Checking out, checking in: foursquare passes a milestone

By Mark Frary

One of the most fascinating presentations (Overview & success stories from the Travel industry) at WTM Social Travel Market came from Omid Ashtari, business development director of the geotagging network Foursquare.

Foursquare, now a network of 30 million members worldwide, lets you check in and share places you visit, get recommendations of places to go when you are travelling and get personalised offers in those places. Cynics argue that 4Sq as it is colloquially known is little more than a game, where you brag to friends about where you are and try to beat them in weekly points leagues. Others say that 4Sq represents the future of travel. An event this week seems to strengthen the hand of the latter.

The network passed a milestone this week when it announced that one location had surpassed a million check-ins. (Since the network was launched at the SXSW event in Austin, Texas in March 2009, users have made 3 billion check-ins using the service.)

It should perhaps come as no surprise that the most popular check-in location on Foursquare is a travel-related one and a very busy one at that – Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. The airport has been the busiest in the world in terms of passenger numbers every year since 1998 and has handled the most plane movements every year since 2005, reaching a peak of almost a million in 2007.

The value of Foursquare can be shown in another statistic released by the network this week; it says that more than 2,000 tips have been left by those who checked in, ranging from a place to find a power socket to plug in an expiring laptop to a comfy bench where you can catch up on your sleep before the next connection.

Rather like Twitter and Facebook a few months back, Foursquare has now made it easier for people to share locations and tips with people who are not already members. Anyone not on Foursquare will be redirected to a new page bringing together the location’s contact details, photos and any tips.

Foursquare has grown substantially since its inception four years ago but hasn’t enjoyed the explosive growth of other networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The latest developments could represent a tipping point in Foursquare’s emergence as a living, breathing travel guidebook. The special offers promoted by businesses in these check-in locations is just the icing on the cake. As more and more of us become connected while on the road, it can only get bigger and even better.

Twitter spreads its wings into TV and video

By Steve Keenan

It’s been a very good week for Twitter. During last weekend’s Superbowl, the microblogging site was featured on half of all TV adverts at half-time, way ahead of any other social site.

Basking in its glory, Twitter promptly announced it bought social TV analytics company Bluefin in a further demonstration of its move to broaden away from 140-character speak.

Bluefin is based on semantic search, the new darling of social media analytics. Rather than just simply analysing links, semantic searches the text to work out what people are talking about. Good and bad.

And in this case, to see what social media users are saying about a TV show or advert. The results and follow-up are up to the brand, to be used wisely, intelligently or – sometimes - stupidly.

But working out the conversation between TV and social is big business. A recent study from Brandwatch showed a hashtag flashed on screen when the show starts can kickstart a social conversation by 63 per cent.

It’s tied in to the growing second screen phenomenon, whereby people use a mobile or tablet to comment while watching a show. Twitter research shows that 60 per cent of UK viewers will tweet while watching TV– and two-thirds will mention the programme in one way or another.

By telling brands who is talking about their product, and what they are saying, Twitter can sell more directional advertising and charge a higher price.

This is all delightful news to Twitter which, having grabbed the high ground of short form words, is now moving definitively into TV and film communication.

All this just 10 days or so after Twitter launched Vine, another recent acquisition, and an app that allows iPhone users to film, pause, film again then post (maximum) six-second videos which play on a loop.

Posters can use hashtags, a la Twitter, to find what they are looking for (and yes, #porn was an issue in the first week. Surprise!).

Indeed, #Travel is one of the 12 featured sections inVine’s Explore tab. And so? Wait: this is big news. Bloggers can film that cocktail mix, the bungee jump or airport landing cleverly, post, hashtag and share.

Companies can set up their own accounts, then it’s just down to their creative flair. Imagine, for example, the best ski run crunched down to six seconds and posted within seconds. Or highlights of a cruise ship covered in the same time.

And no surprise, Twitter will shortly launch video ads for brands and as sure as eggs are eggs, they will be promoted on Twitter too. Cost? No idea yet. But until then, start playing with Vine. And start thinking of Twitter as TV and video.

Does Google Street View kill tourism?

By Mark Frary

Google this week announced that it was adding “Street View“ imagery covering 75 miles of trails in the Grand Canyon to Google Maps. This Arizona natural wonder is one of America’s biggest tourist attractions, welcoming more than 4 million people every year.

