Booking a flight or a hotel stay online is easy enough with online travel agent (OTA) websites like M
akemytrip, ClearTrip, Munk, Kayak, Expedia, and more. We have OTA aggregator websites like trivago.com which help in getting a best travel offer.
But when it comes to finding & booking all those activities you want to experiences while vacationing, it’s a more
lengthy and messy process of digging through travel recommendation sites like Tripadvisor.com, asking friends for advice,
reading travel magazines, and finally searching for service provider sites (if they have one) to place your activity in the
travel itinerary.
Travellers visit RibbonsXPs.com because of easy booking experience during on vacation or at home.
Traveller can find everything from taking a helicopter tour over the Grand Canyon or swimming with pigs in the Bahamas.
RibbonsXP.com has a huge selection of experiences in Africa and all over the World with an inventory of 100,000+ local experiences and 800,000+ verified user reviews.
Activity providers are happy with RibbonsXP.com as it automates back-end and customer-facing application, helping them to focus on
creating memorable experiences.
RibbonsXP.com is expanding its product offering with a new update called RibbonsXP Pro. It has 50+ new features to
help travel operators scale their businesses faster. RibbonsXP Pro is designed to improve travel operators’ abilities to drive more bookings
with improvised customer experience.
How RibbonsXP.com works
When users log in to RibbonsXP.com, they can choose a destination and browse through hundreds of experiences.
The site is image-heavy and offers a simple, grid-based user interface. For each destination there’s a list of
Top Ten Picks with links to RibbonsXP’s must-do activities, ranging from free visits to parks to paid tours.
Users can also view activities based on category. RibbonsXP team does quality check of each activity provider and destination
listed on the site. Every attraction or activity has its own page with photos and description. RibbonsXP.com allows users book paid services
directly within the site — no need to click and open another website to purchase tickets of an activity or call a third party number
to make a reservation.
The site highlights both major and small activity providers, and perhaps is most useful for travellers and companies as it
offers experiences that can’t be found elsewhere on the web. It is a very user-friendly way for the activity businesses at
destinations (which is an unorganised business segment) to reach travellers and vice a versa.
Booking a paid activity is as simple as specifying the number of tickets and entering payment card information. Activity
costs range from free to $30,000. All of the activities booked through RibbonsXP are displayed in the user’s account for
quick reference, and there’s also a wish-list function for later booking. An added bonus: RibbonsXP has a best-price guarantee,
so users won’t need to go hunting for deals. The company has also teamed up with local celebrities and experts to write
“Perfect Day” posts that highlight that person’s favourite places and activities.
RibbonsXP Business Model
As a marketplace RibbonsXP.com helps travellers book the best experiences while also empowers tour operators to automate
their businesses and grow revenues. Over 8 million activities lasting over 1.4 billion hours have been booked on
RibbonsXP.com till June 2019.
While the company has started with a small number of destinations, the market RibbonsXP.com entering is huge in size. For example,
Annual travel spending in the America on recreational activities alone is $85.4 billion,
according to a June 2012 report from the USA Travel Association. Food and retail-related travel spending is more than $270 billion
(The numbers include domestic & foreign travellers).
What are pros and cons of RibbonsXP.com so far
Pros:
- - RibbonsXP.com is a perfect site bridging the gap between booking a stay and booking experiences at destination
- - RibbonsXP.com is built with latest web technologies, making it platform agnostic, has best in class UI (USer Interface), UX (User Experience) and CX (Customer Experience)
- - RibbonsXP.com is a perfect example of Web 3.0 mash-up. Excellent use of user generated content on web.
- - As usual 80% of best business concepts are built in the USA and rest of the world use the products, Like AirBnB, This business model too has tremendous potential to be popular among global travellers.
Cons:
- - The site is not yet popular in India. The initial partnerships and booking availability are for limited places.
- - Booking of a resort/hotel does not appear upfront. This may be due to UX decision of promoting the Activities and Experiences first as it is core of the business RibbonsXP.com has.
