Further good news for travelers who use Facebook. After allowing users to find nearby WiFi hotspots, Facebook has introduced a new feature called Facebook City Guides, which is excellent news for travelers and the tourism industry alike.
City Guides curates recommendations for major international cities and shares reviews and ratings all within your pocket!
What is Facebook City Guides?
When you are visiting a city that is not your hometown or you have never checked into before, this new feature will be able to track where you are geographically and suggest points of interest or events near you. You can also see what friends are attending the same events or which sights they’ve been.
Facebook is able to broaden your scope of recommendations by pulling information and data from your social circle who have already visited that city. Facebook recommends a range of restauraunts, hot spots, and attractions based on places your friends have written reviews for, checked in at, or interacted with.
“This content already exists on Facebook, and during this test we’ll be centralizing it in a way that is more personalized and relevant to you. So, this new feature can help people get a better sense of their city, or a city they’re visiting through their friends’ eyes.” A Facebook representative told TechCrunch
How to Navigate Facebook City Guides
You can find City Guides under the Explore tab where popular features such as Events, Weather, and On This Day are housed. Once you tap the City Guides button, you’re directed to an interface listing top cities around the world and whom of your friends have been to each location.
Once you select the city you want information for, you can toggle through each friends’ itinerary and where they checked in, reading their personal reviews and travel tips. From here you can view each attraction’s cumulative review score from every traveler who has made a rating. To the right of the listing is a bookmark button if you wish to save the destination and return to it at later time.
Scrolling down a little further within the feature and you’ll notice 2 sets of content provided: Suggestions and Saved.
Suggestions curate recommendations for you based on where your friends have been, as well as top reviewed places and similar establishments and where the locals go.
The Saved column is where you’ll find a concise list of all attractions you’ve previously saved so that you can plan an itinerary all in one spot.
Your Suggestions include several options for Popular Attractions, both nearby your geo-location and overall top-rated destinations. Upcoming Events are also located towards the bottom of the feature so you’ll always be on the pulse of what’s happening in town!
Connect to Top Tourism Platforms
Facebook City Guides also allows you to connect your account to prominent travel-based websites like TripAdvisor to further provide more endorsements and testimonials and the ability to book hotels directly from your app.
Previously, travelers were already able to book ridesharing services like Uber, purchase a flight from Icelandair, or check-in for your KLM flight and receive flight status updates through the Facebook Messenger app. As you can see, Facebook is definitely making strides to take over the travel ecosystem.
Integrate City Guides as Part of Your Online Strategy
Book Now buttons are offered on several restaurants and attractions on Facebook Business pages that are associated with reservation websites like OpenTable.com
Make sure your business is connected to relevant platforms such as Zerve, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, and any other medium that guests can purchase or reserve spaces. As City Guides grows and becomes a forefront pioneer of the all-in-one travel planning space, it’s important to optimize your online presence from every avenue – especially if your business is in the travel, hospitality, and food and beverage industries.
Be confident in your online presence, set up a free consultation with The Modern Connection by emailing Contact@TheModernConnection.com.
