Brazilian travel giant STB is testing a new app that helps students manage their trips abroad which it plans to roll out across the company by 2013. TripBox will allow students to keep important personal documents close at hand and access travel tips as part of the TripBox user community. Brazilian study travel agency STB is launching a new app that helps students manage their trips abroad which it plans to roll out across the company by 2013. The company – which sends over 60,000 clients overseas each year – unveiled its latest brainwave at the recent
STB workshop it held for education partners in Sao Paulo.
TripBox trades on the immediacy of information that the modern consumer expects and could eventually be used by many student travellers globally. The app will allow students to keep important personal documents and travel information close at hand on their smart phones or tablets. Users also receive updates from STB about their trip and can post travel tips and share with their friends.
Jose Carlos Bauer Santos, managing director of STB, came up with the idea for the app, which is still being trialled with a limited number of STB clients and offices. “Tripbox will be holding information about travel documents, passports, vouchers, airline tickets, destinations, restaurants, hotels, itineraries, maps... everything is going to be in there," he told
The PIE News.
“It’s a sort of platform to put all those things together. So it eases the life of the customer and eases communication between our company and our customers.”
STB, which caters to 300,000 students each year, said the app's main aim was to ease the administration of a study travel trip. For example, students will easily be able to email copies of their passports or driver's licence from the app or print off documents via a WiFi connection when they need them.
“Our clients really need support when they are preparing their trips and when they are travelling"
Another aim is to help students feel more confident abroad by being able to access and share travel advice. “Our clients really need support when they are preparing their trips and when they are travelling," Santos said. “When we talk to them they always say that they would like more participation from STB on the trip. So they feel they could be closer to STB staff and receive more information about the destination.”
STB said that Tripbox had received positive customer feedback and it expected considerable demand. Developer Isabela Franco said that the app was already available and being trialled in four STB branches, but STB wanted to extend this to all branches and partner offices by next year. There is no charge for STB clients to use the app.
Brazilian study travel agency STB is launching a new app that helps students manage their trips abroad which it plans to roll out across the company by 2013. The company – which sends over 60,000 clients overseas each year – unveiled its latest brainwave at the recent STB workshop it held for education partners in Sao Paulo.
TripBox trades on the immediacy of information that the modern consumer expects and could eventually be used by many student travellers globally. The app will allow students to keep important personal documents and travel information close at hand on their smart phones or tablets. Users also receive updates from STB about their trip and can post travel tips and share with their friends.
Jose Carlos Bauer Santos, managing director of STB, came up with the idea for the app, which is still being trialled with a limited number of STB clients and offices. “Tripbox will be holding information about travel documents, passports, vouchers, airline tickets, destinations, restaurants, hotels, itineraries, maps… everything is going to be in there,” he told The PIE News.
“It’s a sort of platform to put all those things together. So it eases the life of the customer and eases communication between our company and our customers.”
STB, which caters to 300,000 students each year, said the app’s main aim was to ease the administration of a study travel trip. For example, students will easily be able to email copies of their passports or driver’s licence from the app or print off documents via a WiFi connection when they need them.
“Our clients really need support when they are preparing their trips and when they are travelling”
Another aim is to help students feel more confident abroad by being able to access and share travel advice. “Our clients really need support when they are preparing their trips and when they are travelling,” Santos said. “When we talk to them they always say that they would like more participation from STB on the trip. So they feel they could be closer to STB staff and receive more information about the destination.”
STB said that Tripbox had received positive customer feedback and it expected considerable demand. Developer Isabela Franco said that the app was already available and being trialled in four STB branches, but STB wanted to extend this to all branches and partner offices by next year. There is no charge for STB clients to use the app.
