After launching a series of innovative contests, now KLM Airlines has launched a new service by name 'MyDreamCatcher' that is aimed at helping travellers by providing them access to local knowledge about destinations.
When user enters a destination and selects travel dates, MyDreamCatcher displays a list of recommended accommodation options, shopping malls/stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment options at a given destination at a given time.
The key here is that the tool takes time into consideration for service recommendations.
MyDreamCatcher aggregates above information from 12 major review/information sites: TripAdvisor, Frommers, Wikipedia, Yelp, Last.fm, Foursquare, Google, Muselia, Yr.no, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.
When user selects one of the recommended service (for example, a hotel) to view more details, the application displays the hotel price range (pulled from TripAdvisor), reviews from Yelp/Google+/TripAdvisor, video of the hotel from YouTube, number of Facebook likes for the hotel's page, number of checkins for the hotel in Foursquare, and location of the hotel in Google map.
And, for other service recommendations in sections like Entertainment, Restaurants, Bars, and Shopping, the application retrieves various other data from above 12 sites.
User will be able to mark the recommended services as 'favourite'. Then, the application puts all favourite items in a map that can be downloaded to a smartphone for later use.
Interestingly, users will not be able to book any of the recommended items. All content displayed in the site is just view-only, the site redirects users to the appropriate review/information site for more information.
However, users will be able to search for (KLM) flights for the selected dates and book them too.
Quite a lot of travel brands are launching products that are not their core business, but indirectly it helps their core business. The way MyDreamCatcher is for KLM Airlines, WayToGo is for Cleartrip, TripAlong is for MakeMyTrip, OnTheWay is for ixigo and many more.
NB: KLM airline image via Shutterstock.