SINGAPORE, 20 June 2019: Like most App launches, WishTrip was started to fulfil a need that its founders identified in response to an emergency.
WishTrip, that focuses on national and city tourism offices and is headquartered in Jerusalem Israel, has that kind of story.
It’s a story about the stress of getting lost in an unfamiliar place, the founder explains on the App’s website.
It started when WishTrip’s founder was hiking with his wife and they got lost. They were looking for a specific point of interest. They tried to find directions on their cell phone’s GPS but failed because traditional GPS technology only works for marked roads.
After considerable stress, they found what they were looking for and it inspired WishTrip founder to ponder; “Why the lack of navigation for travellers?”
Today, WishTrip identifies itself as a tourism experience management platform that gives destinations as well as tourist organizations a channel to promote their attractions, engage tourists and of course help them find where they are going.
WishTrip made its debut last year at ITB Asia when it introduced its services to national tourist and city tourism bureaus at the show.
We fielded questions to learn more about Wish Trips endeavours to the company’s director of marketing Sarah Hein.
Q: Since attending ITB Asia what progress has been made and where do you go from here?
A: Asia is a key market for us because it is more tech-savvy than many other regions. We are currently marketing and attracting customers in Asia. We are planning to continue growing by targeting the early adopters.
Q: Have there been any changes to your strategy or product in since your launch?
A: No major strategy changes. We are still targeting destinations. We have improved the branding visibility for our customers and we have added an instant translation feature so that the app user can translate all content created in our app to their preferred language. This last improvement is very important because it improves the visitor’s experience tremendously so that they feel at home anywhere.
Q: Is the platform just for destination promotions and not other areas such as sightseeing companies?
A: At the moment WishTrip is intended for destinations such as cities, parks, zoos and theme parks. However, we are always developing something new and plan to create solutions for travel agents soon.
WishTrip is all about helping destinations as mentioned above to create better experiences for their visitors. DMCs can benefit but they are not our target audience at the moment.
Q: How do you empower destinations?
A: The majority of travellers today are FITs, free independent tourists. This means that once travellers arrive in a destination, they are seemingly left to their own devices in a place they don’t know.
This can result in overcrowding in tourist hubs, tourists getting lost or are bored. They are not making the most of their trip.
WishTrip empowers destinations to help shape the tourist experience while giving tourists the independence that they crave. It makes everything there is to do in a destination transparent and makes navigating seamless with digital tours and navigation to relevant points of interest.
After the tourist leaves the destination, they have photo albums, videos and geo-tagged maps of their journeys so that they remember and share their trip with their network, encouraging word of mouth marketing.
Q: Can travel consumers book through your channel?
A: Yes. Tourists can make reservations at tourist sites through WishTrip. We help destinations capitalize on traveller spontaneity.
Q: Could you identify the core benefits for a destination subscriber?
A: WishTrip gives customers useful tools that allow them to benefit from higher visitor engagement during and after a trip. It offers the potential to create a community of visitors, provide better security as they access authentic visitor content and also build brand ambassadors.
WishTrip’s customers gain a platform where they can create digital treks (experiences) and communicate with their visitors, but it still allows visitors control of their experience, while the destination can also benefit from visitor analytics and data.
Q: In Southeast Asian which destinations are showing the most interest in your product?
A: We are getting the most interest from Singapore and Korea, which is not surprising given the comfort level with technology and innovation in these two places.
Q: What drives WishTrip’s revenue stream.
A: WishTrip earns revenue from the services we provide to destinations. WishTrip is a SaaS platform (Software as a Service). Destinations pay us to create and host interactive digital brochures for their visitors to use and have a more enjoyable experience. Our packages include navigation, real-time information, push notifications to keep visitors informed about developments in a destination, chat and more. Destinations can offer reservations via our platform, but that is not how we make revenue at this time.”
