Easter egg hunts go digital
The booking window for youth travel has significantly reduced due to the rise of mobile, new research suggests. It’s now thought that 50% of youth travel bookings are made just one to three weeks before travel/stay date – an increase of 14% on previous studies. Other data shows that the length of stay has a direct impact on the booking window – shorter the stay, the shorter the booking window. 28% of respondents (all Youth Travel Accommodation operations) to the survey have mobile applications or a mobile optimised site and these companies reported the highest volume of mobile bookings. In a competitive market, it’s interesting to see the importance of a mobile friendly booking process to capture those all-important ‘impulse’ travel purchases.
The only good part of returning home from a holiday is reliving your experiences. Videos, photos and souvenirs all capture special memories from your trip and help you tell your story for years to come. Marriott Hotels are cashing in on your memories and have recently launched an app where you can create videos of your time spent at any of their 64 hotels worldwide, which can then be shared directly to any of your social media channels. Cur8 is available via the iStore and while critics liken the app to Instagram and other social media apps that have existed for a while, we quite like the customising options which we see as its point of differentiation.
While we Brits have already had our day to celebrate all things ‘mum’, the Yanks and Crazy Canucks across the pond are just beginning to get into the spirit with Mother’s Day fast approaching on May 11th. Marketing agency Mullen Boston made waves recently by crafting a campaign for American Greeting and Card store entitled ‘World’s Toughest Job’ that launched with a fake job listing with stringent requirements including "constant exertion", "increased workload on holidays", "no breaks" and importantly a "degree in medicine, finance and culinary arts" amongst others. The job listing — for Director of Operations — was promoted with paid advertising and received over 2.7 million impressions. Just 24 people applied for the job and were interviewed via webcam. The applicants’ reactions are priceless, especially when all is revealed at the end. The ‘aha!’ moments each of the applicants experience remind us that the job of motherhood is truly challenging.
The classic Easter Egg hunt has gone virtual this year as Tesco has utilised Google Street View to enable players to find digital eggs hidden across the UK. The supermarket’s #FindTheEggs online game offers a chocolaty prize to everyone who unearths three eggs. There are also 40 Golden Eggs hidden within the map which when found will win the lucky hunter a HUDL tablet. Tesco is sharing clues on Twitter to help players find the more elusive big prizes. Let’s get cracking #Egg-cellentPun
On that note we hope you all have a ‘cracking’ bank holiday weekend, and enjoy all the chocolaty goodness that is about to come into your life!
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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