Why Tourabout’s New GDS is Perfect for Small Business

I’ve had an opportunity to explore a new global distribution system (GDS) from Tourabout, an Australian company that currently offers an online portal where smaller operators can offer tours to a bigger pool of visitors, who use the Tourabout site to search and find holidays.  As you may know there are several companies doing exactly this, but I am very excited about Tourabout’s new product, which they call a social travel marketplace.

What Does it Do?

Well, as I say, it’s a GDS with a social community built in.  The main features/functions are:

• TravelAnswers:  An interactive Q&A platform.
• Live On Tour:  allows both travellers & operators to do live blogging
• Search and Connect:  travellers can search through nearly 30,000 tours to find the perfect holiday.  Search includes:
  • Events – natural and cultural
  • Deals – operators can load their own sales
  • Incentives (for travel agents who can also use the system)
  • Trip Requests – matches product inquiries to operator profiles
• Community:  destination reviews and articles, travel tips, photographs
• Integration:  the product has built-in links to other social media platforms including Twitter & Facebook

Why It is Great for Consumers

The new Tourabout website gives consumers a number of tools to research holidays and trip information.  Here are a few reasons why I think travellers will keep coming back to Tourabout for travel information:

• You Don’t Have to Register.  ”Guests” without a profile can still look at the wealth of destination information, search through available tour, and look at the latest deals without having a profile.  That’s great because all that goodness isn’t locked away behind a login, which is a win-win.  (Let’s face it – no matter how cool you make your site, there will always be consumers who will refuse to register.)
• Harness the Power of Semantics.  I wasn’t able to test how Tourabout looks if you come in via  search engine, but everywhere in the application the tool uses powerful semantics technology to help consumers surf quickly through information.  For example, if you’re looking through the Egypt destination section, it will highlight photos and deals related to Egypt.  And then if you login and start to ask a question, it will search the database and prompt you if your question might already be answered.
• Ability to Contact Operators Direct.  Tourabout is, in this case, the middleman but they’ve left all the baggage behind.  Consumers can easily get in touch with any operator.
• It’s Fun.  If you complete a profile, the system will flag to you destinations and deals that are on your ‘bucket list’ of places to go to.  You can answer questions, upload photos, add stories, and you can even have a live feed while you’re travelling!

The Million Dollar Question:  Why should travellers use Tourabout instead of existing social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, etc.?

For travellers who want to share and interact but have yet to find a safe haven on social media, Tourabout offers a very compelling option.  It’s directed at a specific niche, and travel enthusiasts who don’t have a massive social media following will likely climb right on board and feel at home.

For travellers who already have a major social media presence (i.e. active Twitter/Facebook users, already have their own blog), it remains to be seen whether Tourabout will provide significant enough value for them to participate.   I think this will be a hard sell for some.  There’s no question that some of the features (e.g. deals as well as the “season sniffer” which helps you find the cheapest time periods to travel to your destination) offer great value, but some social media/travel enthusiasts may not feel their time is best spent engaging on the platform.  I liken it to something like LinkedIn’s Q&A – some love it and really reap rewards for participating, others don’t.

Why It is Great for Small Operators

The biggest value I see in Tourabout is for the small tour operator – the one-man-band or small shop where there just isn’t an extra hour in the day to Tweet or update Facebook.  Tourabout really understands this business problem, and here’s how they’ve solved it:

• Low Cost Solution:  Operators have several choices for how they configure their profile and tour availablity on Tourabout, and most of those options are free.
• One Stop Shopping:  Instead of having to update the GDS, then update Twitter, then update Facebook, etc. an operator can do everything from one tool.  You can setup your Tourabout profile to update your social media profiles when you make changes to the system (uploading photos, status updates, etc.).  Quick, easy, painless.  Plus it makes it easier to have a regular, consistent presence on multiple social networks.
• It Comes To You (via Email):  Busy and overworked operators won’t miss a beat with easy-to-configure notification options, so you’ll know via email when something has happened on the GDS that you need to respond to.  Get notified about questions you can answer, new trip enquiries, and other community activities you choose to be pertinent.

What’s the bottom line for small tour operators?

If you are looking for a GDS opportunity that is no-fluff, no-stress, then get on Tourabout.  Now.  It really offers a great way to manage several portions of your online presence and expand your reach at low cost and low risk.  It isn’t a panacea – you still need to make the effort to create a profile and establish yourself in the community, but I think this is certainly a worthwhile activity.

How To Get Started

If you’re interested in trying out Tourabout’s new social travel marketplace, you can signup here.  The program is still in private beta, but Tourabout has invited Travel Online Partners’ customers and readers to check it out before the official launch.  For the invite code, fill in TOP so they know you’re one of our readers.

To Learn More…

If you’re struggling to find your idea customers online, we can help with building online community. Our one-on-one coaching package will zero in on the right places (like Tourabout) to hang out and help you avoid the wrong ones.
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