3BaysOver has launched its online B2B-networking platform for the global tourism industry, enabling tourism professionals to sign up to 3BaysOver and network with their peers from over 150 countries. Users can search for and communicate with tourism professionals, showcase themselves and their companies, promote business events, and manage membership directories.
“For the past 40 years, little has changed in how the B2B side of the industry operates – relying largely on paper communications and infrequent in-person meetings to get deals done. However, the tourism industry is all about relationships and trust. Building relationships and creating trust can be a challenge in today’s fast-paced business environment. 3BaysOver has been designed to allow all tourism buyers, sellers and service providers to network and collaborate with their partners in a trusted environment online,” said Andy Ryan, CEO, 3BaysOver.
Access to the 3BaysOver network is free for individuals and companies. 3BaysOver aims, in particular, to level the playing field for tourism companies with limited resources, by making networking tools more accessible and attainable.
“My family and I own an ecolodge located in a remote area of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. It takes six hours from the closest town by car and boat to reach our lodge. It is this remoteness that makes it such an attractive place to visit, but it also limits us when it comes to the way we promote ourselves within the industry. We can’t always justify the time and cost associated with trade fairs and other networking events. 3BaysOver’s online platform has opened a new world of networking opportunities to us,” said Stefano Raffo, co-founder, Tambo Blanquillo Lodge.
The platform allows larger organisations to carry out continual networking with stakeholders and facilitates collaboration with business contacts in different markets. “Turismo Chile has a full schedule of tourism promotional activities all over the world for 2016. We look forward to communicating and keeping in touch with stakeholders using 3BaysOver,” said Debbie Feldman, director general of Chile’s NTO, Turismo Chile.
At the country level, 3BaysOver also streamlines the flow of news and information. Anish Neupane, director of GAPNepal, a tour operator in Nepal which offers adventure tours as well as community-based activities for volunteers, said, “3BaysOver gives my company the sort of visibility in the industry which up until now has been impossible to achieve. More importantly, however, 3BaysOver provides a highly effective way for Nepal as a destination to communicate with the rest of the industry about reconstruction efforts in the wake of the 2014 earthquake, which greatly affected tourist arrivals.”
3BaysOver also serves as a tool for matching young tourism professionals with companies looking for new talent. Detailed personal profile pages double as digital resumes, allowing potential employers to search through profiles for the perfect candidate.
The platform allows tourism professionals to sign up, complete their personal profile pages, and add information such as professional experience and expertise. They can also add company profile pages, which, in turn, allow them to publish their companies’ business events, and manage membership directories. The newsfeed, mentions, and private messaging help users discover and keep in touch with business partners. And search allows users to find information that matters most to them.
