TomTom iPhone App Adds Navigate- to- Photo Feature

An update to TomTom's iPhone app will now let you navigate to the location of geo-tagged photos.
With version 1.5 of the app, tap on a geo-tagged photo and TomTom will immediately route you to where the photo was taken. It is available on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iOS 3.0 or higher.
"You no longer need to enter an address to get going. What you see is where you'll go," TomTom said.
The company has also optimized its app for the iPhone 4, adding high-resolution graphics and sharper maps. Menus are more responsive and positioning is more accurate, TomTom said. TomTom also promised updated maps, which it said includes 1 million more U.S. roads than its competitors.
Existing features for the iPhone app also include destination dialing, navigation to contacts, real-time traffic updates, Google-powered search, route sharing, eco-friendly routes, and more.
The app doesn't come cheap, though. It's available now in the App Store for $49.99. That latest version was released in April.
In September, TomTom signed a deal with Localeze, a business-listings identity management company, to provide local business information as points of interest for future TomTom GPS devices.

Virginia Tourism launches iPhone application

The Virginia Tourism Corporation has launched its first, state-wide mobile travel guide - the Virginia is for Lovers iPhone App.

The mobile guide is available for free at the iTunes app store for iPhones and iPads users.

Some of the highlights are as follows:
• More than 12,000 listings including restaurants, hotels, wineries, museums and historical sites across the state.
• A “Near Me” feature which allows users to find all attractions in a 15 mile radius
• Directions and mapping feature for every listing
• Direct access to call for reservations via phone or website
• Customer reviews for restaurants and lodging properties

“Technology plays an important role in tourism marketing and new developments like these are key to keeping visitors traveling throughout our state,” said Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling. “Virginia’ s new iPhone app will help Virginia stay top of mind and connect with travelers who increasingly use technology while planning and taking vacations.”
Tourism generates $19.2 billion in revenue for Virginia, supports 210,000 jobs and provides $1.28 billion in state and local taxes for communities.

Virgin Hotels brand unveiled

The Virgin Group has formed a partnership to spend as much as US$500 million on high-end hotels over the next three years.
Virgin Hotels will be a four-star chain that targets `high income, well-educated, metropolitan “creative class” customers’, according to a brochure on its website.
As per the information available, the hotels will be midsize — 150 to 400 rooms.
“We polled a group of recent travelers and something like 70 percent said they would stay in a Virgin hotel,” reportedly said Anthony Marino, the executive director of Virgin Hotels. “We felt like we could make an impact.”
Though the hotels aren’t likely to open before six months to a year, Marino, according to nytimes.com, said, possible choices for first-phase locations include what he called “gateway cities”: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Washington D.C.
The company said it would consider partial ownership stakes in properties, or operating solely as a third party manager in addition to acquiring hotels outright.

Letting travelers to search for a hotel together with their Facebook friends

A new Facebook app 'Hotels WithMe', an offering that has been specially adapted for the “social-media generation”, has been launched in the UK.
Launched by Columbus Internet, a specialist in collaborative online applications, and online travel company Hotels.com, the application enables travelers to search for a hotel together with one or more of their Facebook friends. At the time of the launch, it was highlighted that until now there was no way to enable the choosing of the right hotel a collaborative process unless everyone was sitting in front of the same computer. But this offering overcomes such hurdle.
The chosen friends are invited to join a 'trip', from where they can search for hotels together. All members of the 'trip' can view the hotel searches in real time while additional functionality of the app also allows 'trip' members to vote for the hotels they prefer and write notes about them before adding them to a shortlist of proposals.
Once the proposals list is narrowed down it automatically updates in real time, so if a room-type becomes unavailable or the price changes, this is shown in the list immediately. Once all members of the 'trip' are agreed on the hotel, a quick click on the "book" button links straight through to the Hotels.com booking page.
'Hotels WithMe' includes the full range of Hotels.com's property offering.

Starbucks and L'Oreal Test Location-Based SMS Coupons in UK

UK network provider O2 has partnered with location services platform Placecast to enable brands to automatically deliver targeted SMS and MMS to more than 1 million opted-in O2 customers based on their exact whereabouts.
O2 Media, the mobile marketing arm of O2, has signed on Starbucks and L’Oreal as the first two brands to test the location-based messaging service in the UK for a six-month trial period. The O2/Placecast partnership lets Starbucks and L’Oreal fence off geographic zones and push SMS discounts to O2 customers who enter those areas.
Starbucks is offering O2 customers 50% off discounts — delivered via SMS and redeemable at nearby stores — on its Starbucks VIA Ready Brew product. The discount will be delivered to individuals who have expressed an interest in food and beverage. As for L’Oreal, the makeup brand will dole out a buy-one-get-one-free discount on a hair care product to customers interested in beauty.
The partnership between Placecast and O2 is a first of its kind in the UK and one that we find quite interesting. The combination of geo-fencing technology and carrier distribution is a potentially huge, and device-independent, way to deliver mobile marketing messages to the consumers who want them.

