PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: PlanetEye
PlanetEye is a trip planning and visual travel guide which incorporates a number of really interesting features. The site is very visual incorporating large maps and photos on every page. This is a great way to visualize a destination before you visit. When you search for a particular destination, the map interface (powered by Microsoft Visual Earth) combines a variety of points including photos, activities, attractions, lodging, and dining.
The site also utilizes local experts to create travel packs which are pre-built itineraries combining a number of points of interest. The travel packs are a nice way to experience a destination based on the advice of a local guide or expert. This is a great opportunity for local tour and activity suppliers to build initeraries around their destinations and to market their expertise by becoming a local expert.
Example: This travel pack contains the world’s smallest hotels
PlanetEye has also incorporated a number of booking partners including World Choice Travel (part of the Travelocity Group), OpenTable for dining, HostelBookings.com (for small accommodations), Stubhub.com (for event tickets), and Rezgo.com (for tours and activities). By combining geotagged partner product into their mix, PlanetEye is able to offer a much richer planning experience by embedding the booking process directly into the dream and plan stage of the buying life cycle.
Note: The PlanetEye logo is very reminiscent of the National Geographic brand. I don’t know if this is intentional but I think it was a good choice given the brand is associated with high quality photography.
Questions:
1. What is your biggest online marketing challenge?
2. There are a number of planning websites competing for eyeballs, how is PlanetEye different?
Bruce says that this is the first start-up that he has worked with where the technology was not developed by a founder, and this has made the platform more powerful. Partners like DMO/CVBs would be a good match for their technology.
Tim (from BOOT) asked whether PlanetEye’s approach on user interface will hurt them in the long run vs. Uptake’s approach to SEO.