NileGuide picked up some $3.5 million in funding, according to an SEC filing.
Current investors KPG Ventures, Tenaya Capital, Austin Ventures and angel investors participated in the round, which brings NileGuide’s total funding up to around $13 million since its founding in 2006.
NileGuide CEO Josh Steinitz says the funding will accelerate the site’s integration of Q & A functionality and the NileGuide Experts (formerly Localyte) community that NileGuide acquired this spring.
Here’s a sneak peak on how NileGuide plans to showcase its NileGuide community across all of its pages with its Ask a Local feature.
NileGuide received its new funding round at a time when many may be asking whether travel inspiration websites will ever gain a foothold and make money.
Consider, for example, that Travel Ad Network just acquired TravelMuse in an asset sale, and gliider co-founder Jordan Stolper seems to be focusing his energies on a new publishing venture, StoryDesk.com.
In NileGuide’s case, Steinitz argues that travel inspiration is not dead, but needs to evolve beyond “glossy magazine pictures” into relevancy based on a traveler’s location, preferences, friends and family and, of course, Â authentic local information.
NileGuide thus has de-emphasized trip-planning tools on the site in favor of content and local recommendations, Steinitz says.
“I’d say that what happened with gliider and Travelmuse and the like is not that their offerings weren’t useful or that inspiration is dead, but that if you’re not a transaction engine, you need more than great tools to build a sustainable business with enough users to matter,” Steinitz says. “Inspiration is necessary but not sufficient.”
Joe Buhler of Buhlerworks, a travel, tourism and destination consulting company, concurs that many inspiration/trip-planning sites lack traffic and integration with the booking process.
On the traffic front, Buhler suggest that travel inspiration sites partner with destination management organizations, which often have traffic, but lack trip-planning tools.
And, he sees the lack of integrated booking solutions as an even larger problem.
“What’s the customer benefit of providing a great tool to collect trip data from all over the web — gliider, TravelMuse et al. – plan a great trip, share it with your friends, but then what?” Buhler asks. “Start all over again to find those great trip elements on an online travel agency site, coordinate availability etc?  It doesn’t really make for a compelling one-stop solution, does it?”
Buhler argues that travel inspiration/trip-planning sites need to break out of their isolation, and cooperate with organizations such as DMOs and OTAs.
“Personally, I think the Dream-Learn-Plan phases, in addition to Go-Share, should get more attention by the major players with both the traffic and resources to develop suitable technology,” Buhler says. “The OTAs seem to fit the bill, but I’m not aware of any of them paying serious attention.”
Buhler adds: “Who knows, maybe Google, Facebook or Apple with iTravel will step up to the plate and take them all by surprise.”
That might be inspiring.
Related posts:
quick clarification on terminology: NileGuide “Local Experts” are real local editors who we pay on contract with NileGuide to create great original content with specific local insight. As a complement to that, we also have a global community of 75,000 local users who can answer travelers’ questions and make recommendations, but they are truly a community, and not in the employ of NileGuide
Does travel inspiration have a future? As founder of TravelMuse, I certainly think / hope so. Just look at the market and the continuing innovation we see around us. Take Wanderfly for example.. they’ve done a great job on the UX and partnership side to create an engaging experience. (I have no affiliation with them whatsoever but think the site looks great)
But let’s be clear: Solving the dream-research-plan experience is one of the toughest consumer web challenges out there. (Not just in the travel vertical — anywhere). There are (no exaggeration) infinite ways that a consumer can plan on the web. Whether it’s starting through search, or on an OTA, content site, DMO, Facebook, via email, what-have-you no planning experience is entirely the same.
Funneling planners into a single site is not the answer (and was never the intent of TravelMuse). TravelMuse’s position has been this: The Web is the platform — TravelMuse provides enabling technology to help consumers plan in whatever way they are most accustomed.
Of course consumers will visit a multitude of sites and of course they will query their friends for advice. That’s why the Bookmarker and Facebook integration remain central to the product.
Looking ahead, the onus remains on inspiration/planning innovators to make the dream-research-plan experience as simple and enjoyable as possible. My sense is that this is a long term transformation and all the innovation we see today will continue to bear fruit in the years to come.
Sure, it might take the reach of a Google, Apple, or a major OTA to really deliver the tipping point. But until then, let’s give the early stage players their credit. They are the ones living and breathing this every day and pushing an entire industry to change the way it views online travel.
Kevin outlines both the opportunity and the major challenges. His last sentence sums it up very well. It truly is about pushing an entire industry to view online travel differently and that is definitely no easy task and one that takes more time than many are willing to accept. In the interest of an improved customer experience let’s hope those innovators trying to provide solutions keep at it despite headwinds.