Logo

travel, hotel and booking Information

Home | Directory | Guide | Blog

Carnival Cruise Lines Launches Social Networking Web Application Through New CarnivalConnections.com

Carnival Cruise Lines Launches Social Networking Web Application Through New CarnivalConnections.com Site

Designed and developed by Avenue A | Razorfish, CarnivalConnections.com enables cruise-goers to easily plan and manage their group travel needs in one single setting

SEATTLE Jan. 30, 2006 Avenue A | Razorfish, the largest interactive marketing and technology services firm and an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT), today announced its newest website design and development work for Carnival Cruise Lines, the worlds largest cruise operator. CarnivalConnections.com, a social networking application and the first of its kind site in the cruise industry, enables travellers to easily plan and manage their group travel needs in one single social setting.
Through a clean and clear interactive navigation experience, Avenue A | Razorfish designed the website with the goal of making CarnivalConnections.com a true Internet destination. Both new and experienced cruisers are able to share their Carnival experiences and encourage others to join in on the Fun whether theyre planning a trip or not. Travelers can also use tools such as scheduling, group planning and community and message boards.

Hotel Booking The Internet has proven to be the choice method for many for vacation travel and planning, said Bob Dickinson, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines. The launch of CarnivalConnections.com enables friends and family members to plan their vacations and group getaways online in just one setting taking advantage of the webs unique social networking capabilities.

"We integrated the use of the customer's email client with our group travel planning and booking tools, providing an easy way to network with other group members, " said Stacy. Each group receives a personalized Web page with hotel options, amenities, and destination information. Taking advantage of Microsoft's .net platform and social networking technology group members can discuss which hotels best suit their needs as well as alternate destination options and desired trip activities.

Travel Agency Other site features include the ability for the group coordinator to invite others to consider cruising, get them to vote on which cruise they would like the group to go on, answer poll questions, select a theme for the event, and send messages to all the group members and more. Users also have direct access to current specials from Carnival.com, detailed information on ships, destinations and shore excursions. Lastly, reviews and postings from actual Carnival guests are available.

Groople, the leading online group travel planning and booking site, announces the launch of an exciting travel and social networking tool, offering an integrated solution for the challenges of planning and booking group travel. GroopVine will allow users to create their own personalized trip page to plan, create, share, shop and buy travel with their entire group's input every step of the way. Providing helpful tools from event schedules and suggested itineraries to RSS feeds and online surveys, GroopVine makes group travel planning fun, collaborative and easy.

Cheap Hotel Todays online marketplace is more competitive than ever, and a companys website is a critical component to the success of its business, said Bob Lord, president of Avenue A | Razorfish East. Carnivals focus on the website is unparalleled and that is evident with its forward thinking launch today of CarnivalConnections.com. Were very excited about this effort to bring social networking capabilities to Carnival and their loyal guests.

Groople (www.groople.com), the leader in group travel planning, has partnered with Go10000, a travel focused development and hosting firm, to bring to market a new group collaboration site for the travel space. GroopVine will provide the solution to the complex communication and booking problems group travel planning can create. Enhancing the online travel space by combining the key elements of social networking such as invitations, forums, messaging, photos and video posting, with the best in online travel booking, GroopVine is the only place for group travelers to shop, plan and book together online.

Flight Booking Avenue A | Razorfish and Carnival Cruise Lines have worked together on website initiatives since 2001. In April 2004, the make-over of the popular Carnival.com website was released, offering enhanced site navigation, streaming video, personalized content tailored to each visitor, and more 360-degree virtual tours of the Fun Ship fleet. Most recently (December 2005), Carnival and Avenue A I Razorfish collaborated on a re-fresh of the Carnival.com website, which includes enhanced imagery, more information to help enable the customers decision to plan their cruise vacation and direct connection to their offline branding of A Million Ways to Have Fun.

As the premier online booking resource for the $20+ billion leisure group travel market, Groople provides group rates and inventory, allowing consumers to easily plan, book and manage all group travel needs in a single setting. In addition to more than 60, 000 hotels and six major cruise lines, Groople also offers group bookings for air, car, bus and rail.

Travel Agent About Avenue A/Razorfish
Avenue A | Razorfish (www.avenuea-razorfish.com) is the largest interactive marketing and technology services firm in the U.S., and an operating unit of Seattle-based aQuantive, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT). Avenue A | Razorfish solutions are entrenched in deep technology, rigorous analytics and a rich understanding of customer needs, including award-winning web media & creative, search marketing services, email marketing/eCRM, and world-class creative, design and implementation of customer websites and intranets/extranets. Avenue A | Razorfish operates three regions East, West and Central with offices located in major U.S. markets and headquarters in Seattle. Clients include AstraZeneca, Best Buy, Ford Motor Company, Kraft, Microsoft, Nike and Verizon. aQuantive, Inc. and all of its operating units are committed to Internet privacy.

8mong many firsts for the group market, the new technology platform enables consumers to do something that other sites haven k allowed to book travel and accommodations for more than five rooms in a single online session. Featuring more than 56, 000 hotels, including 7, time group rates, Groople is primed to become the industry largest automated solution for unmanaged group leisure travel, a market estimated at $18 billion to $24 billion. Under its hosted inventory and commission models, Groople generates group bookings niche by niche for hotels and plans to add air, car, cruise, bus and rail later this year.

Hotel Chicago About Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival is the largest and most popular cruise line in the world, with a fleet of 21 Fun Ships operating three- to 16-day voyages to the Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New England, Bermuda and Europe.

Online Booking The line will expand its fleet with the launch of three new SuperLiners the 110,000-ton Carnival Freedom in February 2007 and an as-yet-unnamed 112,000-ton vessel and an as-yet-unnamed 130,000-ton ship the largest Fun Ship ever constructed in spring 2008 and fall 2009, respectively.

Travel Health Insurance Source: Avenue A/Razorfish

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]

Share this:

Add To Slashdot Stumble This Digg This Add To Del.icio.us Add To Reddit Add To Yahoo MyWeb Add To Google Bookmarks Add To Furl Fav This With Technorati Add To Newsvine Add To Bloglines Add To Ask Add To Windows Live

More about:

Nov December 2008 Jan
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31      

travel, hotel and booking Information Blog on Technorati Related Blog of travel, hotel and booking Information on Sphere