Travel Technology
prnewswire | July 14, 2023
GetYourGuide, leading online travel booking platform, announced today the launch of four new 'Originals by GetYourGuide' — curated, one-of-a-kind experiences exclusively available on the platform — that will respectfully immerse travelers in Kyoto's rich culture and well-known traditions, offering unique access to never-before-seen locations. Created in collaboration with the Kyoto City Tourism Association (DMO Kyoto), GetYourGuide will open centuries-old doors, allowing travelers to appreciate the local heritage of the city and dive deep into Japanese culture at a time when travel to Asia-Pacific destinations is expected to rise by 94%.3
"After reopening to the world late last year, travelers are once again eager for a glimpse of Japan's history and traditions, and Kyoto, which has one of the largest collections of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, is at the top of their list," said Jean-Gabriel Duveau, VP of Brand at GetYourGuide. "Many of Japan's culturally significant sites are hard to access — or even off-limits to visitors — until now. Our newest Originals by GetYourGuide will help travelers discover Kyoto's sacred traditions and rich culture through immersive experiences that take them off the beaten path."
GetYourGuide's four new, bucket list-worthy experiences in Kyoto include:
Unlock Ninna-Ji, a UNESCO World Heritage temple and learn the art of Wagashi:
Commissioned by the imperial family, Ninna-Ji Temple in western Kyoto houses one of the longest-standing temple buildings and is recognized as safeguarding some of the best examples of Japan's temple craftsmanship. In this once-in-a-lifetime experience, travelers will unlock the gates to the Ninna-Ji's imperial and spiritual history before it opens to the public. A resident monk will guide them through the halls, including areas usually closed to the public, until they arrive at Ninna-Ji's private tea house where they will learn how to make traditional Japanese confections known as wagashi and enjoy a traditional tea ceremony. Travelers will prepare these delicacies instructed by a wagashi chef who has been recognized as one of the best by the Japanese government.
Uncover the hidden world of Japanese maiko:
Kyoto, the former imperial capital, is the birthplace of geiko (Kyoto's geisha) culture, training female performance artists to entertain guests at teahouses and social events by singing, dancing, performing music, hosting tea ceremonies, and serving food and drinks. In an extraordinary opportunity to learn from and interact with a maiko — a geiko apprentice — travelers will be guided through the historic Gion district, Kyoto's famous geiko neighborhood, by a knowledgeable local guide. They will learn about the traditional customs and practices of maiko and geiko, then witness an authentic maiko performance inside a teahouse, get to play maiko games and ask questions directly from the apprentice — an opportunity that is rarely granted to the public.
Take in the ancient art of Noh theatre:
Travelers will venture to the beautiful, remote village of Ohara nestled in the mountains of northern Kyoto, where visitors to Kyoto rarely stray and a prominent Noh family resides. In a guided tour of the village, they will learn about Noh, an ancient performing art combining dance and theater that is still practiced today. Permitted inside a Noh Master's studio, travelers will see his costumes and centuries-old masks close up, and witness a private performance in his home. At the pinnacle of this experience, participants will be allowed to try Noh themselves — a rare event since traditionally, only Noh families may practice this art form.
Practice a guided meditation with a Zen monk:
Zen gardens and temples have long been a focal point for visitors to Kyoto and are the lifeblood of the city. In this exclusive experience, travelers will have a rare opportunity to experience the daily life of a Zen monk and gain insight into the history and practices of the temple as they enter the Jōju-ji Temple, a hidden gem known locally for its spectacular summer maple foliage. Here, they will learn about the history of Zen and its impact on Japanese culture, then experience a traditional Zen meditation with the temple's resident monk and get a glimpse into how this ancient wisdom lives on today. The exclusive visit will conclude with a lunch of Shojin, the traditional vegetarian fare of Zen Buddhist monks.
To book a visit to any of the four Kyoto Originals, please visit the GetYourGuide website. Reservations are available on a first come, first served basis on select dates through November 2023.
About GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide, is the leading global online marketplace for unforgettable travel experiences. Travelers use GetYourGuide to discover and book the best and most unique activities in any destination — including guided tours by local experts, culinary excursions, cooking and craft classes, skip-the-line tickets, as well as exclusive bucket list experiences.
Today, GetYourGuide offers more than 75,000 activities from over 16,000 experience creators. Since launch, travelers from over 150 countries have booked more than 80 million tours, activities and attraction tickets through GetYourGuide.
Powered by a global team of more than 700 travel and tech experts, the company is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and has 17 local offices around the world (including in the UK and USA).
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Business Travel
businesswire | June 28, 2023
Airbase, the leading software provider that helps companies procure, pay, and close their books with ease, and TravelPerk, the fastest-growing global travel management platform, today announced an integration that will enable businesses to seamlessly manage their travel expenditure with less effort. This partnership brings together TravelPerk’s vast travel inventory and reporting insights, and Airbase’s complete spend management platform — which handles all non-payroll spend, including corporate cards, bill payments, purchase orders, and employee reimbursements.
“We are excited to announce our collaboration with TravelPerk, a critical step in our quest to help companies manage all of their non-payroll spend,” said Airbase Founder and CEO, Thejo Kote. “This seamless integration automates workflows, reduces manual errors, and provides improved control over travel spending, facilitating rapid reimbursements and a superior user experience for our customers.”
With this integration, businesses can effortlessly connect to TravelPerk from their Airbase account, define travel policies, set booking cost limits, and assign Airbase-supported virtual or physical cards for travel bookings. This leads to unprecedented visibility and control over travel expenses in addition to optimizing cashback rewards.
Kevin Permenter, Research Director, Financial Applications at IDC, commented on the initiative. “The fusion of Airbase’s spend management platform with TravelPerk’s travel inventory and travel policy controls provides businesses with an enhanced level of control over their business travel expenses. This partnership helps enhance efficiency and bolster compliance for users. This integration will be a welcomed addition to the corporate spending and expense management landscape.”
An early user of the integration, Ben Watiwat, VP Finance at Immutable, praised its benefits. “The automatic matching of receipts to expenses and seamless syncing to our general ledger has been a significant time-saver. This integration has been a game-changer, offering efficiency and ease of use that we cannot recommend highly enough.”
The integration with TravelPerk elevates Airbase’s standing in the spend management sector, offering a smoother reconciliation process and allowing businesses to stay within budget. Airbase and TravelPerk are poised to redefine business travel and expense management, showcasing the immense potential of an integrated solution.
About Airbase
Airbase modern spend management combines Guided Procurement, Accounts Payable Automation, Expense Management, and Corporate Cards. Airbase provides the best way to control spending, close the books faster, ensure compliance, and make teams more productive. Airbase brings efficiency to approvals, accounting, and payments with a procure, pay, close process that employees and accounting teams love.
About TravelPerk
TravelPerk is the next-generation business travel platform pioneering the future of business travel. TravelPerk’s all-in-one platform gives travelers the freedom they want whilst providing companies with the control they need. The result is saved time, money, and hassle for everyone.
TravelPerk has the world’s largest travel inventory alongside powerful management features, 24/7 customer support, state-of-the-art technology, and consumer-grade design, all of which are enabling companies and organizations worldwide such as Wise, Revolut, Monzo, Farfetch, Just Eat, GetYourGuide and Skipthedishes, to get the most out of their travel.
Backed by world-class investors like General Catalyst, Kinnevik AB, DST Global, Greyhound Capital, Target Global, Felix Capital, Spark Capital, LocalGlobe, and Heartcore — investors in some of the most disruptive companies in tech including Airbnb, Slack, Twitter, Trello, Farfetch, Zalando and Delivery Hero — TravelPerk is reinventing business travel with an end-to-end solution that works.
