TRIPCON, a Shobunsha Publications’s subsidiary, opened TRIPCON, a new typed travel meta-search to compare hotels, fights or tourist spots in the world. One of the features is to search travel information not by usual keywords, but by a natural dialogue, such as ‘I want to stay in a hotel near Tokyo Tower.’ Unlike traditional meta-searches for a traveler who already decides a destination, TRIPCON provides future travelers with travel information.
TRIPCON lists cheapest prices of 800,000 hotels more in the world on a real-time basis, provided by Rakuten Travel, Jalan, i.JTB, and Apple World for accommodations in Japan and Expeida, Booking.com, Agoda, Ctrip and Hotels.com for those in foreign countries. Also, more than 380 million words of mouth are displayed.
Innovative functions include search of accommodation options in neighbors close to a designated area, depending on vacant situation. When you search Yotsuya, for instance, options in Kanda or Ueno will also be displayed.
Taking advantage of Mapple Magazine or Kotrip guidebooks published by the parent company Shobunsha, TRIPCON offers tourist spot information, including more than 7 million contents for seeing, eating and experiencing and also local souvenirs and foods. It is also possible to book restaurants on affiliated sites.
Today English, Chinese (traditional and simple), Korean and Thai as well as Japanese are available. TRIPCON President Daisuke Imai stressed, “We would like to change stereotyped travel.” TRIPCON has a plan to develop its meta-search business in Asia and extend partnerships with overseas OTAs in the future. In addition, Imai revealed that TRIPOCN has several innovative ideas for a dialogue function using AI, personalization, a travel memory function or B2B development of the search engine.
In Japanese
