We all miss heading out to a national park for a Saturday hike or taking the kids to the aquarium for some family fun. However, COVID has limited if not shut down the tourist industry along with many of its attractions.
Jerusalem-based tourism management platform WishTrip wants to get the tourism industry up and running again. For this, the Israeli startup looks to offer tourist attractions remote and technological guidance in how to best prepare for reopening and getting visitors through the gates in a safe fashion that abides with social distancing guidelines.
Reopen attractions and for cheap
These solutions allow attraction owners and operators to remotely manage the guest experience during a time where many of these sites have far fewer resources and funds to work with, while in parallel needing to devote resources to be compliant with stricter rules and regulations due to COVID-19. WishTrip also allows sites to protect their staff via social distancing, while still offering excellent customer service, which in turn creates optimal traveler experience.
CEO Betzlel Lenzizky said: "Many of these sites do not have the infrastructure nor the funds to build an in-house guest management platform, but are seeking solutions to make sure they and their visitors are compliant. WishTrip gives these destinations the resources they need to reopen their doors to the public with safety and comfort in mind for both the guests and staff."
WishTrip's solution includes an in-app staff-guest chat that allows visitors to communicate with park staff while minimizing face-to-face contact, a mapping system that allows managers to see exactly how many people are in a site and their location, and a push notification alert system that enables operators to notify guests of overcrowding and direct them through navigable routes to lesser viewed attractions at the site.
WishTrip further provides destinations with in-app messages, instructing visitors with safety guidelines, as well as other critical info. Moreover, the app provides tourists with a complete COVID safety map that locates hand-washing stations, allowing destinations to provide crucial hygiene reminders.
"WishTrip offers tourist attractions and park operators a way to safely reopen their doors and manage guests during the pandemic, with far fewer resources than would otherwise be required," Lenzizky further adds.
Additionally, WishTrip gives every visitor to a customer destination a branded souvenir album that highlights the brand of the site or destination, giving significant positive exposure to tourist attractions via word-of-mouth, and shows the public that their site is safe to visit. The album is delivered directly to the visitors' phone shortly after their visit concludes and is optimized to be shared on social media.
This becomes highly important, as we all know by now that social media rules all. These days it’s pretty standard to get a travel destination idea from one of the many social platforms, although most likely you are to listen to a recommendation from a friend or family member when next deciding where to holiday. Because of this, the branded albums make for a great word-of-mouth marketing campaign, further helping a certain destination or attraction to create buzz and show that the place is set for the new reality of COVID tourism.
WishTrip provides a SaaS-based tourism experience management platform for destinations to be in better contact with their tourists while offering precise COVID-related guidance. The platform, which has 3.5 million downloads globally, is already being used to keep visitors safe in the United States, Brazil, Singapore, Portugal and in Israel of course. The company was founded in 2013 by CEO Bezalel Lezizky and co-CEO Yakov Slushtz.
