Make a Powerful and Interactive Map Mashup: Mapping for Hotels, CVBs and Hospitality Industry
Trent Blizzard | 3 August 2006 |
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The concurrence of sophisticated web-based mapping software and the new collaborative web 2.0 has spawned a delightful product for the hospitality industry clients we work with. It is software that lets you create an interactive and attractive “mashup” map — customized with your locations. This map can often be embedded right into your website.
Who should consider creating a mashup map to embed into their website?
- CVBs: create an interactive map showing locations of member businesses, by category
- Hotels: map local attractions to feature area for the convenience of (potential) guests
- Vacation rental managers and Realtors: map properties across a geographic area, show off photos, provide descriptions and a place for people to comment on the property
- Associations: create a membership location map that is easy to add, remove and update members
We checked out several different mapping programs, including: Wayfaring, Platial, Mapbuilder, Planiglobe, Idelix and CommunityWalk.
CommunityWalk was our favorite, as it allowed us to create and embed a map with six local businesses in less than an hour. Some of its features:
- Show map, satellite or hybrid view
- Good content for listings: photos, description, link, full contact info
- Easy business category management
- Embed a small or large version into your website
- Allows optional commenting
- Allows others to collaborate (we set it so anyone can log-in to CommunityWalk and add their business)
- Easy to use
- Creates a direct link into Google Earth
See the full-size version of the map we made, and a small sample of the CommunityWalk Map of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, taken from the larger map:
Other map sites worth noting:
Weatherbonk has great weather maps, with satellite and even radar. Consider using on your weather page.
SkiBonk specializes in ski resorts. It has some ability to upload content.
Golfbonk specializes in golf. It also has some ability to upload content.
Jauntlet travel planning site allows a consumer to build trips with mapping photography itineraries and reviews.
Placeopedia connects your wikipedia listing with a map.
Stickymap - add your business to this map.
Quikmaps is a quick and easy map maker — less functionality, but still pretty nice.
MyOutdoors - map your outdoor activity, and share with a large community.
Trailbase - lets you map biking and hiking trails in your area.
Strike Up Your Gmaps if you want to get fancy and create and host your own mashups.
MyCityMap is a good example of combining mapping, social bookmarking, flickr photo sharing into a city guide. There are more and more sites doing this, and they demonstrate how an organization can benefit from an overall Web 2.0 strategy.
Maplandia - map your business, but reciprocal link required.
Tagzania is about tags and places. If you register and log in, you can add places and points, to create and document your maps. When you add a point, you may tag it with keywords. That way, Tagzania is not only a place to build and keep your own maps, shared territories are created as well.
TripMojo is a mashup of hotels, you can add your own.
Travbuddy - create a travel blog with mapping.
Find out more:
www.lifehacker.com/software/google-maps/geek-to-live-map-yourself-165157.php
http://tadspot.com/2005/12/17/howto-create-a-map-of-your-favorite-places-using-communitywalk/
More on Palatial Mapping Mashup Software
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February 16th, 2007 at 8:56 am
STA Travel have just launched an interactive map of Australia where you can map your own adventure and find products and information based on your map location. this can be visited at http://www.mapmyadventure.com