Fleur de Lys Dupuis is a Canadian travel agency based in Montreal, Quebec. Started in 1974 by its current owner, the agency has absorbed other companies, to offer today a complete travel catalog, from coach tours to unique genuine luxury tourism, luxury cruises around paradise islands or bicycling holidays in France. With a single page for 2 of its activities, the company needed a more seductive and efficient presence on Internet. It’s the occasion to talk (a little) about how new technologies changed tourism, through some key-points of the new website.

Voyages Fleur de Lys.com Homepage

Offer an experience

Web 2.0 tourists ask for more than a simple catalog. They need a real experience. Shopping for your next trip in Asia shouldn’t be limited to a text-list of dates and prices. Well, it could, if the company sells cheap flights. But in the case of a quality agency, it should be more than that: it should be fun, interesting, visually rich, simple ; it should make you feel like boarding in your plane already ; it should be an experience on its own.

Pictures and videos

How could we speak about our last travel in New Zealand better than with pictures? Of course, today’s tourists choose their destination on Internet. When did you last choose a hotel without checking its pictures on its website or Flickr and its reviews on TripAdvisor? A website about travel should offer beautiful pictures, to appeal to users’ emotions.

A big picture and seductive text describing the trip.

Pictures even in the itinerary.

Rich navigation possibilities

My colleague at Adviso, Simon, is at the origin of this navigation system. He conducted several interviews, and noticed users had different decisional motivations according to the category of travel. That ain’t quite true. Actually, they had the same motivations, but not in the same order: destination and activity (South-East Asia, tour) or activity and destination (Safari, Kenya).

Community and networking

We were speaking about TripAdvisor and Flickr just before. It would be a mistake not to offer community and networking possibilities on a travel agency website. On FDLD, that meant offering Facebook and Twitter links, as well as Send to a friend (I don’t know why the design agency hasn’t put this online yet: I’l have to enquire about it). But this is not it: think about testimonies, a blog with comments and the option for users to like a product. And there are other possibilities to think of.

Of course, these four points are not everything. There are a lot more possibilities to think of, and especially on a strategic plan. But it’s already a first list of what a travel agency should include, speaking about navigation options. Can you think of any other one? I’ll complete the list when another project comes online: Quebec maritime.