StreamThru now includes multiple travel guides for multiple destinations

As an all-in-one mobile travel application, StreamThru has always stood apart by providing you with the most relevant information for the current stage of your trip. Now we’ve taken this a stage further, for multi-destination trips, by providing you with a travel guide, events guide and weather forecast for each destination in your itinerary.

When you’re on the road, StreamThru will show you the relevant guides for your current destination … but at any time, if you want to plan ahead … maybe searching for a restaurant in your next destination … StreamThru lets you view the guide for any destination in your itinerary.

See this unique new feature for yourself in this short video clip (running time: 3mins 45 secs)

How to add multi-leg flights to StreamThru

Whether your itinerary comprises 1 flight or 10 or more, StreamThru keeps you informed and helps you stay one step ahead when you're on the move.

In cases where you're not flying direct to your destination, you'll have one or more stopovers, and to set-up this type of trip in StreamThru, you need to tell us about each of your connecting flights.

It's easy to add connecting flights in StreamThru and in this short video (running time 4mins) we show you how:

Mobile is key to unlocking untapped ancillary revenue

I was delighted to read the findings of the Amadeus-Forrester report: "Ancillary revenue vital to travel retailers" as reported by Kevin May on Tnooz.

The report suggests that ancillary sales will grow by 30% over the next 5 years, against a wider industry growth rate of just 3% - so, ancillaries represent an "untapped opportunity".

However, Director of the travel services business group at Amadeus, Marcos Isaac, says that to realise these new revenue streams, sellers will need to use tools and technologies that reach customers beyond the initial point of sale, and up-selling via mobile phones, before and during the trip will become increasingly important.

This topic has been a common theme of this blog for the past 3 years (e.g. here, here, here, here, and here), I've been harping on about using mobile to extend the ancillary sales window, and sharing examples of successes we achieved promoting travel ancillaries via mobile, for as long as I can remember, although it's often felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall.

So, I applaud the Amadeus-Forrester research, and for those travel companies seeking success with mobile, I'd recommend bearing these points in mind:

• Retain control of the mobile customer relationship


• Lead with service, follow with revenue

Retain control of the mobile customer relationship

Airlines, travel agents, and tour operators have a huge advantage when it comes to providing a mobile experience for travellers. I wrote that back in 2008, and it remains true today. Visibility of the customer's itinerary is key to delivering a meaningful mobile experience. Any targeted content you want to deliver by mobile, be it flight status updates, travel guides, weather forecasts, road traffic conditions, whatever - it all relies on knowledge of the itinerary.

Use this knowledge of the itinerary well, and you'll create a mobile dialogue that is relevant, and that your customers will keep coming back to - creating the new mobile touch points that you need.

Yes, the itinerary is precious, potentially invaluable, information and you should treat is as such.

So, why do some travel companies give this data away, effectively disintermediating themselves from engaging in a mobile dialogue with the traveller (e.g. think BCD Travel or Virgin America giving their itinerary data to TripIt)? This seems so short-sighted and, to me, demonstrates a lack of understanding of the power of the mobile channel within the travel industry.

So, I encourage you to recognise the value of the itinerary and use this as the basis of your mobile interactions.

Lead with service, follow with revenue

Solely using the mobile channel to send out offers for upgrades and additional products just doesn't cut it, your customers will soon lose interest.

The best mobile strategy is to provide customers with a service that they value, a service that keeps them coming back time and again ... and then interweave ancillary promotions into each of these interactions. And, the best promotions are done subtly, its more about helping the customer (e.g. let them browse and learn about a small number of relevant tours for their destination, let them add the tours to their itinerary, and then give them the option to book via call center).

We've just implemented something similar for airport parking in the UK with our partner Airport Parking and Hotels (APH). We use the itinerary knowledge (departure date, departure airport, return date) to show available airport parking options for the customer's trip and then allow them to book. We display the offer from the time they add their trip with us until the day before departure (because, on departure day, there are more relevant promotions to use). We're running the parking promotion within Vodafone Travel and our own StreamThru application for trips from UK airports, and early signs have been very encouraging.

