A NEW BORN in the collaborative tourism industry: the KLM Must See Map.

A new trend in the tourism sector has emerged for these last years named the collaborative tourism. This new form is more focused on the social aspect than other aspects, which means travellers are more able to share their experiences and knowledge thanks to new specialized websites such as Tripnco  and Aventuro. These both websites are platforms for travellers for which in one hand want to find other partners to organize a common travel and in the other hand for traveller who desire to participate in a travel already prepared either by the members or by other travellers registered in these websites. Aventuro is more specialized in the adventure tourism than Tripcno but both of them have the same purpose toward their customers. And as we can see, consumers are on the centre of the process of decision-making. That is what we call prosumers.

Therefore, advantages are numerous both for travellers and travel agencies.

Firstly, for travellers, there is a better share of their experiences and interests with people who want to have information about a destination or desire to have information about a specific region or country due to a lack of information. Then, it is easier to constitute a group with people sharing similar interests. Another significant advantage is the cost sharing which allow “collaborative economies” for travellers. As regards the advantages for travel agencies, we can notice that they can target the expectations and needs of their customers easier and faster. As a consequence, they could observe the real trends that are related to their customers. They make their customer in the same time more loyal. The collaborative tourism will certainly modify the tourism sector in a near future because travellers are still looking for better expertise and service. That is why the tourism sector has to adapt rapidly to these new trends if they want to be competitive.

Being competitive creating new services, this is one of the objective and a success of KLM with the project of the Must see map. This is a great example of the collaborative tourism since using the Must see map, travellers can prepare their new stay with the recommendation of their friends from different social network on the places to go, to eat, etc…

Once, the friends end their say, KLM print and send the complete map with all the advices included on the map to the user for free.

To know more about the KLM's Must see map, watch the video. 

Sources:

- http://www.aventureo.com/
- http://www.etourisme-outgoing.fr/tourisme-communautaire-et-collaboratif/
- http://www.tripnco.com/fr/
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dosrsAy4ENY