Trip Search

Booking.com Meets Travel Channel

WHAT IS TRIPSEARCH.TV? The Travel Channel meets Booking.com: travel Video on Demand (VoD) with easy booking on TV, mobile, tablet or PC (second screen) supported by a hyper-intelligent recommendation engine and a community, including moderated, User-Generated Content (UGC)’. It's a social engagement Video on Demand (VoD) “TV everywhere” channel with a booking engine for the travel sector. It will offer second-screen social tv (in tandem with a smart tv application and iptv channels) with intelligent recommendations as well as a standalone web and mobile/tablet travel video experience for finding great vacations and booking them. Monetisation will be gleaned via various models including revenue share, affiliations, pre-roll and mid-roll interstitial advertising and existing advertising networks - text, banner and video. The system is designed from the ground up to offer a high-quality, highly engaging experience which is satisfying to the user and profitable to Tripsearch and its commercial partners. PROBLEM: Families hover around desktops and laptops when deciding their vacations. They should be leaning back in their living rooms with HD destination video on demand and be able to control and book their trips via a second-screen device and even on the big screen. Finding intelligent recommendations is also problematic and booking travel experiences are usually too painful. SOLUTION: The Travel Channel meets Booking.com: a travel Video on Demand distribution system with a sophisticated and user-friendly booking engine, supported by brilliant search and intelligent recommendations. Tripsearch.tv will revolutionise how travel booking is done, with smarter search and better recommendations using advanced algorithms and an expansive metadata system (which includes temporal metadata for video) along with full social media metadata integration (social graph). It will create enormous value in terms of revenue share with tour operators and other travel industry partners. And include a moderated community of User Generated Content (UGC) for destinations who will not only find our product and services applicable for finding and booking their vacation, but also a key tool while they are on the vacation itself. THE FACTS: According to recent reports, just last year travel booking volume on mobile devices in the U.S doubled. In the USA, and the UK, buying products advertised on a second screen has become a very popular activity. Twenty percent of second-screen audiences on tablets and thirteen percent on smartphones reported doing so, according to Nielsen. In the first quarter of 2013, 46% of U.S. smartphone owners and 40% of tablet owners said they used their devices while watching TV on a daily basis. Nine months earlier, only 39% of smartphone owners had reported doing so. But are these mobile activities actually related to what's on TV? Yes, many of them are. Fifty-three percent of consumers with tablets or smartphones have engaged in mobile-based activity related to what they're watching on TV, according to an early 2013 NPD survey. Lovefilm, Amazon and Netflix are changing consumer behaviour significantly when it comes to Video on Demand (VoD) consumption via Internet Protocol (IP) sources. It’s a new route to consumers. It’s active (rather than passive), bi-directional, interactive, social, and compelling. It’s the future. And travel is very much under-represented in this emerging space. WHICH LEADS TO: A new market opportunity. Let’s create a scenario where consumers can pull HD travel VoD on various destinations which they want to watch, or a travel genre they like, in the comfort of their living room and present an easy solution to book their holidays in the places they find. We believe this can work for both considered purchases and impulse buys (“let’s see what we can find about Belize” as well as “I want to go diving next month, let’s check it out.”) “I request video-on-demand then see the azure seas and ivory sands of Barbados on the big screen in my living room… in moving pictures. I want to be there. Now. I can book. Now.”