ArrivalGuides aims to change the way travellers find and book tickets for entertainment during their trip or holiday. The B2B destination content supplier has announced a close partnership with activity and entertainment ticket platform Tiqets. 
Together their goal is to revolutionise the searching and booking process for not just activities and tours, but also dated events (concerts, sports, exhibitions, festivals, etc.), attractions, restaurants and ground transport.
The new ArrivalTickets B2B platform will be integrated in the ArrivalGuides destination content solution that is supplied to over 260 travel operators and offered as a stand-alone solution to travel operators. The ArrivalTickets platform, powered by Tiqets, aggregates inventory from over 100 suppliers, which allows it to offer more than 500 000 tours and activities, more than 600,000 dated events and over 50,000 restaurants.
“We have been looking for a provider of event information on a global scale since 2007, but never found any supplier with the kind of cover (width and depth), quality and language capabilities that we need for our network,” said Magnus Aideborn, Chief Executive of Arrival Guides. “We were planning to build this platform ourselves, with our connections to the official tourist bureaus, when we came across Tiqets, who has built the exact platform that we were looking for.”
ArrivalGuides and Tiqets will launch a live demo of the service at the ITB in Berlin from 4th – 8th March 2014.
Finding the right in-destination deals and offers is something that can transform a holiday into the perfect experience. Numbers vary, but around 25% of the travel spend is allocated to entertainment and dining. The ArrivalTicket solution allows airlines, OTAs, accommodation booking operators, meta-search, etc. to claim a larger share of the trip spend of their customers. “This is, of course, great for companies that work under already squeezed margins and high costs for attracting new customers, but we see an even larger benefit when it comes to generating customer loyalty and brand building,” said Luuc Elzinga, Chief Executive of Tiqets.
The key is, however, not just to be able to offer the huge inventory at the right time, all through the customer travel cycle, but to offer the right product to the right customer. Tiqets is developing advanced algorithms based on a broad range of sources for customer data to be able to target the right customer with the right deal.
This service will have a huge impact on mobile devices. Today most apps focus on booking flights and accommodation. TripAdvisor research shows that: “9 out of 10 travellers use mobile devices while traveling”, “36% look for restaurants” and “27% look for things to do”. Most apps from the key travel operators offer limited value for the traveller during the trip. The ArrivalGuides white-label smartphone app will include the potential to find and book the full inventory on a mobile device.
Another key feature of the platform is the single checkout that will be introduced. Instead of making purchases with multiple suppliers, ArrivalTicket will let you make the purchases in one place, with one vendor. Apart from just having to make one transaction, travellers will have all their in-destination service bookings in one place with one customer service contact should they want to change anything or have any issues with a reservation.
