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Touristlink.com a social network for travelers announces new features to make booking group travel packages a more social experience. Touristlink members can see who is going on a trip, who has already bought it and who is the trip leader. Users of the site can ask questions directly to the trip leader and get to know the other people going on the trip before making a purchase decision.
David Urmann, the founder of Touristlink, commented that “One of the primary reasons that people hesitate to book group travel is that they are not sure of whom they will be traveling with and they are hesitant to commit to spending a week or more traveling with people they barely know. The new social elements we are adding should help members choose the right trip and the right people to go with.”
Group travel lends itself to social networking and the new social booking features on Touristlink let members connect, share tips and plan activities both before and after the trip. Every group deal on Touristlink is set up to function as a mini-social circle and once it is booked it is saved in the members profile. This means that even if a year passes it is easy to go back and see who travelled with you on a particular trip and reconnect with them.
An excerpt from the websites notes “If you have ever been on a group trip you already know it’s a great place to make friends but if you don’t connect with everybody right after the trip it is easy to lose touch. Touristlink offers a solution by keeping these people in a mini social circle that you can always go back and access.”
Touristlink offers its own deal to members as well as those of partner travel agents and tour guides. Although the offering is limited at the moment the site is set to rapidly expand its selection of group deals as it taps into its large network of guides and travel agents who are already members of Touristlink. The current focus of the management and marketing team is on adventure travel and on targeting deals to customers in emerging markets in southeast Asia where group travel is an effective way to lower travel cost in budget conscious markets.
Currently, Touristlink members can choose from deals in Nepal, Thailand, and Malaysia. The Thailand deal is targeted at the Indian outbound market and the deals in Nepal and Malaysia target the adventure travel segment. Touristlink looks to work directly with local suppliers and tour guides in order to keep costs low for customers and is committed to quality over quantity when it comes to adding deals to the site. Ganesh Chavan, the marketing manager, noted “If we have two or three deals opportunities in a specific country we are going to pick just the single best option and present that to our members.”
Touristlink is a social network where business and organizations can create social profiles and interact with travelers in a value-added environment, rich with relevant up-to-date content and targeted reviews. Touristlink is managed by GotripIndia the developers of visitusa.com and the parent company of hotelkhoj.com.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
