COVID reality continues to linger and become more and more destructive to global industry. Tourism has definitely been one of the industries getting the short stick out of this economic crisis, at least activity-wise, or rather lack thereof. However, as we’ve seen in the medical and economical fields, digitization and innovation are helping to lead us to the promised land, and a post-COVID reality. As a result, global tourism has turned to innovation to find new ways to engage the vacation-lusting public, even if they can’t arrive to the various global or local attractions in-person.
Customizable, engaging, and fun
One of the leaders in this process is Israeli startup WishTrip, which provides a SaaS service for tourism management. The company announced the launch of a game builder that will allow destinations to design interactive games for guests, easily, and on a budget. WishTrip’s game builder enables site operators to create mobile games for visitors, providing tourists a more engaging experience, particularly the younger mobile-native generation.
As sites such as parks, tourist attractions, and zoos begin to reopen their doors during the Covid-19 pandemic, the ability to quickly and cheaply create an in-destination game, gives owners a new way to market their destination to visitors and encourage repeat visits at a time when many destinations have to rely more on local tourism.
The game builder will be offered as part of WishTrip’s comprehensive platform, providing site managers a template to quickly, and easily, build their own in-site interactive gaming experience based on the geography and attractions in their site. Destination owners will be able to choose from a variety of questions and challenges within the builder to create the exact game and experience they want. Plus, the WishTrip game builder has no limit on the number of games that can be created. So games can be created in different languages, with different themes for different levels, and more.
The gaming initiative provides both for the young ones in the family and their elders an interactive experience, almost completely customized and tailored to different audiences, depending on the user’s geography. It empowers local attractions and destinations a solution to engaging local crowds, who will be needed to depend on until international travelling becomes less than the current pipedream it seems to be.
On the same platform, WishTrip also offers a Covid-19 safety solution that allows destinations to open without limiting their normal visitor capacity, while also strictly adhering to standard Covid-19 regulations. These solutions include a staff-guest in-app chat to limit staff exposure to guests, tools to monitor guest foot traffic, push notifications to encourage social distancing, and other digital tools to help destinations comply without burdening their current resources.
“Statistics show that nearly 60% of people don’t go more than one hour without using their smartphone in some way.” WishTrip CEO Bezalel Lenzizky says. “While constant phone use can be frustrating, especially for destinations that want visitors to focus on a site’s natural beauty, the power offered from smartphones provides an unparalleled opportunity to create a positive, educational, and interactive experience for guests.”