• ZYTLYN and Holibob both believe AI will play an essential role in helping destinations in the Middle East and around the world maximize visitation and revenue generation by transforming digital marketing and enabling personalized ecommerce.
• Together, their platforms enable predictive and personalized marketing, and merchandising of experiences to lower cost of acquisition, drive revenue and customer loyalty for travel brands and destinations.
• “AI enables travel brands & destinations to transform marketing economics, getting the right products in front of the right people at the right time - doubling conversion rates as we already see with early adopters.” says ZYTLYN CEO. 

  Innovative travel technology providers ZYTLYN and Holibob have developed a strategic partnership to explore how their combined AI-driven platforms can enable travel brands and destinations to transform marketing with AI steered targeting, merchandising, and sale of tours and attractions alongside other travel products.   On the destinations side this will in particular focus on countries currently working to establish themselves as leading tourism destinations, for example those in the Middle East and North Africa.   At the heart of the prospective offering are Switzerland-based ZYTLYN’s  AI Predictive Travel Platform and UK-based Holibob’s Experiences Marketing Platform, which taken together can provide a turnkey, AI-driven marketing solution and personalized marketplace of accommodation and in-destination travel activities that both destinations and travel brands can use to efficiently drive engagement and revenue.   Houman Goudarzi, CEO of ZYTLYN says: “We both feel that travel brands, DMOs, and operators face a humongous untapped opportunity to grow market share and revenue while enhancing the travel experience by using AI for customer acquisition, recommendations, personalisation and smart pricing – particularly many Middle East destinations with big growth ambitions.’   ZYTLYN’s unique predictive technology provides critical insights and recommendations about traveler desires and propensities, the market, and competitive dynamics based on billions of travel, tourism, and external data points. All of these flow through its AI platform to drive pre-trip intelligence, which fits perfectly with Holibob’s Experience Marketing Platform, which delivers a personalized experiences – via messaging and dynamically generated, third-party branded marketplaces – for in-destination travellers.   Holibob CEO Craig Everett adds: “Activities and experiences are often the primary reason people travel, making them an ideal vehicle for conversion-focused marketing campaigns designed to increase visitation with a strong ROI. This could be particularly important to Middle East destinations looking to establish themselves still, for example. Combining that with our unique skills in delivering custom recommendations for travellers once they’ve decided where to go, and you have a full suite of AI-driven marketing and merchandising tools that can help travel brands and destinations increase revenue efficiently and effectively.”   The companies believe the combined value of their opportunities will unlock new revenue opportunities and greater efficiency in customer acquisition for travel brands and DMOs by allowing them to:  

• Measure ROI and actual impact from start to finish across the whole traveller journey
• Run AI-steered marketing campaigns built to double ROI while enabling a variety of marketing strategies.
• Establish an integrated marketplace of in-destination tourism products, connecting incumbent supply and local undigitised players, to profit from AI-steered marketing campaigns
• Enable AI-powered recommendations, personalization, and smart dynamic pricing on the experiences marketplace to capture an increased share of in-destination spend..
• Drive additional in-destination revenue, uplifting the local tourism ecosystem and powering future marketing efforts

 

• B2B2C provider of tours and experiences technology for travel brands and destinations recognized at awards organized by UK’s Business Leader magazine.
• News follows Holibob recently announcing first institutional investment from Guinness Ventures.

  Last week innovative tours & activities technology company Holibob continued its upward success when it won ‘Scale-up of the Year’ at the coveted Go:tech awards organized by the UK’s respected online magazine Business Leader.   The well-known awards – chosen in close collaboration with business incubators, universities and technology associations – celebrate the UK’s tech pioneers and innovators with finalists decided through a judging panel including HSBC’s head of technology sector Roland Emmans and other senior industry figures.   Holibob – whose innovative tours & experiences tech makes it easy for travel brands and tourism boards to sell experiences online – were chosen over seven other finalists who were announced in April.   This is the third major award win in the last year for the company, following founders Craig and Angus receiving a ‘30 under 30’ award from Forbes for the retail & ecommerce space and Holibob featuring at number 11 in the Sifted 100 UK & Ireland list of the fastest growing tech start-ups.   Craig Everett, CEO of Holibob comments: “We’re all over the moon to see our hard work and innovation recognized by being chosen as the Go:tech Scale-up of the Year. I’d like to thank our team, our investors, and not least our partners around the world for making this happen. Watch this space as we make more exciting announcements this year.”   The award follows Holibob recently receiving the addition of funding to its previously announced Series A raise. Led by Guinness Ventures, the funding marked the first institutional capital raised by Holibob.   Already the new funds are being used to further develop the solutions Holibob delivers to make it easy for destinations and travel brands to sell experiences online – including Holibob’s Experiences Marketing Platform, which aims to deliver hyper-relevant experience recommendations to in-destination travellers.   This represents a significant opportunity, according to Everett: “Experiences continue to lag other sectors of travel in the number of bookings that happen online, and the fact that people tend to book in the days – or even day – before enjoying an activity is a core reason for that. By enabling brands and destinations to put the right product in front of the right traveller at the right time, we can drive more online bookings of experiences and more revenue for travel businesses who are otherwise locked out of these last-minute purchases.” 

 

• B2B2C provider of tours & experiences booking technology Holibob to power entry into selling experiences for Travelwings – a leading OTA focused on the Middle East and North Africa.
• “We’re going to help Travelwings drive ancillary revenue from their existing audience, by reaching the right customer, with the right product, at the right time and place,” explains CEO Craig Everett. 
• News comes ahead of the Holibob team attending and speaking at ATM Dubai.

  Holibob, the B2B2C provider of tours & experiences technology to online travel sellers and tourism boards, has today confirmed a partnership with Travelwings, the Dubai-based bespoke online tourism brand that excels in delivering unique travel experiences.   Through this partnership Travelwings – which was founded 25 years ago and has since sold travel to over 1 million customers in the Middle East, African subcontinent and beyond – will for the first time begin to sell tours & activities experiences using the Holibob Experiences Marketing Platform.   Holibob's technology will seamlessly integrate experiences into Travelwings' existing offerings of flights and hotels, enhancing the user experience. With Travelwings boasting offices worldwide and a team of approximately 100 staff members, this partnership ensures personalized recommendations are delivered at crucial touchpoints in a travellers journey, especially when travelers are in-destination, enriching their travel experience.   Craig Everett, CEO of Holibob comments: “I am super excited to build on our existing technology-focused relationships in the Middle East by now working with one of the Middle East’s leading consumer travel brands. We look forward to helping Travelwings drive ancillary revenue from their existing audience, by reaching the right customer, with the right product, at the right time and place. And watch this space for more news soon as we help destinations and brands across the Middle East develop next-generation infrastructure for their burgeoning tourism businesses.”   Albert Fernando, CEO of Travelwings, adds: “As in-destination tours & activities experiences become the driving force behind trips for more and more travellers we felt we owed it to our customers to integrate experiences into the booking journey. Holibob has the most innovative technology and incomparable knowledge of how to seamlessly add these important ancillaries into the booking flow. We are very excited by this new phase for our business.”