Teleport : App For Chauffeuring Guests

There has been a growth in the use of technology in the events industry. One of the newest technologies one on the list is Teleport, an application used for chauffeuring VIP guests to events, that is supported by Über.

“Teleport is a free iOS app (which was just launched last November) that allows hosts to send an Uber to pick up speakers and other guests for their events” (Mitra Sorrells).  In this app the host is able to pick up guests and bring them to a specific location via Über’s drivers. The guest being pick up will receive a text message from the host which contains a link, which then opens a web app. The guest then needs to drop a ‘pin’ on a point on the map in the web app where they wish to be picked up and thus Über will pick them up from the desired meeting point. The app will also enable the guest to see how far away the driver is, what type of car it is, the license plate and the driver’s name. This enables direct and clear communication between the driver of the car and the guest to be picked up.

The most important thing required for this app is that the hosts or the person sending the Über need to have the Teleport app installed and that same person pays for the ride. Also both the parties, i.e. the sender and the receiver, need to be within 100 miles of each other. The use of Teleport is only successful in countries or cities where Uber is used. One of the most important factors in this app is that the driver, as well as the guest will not see each others addresses or their detailed personal information

The most recent app update is that Teleport allows customers to send a Teleport link to Facebook Messenger conversations, WeChat, and other platforms. This “means the host does not need to know the guest’s phone number and the next update will allow planners and other event hosts to send and track multiple rides at once.” (Mitra Sorrells) As well Teleport plans to allow planners and other event hosts to send and track multiple rides at once in their next update.

One of the strongest features of this app is that Teleport is utilizing a pre-existing service, Über. This allows for cost efficiency and time saving which aids in the continually improvements of the quality of events. Along with this we cannot neglect the fact that Teleport only runs via Uber and no other service or taxi service; Über is not available in every destination. Hence this application cannot be used in international markets where Uber is banned or where Uber does not exist.

Lastly there is currently a large security worry with Uber drivers in my destinations. As quite a few of them do not have a legal ‘taxi’ license or there are not enough background checks being performed before hiring. However, many local and national authorities are taking strict action against Uber drivers, in enforcing higher standards of Über driver back check and distributing a sort of ‘taxi’ license to many drivers. Thus safety can become less of an immediate concern in the future for Teleport.

                                            Contributed by Alexa and Sakshi

Source and picture from: http://www.bizbash.com/a-new-app-for-chauffeuring-vip-guests-to-events/new-york/story/31745#.Vv1VnVV97IU February 4^th, 2016

Hop in and drive!

Hop and drive!

Rental cars in the civilized world - it is quite a usual thing, especially when it comes to traveling to another city or so. Car2Go develops a new concept, a new niche - rental car for everyday needs not only tourists but also locals.

Car2Go was started in 2008 in Ulm, Germany. Over 1,000,000 members enjoy unlimited mobility with Car2Go around every corner. It’s a unique story of movement and freedom that makes mobile life in the city more beautiful and environmentally friendly.

The idea is as follows. By the city, at some of its territory (operating area), there is a sufficiently large number of cars to which you have unlimited access. At any convenient time for you, you can take the car and you don't need to return it to the same place. You just leave it there where you would like (within the service area). Thus, even though you rent the car, it is sort of a trip in one direction.

To gain access to rental cars, you have to get a membership in the company. To do this, you must meet quite simple conditions - to have a driver's license, you should not have serious violations (drunk driving, etc.) and you have to bind to the account your credit or debit card. And in general, that's all. Then you can use cars not only in your city but also in all other cities (within your country).

How to get a membership card? You fill out the online application, where you indicate your contact information, information about your driving license and credit card data. Then about a week later, when the company will check your data, you will receive a letter that you have become a member of the company, and after a few days you will receive a special membership card. And you can immediately use the cars.

The big advantage is that you pay a membership fee of $ 35 (in 2016) only once, and no monthly fees at all. That is, if you do not use the cars, you do not pay for anything. Plus (or perhaps minus) of the company is that all cars - are electric cars Smart. Plus - because all the cars are the same, you do not need to adapt under them and more than that, you do not need to pay for gasoline. Minus - the car is just for two people and, for example, large luggage is unlikely to fit there.

So, you've got a card, what's next? You install on your smartphone a special application. Through it you can find the nearest car, see how far up it to go, how many charge is there and some other information. You can also book a car so nobody could take it before you.

You find a nearby car on your phone (it is also possible to do it by phone or on the company website). You go to the car and can see the sensor on the windshield. You lean your membership card on the sensor, in a few seconds, when it will verify the information - the doors of the car are open.