Over the past few years running mobile travel services, we've seen time and again that travellers want access to and value relevant content, they don't want to waste time searching for this content, nor do they want to download lots and lots of apps to get at this content. So, I believe if you do a good job providing a mobile experience that delivers value to your customers, you will create the new ancillary revenue touch-points that enable you to realise Amadeus-Forrester's "untapped opportunity".

Introducing the StreamThru Airport Network

We launched the StreamThru Airport Network earlier this week, with Bristol Airport as our launch partner.

The StreamThru Airport Network enables a group of like-minded airports to come together and share a class-leading mobile app, to enable them to reach more customers and create new revenue touch-points ... while, still retaining control over their brand and content.

We already have a number of other airports lined-up ready to join the StreamThru Airport Network in the next few weeks and months.

If your airport is interested in joining, watch this video to see how StreamThru can create new revenue touchpoints for you, to see how easy it is to set-up and manage your airport guide, how easy it is to set-up and manage your brand identity, and to see how StreamThru can help you communicate with groups of passengers during periods of disruption.

Travel must keep the social dialogue relevant

Social media undoubtedly has a role to play during trip planning (think TripAdvisor) - although a recent survey of UK travellers suggested only a third has consulted some form of social media prior to booking.

But, how can social media help us when we're travelling?

To date, the approach being adopted by a number of travel applications is to use social media for "location-blasting":

• "John is planning a trip to Portland, Oregon".


• "Mary has just arrived in Singapore".


• "Clare is returning from a trip to Barcelona, Spain".


• "Friend's flight status just got emailed automatically; he's flying over Spain!"

For most of John's, Mary's and Clare's friends this barrage of location updates is irrelevant. If I'm not going to be in the same place as John, Mary, or Clare at the same time, do I really care?

Kayak rightfully poked fun at "Instant friend alerts" in it's playful KPHONE spoof announcement: "alerts you to which of your friends just came back from a great run and what they had for lunch. Instantly. Automatically. Relentlessly."

And, on the flip-side, are John, Mary and Clare really comfortable sharing every detail of their travel itinerary with their social-media friends? Writing on GigaOM, Mathew Ingram suggests: "The biggest issue for many users, including some friends I have spoken with, is that sharing one's physical location breaches a personal privacy barrier that many people are uncomfortable with, even if it is only being broadcast to one's friends".

So, perhaps the only people benefiting from location-blasting are the travel app providers - who use each update as a form of viral marketing. But, if the message is annoying, will it really help them grow their user base?

That's why we've taken a different approach with social media integration in StreamThru.

We've just launched Facebook integration, initially within our StreamThru Nokia App available on Ovi Store. The idea is when you have a travel question, you can post it to your Facebook friends. By storing your friends' comments in one place (StreamThru) free from the clutter of non-travel posts, you can access your friends' advice quickly at anytime (even when you're offline).

We think this type of social-media integration both leaves you in control and fits well with StreamThru's raison d'être which is to save you time by giving you rapid access to relevant information when you're travelling.

Demo of the StreamThru iPhone app

Watch this 8 minute video to see how StreamThru can help air travellers to save time and stay one step ahead both on departure day and at destination.



You can download the StreamThru app from iTunes.

Introducing Vodafone Travel - powered by StreamThru

Late in August, Vodafone launched their first travel application - Vodafone Travel, which we're delighted to say is powered by StreamThru.

The app is available for Vodafone UK customers with a compatible mobile phone, and the first 25,000 customers to download Vodafone Travel from the Vodafone 360 or Apple iTunes App Stores will get the app for free.

The app includes flight information, an airport guide, travel updates, weather forecasts, an events guide, a currency converter and information on using your Vodafone abroad.

As part of the launch, Vodafone has produced a handy video which takes you on a tour of the Vodafone Travel application.