Smart Destinations Celebrates Its Ten Year Anniversary
Boston, MA (PRWEB) July 30, 2013 -- This month Smart Destinations celebrates its 10-year anniversary of making destination travel memorable and affordable for all types of travelers. Over the last decade, Smart Destinations has helped over 1.8 million travelers to do more for less with its industry-leading multi-attraction passes.
Travel industry veteran Cecilia Dahl teamed up with serial entrepreneurs Kevin McLaughlin, Tyler Brooks, and Ed Kim to transform the attractions industry by giving travelers a whole new way to explore destinations. Smart Destinations’ first product, the Go Boston Card, was launched July 23, 2003, in the company’s hometown of Boston. The discount multi-attraction pass gave customers admission to many popular city attractions, rather than a pre-selected few. In less than two years, Smart Destinations expanded the Go City Cards’ availability to seven additional destination markets across the United States.
Since then, Smart Destinations has provided their customers access to savings, flexibility, and convenience supported by the largest attraction ticketing network of 450 attraction partners in the nation. Its main products—Go City Cards, Explorer Passes, Go Select Passes, and Go Select Packages—are available in nine North American destinations including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Oahu, Orlando, San Diego, and San Francisco.
Building on the groundbreaking mobile technology behind the Go Select Passes and packages, this year Smart Destinations is launching the world’s first mobile multi-attraction pass. Smart Destinations’ patent-pending, multi-venue, mobile-ticketing technology platform enables the delivery of Go City Cards as a single QR code on mobile devices, providing instant access to the largest attraction partner network in the nation. The Virtual Go Card, currently available in Boston, Chicago, New York City, and San Diego, is an all-inclusive attraction pass that is easy to purchase and display on a smartphone or tablet for admission to all the top attractions in the traveler’s desired destination.
“The activities you do and the attractions you visit are what really shape your travel experience and help you create long-lasting memories. While working for a variety of tour operators, I understood the challenges facing travel agents and resellers in accessing activities and managing attraction relationships. I knew there had to be a better way to efficiently distribute destination activities, give attractions more exposure to visitors during the pre-planning process, and help travelers save time and money on their trips,” said Cecilia Dahl, President and co-Founder of Smart Destinations. “Today the business has grown to include a robust ticketing technology platform with a solution for consumers, travel resellers and attractions that is ahead of its time with regard to its flexibility, scope and mobile capabilities. It’s been an exciting evolution.”
Smart Destinations has been widely recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in travel and tourism technology. It ranked 78th in the Inc. 500 list and 1st in Top Travel and Hospitality Companies in 2008. Since then, Smart Destinations has received the Inc. 5000 Honor Roll Award for being ranked for 5 consecutive years. In 2012, the company was chosen as one of Lead411’s “Hottest Companies in Boston,” and was named as a finalist in EyeforTravel’s 2013 Mobile Innovation in Travel Awards for its Go Select Mobile Strategy.
“The Smart Destinations platform is built on a strong base of partnerships. The attractions in our network are a selection of the country’s finest, not only in the delivery of top experiences, but also in their desire to move attractions to the forefront of the travel planning and booking process while keeping up with rapidly changing consumer trends and the need to adopt a mobile ticketing platform. We want to thank all of our attraction partners for sharing our vision and supporting the growth of Smart Destinations,” said Cecilia Dahl. “We have also been really fortunate to have so many happy customers over the years who have shared their experiences, feedback and new ideas with us. A very warm thanks goes out to the over 1.8 million customers who have trusted us to help them plan their activities.”
Smart Destinations recognizes the impact customers and partners have had on the company’s success. Together they continue to drive Smart Destinations to deliver innovative solutions that further enhance their travel and attraction experience.
About Smart Destinations
Smart Destinations helps travelers enjoy more activities in their destinations for less. With its multi-attraction passes, visitors enjoy flexible purchase options, savings of up to 55% off regular admission prices, and the convenience of skipping the line at most popular attractions. Available online and at walk-up retail outlets, Smart Destinations passes, including Go City Cards, Go Explorer and Go Select Passes, provide admission to more than 450 attractions across nine North American destinations, including New York, Orlando, Oahu, San Diego, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Boston. For more information visit: http://www.smartdestinations.com.
Barbara Boczkowska, Smart Destinations, Inc., http://www.smartdestinations.com, 617-960-3815, [email protected]
Share this article