Westin Hotels & Resorts has tapped travel brand AFAR to bring insider travel tips to their guests before and during their trips.
The initiative, Westin Finds from AFAR, takes AFAR's signature style and selection of meaningful experiences, and brings them into a fully-branded experience for Westin guests to explore.
The idea is to take AFAR's community of travel experts and create a curated guide to more unknown places and things to do near 40 destinations with Westin hotels around the world. The project will be extended to all Westin hotels and resorts by the end of the year.
Nadeen Ayala from Starwood shared more in an e-mail to Tnooz:
AFAR is a leader in experiential travel and one of the most highly respected travel brands in the industry – the perfect partner to develop a content rich digital destination guide to help our guests plan one-of-a-kind travel experiences no matter the destination.
We have always featured a local sights and attractions section on our property pages but now with WESTIN Finds from AFAR we have a beautiful digital guide the brings each destination to life with amazing photography, local finds and recommendations that provides our guests with a source of recommendations sure to make any vacation truly memorable.
Everything we do at Westin, from our innovative programming and signature suite of Heavenly amenities, is designed with our guest’s well-being in mind. Our goal through this partnership is to provide our guests with a truly unique and instinctive travel experience at our hotels and resorts around the world that brings our brand promise to life.
The content is curated exclusively for Westin by AFAR, and features itinerary suggestions for Singles, Couples, Families and Friends.
Available both online and on mobile, the content focuses on off-the-beaten path, locally-fueled authentic experiences in cities around the world, written and photographed in AFAR's visually descriptive style.
Joe Diaz, AFAR co-founder and director of content partnerships, shared more about the project with Tnooz.
Westin approached us with the understanding that really good content compels people to act. They wanted to create a place that inspired travelers to get beneath the surface of the destinations we are all traveling to and the combination of AFAR's content and Westin's vision got us there.
This is truly a unique and special project for us. It didn't take long for both the Westin and AFAR teams to realize that working together made perfect sense. Here you have a thoughtful hotel partner encouraging their guests to immerse themselves in the destination to gain deeper understanding and connection. That is what AFAR was founded on.
AFAR believes in travel as a way to connect you with the authentic essence of a destination, deepening your understanding of the world, its cultures and yourself. The more people travel with this spirit of curiosity, open-mindedness, and a willingness to stretch outside of their comfort zones, the richer and more meaningful our experiences will be.
There is no doubt we've seen a shift in the value and emphasis brands are placing on rich, high-quality content. More and more, companies are going this route and the content providers that can provide meaningful, relevant, and compelling content in a variety of formats (digital, print etc) will do very well in this environment.
We continue to see that beautiful images, inspiring and helpful words, and up-to-date service information offered in a digital/mobile format is in such high demand. That is what AFAR.com is built on and we're positioned perfectly for what travelers expect in today's environment.
Westin also sees this partnership as an extension of their dedicated weekend program, Westin Weekends, which aims to give guest more flexibility and ideas for weekend getaways at Westin properties worldwide.