Artisit brings undersea world to life with surreal reef project

Lots of people have created artificial reefs, using old ships and various debris. But nobody turns them into masterful creations the way artist Jason deCaires Taylor does with his life-sized and almost life-like cement sculptures.
His latest project is the development of an underwater museum within the National Marine Park off Cancun and Isla Mujeres. The final and most ambitious of four stages, nearing completion, is called "The Silent Evolution." DeCaires Taylor, a Brit, has crafted 400 statues -- each of them depicting a local villager -- and has already positioned more than 250 of them on the sea floor.
The artist posted a YouTube video of "The Silent Evolution", revealing a surreal seascape in which he captured with vivid reality the moods and expressions of men, women and children, whose immortality will be obscured, over time, by algae, coral and the many fish and marine creatures that will make this new home.

The environmentally-friendly reef, constructed with the cooperation of marine park officials and
the Cancun Nautical Association, will become popular among scuba divers and, as a new attraction, it should relieve some pressure from the area's more fragile natural reefs.

SeatGuru

In October 2001, frequent flyer Matthew Daimler launched SeatGuru.com with a single color-coded interactive airplane seating chart. Having experienced firsthand the vast differences between airline seats, he was determined to collect this useful information and share it with other travelers. Over ten million visitors later, SeatGuru has enjoyed incredible success and has expanded to include more than 700 airplane seat maps from nearly 100 different airlines.

In 2007, SeatGuru was purchased by TripAdvisor.com. Sharing the common goal of finding the truth from real travelers, SeatGuru and TripAdvisor work together to bring you the most up-to-date information about travel

Study Abroad likely to increase college drinking

A new study has found that students who go abroad while in college are likely to increase or even double their alcohol intake while they're away.
The study by researchers at the University of Washington found that drinking increased most dramatically in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Students reported drinking more when they perceived their fellow travelers were drinking more heavily. And those who planned to make drinking part of their cultural immersion did so.
UW graduate student Eric Pedersen says his research did not pinpoint why students drink more while they study abroad, and the results don't necessarily indicate binge drinking. Pedersen says a drink or so each night with dinner could add up to the 10 drinks a week European visitors reported on average.

ezRez to power Emirates' hotel and car hire offerings for online bookings

Emirates Airline is gearing up to offer its passengers an option to add hotel rooms, car rentals and destination activities to their flights when booking online at www.emirates.com. Travelers will also be able to use the website to book standalone hotel rooms and car rentals.
The entire itinerary, whether booked individually or in a shopping cart with Emirates flights, will be available through the “Manage a Booking” tab on the airline’s homepage.
The airline has signed a multi-year partnership with ezRez Software. EzRez will be the exclusive technology provider for hotel rooms, car rentals and destination activities available through the airline's website, www.emirates.com.
In addition to using ezRez’ s configurable online tools, Emirates is making extensive use of the ezRez API to access inventory.
The online hotel and car hire functionality is scheduled to launch in Q1 2011.

Airlines use Twitter and other social tools to revolutionize customer service

Airlines are setting themselves apart through their use of social media tools.

Airlines have become leaders in adopting social media strategies. They’re using tools like Twitter to simplify customer contact and response by proactively monitoring and responding to online chatter. For flyers who have lost luggage or missed a flight, the immediacy of social media-based feedback could render toll-free numbers and website feedback forms – the customer service equivalent of a brick wall – obsolete.
In an industry where every airline essentially sells the same commoditized service, airlines that use social media to turn disappointed customers into happy ones, or to simply enhance the travel experience, are already setting themselves apart and building loyalty.
“There are a couple of interesting things about social media,” says Joe Fernandez, CEO of Klout, an industry analytics provider. “It allows for really quick, direct interaction. But it also strikes fear in the hearts of these airlines in terms of how they treat people because these bad experiences can be amplified so quickly.”
“There’s huge value in instant feedback,” says Hounslow, “but it goes the other way, too. If somebody has an experience that doesn’t live up to expectations, these tools give us a chance to find solutions to the problem. It doesn’t take months to figure it out; it happens almost immediately.”
There can be a dark side, though. Social media-based customer service initiatives can backfire if the organizational culture doesn’t support them.