Goodbye to mobile data roaming charges

GLOBAL Wi-Fi provider IUNGO network is launching it’s Alpha Software release on schedule, as committed in its roadmap. This invitation-only release will allow Alpha users to be the original participants in testing the first decentralized Global Wi-Fi service, where people and companies will become local internet providers.

IUNGO is a globally distributed wireless internet service provider built with the help of a Worldwide community. IUNGO network is bootstrapping a community where everyone can assume responsibilities and benefit from the associated rewards for running parts of the service delivery infrastructure.

IUNGO network will save most travellers from excessively expensive mobile data roaming bills from trips abroad by offering simple and fast Wi-Fi access. IUNGO Network allows users to find a secure WiFi hotspot that matches his or her preferences. IUNGO Network allows users to find in just a few seconds a secure Wi-Fi hotspot. With the push of a single button, the IUNGO Network app will seamlessly connect the user to Wi-Fi.

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Bidroom and Visa buddy up for European cardholders

IN the EU, almost half (49%) of internet users have booked holiday accommodation or travel via the internet. In the UK specifically 83% of people used this method to book their holiday in 2017.

As more and more consumers turn to online travel agencies to book their travel, Bidroom offers an alternative method of finding affordable hotel accommodation online. The platform provides a 0% commission private booking channel with direct reservations, in turn Bidroom asks hotels to provide members between 5%-25% discount compared to the advertised prices on major hotel booking platforms.

European Visa cardholders can register at visa.bidroom.com to enjoy six months free access to the membership-based booking platform enabling them to browse through over 120,000 hotels and apartments worldwide.

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Travel back to The Alamo

THE Alamo’s iconic battleground and stories are being brought to life through an upcoming augmented and virtual reality experience It’s a groundbreaking union of technology and historical accuracy launching at one of the nation’s most significant landmarks.

One of the world’s most famous battle sites, the Alamo, is being recreated through an unparalleled union of historical scholarship and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). Alamo Reality’s Experience Real History: Alamo Edition, is set to debut March 1, 2018 during San Antonio’s 300th birthday celebration and the 182nd anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo. Currently, the #Alamo is the most-visited site in #Texas. This interactive photoreal journey back in time will greatly enhance the overall visitor experience, and is expected to increase the time and quality of visitation. 

The Alamo Reality app will be free and available to download on both iOS and Android devices. 


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Fish for Lodges

FISHING vacation website fishlodges.com has been updated with a new search experience, allowing users of the site to filter fishing lodges and resorts in the North American Northwest by a wide array of attributes.

"Our search tool has been the defining feature of the site since day one" states "Chief Navigator" Eric Embacher. "Our mission is to help anglers find their ideal fishing lodge vacation with far more efficiency than using Google, and the power of this tool is key to that."

The Search tool allows users to filter the entire set of lodges by 20 of the 124 types of information collected for every fishing lodge. Filters include location, price, fish species and type of fishing, guided or unguided trips, trip duration, lodge rating and number of reviews, and more. Once lodges are filtered they can be compared "apples-to-apples" and then individual lodges inspected in detail.

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Free Wi-Fi a hit in Tasmania

THE Hodgman Liberal Government's free Wi-Fi network TasGov_Free has proven a massive hit with tourists - with almost 150,000 users logging on for more than 300,000 sessions in the first year of operation.

This service supports our T21 visitor target of 1.5 million tourists by 2020 by providing access to reliable internet connectivity for our guests to make the most of their local experience.

Vitally, tourists can then share what #Tasmania has to offer with friends and family abroad so they too fall in love with our beautiful state.

This is a great start to the service and the work has continued with 153 access points now live at 60 locations, with four more set to proceed and eight shortly to be allocated at key usage and tourist points.

The 30 minutes free Wi-Fi per user, per device, per day is available at the identified tourism hotspots 24-7.

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Social media celebrates some big birthdays this coming week…

‘World Social Media Day’ is coming Friday 30th June 2017 - launched by website Mashable as a way to recognise and celebrate social media’s impact on global communication. 

Saturday 8th July, marks six years since Snapchat was first launched - as "Picaboo" on iOS on July 8, 2011. The app was later relaunched officially as Snapchat in September 2011.

As the globe honours its favourite social sites and apps, travel site momondo.co.uk this week considers how we choose to use social media on holiday.

From a survey of 1000* Brits this year, momondo found over a third post photos on social media, and one in five write updates regularly while away.

Interestingly the number of Brits who avoid social media has dropped by 10% year on year – that’s 23% of Brits in 2017, compared to 33% of Brits in 2016 - suggesting it’s more popular than ever to keep engaged with friends and family online while travelling.

