scotland visit. Estimates are that the deal could give a £150 million (nearly $200 million) boost to tourism in Scotland from UK travelers over the next three years.

To get more details on what the collaboration means, click on the BBC article found here.

TripAdvisor Terminates Bookings on Hundreds of Animal Attractions

by Leave a Comment

No touching of wild animals. TripAdvisor and Viator, the sister company specializing in bookings for tours and activities around the world is ceasing ticket sales on all attractions falling outside this policy. According to The Guardian, TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel website, with 690,000 attractions listed and 385m reviews.

Affected are facilities operating elephant rides, tiger-petting or swimming-with-dolphin tours – essentially any type of attraction where there is “physical contact with captive wild animals or endangered species.” Other attractions where animals are held in captivity, “such as SeaWorld, notorious for its continued ownership of 29 orcas, will be unaffected,” The Guardian reported last autumn.

In related news, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is closing the big top down for good in May 2017 after 146 years in operation. Killer whale Tilikum died earlier this month at SeaWorld Orlando.

Read the policy news about TripAdvisor here.

Credit: Christian Jensen (flickr CC 2.0)

Where Are They Now? Bright, Shiny, New Objects Get Shinier

by Leave a Comment

In the eTourism Community, we like to “See Tomorrow.” Each year eTourism Summit includes a  session where new tourism-related start-ups present their product or service in a “Shark Tank” format. Here are some success stories from several of the bright shiny new objects we’ve presented in recent years:

1. 2016 presenter – Clicktivated: Clicktivated is the premiere Amplified Video Engagement (AVE) platform for brands looking to create an enhanced interactive user experience. It allows interaction with individual locations featured within a video without using pop-ups, markers or annotations to deliver dynamic engagement.

unnamed-1Winner of the people’s choice at eTourism Summit, Clicktivated has won a finalist place at the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, where they’ll be presenting at MatchFest, thanks to support from Laszlo Horvath, ActiveMedia.

 

2. 2015 presenter – Detour: A series of behind-the-scenes self-guided walking tours on a GPS-enabled mobile app,  all produced like audio versions of a movie — with real characters telling the story accompanied by music. Detour, born in San Francisco, is a vision from Andrew Mason, founder of Groupon.screen-shot-2016-12-07-at-4-07-22-pm

In November 2016, Airbnb announced a new collaboration with Detour in their expanded service product known as Trips (“Airbnb Expands Into Holistic Travel With the Launch of Trips Platform,” 12/1/2016). Airbnb begins with 12 international cities and plans expansion to 50 cities within 12 months.

3. 2014 presenter – EatWith: Attendees at eTourism Summit 2014 were introduced to Guy Michlin, founder of EatWith, a social dining service of local hosts cooking at home for strangers as guests.

screen-shot-2016-12-07-at-4-26-30-pmThe news from TripAdvisor last month is a partnership created in the latest investment round of funding for EatWith. The social dining experience has been integrated into Dine With a Local Chef experiences via TripAdvisor’s restaurant pages.

EatWith states it offers services from 650 hosts in 200 cities in 50 countries.

 

CrowdRiff, Utrip, and Bandwango are also eTourism Summit bright, shiny, new objects that are going strong!

TripAdvisor Provides DMOs Enhanced Opportunity to Manage Their Own Content

by Leave a Comment

TripAdvisor is adding a new advertising opportunity to their Premium Destination Partnership program featuring content from DMOs. Participating DMOs will have a performance dashboard for their content and the campaign’s impact.

A self-service management center targets the dream stage, including teasers for themed lists such as hotels, restaurants, museums, parks, attractions, upcoming events and travel articles about the destination with optional click-throughs for online visitors.

Andrew Wiens, International Destination Marketing Sales Manager for TripAdvisor will be attending DigMe ’16 in Philadelphia on April 13-14 as a speaker. Read more about the TripAdvisor initiative here.

37 Ways To Dominate TripAdvisor

by Leave a Comment

With 350 million monthly unique visitors, TripAdvisor commands attention.

Refresh your best practice strategy with “10 Top Reputation Tips From TripAdvisor” from Andrew Wein, International Sales Manager for DMOs at TripAdvisor. Check out “37 Ways to Dominate TripAdvisor” for more ideas from Matthew Newton, Founder of TourismTiger, down under in Melbourne, Australia.

At next month’s DigMe ’16 in Philadelphia, TripAdvisor delivers the latest in “The State of Reputation Management,” one of 11 State of the Union-style addresses (only waaaay shorter) from thought leaders in the digital travel space.

 

Staff

Laurie Jo Miller Farr, Editor
Contact us!
All Rights Reserved 2022

Categories

Archives