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Dear reader,
Do you remember the time when we used to spend hours at a travel agent to get a plane ticket or choose a holiday destination? No? Wow, you must be our youngest newsletter reader! Or just very forgetful.
In this month’s LaComunidad newsletter we take a look at some interesting digital concepts and developments in the field of Travel and Tourism.
Read, learn and be inspired!
Read the items on ANWB using YouTube, Thomas Cook discovering Friends Reunited, a personal travel assistant called TripIt, booking flights and hotels via your iPhone, keeping the kids busy with Family Matters, having your own concierge at the Hilton, El Suertudo, of course, and much more.
Give others a Christmas bonus, by forwarding them this newsletter. It’s a small effort, undoubtedly appreciated. The next LaComunidad newsletter is due at the end of January.
The LaComunidad team wishes you a healthy and successful 2010! |
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FlightTrack app |
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If you fly a lot, this is the app for you! With FlightTrack, you can view airline schedules worldwide, select and save departing or arriving flights, check route maps, weather delays, gate locations, aircraft type info and much more.
FlightTrack also has an off line mode that gives you access to all your last-known flight details, even when you are on an airplane. And if you’re bored, simply shake your iPhone to track random flights, from Amsterdam to Singapore and everywhere in between. FlightTrack is also available for Android.
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Travel with ANWB |
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Your journey starts on YouTube. During winter many travel agencies start their campaigns for summer 2010. While traditional travel agents try to attract potential travellers with early booking discounts, ANWB (the Dutch AA) organises an online travel fair, starting 3 January 2010. Dutch hunk a.k.a. virtual fair host Chris Zegers will lead visitors through the summer programs of ANWB’s travel daughters. Visitors can chat with travel experts, read other people’s travel experiences, win a dream holiday worth € 10,000, and, of course, book a trip online.
 Striking in this campaign is that ANWB uses YouTube as an interactive promotion channel. The promotional video includes a quiz. The questions can be answered by clicking on links in the video. The accompanying videos are a bit long but this new and advanced use of YouTube as a promotional tool is exciting enough.
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Friends Reunited on holiday |
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Thomas Cook and Friends Reunited link up. Friends Reunited, one of the earliest social networks, has teamed up with Thomas Cook. The new co-branded service allows FR-members to search and book Thomas Cook holidays without leaving the network’s website.
The Thomas Cook section on the website also includes editorial and video content, as well as links to the 600 Friends Reunited member groups dedicated to travel. Members already use Friends Reunited to discuss their past trips, make holiday plans and share photos. “It seemed a natural step to enable users to book their next break without needing to leave the site”, says Craig Nayman, commercial director of Friends Reunited.
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Fly there or use a satellite connection |
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Travel agency offers video conference rooms. Jumping the queue, special parking spots at the airport: business travellers enjoy certain advantages. Not having to fly at all...that’s a new one.
Dutch business travel agency BCD Travel is really taking care of its customers. Through the BCD Travel website clients can easily book a video conference. Can’t make it to your destination? Just plug in!
It may sound strange that BCD Travel enables clients to avoid BCD’s core business: selling flights. But creating the opportunity to do business as smoothly as possible definitely adds some value to this travel agency.
This service fits BCD’s aim to serve its clients in the best possible way, like they did together
with Zoover (tracking travellers’ comments) and by founding a Business Travel Academy.
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Kayak launches iPhone app for travel |
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Let your iPhone do the work. Online travel is big business. To stay on top of online e-commerce, travel search engine and booking site Kayak released an iPhone app for online bookings.
 The Kayak app stores your credit card number, frequent flyer info and flight preferences so it can make the best possible bookings on your behalf. You receive a notification when the transaction is completed. The Kayak app is a success: it has already been downloaded more than 600,000 times since the launch in February this year, and currently 5 percent of Kayak’s total search volume takes place on the iPhone.
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Enjoy your holiday |
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Enjoying a holiday has never been this easy! People use the internet for just about everything when it comes to preparing a trip and enjoying a holiday. We check for cheapest or most convenient flights, find best value hotels, check our destination on Flickr.com or ask suggestions from other travellers on Virtual Tourist. And when we finally get there, our iPhone GPS-functionality helps us to find directions to interesting sites.  But in fact we don’t even have to take the trip anymore to enjoy the view or visit ancient sites. Just take the Arches National Park Geology Tour! This iPhone app provides a 35 minute illustrated and narrated introduction to the Arches National Park. Been there, done that! Don’t have an iPhone? Put on your 3D glasses and enjoy the park online.
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Family Matters iPhone app |
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Keep the kids quiet for a while, will you? Travelling, waiting in line, waiting at airports.... we all know how much kids hate it. When there’s time to kill, they usually start trying to kill each other.
The Family Matters iPhone app from Weiner Family Studios is designed to interact with kids during a long trip. It encourages meaningful engagement and conversations with them, without being ‘just another game’. This app is different from other apps because it’s venue-driven. Whether you are in a restaurant or on a road trip, the app surprises kids with relevant activities. In time more venues will be added, like queues and airports.
If you want to see how the app works have a look at the demonstration video or buy Family Matters at AppStore.
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Your holiday starts at Riviera Maya! |
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Bienvenido a Riviera Maya. Last month the Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office in Mexico launched a new website and social media platform, Hola Riviera Maya. American travellers are invited to www.holarivieramaya.com, visit the official Facebook page or follow Riviera Maya on Twitter, @holarivieramaya. They’ll receive daily updates on news and happenings, last-minute travel deals, special contests and exclusive content to prepare themselves for an upcoming trip to Mexico. 
Again another forum has come to life where visitors can share their experiences, photos and videos regarding their recent travel to Riviera Maya via the popular social media networks Facebook and Twitter.
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Hilton Hotels |
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Mobile business is about to take off. As mobile phones get smarter, more brands see opportunities to generate income through this device. Hilton reports a staggering 59 percent increase in mobile revenues in the last quarter of 2009, just by launching a smart set of linked iPhone apps.
Not only can you search for hotels or book a room in any of their seven chains of hotels, with the Hilton app you can also make reservations for dinner, order room service or redeem points or stays in the frequent guest program. It’s like having a pocket hotel concierge 24/7.
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TripIt, your own travel assistant |
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Easy travelling. It’s hard to organise all your travel information, but now TripIt can help you with it. The Tripit website is your personal assistant who keeps track of every flight you book. TripIt keeps all information about flight, hotels, rental cars and other bookings in one place. And, of course, TripIt can be linked to your smartphone so you can even check the information on the go.
What more can you expect? Well, TripIt keeps you informed about flight delays, gate changes and even suggests an alternative flight when your initial flight is cancelled altogether.
Another nice feature is the social sharing part. You can integrate TripIt with LinkedIn and connect with your secretary, colleagues or friends, so they know where you are travelling to or from.
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El Suertudo |
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El Suertudo, a.k.a. lucky bird. Every month one of the LaComunidad newsletter subscribers wins an incentive. This month's prize is the book ‘Firebrands, Building Brand Loyalty in the Internet Age’. A bestseller, written by key author and brand specialist Michael Moon.
This month's El Suertudo is Mark de Bruin of REISinformatiegroep. Congratulations, Mark, the LaComunidad-team wishes you a lot of inspiring reading pleasure!
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