Stride Travel Launches Largest Reviews Site for Guided Tours, River Cruises & Adventure Trips
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 23, 2016 -- Today, Stride Travel announced the public launch of its marketplace and reviews site for guided tours and organized travel. Stride is the first website to enable users to search and read reviews for all 'pre-planned' trips. This includes traditional group tours, private guided trips, safaris, independent adventure packages and small ship cruises. It is currently the most comprehensive meta search marketplace for all types of pre-planned active vacations, offering the most extensive selection of tour operators and small ship cruise lines.
The company recently closed a Seed investment round, led by TDG Ventures and including travel industry veterans Adam Goldstein, Co-founder/CEO of Hipmunk, John Owen, Co-founder of JetBlue Airways, Baris Gultekin, Co-founder of Google Now, and others.
Hundreds of tour companies, thousands of guided trips & river cruises:
Focusing on the rapidly expanding guided tour, adventure travel and river cruise markets, Stride provides leisure travelers with an easy ‘one-stop shop’ resource for choosing the perfect pre-planned trip. Travelers can search and compare thousands of group tour and organized vacation options from over 400 global travel companies. They can also read credible reviews from a community of travelers and experts, compare itineraries, and book directly with a preferred travel supplier. Consumers have access to trips from global brands such as Intrepid Travel, Explore, G Adventures, Rothschild Safaris, and many more.
Choose your path, wisely: Enabling travelers to pick their perfect guided trip with real reviews:
Gavin Delany, Stride’s Co-founder & CEO says: “I’m an avid world traveler, as is my Co-founder Jared Alster, so we recognized the need for an independent third party website that enables travelers to easily read and write reviews for multi-day tour experiences. Surprisingly, the major travel review websites do not have a category for multi-day tours and companies. There are many frustrated travelers and tour operators who want a site to provide this service and Stride is filling the void. Our goal is to help travelers find and compare the many great pre-planned travel experiences that exist around the world so they can pick their perfect trip with confidence.”
Stride builds on shifting leisure travel preferences to help travelers and tour operators connect:
People are busier than ever before, yet hungrier for value and information when it comes to booking leisure travel. There is also an increase in international leisure, ‘experiential’ and adventure travel. That’s why group tours and organized travel grew by over 10% in 2014, faster than other travel categories, according to the Visa Global Travel study. People get more travel experience for their dollar when taking a professionally organized trip and they spend much less time planning the tedious logistical details. Recent studies have also shown that even for older travelers (50+), over 85% start their travel research online. According to Google’s Travel Research report, 84% of vacation package bookers have no brand preference or awareness when they start to research a trip. Plus, 64% want to read reviews online before making a purchase decision. Yet, while they want reviews from a third party, roughly two-thirds of travelers think they get both a better price and better service when they book directly with the supplier (MDG Digital Trend Report). Stride’s meta search reviews model for multi-day tours capitalizes on the intersection of these trends - helping both travelers and travel companies.
Striding into 2016 with additional resources:
Stride is using the recently raised financing to expand the team, add more tour operators and trips to the site, and improve travelers’ ability to find their perfect pre-planned trip.
ENDS
About Stride Travel
Stride enables travelers of all stripes to explore the world with confidence. It is the first reviews marketplace for all experiential pre-planned trips - multi day guided tours, adventure travel packages, and small ship and river cruises. Stride offers the most comprehensive variety of trips on every continent from over 400 leading and local tour operators. Users can pick their perfect guided trip with simplicity and confidence via trustworthy reviews and modern search and comparison tools. Stride is based in San Francisco with staff and Destination Experts around the globe.
Jared Alster, Stride Travel, http://www.stridetravel.com, +1 (303) 905-8871, [email protected]
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