Travel website offexploring.com is offering travel firms the chance to add customers’ online journals and blogs to their websites with its new white-label service.
The facility allows holidaymakers to post diary entries, videos and photographs, keep in touch with friends and family and have their journal printed off as a book when they return.
An application also links users’ travel journals to their Facebook profiles.
The journal aims to build stronger relationships with customers, increase website traffic and engage new audiences.
Offexploring.com commercial director Doug Campbell said: “For most travel agents, once they’ve issued tickets that’s it. This is a way of attracting customers back to the shop and constantly re-engaging with the brand.
“With low-cost airlines, people are travelling more so they can create a chronological account of their travels.
“This creates a long-term relationship with the brand,” he said.
STA Travel, which won a Travolution Award for its blogging platform earlier this year, was the first company to implement the white-label service 18 months ago. Thousands of travellers have their own STA Travel blog and the company has benefited from an increase in site visits and better search engine rankings.
Return visitors to the website are encouraged to use e-mail or text updates that carry corporate branding and special offers.
STA Travel Global webmaster Craig Hepburn said: “We now have a means of engaging with website visitors and the potential to turn them into paying customers.
“We have been able to reduce marketing spend and pay per click advertising because of the success of the blogs.”