In the News
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2004/01/12/newscolumn1.html
INDUSTRY WRAPUPS
Retail and Hospitality
Work Finally (and literally) Pays Off
for Go Boston™ Card
By Jill Lerner
January 12, 2004– The holidays may be over, but
employees of Smart Destinations Inc. -- a startup that does business
as Go Boston Card and sells an eponymous "smart card" pass
to Boston attractions and restaurants -- were slated this week to get
what may yet be their most welcome gift: their first paycheck.
After roughly a year of working without pay, the local
company's six full-time employees can now trade in their sweat equity
for greenbacks as the Go Boston card catches on with visitors to the
city.
The card, which looks like a credit card and was developed
in conjunction with local tourism officials, is an all-inclusive ticket
to Boston's cultural attractions that users swipe like a credit card.
The card, which starts at $39 for a one-day adult card, $19 for a one-day
child's card, and averages $65.40 per adult, offers unlimited admission
to more than 30 venues, as well as hop-on, hop-off trolley tours, museums,
restaurants and other attractions, such as whale-watching tours.
The Go Boston card is the brainchild of Cecilia Dahl,
a former executive with Collette Vacations, one of the largest travel
wholesalers in the country; and Kevin McLaughlin, a veteran entrepreneur
and 15-year high-tech industry veteran. The technology was developed
in-house with approximately $200,000 in bootstrap capital supplied by
McLaughlin.
The business model works as follows: Cultural attractions
and restaurants offer Go Boston their best deals, and, in turn, Go Boston
reimburses the establishments a percentage based on usage by cardholders.
The attractions also are advertised in the full-color visitor's guide
that accompanies each smart card. The company has received the endorsement
of many local tourism folks, including Cindy Brown, general manager
of Boston Duck Tours.
Most of the cards are sold through the company's partners,
such as hotels, which offer them in packages to guests.
Currently, there are 1,000 Go Boston cards in circulation,
and McLaughlin said card users pump an average of $163 per card into
the local economy. More than 6,000 cards have been sold to partner organizations,
the company said.
But potentially even more valuable to local institutions -- beyond the
new business -- is the ability to capture data about visitor behavior
with the card, and thus, target their marketing efforts more narrowly.
"It is very valuable information. ... We can tell
you that (for) people from Germany, these are the top-five attractions,"
McLaughlin said as an example. He said the company already offers aggregated
tourist information to its affiliated establishments and that Go Boston
may soon begin selling its data to other companies.
All data is representative group data and does not contain
names or addresses of card users, McLaughlin said.
He added that Go Boston plans to roll out the card to
other cities, including possibly San Francisco and Philadelphia, in
the near future.
The card is available online at www.gobostoncard.com,
in the Transportation Building near Park Square and at many hotel concierge
desks around the city.
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