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| Destination Dallas Discovers That Personalised Trip Planning is Top of the List | When Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) selected a new trip planning tool for its website last year, the aim was to let visitors build customised itineraries for one of the largest cities in Texas. Though there are many others (Momondo, Rome2Rio, TripWolf), the Texan destination marketer chose a new white-label solution from Utrip, a Seattle-based firm, which began life as a consumer focused trip planning tool. According to Frank J Librio, Vice President of Communications at the Dallas CVB, “the results have been phenomenal”. In general terms:
Time on page - increased by 29%
According a DMAI Destination Next study released last summer, three major trends in destination marketing are that:
More specific to Dallas, however, is that they have also discovered that visitors to the city like a fast pace, and rate ‘rest and relaxation’ very low in terms of planning their trips. This highlights the importance of knowing who your customer is. Personalise by harnessing local power The previous trip planner at Dallas CVB was not personalised. “You simply had to sort through a long list of items and select activities based on your research and reviews, which is similar to Tripadvisor,” says Gilad Berenstein, CEO and founder of Utrip. However, companies like Netflix and Amazon have taught us to expect personalisation and this, he adds, is the key to success. In essence then, destination marketers who want to engage prospective travellers need to work out how to curate their content and present the information in the most relevant and meaningful way. A feature of the Utrip tool is that it asks users to input preferences – such as ‘enjoy history and culture’, ‘not interested in sports’ - and then uses artificial intelligence to develop an itinerary. Once a traveller indicates their interests and budget, the algorithm sorts through millions of combinations of must-see sites, activities and restaurant recommendations to deliver personalised itineraries – allegedly done in minutes. Travellers may then book lodging and share their itineraries with friends. The predictive technology works on a vast travel database that has been curated by local experts in a wide range of fields. Judging by the phenomenal success of Airbnb, travel with a truly local flavour is only expected to become more relevant to how travel brands develop content. Going forward then, Dallas CVB will continue its successful BIG campaign by working closely with local experts to help promote the city. Join EyeforTravel @ Mobile & Innovation Strategies for Travel 2015 March 23-24 in San Francisco. Contact:
 About EyeforTravel Ltd. Founded in 1997, EyeforTravel Ltd. is a leading business intelligence provider for the online travel industry. EyeforTravel drives forward innovation in the online travel industry through news, conferences, research and reports. EyeforTravel’s 2015 Start-up & Innovation Awards 2015 will take place May 6 at TDS Europe 2015, Hilton Tower Bridge, London. The award series brings together industry leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and start-ups focusing on (but not exclusively) travel technology, data and mobile. EyeforTravel’s 2015 Start-up & Innovation Awards will be co-located with EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit (TDS Europe 2015). The event sees 500 senior level travel executives meeting to discuss the latest trends in marketing, distribution, revenue management, mobile and analytics. View/Download EyeforTravel's editorial calendar for 2015 here |