You get in your car and enter your PIN. Then you are invited to assess the condition of the car - damages, cleanliness inside (interior) and outside (exterior). Then you take the key, which is in the special hole and can go.

If you want to finish a trip, then you park the car in the designated area, turn off the engine, you are asked the question whether you want to finish the trip (End trip) and if the car received some damages (New damage). Then you leave the key in the hole, close the windows, put the hand brake and turn off the lights, get out of the car and then lean the card to the sensor on the windshield again. You should see the inscription "Trip Completed".

With regard to payment. There are three payment options - take the car for a whole day ($84.99), you can pay per hour ($14.99) and per minute ($0.41). Option "per minute" - is the most convenient option, if you take a car, for example, to get from home to work or the store and back. In fact, your card will be charged only a few dollars for it. And usually - it's cheaper than taking a taxi.

As for the car, inside there are on-board computer, which gives access to emergency services and technical support, GPS, radio. Also, the price includes insurance (with a deductible of $ 1000) and parking on the streets within the service area. You will not need to worry about the cleanliness of the car (within reason) and for its refueling - employees do it on their own.

There are two minuses: firstly, for now the company only works in 29 European and North American cities. Secondly, find the car next to you is not always easy, even with a large number of them in the city. So to rely on Car2go, as the main way to move, is not worth.

Sources:

https://www.car2go.com/en/austin/company/

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/07/14/in-depth-car2go-goes-electric-in-san-diego/

https://stephenrees.wordpress.com/tag/car2go/ 

http://www.sefalsecreekliving.com/car2go-launches-this-weekend-in-vancouver/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.car2go 

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/11/24/car2go-turns-your-smartphone-into-carsharing-key-mobile-access/

Virtual Reality Technology: tourism’s next step?

Virtual Reality Technology: tourism’s next step?

Technology has brought the world into a brand new era bringing some of the finest invention at the steps of our doors. Tourism has not been left behind as today we are experimenting what people call virtual reality. This technology that has brought gaming, entertainment and now travels to a whole different level inspiring people to consume the reality through virtuality.

Oculus Rift a company now owed by the famous social media Facebook is now using this technology to create virtual tours on destinations and hotel visits. These virtual tours have been adopted by some of the major hotel groups in the world such as Marriott allowing potential customers to visit without yet travelling.

Advantage for professionals

Most of the time, travellers decide to visit a destination depending on different criteria’s such as word of mouth, commercials, etc. Virtual reality can be an enormous advantage for professionals as it represents a state of the art selling technique. This technology arises the envy of the customer and allows him to have a first glance at what he can experience.

The stimulation brought by virtual reality is even more pushed so that customers live the experience fully. Marriott added additional elements so that customers are not only getting a look at what they can experiment but also smell and hear the surroundings of the destination.

Of course the risk of a turnaround can be possible, bringing potential customers to consume only what they saw virtually and not actually consuming the reality.

Advantage for travellers

Travellers on the other hand can also profit from this technology. It gives them a multiple choice on the destinations they can visit and allows them to be pernickety on where they wish to travel. The virtual reality offers a peek of the chosen destination and from that point they can select whether or not to go.

Not only for destinations but also for hotels, travellers can choose from the different hotels available and visit a room, a hotel lobby and the different services without needing to check to on the Internet. Cruises are also concerned as travellers can check out the activities proposed on board and also do a virtual visit of the ship.

To conclude, companies such as Oculus Rift or Morpheus are bringing the industry of travel and globally tourism to a new step. Offering travellers to virtually visit a destination can be a major strength for a tourism company but the real question we have to ask ourselves is that isn’t it bringing traditional tourism to its end?

Sources

http://www.wired.com/insights/2015/02/will-oculus-rift-help-or-hinder-tourism/

http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-oculus-rift-is-impacting-travel-2015-7?r=US&IR=T

http://thinkdigital.travel/opinion/oculus-rift-and-project-morpheus-to-offer-virtual-reality-travel/

Sevan Karaoghlanian

Patrick Rakotondrajao 

Welcome City Lab, the innovative incubator for tourism solutions.

Paris is the most visited destination for worldwide visitors, yet preserving this pole position requires a certain amount of constant adaptations in the tourism sector, especially concerning IT technologies.

To do so, the city of Paris has recently taken the decision to support the Welcome City Lab, an incubator for finding innovative solutions for the tourism industry. According to Laurent Queige, general secretary of Welcome City Lab, international visitors are often surprised to receive a welcoming not as gentle as they could have expected from what France and especially Paris inspires to the world. To improve international visitors’ experience, Laurent Queige supports the Smart City project that aims at developing online applications to gather the city of Paris and international tourists’ interests.

