Smartsave Expand Presence in US Tourism Market

LONDON, February 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

-Smartsave is fast becoming a one stop shop for overseas trip planning with new focus on UK travellers taking American holidays-

Smartsave, the leading discount voucher supplier for family days out and restaurants in the UK and Europe, are expanding their presence in the U.S. tourism market.

Leisure tourism continues to be a large business in the U.S., with an estimated $520 billion generated annually. On top of that, the internet has now become the leading method of trip-planning, overtaking traditional areas such as travel agents and guides.  Smartsave plans to bring their experience and customer relations from the U.K. and Europe - where they offer discounts at restaurants, hotels and attractions such as Kew Gardens - to the country with the biggest leisure spend in the world.

Smartsave features an easy-to-use website displaying all the active offers in your chosen city - all the customer has to do is print off a coupon, and take it to the relevant attraction. Smartsave's accessible interface has been designed for the web from the ground up, ensuring that it is not just an online version of a generic printed guide-book. This means that Smartsave can move quickly to update and add to their range of deals making sure visitors always have up to date information. But they don't want to abandon traditional outlets completely, which include maps, corporate programmes, and targeted email marketing.

Another of Smartsave's distinct features is their across-the-board discount level of 20%. They argue that keeping the discount consistent helps raise brand awareness for their consumers, but more importantly it gives their partner clients, such as Cadbury World, an option that many other discount websites don't; with discounts at 20%, attractions can run offers that are sustainable in the long-term and moreover don't devalue their brand like higher and aggressive "sales style" offers do. Furthermore, Smartsave get to deliver an easy to understand message to consumers: "if you see it on our website/map, its 20% off for up to 6 people".

With Smartsave expanding its presence in the US markets, they hope to build an international brand focusing on becoming the "one stop shop" for trip planning. Smartsave also encompasses other verticals such as hotels, restaurants and theatre performances thereby providing discounts on many of the core parts in planning a family day out. "We think that too many of the other trip-planning sites keep things overly-localised. We're all about creating a truly international tourism brand. Every year, international tourism in the US generates $130 billion, while Americans spend over $100 billion abroad. These numbers are hard to ignore. We want UK travelers to be thinking about Smartsave deals the moment their plane lands, and vice versa", explains James Harrabin, Product and Marketing Manager.

Smartsave plans to cover a select group of US cities to begin with, some of the country's biggest tourism destinations. Specifically, these are New York, California, Florida, and Las Vegas. Although Smartsave already offers a selection of discounts in the USA - in Florida, they have partnerships with the likes of the Miami Seaquarium and the Orange County Regional History Centre, and in New York, they have 20% discounts on offer from the Central Park Zoo and Ripley's Believe It Or Not, amongst others.

About Smartsave

Smartsave.com (http://www.smartsave.com) is a part of Metropolis International Group's Reward and Loyalty Division. Established in 1994, Metropolis is a media group that specialises in consumer business and travel publishing.

Smartsave offers discounts at thousands of leading attractions, restaurants, leisure activities, hotels, entertainment venues and shopping outlets. Smartsave uses a variety of channels to provide these savings including guide books, street maps, directories, websites and mobile apps. Families and individuals can make savings in the UK, USA, France, Germany and the Netherlands, presenting a smartsave code to obtain 20% off the ticket or total food and drinks bill for up to six people at any of the participating merchant partners.

SOURCE Smartsave