Vayable - Tours, trips and other things to do on vacation Withlocals - The marketplace for local tours, activities, home restaurants and private guides Vacation & Short Term Rentals Experience Economy - Experience Economy Tours and activities: Still looking for breakthrough company This is part two of our three part series on the online tours and activities market, focusing on the buzz around venture-backed startups in the space. Part one here. There are only a handful of companies that matter these days in selling tours and activities, and they are a mix of old-guard established companies, a hungry wannabe, and an online travel agency making some overtures. And, although there has been venture capital money funneling into the sector, the track record has seen a paucity of success stories. “There are never any winners in the space,” one experienced travel-industry investor chimes in, dismissing the tours and activities sector. Viator’s long wait Case in point, observers say, is Viator, an established online player, founded in 1995, that has raised some $20 million in funding from investors, including Carlyle Venture Partners and Technology Venture Partners. GetYourGuide makes boasts and enters new markets Old guard Gray Line trying new stuff
Find Tour Guides & Local People | Beoo.com Réservez des activités partout dans le monde - Good Spot Escape the Room NYC Priceline’s Booking.com triples mobile booking transactions - Mobile Commerce Daily - Revenue The Booking.com Kindle Fire app Priceline’s Booking.com has seen the total transaction value of mobile hotel bookings rise from $1 billion in 2011 to more than $3 billion in 2012. In addition, more than 20 million mobile applications have been downloaded to date. The latest data is proof that mobile bookings are growing – especially because of its convenience. “The success is related to two major factors: the quality of our service with our broad reach in terms of accommodations, languages, guest reviews etc., and the quality of our mobile products on the various platforms,” said Olivier Voute, director of mobile marketing at Booking.com. “Having said that, the real driver of success is mostly related to the consumer shift towards mobile and our ability to offer them a great service on the various platforms with our apps on mobile sites,” he said. Driving bookingsThrough the booking.com mobile app, consumers are able to view their account, sign-in and browse their credit card details.
A Better Way to Travel | dopios Tournative.com - Book an authentic experience with a private local tour guide Experience is the Brand: Why this is the time for experience architecture While I was in traveling in Europe, my friends at 800CEOREAD reached out to talk about X. I was so focused on production and printing that I’ve almost neglected letting people know that the book is finally getting released! I took the time to answer a handful of questions. But, I didn’t reply quickly. I took my time to share the depth of what X explores and how it will help you. “Here’s the thing. 800-CEO-READ: You begin by telling us that marketing and advertising are generally prioritized ahead of investing in experience, yet it is a customer’s experience that leads to the most influential and effective advertising there is—word of mouth among customers. Brian Solis: You’re exactly right and that’s where this story begins. And here’s the thing. Today, companies react to experiences and try to shape them by marketing at people. Brian Solis: These are indeed examples of “experiences as marketing” and marketing of experiences. The key word here is relevance.
GetYourGuide raises $14M for tours and activities push in new markets In what could be one of the biggest investments so far in the growing online tours and activities sector, GetYourGuide has grabbed $14 million from Spark Capital and Highland Capital Partners Europe. The company says the Series A investment round will be used help with “rapid growth” into new markets. Spark has previous invested in companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare and Akamai, while Highland’s portfolio includes Lycos, MapQuest and VistaPrint. The level of investment in GYG signifies the major interest in the tours and activities segment of the industry. Previous high rounds included $7 million into US-based Zozi in May 2011. Despite attracting $2 million from PROfounders Capital, Andy Phillipps (founder of Active Hotels) and Karen Hanton (founder of TopTable) in March 2012, Europe-based GYG has been active on the capital raising circuit since late last year. Travelport also ramped up its tours and activities offering using partnerships with Flextrip and AdventureLink.