The next time you or your clients want to take a virtual tour of a hotel, consider logging onto TVtrip.com, a Web site that offers videos and pictures of hotels around the world. Since launching last year, the site has now grown to include 7,790 destinations, 33,281 hotels, 1.1 million reviews and 7,652 videos.
TVtrip.com offers videos and pictures
of hotels around the world
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TVtrip.com offers videos from hotels in key U.S. markets, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami, and has videos from hotels in more than 50 popular European cities.
The site, which is free, was developed for customers to use unbiased, transparent videos to help search for their hotels. Each property can be virtually viewed in approximately one minute, giving them a general view of the inside of the hotel, its surroundings and its room categories.
www.tvtrip.com
Discover America
The Travel Industry Association (TIA) has launched DiscoverAmerica.com, the first official U.S. travel and tourism Web site, which also includes language-specific sites in leading international travel markets.
Language-specific sites target travelers in the five major countries that account for 75 percent of all inbound travel to the U.S.: Canada (English- and French-speaking), Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. They also feature information on all 50 states, the five territories, dozens of cities and attractions and official entry information.
The six sites were developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the TIA over a 16-month period and also feature an interactive map, an activity finder that sorts by 24 trip activities, booking opportunities through in-market travel specialists and Travelocity, travel deals in the U.S. and a section for travelers to post reviews and comments.
TIA plans to grow DiscoverAmerica.com in the coming months by adding more cities and attraction information. TIA also hopes to add sites for markets such as China, France and South Korea.
www.discoveramerica.com
Eleventh-Hour DealsTravelocity and LastMinute.com have extended the booking window for last-second deals, allowing travelers to book up to three weeks in advance. Last-second deals can save clients up to 70 percent. Previously, the deals could only be purchased up to two weeks in advance. Travelocity and lastminute.com offer last second weekend getaway packages to hundreds of domestic and international destinations.
www.travelocity.com
www.lastminute.com
Taking It EasyVacation.com unveiled the first phase of its EZguider, an integrated, leisure-focused sales and booking platform for member agencies to sell preferred-supplier products. The platform is free for members and allows users to research, plan, quote and book cruise, tour, insurance and ancillary travel products in an easy-to-use, Internet-based site. Members are being offered booking-based incentives as high as $1,000 in the first 12 months after they begin using it.
www.vacation.com
Amadeus and Air China ConnectAmadeus announced the successful implementation of Air China’s international e-business in 25 international markets. Air China now offers international customers a fully localized online booking product in the native language and local currency. The Amadeus e-Commerce solutions currently power more than 250 Web sites for more than 80 airlines worldwide.
www.amadeus.com
www.airchina.com.cn
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