Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2007: By EFT Correspondent in LondonAdsente has set up Crossmint, a new company developing cross-media web 2.0 platforms for the business and leisure travel industry focusing on online and mobile information and s

Published: 24 May 2007

Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2007: By EFT Correspondent in London

Adsente has set up Crossmint, a new company developing cross-media web 2.0 platforms for the business and leisure travel industry focusing on online and mobile information and s

The Crossmint web platform is an open, scalable and flexible (mobile) Internet platform enabling companies and institutions, content providers, business users and third party software developers to cost-efficiently integrate, manage, update and distribute online and mobile services (including booking), applications, information and content for destination visitors, Nicolaas Pereboom, CEO, adsente told EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta.

Sharing more information, Pereboom said that the Crossmint Platform is well suited for:

· Airlines, destination management companies, tourist & convention boards, local destination information providers, cruise lines, meeting-, conference- and event (MICE) organizers and other content providers who want to provide rich online and mobile destination content and experiences to destination visitors and upgrade their existing systems to web 2.0 and mobile Internet.

· Brands or companies like local hotels, restaurants, shops, attractions, destination marketing companies, wanting to offer rich, relevant and personalized promotions and advertising to destination visitors and upgrade to online mobile and community marketing and integrating new concepts like QR-/Shotcodes and mobile contact-less payments and city cards (NFC).

Relevant information is offered through online and mobile Internet from pre-trip, during the trip, and including post-trip, offering a total travel experience. Crossmint will focus on online and mobile marketing and distribution concepts. Advertisements can be tailored to the personal profile and location of the end-user, business users can send real-time information about events to the mobiles of their customers, communities can share information related to their interest, and users can access relevant online and mobile guides, content and services when and where they need it, added Pereboom.

adsente has been active in mobile and crossmedia solutions for business and leisure visitors of destinations.

On new trends in usage of mobile phone in the context of travel sector, Pereboom said:

· Mobile is rapidly becoming the as the 7th mass media there are now 2.7B users world-wide (only 900M PCs/PDAs) and mobile will become more important than any of the other media (including fixed Internet); it is becoming the ‘number one gateway into the digital universe’ : for commerce, entertainment, it is your camera, your MP3 player, your navigator, messenger, community portal, you can use it for gaming, gambling, dating, chatting, for news and, o yeah, it is your phone.

· The next trend we are seeing is related to NFC (contactless transactions): your mobile is your business card, debit card, credit card, wallet, airline ticket, boarding card, hotel room key, voucher. Already piloted around the world. I expect this to first break through in airline and hospitality industry around 2009. But it will be huge.

· The next important trend is the opening up of the ‘walled gardens’: MNOs are finally opening up their networks for third party developers and unlimited access to Internet: this will cause high growth of mobile services, ‘3’ in the UK even opend up mobile Internet for Skype!

· Predictable flat-rate charging systems will cause mobile users to start using mobile Internet in mass volumes; until now the main impediment has been the prohibitively high costs of mobile data usage

· Roaming costs are finally coming down: using your mobile will become affordable, offering opportunities for the travel industry to offer mobile services to their target group

· The next trend is that more and more ‘smartphones’ (not PDAs, but Nokia N95s, etc.) are coming into the market (110m+): improved bandwidth, higher speeds, improved display technology, UIs, (the iPhone: will have all other handset manufacturers raise the level especially in the area of user interface and – design and therefore user experience), integration of NFC, GPS, 2d barcodes, etc. in mobiles, high growth of intelligent web-browser software (mobile AJAX), high growth of intelligent non-browser applications (mobile widgets) (ShoZu, WorldMate)

· Finally, we see a trend that mobile is becoming more and more an important factor in Web 2.0 (communities, moblogs, etc.) including the relevant business models: mobile as a new channel, personal, targeted, relevant, context-aware: mobile advertising based models making mobile services cheap or free for end-users.”