If you have a promotional code 1.1. What is Touristopia?
2. How does Touristopia work?
2.1. The common profile system
2.2. About Intouresting
3. Signing up
3.1. The process: for writers & journalists
4. Prices
4.1. Subscription prices for companies
4.2. Subscription prices for writers & journalists
4.3. Advertising prices
5. Resources
5.2. What is “view Intouresting”?
5.3. What is “search”?
1. About Touristopia
Touristopia is an interactive travel website created to improve communication between companies and the media. Companies and travel destinations need the media to promote their products and services. On the other hand, the media needs ideas and topics to write about. Touristopia's travel bulletin board is the perfect meeting place.
Too much information is called information overload, noise or just spam. To make sure that each user receives only relevant information, Touristopia has created an in-house system of common profiles that eliminates the need for mass-mailings, converting words into efficient and effective communication.
You are a company looking for a journalist to promote your company or vice versa. Think of Touristopia as a perfect online dating service where you are able to meet that very special user who has demonstrated having certain things in common with you.
Touristopia offers its services in English and Spanish.
Touristopia's users are based everywhere where there is an internet connection, but here is a list of some of the countries included in our database: US, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, France, Australia, Spain and Portugal.
1.3. Benefits of using Touristopia
For the Media:
Touristopia enables journalists to work proactively and contact companies and other journalists in an efficient and effective way (see common profile system). Articles and programs should revolve around interesting ideas, not what the corporate world can pay for. Touristopia believes that by empowering the media to work proactively from a concept or a lead idea that is worthwhile writing about there will be a natural selection of and a shift towards quality articles and programs.
If you are a media professional, Touristopia offers you the possibility of:
- Contacting other writers, editors and media companies from around the world.
- Participating in press trips organized by companies subscribed to Touristopia.
- Receiving invitations to press conferences, presentations and events.
- Sending requests for information and services.
- Receiving the bulletin board Intouristing.
- Accessing a list of media professionals that have the same common profile.
- Searching for information on companies from around the world with the possibility of segmenting the search according a set of specified criteria.
- Participating in contests offered by Touristopia.
For companies and associations:
Touristopia is the perfect means by which companies and associations can reach media professionals from around the world through a few simple keystrokes. If you want to promote your company in the press, Touristopia has the contacts and technology to ensure that your news is sent to the right people in a cost effective way.
In the Trade section, Touristopia facilitates communication between companies. Very often, companies are searching for partners with whom they can create travel packages or cross sell their services in order to benefit from synergies. Creating new business relations has thus become a possibility for all companies, even for those who normally would not have the resources to find partners beyond the local country borders.
Some of the benefits for companies include:
- Contact with editors and publishers that specialize in the travel industry and related services.
- Access to media professionals (including freelance writers) whose backgrounds have been screened to ensure adequate and proper results.
- Link to other companies that can be used as partners for new joint packages and combined service offerings.
- Post press releases to thousands of media professionals, companies and associations.
- Send and receive requests for information to and from the media.
- Create a personal website where all news releases, announcements, offers and requests are posted.
- Promote the company through the bulletin board Intouristing with its thousands of subscribers.
- Increase the branding of the company by placing banners in Touristopia's website.
- Design tailor-made marketing and public relations campaigns and English and/or Spanish.
2. How does Touristopia work?
2.1. The common profile system
When you sign up with Touristopia the information you provide us is stored to create your personal profile. This profile is then placed in a database where it is compared to that of other user's in order to find those with whom you share something in common. Once this has been done, an automatic list with those users who have indicated that they share some of your traits is stored on your personal homepage.
This process helps you quickly identify other travel professionals and companies who specialize or are interested in the same subjects you are. As a result, your efforts will be efficiently targeted towards those matching users, thus reducing the negative effects of contacting and clogging up the inbox of other people who will not benefit from your line of business.
Touristopia's users interact by posting information on Intouristing, an on-line version of the traditional travel bulletin board. This is the place where you can find invitations to events, put your pictures out for sale, searches for new business partners or any other type of posting where one user is requesting input or feedback from other users.
Intouresting is divided in five sections:
1. Press releases (Ideas for articles) : designed to distribute news about Touristopia's users.
2. Media Section: where users post ads for the media.
3. Trade Section: where ads are directed to companies.
4. From Touriskope's Desk: news, tips and tidbits from and for travel professionals.5. We introduce you to: featuring Touristopia's users such as you.
Intouresting is sent via e-mail every two weeks to all Touristopia users and is also stored on the website for future reference.