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Hospitality Trends
prnewswire | July 12, 2023
Sojern, the leading travel marketing platform, today announced the acquisition of VenueLytics, the hospitality industry's most integrated guest experience platform serving independent hotels, resorts, chains and casinos. Sojern will incorporate VenueLytics' capabilities as an extension of the Sojern Travel Marketing Platform.
Sojern has long been a direct bookings driver for hotels—providing comprehensive digital advertising solutions that help travel marketers find, attract and convert new travelers, re-activate existing guests to build loyalty, and maximize net revenue per available room (RevPAR). This acquisition expands Sojern's Travel Marketing Platform to engage across the entire guest journey with VenueLytics' cutting-edge technology that includes an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered virtual concierge, real-time guest feedback and digital reputation management tools, and a guest marketing suite for email and text promotions. VenueLytics' solutions help marketing, operations, and front-desk teams better serve their guests with less resources required, drive incremental revenue, and maximize profit. With these additional features, Sojern can now help marketers find, attract, convert and engage travelers throughout their journey.
"This is an exciting step forward for our customers as we can empower hoteliers beyond advertising alone, expanding our offerings to be a true end-to-end marketing platform," said Mark Rabe, CEO of Sojern. "We are dedicated to providing the travel industry with innovative solutions that leverage data, AI and technology to drive results. VenueLytics' expertise in analyzing, unifying and activating data from various hotel management and marketing systems will allow Sojern to deepen our relationships in hospitality. This addition helps us to advance toward becoming the #1 travel marketing platform."
One of VenueLytics key customers is Grupo Posadas, the largest hotel company in Mexico with over 180 resorts and hotels. Posadas Director of Quality, Standards and Innovation, Leslie Gomez, commented, "By using VenueLytics AI Concierge throughout the guest journey, Posadas has increased Ancillary Revenue with more than 53K requests over the last 9 months. Our guests satisfaction improved more than 19 percentage points (pp) in NPS (Net Promoter Score) from the guests who had contact with our digital concierge experience."
By extending its platform with VenueLytics, Sojern can now support hotel marketers with an all-in-one platform that drives guests directly to a property, enables upsell mid-stay, remarketing post-stay, and builds long term loyalty. In addition to the multichannel offerings of Sojern, VenueLytics provides the ability to engage customers in an expanded multichannel network that includes SMS, Email, WiFi, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, ChatBot, Alexa, Google Home and other social media and third party apps. This allows Sojern to expand into generative AI with cutting edge tools to drive and optimize booking value for hotels.
VenueLytics Co-Founder and CEO Baskar Manivannan commented, "We have partnered with Sojern for more than a year, and joining forces will strengthen our customer base and reputation while enabling us to offer the hospitality and travel industry a wider and timely range of solutions. With AI, data analytics and personalized multichannel guest engagement at the backbone of what we do, we have a shared vision to empower hotels around the world to drive profitability, and truly elevate guest experience and satisfaction."
Last month, Sojern announced the latest version of its Sojern Travel Marketing Platform with enhanced AI powered audiences. With this acquisition, it further demonstrates the company's rigor and success at integrating new technology and scaling it globally. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Sojern has reported previously that it is profitable, has driven more than $10 billion in global travel bookings, and serves over 10,000 customers annually around the world leveraging its long-standing AI capabilities.
The acquisition will deepen Sojern's hotel expertise in North America where VenueLytics has been focused. VenueLytics will now be able to support the global hospitality industry as an extension of the Sojern Travel Marketing Platform. To learn more about how this acquisition can benefit your travel marketing campaigns, please visit Sojern's website.
About Sojern
Sojern is a top digital marketing tool for travel marketers. Multichannel marketing from the company boosts direct demand. AI and traveler intent data enable these solutions. It is the leading travel marketing tool designed to help marketers overcome travel buying cycle challenges. It provides unparalleled traveler information and automatic optimization to match its clients with the right travelers. In addition, the company optimizes across the platform to help clients grow and profit.
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