Online B2B travel platform Asiatravel.com is getting ready to roll out digital tours using the latest technology to offer a unique travel experience.
Asiatravel.com, together with its US strategic partner, Yalla Digital, will develop and operate digital tours in Asia in 2H2017, according to Fred Seow, president of TAcentre.com, the leisure wholesale arm. These tours will kick off in Singapore before expanding throughout Asia from next year.
Seow: utilising AR and object recognition tech in tours
In Singapore, Asiatravel will collaborate with local bodies like the National Heritage Board to produce multiple language videos that are synchronised with the tour itinerary. In addition, each tour will also consist of live enactments of interesting historical stories through a live skit or play.
“Such tours utilise augmented reality and object recognition technologies to enhance the tourist’s overall experience,” Seow said. “All these will translate into a much stronger, deeper and even emotional experience of the destination’s history and culture for the travellers… (giving) tours a new meaning and purpose in this region.”
As well, Asiatravel.com will from mid-July launch a digital tour to Israel, focusing on Israel’s strong cultural heritage to appeal to the Chinese market, he added.
“Since TAcenter.cn’s (TAcentre.com’s localised name in China) launch last October, we have been working closely with various major online (partners) through our B2B API while over 6,000 traditional agents have subscribed to our Chinese web version. We are working hard to develop new products and theme packages for the Chinese market,” he said.
Recognising the increasingly sophisticated Chinese travel market’s hunger for “adventure and new experiences”, TAcenter.cn will at ITB China this week launch a new wedding group tour package to Asian beach destinations, which allows Chinese travellers to experience a wedding solemnisation ceremony and celebration with their family and friends in a foreign locale, Seow told TTG Asia.
TAcenter.cn will also roll out its own chartered flights and packages to destinations not well served by scheduled flights from China. One such charter will connect Nanjing, Xi’an and Tianjin to the twin destinations of Vientiane (Laos)/Udon Thani (Thailand) and Vientiane/Luang Prabang or Savvannakhet, all in Laos.
In addition, TAcenter.cn will introduce the Travel Trade Alliance Club (TTAC), a professionals club programme offering a host of membership benefits, including a professional network for resource sharing, training and enrichment, for sales and marketing personnel in the travel trade sector.
A key benefit of TTAC will be travel packages at special prices for members, said Seow.
“We believe one of the best forms of training for travel trade sales and marketing personnel is for them to visit the destination that they are promoting and to experience it like a customer. These packages will be for their own personal travel with subsidy for both the member and a companion of up to 80 per cent,” he revealed.
