Lowcostholidays, Air New Zealand, Priceline-Kayak, Inner Maldives, Reardon Commerce, American Express, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Micros Systems, Etihad and NYC & Company all make the cut in our round of travel technology news on Friday 8 March.
Lowcostholidays has developed an interactive map based on film locations in Rome. The map features six locations including the most recent Woody Allen 'To Rome With Love' and provides movie information, a line or two about the scene filmed and a bit of trivia. It's not the first time the online travel agency has used maps to help promote cities with its Ghost Tours of Prague pdf-based map another good example.
Keen to squeeze every last gram of social juice out of its latest safety film, Air New Zealand has unveiled its 'Behind the Scenes' version of the Bear Essentials of Safety clip, launched last week. Putting all the bear jokes to one side, this 'Bears All' clip provides a personal feel to how it was all put together, some humorous moments and insight into the challenges.
While many tour operators have been trialling augmented reality, mostly via Aurasma, Inner Maldives Holidays has developed a 3d resorts brochure to help promote the destination. The marketing tool was unveiled at ITB in Berlin this week.
Hospitality technology specialist Micros Systems has developed an interface enabling Louvre Hotels to display pricing and availability information next to its hotel listings on Google search results, Maps, Places and Hotel Finder. The interface provides live information from Louvre's reservation system as well as a direct link into the Micros Opera booking system, used by the hotels.
Rearden Commerce has partnered with transportation provider SuperShuttle on a new product called Destination Deals. Destination Deals will provide SuperShuttle customers with personalized offers on goods and services sourced from Rearden Commerce’s Deem platform, which currently has more than 1.2 million local and national merchants. This partnership marks the continuation of the companies' push into so-called "syndicated commerce."
American Express and luxury rental club Inspirato have inked a deal to provide Inspirato's luxury inventory to American Express customers. A potential acquisition down the line? Eric Feldstein, executive vice president, enterprise growth, American Express says:
“Inspirato and American Express share a similar passion for creating exceptional experiences for members, and delivering best-in-class service. This partnership is an opportunity for us to introduce consumers to an innovative concept in luxury travel, offer American Express Cardmembers special benefits, and share in the future success of Inspirato.”
Carlson Wagonlit Travel has named Christophe Renard as vice president of its consulting arm, CWT Solutions Group. He takes over from Nick Vournakis who takes up the role of senior vice president of global marketing. The CWT Solutions Group plans to pilot the algorithm behind its Travel Stress Index this year.
The Villa Agency has relaunched its website with improved navigation, larger images and availability updated on an hourly basis. The rental specialist has also launched a blog as well as revamped its Facebook page.
Etihad Airways went live with its latest global advertising campaign this week with the release of a television advertisement. The 'World is Our Home, Your are Our Guest' campaign is the airline's first for three years.
And finally...
NYC & Company, New York's tourism marketing organisation, has developed online tool kits to help its retail partners promote the destination. Video footage, images and factsheets are available on Brooklyn and Queens and designed to present a neighbourhood image of the destinations. A Lower Manhattan tool kit is in the pipeline.