The announcement means Google Maps is pushing the boundaries once more and makes this an even more interesting proposition for travel and tourism marketers.

Why so? Well, you may not know this but Google runs a partner programme which allows anyone to request Google to come and take stitched-together photographs and embed them into Google Maps and its 3D sister Google Earth.

Google says that the main criterion for acceptance is that the imagery would prove “interesting” to its users. It says, “Some of the properties that we are currently interested in include zoos, parks, universities, amusement parks, outdoor marketplaces, monuments, and tourist destinations.” The marketing teams for these attractions and others, such as historic hotels, will welcome the opportunity to get some free promotion; the programme even allows you to embed the imagery onto your own website. What’s not to like about that?

Although most of the Google Street View imagery is collected by special cars fitted out with multiple cameras that take footage as they drive around, Google also collects images from the back of snowmobiles and, in the case of the Grand Canyon, 20 kilo Android-powered backpacks with a 15-lens camera attached.

To have a look at what they achieved, take a virtual hike along Bright Angel Trail, explore 360-degree panoramas, the steep South Kaibab Trail or view Meteor Crater.

Google maintains a gallery showing some of the most interesting attractions which include ski resorts, the Great Barrier Reef, UNESCO World Heritage sites and more.

With more and more of the world’s tourism attraction finding their way onto Google Maps, it raises the question of what it does for tourism. On one hand, it lessens the mystique surrounding some of the most spectacular places on the planet, perhaps reducing the desire to travel.

I’m with the other crowd who think that these images help guide your aspirations. It is like the difference between listening to a track on your iPod and going to a live gig – there is no competition. If the images can help record and conserve some of these attractions for future generations then all the better.

Why Google will not become a booking engine

By Steve Keenan

How we book hotels and travel continues to evolve at a rapid pace.

So much so that Google now no longer refers to ‘mobile devices,’ preferring instead to say desktop and non-desktop (eg., mobile, tablet and any other portable bit of kit).

In an interview yesterday at Google’s London HQ, Industry head of Travel, Nigel Huddleston, elaborated on the new distinction.

Desktop is really for booking a holiday. And the latest Google research shows that we now surf 26 sites on average, over a 60-day period, spending nearly five hours online. “It is a real mix, with people bouncing back and forth,” said Huddleston, who has particular responsibility at Google for hotels.

But non-desktop is a whole new ball game. That’s for spontaneity, for hotels and tours, and increasingly for flights. When it comes to hotels, two-thirds of hotel bookings are for within 24 hours of arrival.

24 hours!

It’s a trend that is escalating fast. And it means that hotel chains and online travel agents (not Google: “We are NOT into the booking space,” insists Huddleston) are having to adapt sites for mobile (sorry, non-desktop) FAST.

And they are responding. A year ago, Huddleston revealed that only 17% of Google’s top 500 hotel clients had a mobile-enabled site. While not giving a precise figure now, he said there had been a rapid upscaling of mobile site in the past year.

But once the hotel providers bring their mobile sites up to date, is it then all about price? Will it just be the hotel or OTA that can shave a pound or two off rival prices?

Not necessarily, according to Huddleston. The ‘silver bullet,’ he says, is loyalty programmes, such as Hotels.com which offers one free night for every 10 bookings, or Starwood’s rewards programme.

As with airline programmes, loyalty schemes still hold a lot of sway with customers who want something back for free. As coffee chains or bookstores have realized.

Besides loyalty programmes, content remains a key component of swinging a booking. Because once you have price parity, and should customers not want to be beholden to one supplier with the promise of something for free at a later stage, then what will nail down the sale?

Video of the hotel, images shown large on a screen and, of course, reviews are key factors in helping people decide. And maps.

Which is where Google is strongly poised to be part of the research process. Its maps are increasingly sophisticated (check out the inside floor plans of the British Museum on Android devices), its reviews are becoming more exhaustive and images/video (it owns YouTube) are de rigeur.

Google Hotel Finder is designed to be a one-stop-shop for accommodation planning, and the company makes its money by selling keywords and ads played on YouTube videos. Being a Google hotel partner also gives the option of embedding links into the videos.

Google says it will not be part of the actual booking process. But with fierce competition in that sector, why bother?

Google can afford to sit back, develop its own products and be confident that it has desktop, and non-desktop, covered.