A journey of a thousand miles, it has been said, begins with one step. That is as true today as it was 2,600 years ago when the venerable Chinese sage Lao-Tzu, to whom the saying is attributed, lived. Today, however, that thousand mile journey can also start with a single click, along with a little help from Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI) and its flagship NextTrip platform. From that portal, the spirited adventurer can take his or her next trip to any one of 195 countries around the world.
Starting with that first click, users can begin their physical journey with a visual one on the NextTrip platform. There, the tormented soul driven by wanderlust or the holiday maker just getting away for a week or two will discover the world through a stimulating collection of videos on various destinations and tour packages. The site features videos on leading global cities like Bangkok, Cape Town, Dubai, Istanbul and Vienna, as well as the world’s five “gateway” cities: Hong Kong, London, Paris, New York City and Singapore. Since would-be travelers are increasingly using video content to make decisions about vacations, Monaker has compiled an extensive media library that has since become one of the company’s most valuable digital assets.
Back in October 2015, Monaker acquired the large and very popular global vacation rental platform, AlwaysOnVacation, which had, at that time, a listing of 65,000 properties in 120 countries. Vacation rental, which includes alternative lodging rentals, is one of the fastest growing segments of the travel market. With AlwaysOnVacation, Monaker also acquired relationships with 60 affiliated partner websites that are making its offerings available in 16 languages to around 700,000 subscribers worldwide.
The AlwaysOnVacation properties are part ‘of close to 1.2 million homes’ that Monaker has ‘under contract’, part of its strategy of cultivating ‘significant partnerships for accessing inventory’. As CEO Bill Kerby has pointed out, inventory of that size would make Monaker as big as HomeAway, which was acquired by Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) in December 2015 for $3.9 billion.
Monaker’s travel assets now include Maupintour, with over 65 years in tour-guided vacations; Voyage.TV, with its thousands of hours of travel footage shot in over 30 countries around the world; AlwayOnVacation, with its 250,000 listed properties; and NextTrip.com.
NextTrip is traveling in areas left uncharted by AirBnB, HomeAway, Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) and FlipKey by offering both proprietary and partner-held alternative lodging accommodation. The platform also offers traditional hotel accommodation, timeshare and resort inventory, real-time booking, a bidding platform, video content, car rentals, cruise packages, tours, airline bookings, and access to real live travel agents. It may be time for investors to take that first step and begin the journey with Monaker.
For more information, visit www.MonakerGroup.com
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