Argophilia

Αργοφιλία: For the love of the journey.

Travel Technology

WIHP Convert Reveals Value to Guests & Hoteliers

Phil Butler

Have you ever Google’d before going on a trip, only to run across one crappy website after another in search of a hotel? Face it, despite all the technology advances, the mobile breakthroughs enabling us like never before, hotel websites still suck. WIHP aims to change all that.

Thomas Cook Launches “Biggest Ever” Facebook Competition

Aleksandr Shatskih

Thomas Cook has just launched its largest multimedia campaign yet, as it spearheads calls for the UK government to support the tourist industry in all sectors – including both domestic and international tourism.

Vilnius Tourism App Leads The Way

Aleksandr Shatskih

Exploring the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius is sure to be a lot easier for tourists in 2012, thanks to a great new travel app designed and created by the Vilnius Tourist Information Center.

Saj Earth Resort Kerala Chooses GHX Channel

Aleksandr Shatskih

One of Kerala’s most interesting and unique hotels, the Saj Earth Resort in Cochin, has added their inventory of rooms to Global Hotel Exchange. The hotel offers a one-of-a-kind waterborne nature experience, along with convenience for business travelers. The choice of GHX as a distribution channel makes sense, especially for worldwide hotels without the marketing reach of some others.

Six Great Sites for Restaurant Owners

Aleksandr Shatskih

As a restaurant owner looking for inspiring ideas about food, décor, and how to run their business, there are few resources as invaluable as the Web. With that in mind, we thought we’d take time out to showcase a few of the best resources that no serious eatery owner can do without.

Gstaad Palace: Green, Luxuriant & Progressive Too

Aleksandr Shatskih

One of the world’s exclusive eco-friendly hotels, the Gstaad Palace, has elected to use Global Hotel Exchange, a revolutionary new online booking platform that makes an ideal bed-fellow for one of Switzerland’s most inventive and luxurious places to stay. As this fabulous Swiss resort proclaims in their video at post’s end, “Gstaad Palace is far more than just a hotel.” Where forward thinking joins old world tradition, excellence resides.

US Mobile Travel Bookings to Top $8 Billion

Aleksandr Shatskih

Everyone in the business of travel distribution knows mobile is the most influential sector of the booking segment. A new report from the world’s leading travel authority, PhoCusWright, tells of mobile’s value upcoming. According to the research company bookings via mobile will exceed $8 billion in 2013 in the US alone.

Pinterest for Travelers: How to Use It for Your Next Big Adventure

Guest Author

Pinterest is yet another social networking site, except this version is completely based on visuals. Basically, after browsing around on Pinterest for about five minutes, you’ll see that your informational mini-feed is a series of images, quotes, and projects about anything and everything including… travel

Google Search: Concerts & Mind’s Eye Travel Boosts

Phil Butler

Google’s seemingly never ending list of improvements and refinements to search received the latest “tweak” with concert information in real time. Released yesterday with little or no fanfare, Google users can now see live concert and artist info including; dates, venues, and links to sites offering tickets. Tools for locals and tools for travel come to light in the last two days.

Roomkey: On the Verge of Success & Failure At Once

Phil Butler

Roomkey. If there were ever a more appropriate name for a hotel booking channel, a more symbolically significant potential for branding, that would have to be perfection. Roomkey.com actually does have that possibility. But, like all great ideas and initiatives, the big time hoteliers’ 3rd interjection of intelligent engagement, has it’s problems too. There’s room for lots of niche products in travel, but is Roomkey an escape hatch or a marketing channel? And if exit marketing is introduced, even niche traffic and conversions could be scared away.

Travelport Adds NTV Italian High Speed Rail

Aleksandr Shatskih

Some good news from Travelport, clients will now be able to book rail travel on the much talked about Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), the first Italian private high-speed railway. The strategic partnership tells of NTV distribution via Galileo-connected travel agencies in Italy and around the world.