The weekly news roundup: TripAdvisor’s newly designed website, London’s top city in PwC Cities of Opportunity index, Expedia Flip Flop Report on beach vacationers
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: TripAdvisor redesigns homepage, easier for travellers to book trips
Easier and more convenient to book travel with TripAdvisor’s redesigned website.
Travel planning and booking site TripAdvisor has redesigned its website with ehanced features to make bookings more convenient for travellers.
TripAdvisor said the new ‘Things to Do’ widget on the homepage “makes it easier than ever for travellers to discover and book attractions, tours and local activities right alongside hotels, vacation rentals, restaurants and flights.”
Users just need to enter their destination to discover local experiences that can be booked independently, or add to their hotel, vacation rental, restaurant or flight booking.
Other enhanced features include:
- Attractions product pages: An overview of all the bookable tours and attractions in a destination, include filters to help travellers narrow down their search for tour or activity on their trip.
- Attraction videos: Sneak preview of things to do so travellers can envision what it would be like to experience that activity first hand.
- Location-based searches: Help travellers discover things to do near other points on a map, like finding a tour near their hotel or a landmark near a major airport.
- Viator promo code redemption: TripAdvisor is now accepting Viator (a TripAdvisor company) discount codes on the site.
“The tours and attractions industry has been making amazing progress in recent years, moving towards adopting the digital and mobile ways consumers book travel, said Jeff Chow, TripAdvisor’s vice president of product for attractions.
“Our goal is to accelerate this transition by delivering a world full of local travel experiences to our users, instantly bookable on a smartphone, tablet or desktop using TripAdvisor.”
According to TripAdvisor, attraction and tour bookings on its site have risen 150% year-over-year. It has also grown its attractions listings by 63% during the same period with bookable experiences, as well as free venues like scenic parks and admission-free museums.
The new homepage and feature enhancements are available on all English-speaking points of sale.
DESTINATIONS: London is world’s best city for opportunities: PwC
London: World’s best business, finance and cultural hub. (Image credit: johnkellerman/iStock)
London has claimed pole position for the second time in a row as a centre for business, finance and culture in Cities of Opportunity 7 – the annual index of 30 major cities internationally compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Singapore comes second, Toronto third, with Paris and Amsterdam completing the top five.
PWC’s Cities of Opportunity index ranks the world’s 30 leading cities against 10 indicators including transportation and infrastructure, ease of doing business, demographics and liveability, technology readiness and cost.
PwC said London, being in the top spot, “bodes well for its (London) ability to withstand post–Brexit competition on a number of fronts.”
“We cannot predict what Brexit may mean to the future of London as a pre-eminent world city, we do know it is today one of the world’s most cosmopolitan and well balanced cities, as shown by our research,” the report added.
Reinforcing London’s growing reputation as a tech hub, the report finds the city is “technologically on top of its game” leaping from eighth place in last year’s report to joint first with Seoul for technology readiness this year.
London also gets top ranking for software and multimedia development and design, finishes second overall for broadband quality (up 12 places on last year), and ranks third behind only Singapore and Seoul for Internet access in schools.
The top three cities in each Cities of Opportunity indicator are:
- Intellectual capital and innovation: London, San Francisco, Paris
- Technology readiness: Singapore, London, Amsterdam and New York (tied for third)
- City gateway: London, Paris, Beijing
- Transportation and Infrastructure: Singapore, Dubai, Stockholm
- Health, safety and security: Tokyo, Toronto, Sydney
- Sustainability and the natural environment: Stockholm and Sydney (tied for first), Seoul and Toronto (tied for third)
- Demographics and liveability: New York and Paris (tied for first), London
- Economic clout: London, New York, Beijing
- Ease of doing business: Singapore, Hong Kong, London
- Cost: Johannesburg, Toronto, Los Angeles
“Over half the world’s population live in cities, and they represent engines of global or regional economies. A good life is not a luxury in these cities, it’s a basic requirement for cities and businesses to get and keep talent,” said Bob Moritz, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers International.
“Strong performing cities are those planning and providing across all the measures of the long-term quality of life of its citizens. Having the infrastructure in place – social, economic and physical – builds stronger communities.”
Download the full report here.
SURVEY: Sun, sea, sand – habits of beach vacationers revealed
Beach holidays are also bonding time for families. (Image credit: Violetastock/iStock)
Vacationers like to go to exotic international destinations for their dose of sun, sand and sea according to the Expedia Flip Flop Report, an annual study of the behaviour and preferences among beachgoers around the world.
The survey, conducted among 11,000 plus respondents from 24 countries who took a beach vacation during the past 12 months, showed 96% travelled internationally to frolic in the sun, with Austrians (98%) taking the top spot.
The same holds true for Singapore holidaymakers, said Expedia as shown in the 2016 Singapore Flip Flop Report. Among the findings (infographic below):
- Singapore vacationers love “me time” with 82% preferring to do nothing when on a beach holiday, compared with a global average of 74%.
- Singaporeans are more likely to go on beach holidays with family members (73%) using the downtime to catch up and bond, with 74% of Malaysians and 79% of Thais doing the same.
- 49% of the travellers are male, 51% female; 55% are aged 35 and above, 45% between the ages of 18-34
- Average spend of SGD$82 on getting “beach-ready” before a trip like shopping for a new swimwear.
- 92% citied clean beaches as very or somewhat important; 93% felt the same way about the safely of their intended destination.
- 38% of Singaporeans fear shark attacks along with Malaysians (35%) and Hong Kongers (53%) being the most afraid among all 24 countries polled.
- Favourite activities are long walks on the beach (62%), watching the sunrise or sunset (45%), watching other holidaymakers at play (46%)
- WiFi still important even on the beach with 68% opting to browse the internet and social media feeds compared to the global average of 48%.
Simon Fiquet, Expedia’s general manager for South-east Asia and India, said it was not surprising that Singapore vacations love beach holidays due to the island republic’s close proximity to some of the best beach destinations in Asia.
“It is also in our culture and DNA to centre our leisure time on our families. These annual results then allows us to design competitive package deals that meet the demands of our customers when it comes to booking flights, hotels and holiday activities.”