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Escape Escape

A NEW innovation from 

Cheapflights.co.uk has given ‘Esc’ keyboard keys everywhere a new lease of life with the launch of its innovative EscEscape (pronounced ‘Escape Escape’) browser extension tool, putting a range of short getaway options just two-taps away from users. 

Launching in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and South Africa, ‘EscEscape’ is a free-to- install extension for Google Chrome users. When a user taps their keyboard ‘Esc’ key twice, a live flight search runs to find the cheapest, quickest and smartest return flights to nearby #destinations. 

Results are pulled from Cheapflights’ own search engine API and the users’ nearest airport is detected as their departure airport. The flight results open in a new browser tab and will be the cheapest option for a weekend break in the next eight weeks. The user is then free to go ahead and book if they like the look of what they see – if not, another ‘double tap’ of the Esc key throws up a new option.

“We want people to rediscover their ‘Esc’ key, and make it their shortcut to escaping for real - double tap quick,” comments Andrew Shelton, Cheapflights’ Managing Director.

Initially, a choice of five destinations will be featured each day, selected at random from the top 200 searched-for #holiday hot spots on the Cheapflights website and app, per market. For the UK, US, Canada and South Africa, only flights within a five-hour flight time are selected. 

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Wedding Tourism given a boost in Greece & Cyprus

THE first and only international platform for booking a date for a civil wedding in Cyprus and Greece, BookYourWeddingDay.com was launched with great success last year. Most of the most popular hotels in Cyprus and Greece, town halls, tour operators, and wedding planners participate in the platform, which has already gained a great number of visitors from UK and other countries.

The platform, a Cyprus-born idea, revolutionizes and simplifies the procedures needed to book a date for civil marriages. The lengthy procedures could take from 6 to 8 weeks, but users are now able to instantly check availability of the venues and hotels and book the desired venue with the click of a button. This is expected to increase wedding tourism in Cyprus and Greece, the countries currently participating in the platform.

The recent partnership between travel giant TUI UK and BookYourWeddingDay.com, looks to reinforce the wedding tourism wave towards Cyprus and Greece, offering improved, automated, and simplified booking procedures.

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Unmapped expands partnerships

AN award winning travel itinerary management platform, Unmapped has expanded partnerships in 11 countries including Canada, US, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Italy, UK, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and New Zealand.

Umapped helps leading global brands and travel advisors engage with their customers throughout their travel journey by delivering interactive, media-rich consolidated mobile itineraries with relevant offers, content, messaging and advice from collaborations with with leading tour operator suppliers including Ski.com, Globus, and Ultimate Jet Vacations.

umapped.com

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Majority of travellers now book online

RESEARCH from MarkMonitor reveals that 68% of consumers globally exclusively book their #travel online. However, seven out of every 100 respondents surveyed ended up with plans not in line with their expectations, highlighting a need for increased education when booking online. 

The research, conducted by a market research company Opinium, analysed the online behaviour of consumers around booking travel online, including bargain hunting for seasonal goods and attitudes towards piracy. Opinium surveyed 3,257 consumers across eight countries, including the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, and the Netherlands.

With its focus on booking travel online, the survey results also reveal that of those consumers who booked a holiday that fell short of their expectations, posting a negative review was their first reaction (42%), above trying to get a refund (40%) and complaining to a licensing body (35%) — demonstrating the power of online word of mouth”. Alarmingly, following this bad experience, 37% of respondents reported that their debit or credit card details were misused or stolen, showing the requirement for increased vigilance when shopping or booking online.

Said Mark Frost, CEO of MarkMonitor: ‘With the growth of social media and a culture where consumers have the power to make their displeasure widely known through social networking sites, online brand protection has never been more important. This is especially evident in the fact that when asked how they vetted a travel site, almost half (47%) of consumers said they read the reviews.’

With one of the main reasons for using the internet to book travel being that it’s cheaper, 75% of consumers also go on to search for discounted goods online prior to their holidays, including sunglasses, clothing and shoes, event tickets, guide books, and luggage. But looking for bargains doesn’t mean buying cheap counterfeit goods or knock-offs as, overwhelmingly, the desire for genuine goods remains with 83% saying they wouldn’t willingly buy fake products to keep up with seasonal trends.

But of those 75% seeking discounted products online, almost 10% reported that they had bought something online that turned out to be fake — with clothing and shoes (33%) and sunglasses (28%) cited most often.

Says Mr Frost: ‘In an increasingly digital world, consumers are exposed to more and more online fraud, counterfeiting, and piracy. While the desire is still to buy genuine goods, fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated in their approaches, making it even riskier for consumers. For brands with an online presence, protecting themselves and their customers through a solid online brand protection plan is absolutely key.’