A large part of the researches and experimentations focus on the personalization of the experience with applications such as WeGuideYou or even Meetrip. This first type of application is an online payable service for foreign travelers to meet a Parisian, according to their respective interests and spoken languages, to experience the destination with a local guide.

Another type of personalization application, Optionizr, provides extra time reflection before making a final decision that should have normally be taken immediately, such as promotional flights. The Welcome City Lab has also developed Toot Sweet to gather in one application all activities available in the surrounding of the mobile device.

Welcome City Lab has developed partnerships not only with IT providers but also with transportation companies such as Air France or RATP. In fact, the Welcome City Lab is experimenting on the route Paris Toulouse of Air France on-boards tablets providing tourism contents of the destination. The same concept is extending to RATP with tablets on stations to provide information.

Another type of mobile application, SmartSantanderRA, focalizes its efforts on virtual reality to enable international visitors to have a look of how the city of Paris looked decades ago with their mobile device. This technology is now extending to other regions of France such as Bordeaux.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, to enable international visitors to connect to these online applications, the city of Paris and Welcome City Lab concentrate on providing secured and efficient Wi-Fi. Thus, a company named Peeble has developed hotspots with 4G technologies across Paris. To maintain its competitiveness, the city of Paris continues to invest in IT technologies in the tourism sector.

Anthony Calzi & Camille Salomon

E-tourism: Regiondo Pro puts the booking of leisure activities at your fingertips!

After airlines, hotels, catering, entertainment and sports ticketing, leisure also turns to be "bookable" online. The startup Regiondo Pro offers an online activity booking software.

Launched in 2011 and with an annual growth of over 100%, the company has signed several new distribution partnerships with OTAs and other travel portals. 

	Yann Maurer, founder of Pro Regiondo credit : Pro Regiondo website

 

Regiondo Pro solution's concept

The start-up offers a simple user interface that can manage one's own booking calendar and configure a booking widget for their own website RegionDo
credit : Pro Regiondo website

Regiondo Pro is a  solution for booking business of online entertainment. The integration of customizable booking engine is within the provider's website, no computer knowledge required. With Regiondo Pro system, providers of leisure activities increase their sales by 30% a year on average. 

The start-up digitizes an inventory that until now existed only offline.  75% of reservations are made ​​online, but less than 2% of providers of recreational activities have a reservation solution on their website. Those who developed their own solution are faced with high maintenance costs and often abandon their project along the way. Beyond that, those companies do not have the opportunity to distribute their offerings on other websites because their reservation system does not communicate with other sales channels. With their API, they connect more than 200 distribution channels to their inventory. This is why the smart solution Regiondo Pro offers true added value for providers of leisure activities seeking both a solution of reservation and distribution.

Regiondo Pro solution's business model

With Regiondo Pro solution, it is possible to sell both online tours, outdoor activity such as rafting or canyoning, escape games, and also online tickets to amusement parks or zoos. This tool is essential to meet the demand of tourists who want a simple way to book their activities once they arrive in the destination. The market is estimated at nearly 6000 leisure activity providers that may use this system to manage all their bookings.

Regiondo Pro solution receives a 5% commission +0.49 cents per ticket sold on all reservations done through their system. Any offer having been posted on their system can also be sold on their distribution channel partners. 

The company has no real competitors in Europe . Some leisure distribution portals such as SmartBox or Viator exist but no competitors upstream of the value chain digitize the available inventory as Regiondo Pro solution does. Indeed, the start-up offers a simple user interface that can manage one's own booking calendar and configure a booking widget on their own website. 

In other countries, similar companies such as Rezgo in Australia or Booking Boss in Canada exist. However, their products are not suitable for the European market. The Regiondo Pro service provides a user interface, a CMS and a purchase tunnel in French, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese and is also compatible with all payment methods online used in Europe.

The Start-up aims to continue to digitize the leisure industry and to help providers to professionalize their offer through this online booking solution. However, it is a long way to go as there are thousands of activities' providers in each touristic destination. The next challenge will be to identify each of them and persuade them to join Regiondo Pro. Moreover, Regiondo Pro service may face competitors based in other countries such as Rezgo or Booking Boss that would like to conquer the European market in a near future.

By Joëlle CALAFELL, Anaïs DAFRI and Kim TUONG

Source:  Regiondo Pro met la réservation d'activités de loisirs à portée de clic!, Tourmag.com, 11th March 2016