TUI, SiteMinder, Air Canada, Concur, World Rainbow Hotels, Reevoo, Octopus.com, Illusions Online, and Off Track Planet all appear in our roundup of the stories making news and driving opinion on 11 October.
SOCIAL COMMERCE
Reevoo today announces an expansion of its partnership with Octopus.com. The deal extends its independent reviews service to Octopus.com's host of international websites across 18 countries and 9 languages. Reevoo only delivers authenticated reviews from customers who have stayed in a hotel or visited a destination.
Tnooz reported last November on how Reevoo content first rolled out on Octopus.com's UK platform. Reevoo's service has boosted click-through rates by more than 10%, and raised conversion by an average of 2.9 times. The reviews also provide keyword-rich content for SEO.
Air Canada unveils today a Facebook contest to name its low-cost leisure airline, which will debut next year. Customers or travel agents can participate, with chances to win prizes, at Air Canada's Facebook page.
DISTRIBUTION
TUI has reported yet another year of profits despite economic headwinds. Its deputy CEO spoke to MarketingWeek about the 55,000-employee company's plans to keep the momentum going, such as by wholeheartedly adopting e-CRM.
Australian hotel distribution platform SiteMinder has seen business grow almost five-fold in Europe this year. That's significant for a company that says it funnels more than $2 billion in reservation revenue for clients each year. In May, the six-year old company netted a US$5 million investment round.
Luxury tour operator Select-Seychelles will be the first DMC in its region to offer rates and availability in real time via XML interfacing by adopting Dubai's Illusions Online's iWTX system.
An online booking platform for gay-themed hotels reaches out to travel agents. World Rainbow Hotels (WRH), the first supplier of gay and lesbian-welcoming hotels via the four major GDSs and a consumer website, launched an online booking platform for travel agents on 1 October. More than 850 hotels are now bookable by agents at "up to 12% commission." Properties include Dorchester Collection and 16 Fairmont & Raffles hotels.
DEVICES
Concur, the makers of trip-planning apps aimed at business travelers, is working with the Box content sharing platform. The online collaboration allows users to drag receipts from a Box folder into the Concur Receipt Store and is one of a number of ways to automatically place receipts into the Concur system.
PUBLISHING
Off Track Planet, the irreverent travel magazine, has pulled the wrapper off of its fresh digital presence, which replaces its print edition. There's a demo video.
CORRECTION: The publisher is using CrowdHall.com to answer any questions our readers might have for us, separate from our site.
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NB: Image of the tentacles of an octopus via Shutterstock.