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1 million go to www.visitdevon

VISIT DEVON reports that its website – www.visitdevon.co.uk – attracted 1 million unique visitors in 2015.

The news comes ahead of 2015 visitor numbers which, it is hoped, will also see an increase following a difficult few years for the county.

Victoria Hatfield at Visit Devon, says: ‘This is encouraging news for #Devon. The internet has become one of the most important tools of the travel industry and is responsible for the modern trend of visitors making later and later bookings, once they know how the weather is going to turn out.

‘Driving people to the Visit Devon website is the first step in getting them to visit, and we know from experience that when new visitors head to the county, most of them return again and again once they’ve discovered all we have to offer.’

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PCs still tops for holiday bookings; mobile use flat

RESEARCH published by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) has highlighted a significant increase in the use of tablets to book holidays online. One in four (24%) of online bookers said they secured at least one get-away via a tablet compared to 18% in 2014, while the use of mobile phones remains flat at 16% of online bookers.

But ABTA’s Holiday Habits Report 2015 shows that the PC remains by far the most popular device for booking, with 91% of online bookers using a PC or laptop when booking at least one holiday online in the past 12 months.

The research suggests that people are finding the mobile phone booking experience more difficult than on a PC or tablet. Ease of use is cited as one of the key advantages of using a PC or tablet. 77% of PC users and 58% of tablet users found the booking experience easy, compared to only 41% of mobile phone users.

Victoria Bacon, ABTA head of Brand and Business Development said: ‘Personal computers remain the most popular device for people booking their holidays online, reflecting the fact that buying a holiday is often a more complex and high value transaction compared to other purchases. However, for the last two years we have seen significant growth in the use of tablets, reflecting their increasing importance as a device to book holidays online.

‘While smartphones have a long way to go to catch up with PCs and tablets when it comes to holiday bookings, their popularity among younger age groups suggests they will grow in relevance, so travel companies should continue to develop and grow their mobile sales strategies.’ 

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Lufthansa aims for European first with inflight broadband service

LUFTHANSA has confirmed it will launch in-flight broadband internet services on its short- and medium-haul routes next summer, making it the first European carrier to do so.  

The first aircraft will be fitted with the technology in early summer 2016.

The service will enable passengers to make the most of broadband internet access on their own mobile devices via a wireless network. Lufthansa claims the technology will support a range of online services, including streaming media.

Passengers will also be able to use their mobile phones to send and receive text messages and for the transfer of data based on their own mobile phone contract. Telephone calls on board, however, will still not be allowed, due to customer preference.

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Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28448204@N00/2307892800">Lufthansa A300</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)

One click stop for connecting flights

LONDON GATWICK and the Icelandic travel search engine Dohop have launched a unique booking service, GatwickConnects, which enables flights from separate airlines connecting through Gatwick to be booked in a single transaction. Gatwick offers a guarantee of service if flights don't operate as planned. 

Previously, connected flights between the participating airlines would have to be booked separately, and carried the risk of travellers having to buy new flights if the first one was delayed. GatwickConnects joins the tickets into a single booking and removes this risk by protecting the connection for the passengers. 

The airlines taking part in GatwickConnects are easyJet, WOWair, and Norwegian, making up 52% of Gatwick's flight traffic. More airlines are expected to follow.

It is the first time an airport has taken the lead to book and safeguard connections, which makes full use of Dohop's Self-Connect technology of looking up and displaying cost-saving connecting flights.

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Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24509941@N00/5738842577">JOH_9584</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)

Record number of pensioners using travel websites

WELL-OFF UK pensioners made 35 million visits to travel websites in the past year, driving record growth, according to Experian’s Hitwise tool.

The number of visits to travel sites rose to 920 million in May, up from 906 million in the same month last year. This suggested that over-65s are becoming better off, e technologically aware, and keen to #travel.

San Francisco tops the ten more desired destinations so-called #silversurfers wish to visit, followed by France, mainland Spain, Ireland, Tenerife, Majorca, New York, Dubai, and Amsterdam.

Giles Longhurst, general manager, consumer insights, at Experian Marketing Services, said: ‘It’s interesting to see that those in the retired bracket are playing such a significant role in boosting online activity in the travel sector.

‘Silver surfers are defying stereotypes about those in later life using the internet and technology. They are also likely to be taking advantage of their extra disposable income. Having paid off their mortgages and downsized their homes, many over 65s are taking advantage of the added freedom they have found and are enjoying a very active retirement – including plenty of overseas travel.’

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Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/5379885034">The Village Blogger, after Albert Anker</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)