3. Signing up
3.1. The process: for writers & journalists
Signing up with Touristopia will take you a little over five minutes. There is an easy six-step process where we ask you to answer a series of questions: who you are, what you do, what countries you normally write about, what topics you cover, your membership in associations, etc. This information is used to create your unique profile and your personal homepage.
Once the information is in the system we review your profile to verify that you meet our qualification standards. When the process is complete we will send you an e-mail notifying you that your subscription to Touristopia has been completed and that you are ready to start using our services.
Touristopia does not ask ANY questions regarding sensitive personal data: ID numbers, credit card numbers, race, etc. Your information is confidential, as indicated in our privacy policy .
Click here to sign up.
3.2. Writers' qualification standards
At Touristopia we want to make sure that all users are professionals – nothing more, nothing less. We do not want any “free riders” – we owe it to our customers and to the rest of the travel media professionals.
When we receive your application we will review your qualifications (references, publications, etc). If we have any questions we may send you an e-mail to get some additional feedback. Please do not take this as a personal offense. Ultimately it is for the benefit of all those who work in this industry.
To help us in this task we have pre-selected a series of travel media associations whose members will get an automatic authorization and will thus become instant members. The associations we have selected are: SATW: Society of American Travel Writers and BTG: British Travel Guild, among others.
If you are a member of another association that you think should be included in this list please send us an e-mail .
3.3. The process: for companies
Touristopia's registration will take you though an easy to follow five-step sign-up process. We will ask you some basic questions: where your company is located, your contact information, your type of business, your target clients and markets, etc.
Touristopia has a common profile approach designed to help you launch effective public relations and marketing campaigns. With all the information gathered during the sign-up process, Touristopia creates your unique user profile whereby you will obtain a list of those media and travel professionals who cover your specific industry or needs.
Click here to sign up.
4. Prices
4.1. Subscription prices for companies
Touristopia charges a 950€ annual fee to its subscribers (does not include taxes). This fee gives you unlimited access to all services offered by our company and gives you access to one of the most important global databases of pre-qualified media professionals.
The annual fee allows you or your company to create one profile (and its corresponding homepage) on Touristopia.
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(*) Prices do not include taxes
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If you want a tailor-made public relations and/or marketing campaign, send us an e-mail and we will get back with a proposal that fits your specific needs.
4.2. Subscription prices for writers & journalists
All Touristopia services come at no charge for writers. However, we make sure “you are who you say you are” and will check your credentials. To help us with this task please include as much information as possible during your registration. Visit our travel writer credentials section to obtain additional information on the procedure.
Touristopia gives you the possibility to promote your company on its website.
Banners : There are 5 banners that are randomly selected and placed on the righthand side of Touristopia website under the Advertisement column. All banners are 120 x 240 or 120 x 600 pixels. If the banner you send us is larger in size, we will re-size it to fit our size.
Send us your banner in GIF, JPG or PNG format and let others “see” your company. Click here to start the process.
Intouristing sponsorship: Touristopia highlights one company in every edition of its travel bulletin board. The sponsoring company will have its name, logo ( JPG or JPEG), brief description, contact information and a link to its own website included at the very top of Intouristing. As a result, all of Touristopia's users will see your company, no matter what remote part of the world they are currently located in.
Click here to have your company's brand image travel to all four corners of the world.
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(*) Prices do not include taxes
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5. Resources
It is a synonym for “posting an ad” on Touristopia's travel bulletin board ( Intouristing ). All the postings are sent out by e-mail and recorded on Touristopia's website for future reference.
Postings are done by users who want to exchange ideas and information with other travel-related professionals.
5.2. What is “view Intouresting”?
The “view” command allows Touristopia users to sort the postings on the travel bulletin board Intouristing. Information can be sorted by date, topic or section.
It is a tool that allows every user to search within the user database, the travel bulletin board (Intouristing) and the entire Touristopia website.
The information you fill out during the sign-up process is used to create your personal web page. This information is then presented in two ways:
Public version: This page is accessed by other users and includes generic information about you and/or your company, as well as a list of your postings on Intouristing.
Private version: This page is for your internal use and is not visible to other users. From this web page you can update your profile, review the list of other users with whom you share a common profile, see a list of other users who have visited your public homepage, etc. Your postings are also visible from this version of the homepage.
It is a function included on your private homepage that allows you to store your own personal list of users that you consider relevant for future exchanges of information.
5.7. What is the “e-mail alerts” option?
This field refers to the timing with which you wish to receive postings by other users. Touristopia will send you an e-mail every time a user who shares a common profile with you posts an ad on the travel bulletin board. However, if you receive a large volume of e-mail or simply do not want a constant flow of e-mails, we provide you with an option to select other delivery periods such as weekly, monthly , or not at all.
