Travel social networking site Where Are You Now is to launch a pre-pay card for its subscribers as part of a plan to move towards offering more exclusive services.
According to co-founder and director Jerome Touze, the company is seeking further ways to make itself stand out and a WAYN-branded pre-pay card where consumers could only spend what they can afford is the first initiative.
“There is a challenge for us as a business and how we differentiate ourselves,” he said.
“We are trying to move towards move lifestyle benefits and the card will have loads of benefits attached to it such as entry into to clubs and discounts.”
The WAYN site was recently enhanced with WAYN flights through a white-label deal with Kayak and an international SMS text messaging service where subscribers can go online and send texts to fellow subscribers.
Touze was among speakers at the Travel Technology Initiative conference on Travel in a Web 2.0 World.
He advised travel agents and other suppliers to link up with existing social networking sites rather than trying to create their own communities.
“Everything is moving so rapidly and with the time it takes to get there it might be easier to partner with an existing company. There are a lot of synergies with what we are doing and travel agents and other travel companies.”
WAYN will release a new version of the site this week with changes to the navigation to create more ‘stickiness.’
By Linda Fox, reporting from the Travel Technology Initiative
