The Scenario
Pal.mar is one of the largest and most well-known B2B transfer companies in Rome, operating in the city since 1988. It has a reputation for reliability and has more than 50 luxury minibuses ready to satisfy the needs of travellers. Its vision centres on rejuvenation, effectiveness and dynamism, all of which are essential qualities for tourism providers. Every day, the business serves an average of 500 people.
The Opportunity
At non-peak times of the day, Pal.mar realised it had a pool of un-booked cars waiting for jobs. Their management team determined a need to better maximise the operating-hours of these vehicles, so considered marketing a sightseeing experience to tourists. The problem was that their drivers were not sightseeing experts, nor were they multilingual. Also, small group tours by minibus are generally unaffordable for two reasons: local guides are inordinately expensive and they will always require one of the available 8 seats, reducing the number of places available to tourists. From a visitor perspective, the only affordable sightseeing option was the cheaper Hop-on Hop-off buses.
The Solution
Pal.mar worked in close liaison with the POPGuide team to develop specially tailored digital tours of Rome. Multi-language audio-commentary of 100s of points of interest was created by the POPGuide team, using facts and stories compiled by local experts and art historians. They mapped special sightseeing routes using the POPGuide navigation software and studied the perfect approach distance to allow the commentary to auto-play on the guests’ smartphones as the drivers followed the itineraries. What’s more, the audio, texts and images remain with the guests after their visit as a talking postcard, or a long-term souvenir, encouraging the word-of-mouth promotion of the Pal.mar experience.
The Result
The Pal.mar application launched to high acclaim. The company has already sold the majority of their available seats through their tour operator partners, and a new and unique cabrio-car model is being produced to satisfy their growing business. By adopting POPGuide and developing these new visitor services, Pal.mar will also benefit from rich data and trend information on their guests' activities after their tour. This knowledge will help them shape the business and products in the future.
