Mobissimo

Yes, the media has picked up on the greatest things in Poland and Spain since Trabbies and jamon serrano, that's right, their very own Mobissimo travel sites. Check the pic below for youself and click here for the full story.

Yet another first for Mobissimo, read more here via BusinessWire.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mobissimo (www.mobissimo.com), the world’s most comprehensive travel search engine, today launched its newest travel search site, serving online travel markets in Italy (www.it.mobissimo.com). Mobissimo is the first U.S. travel search engine to launch in Italy with local content specifically geared to Italian users.

Much more than a simple translation, Mobissimo’s new Italian site is seamlessly “Italian” and extends the reach of the travel search engine. Mobissimo’s Italian site includes fares and offers from local travel agencies, consolidators, hotel operators and all the major and low-cost airlines that are pertinent to users in Italy.

Global meta search site Mobissimo is to relaunch this week with a major swing towards intuitive search and customisable content.

The US-based website will simultaneously unveil the overhauled new look and feel across its country sites – including the UK – as it looks to improve its presence in overseas markets.

The new offering will include what its founder Beatrice Tarka calls a “dramatic” new approach to meta search by allowing users to customise their homepage.

Users can create their own modules – featuring tools such as weather, currency or destination photos – which are then automatically populated with content on results pages depending on the search parameters.

Widgets from third part sites such as travel social network Dopplr can also be dropped into the user interface.

Tarka told Travolution: “We think we are taking meta search another step ahead. It is customisable travel search – Web 3.0.”

The takeover of meta rival Sidestep by market leader Kayak has put Mobissimo in a strong position to push forward in the US, Tarka said.

Mobissimo is expected to shortly launch country sites in Mexico, Poland and Spain.

View more the brand new industry leading look at Mobissimo.com.

Mobissimo continues to add key suppliers to our travel search engine, this week adding Vayama and CheapoAir to the Mobissimo Airfare Search. Both suppliers offer great fares and travel options for international as well as domestic itineraries.

'The addition of Vayama and CheapoAir to the Mobissimo AirSearch adds tremendous value to our international searches.' Peter S. Shin, Mobissimo Business Development. 'We further distance ourselves from other travel search engines by getting fares, especially wiith international itineraries, where pricing is variable, that they simply cannot, either technically or commercially.

See for yourself on Mobissimo.com and plan that trip now.

Borat Sagdiyev, the Pulitzer winning reporter from Kazakhstan is writing a guide book about the United of States.

NEW YORK - Glorious booksellers of America: Please welcome the esteemed Borat Sagdiyev.

The ever eloquent ambassador from Kazakhstan has a book, with two titles, coming out this fall: "Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A." and "Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

"There is one and only Borat and we are honored to have him join our pantheon of international writers," Suzanne Herz, publisher of Flying Dolphin Press, an imprint of Random House, Inc.'s Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, said in a statement Wednesday.

Stars of today need to be multi-channel - starring in movies, getting a record deal, writing children's books.  Borat is only doing what all media superstars of today are doing.  'This one, not so much!'

As you already know, Mobissimo is a sponsor of The States on The History Channel. Another illustrious sponsor is Real Travel - a traveler's resource for travel blogs. You can get your very own free travel blog by signing up at Real Travel or by clicking here.

A sample from a great blog and post about Mexico:

After many years of "no... not this year", my husband, daughter and I finally decided to pack up and enjoy a much-needed vacation with my parents in their timeshare in Mexico.

This summarizes our trip quite nicely....
- slept
- swam
- ate
- drank
- slept some more
- swam some more
- ate some more
- drank some more
- etc.

You get the idea...

You can read more about Christina and her travels here. Make sure to check out The States on The History Channel and make sure to get your travel blog from Real Travel, perhaps we'll spotlight you in the MobiBlog.

Savvy travelers already know that Mobissimo searches the most low cost air carriers of any search engine and we've just added Skybus, a new low cost airline offering incredibly cheap tickets from $10 around the United States. A little more here on how they do it.

Our fares are so much lower than other airlines because we keep our costs lower. For example, we book our flights only through the Internet, so there’s no expensive call center or 800 number to operate. We fly new, fuel-efficient jets so our fuel costs are lower. And we fly into smaller, regional airports where it’s less expensive (and more convenient) to land. We also allow each passenger to pick and choose the options he or she wants, making fares lower for those who don’t need the “extras”. These and other factors make it possible for us to give you great service at a price you’re sure to appreciate.

Mobissimo welcomes Skybus to the constantly growing, industry leading number of travel sites we search. As more and more travel suppliers come to market, Mobissimo will continue to be the first to search them.

Skybus is yet another first for Mobissimo. Mobissimo's technology and development efforts make adding new suppliers, as they emerge on the market, extremely easy. With Skybus, we continue to distance ourselves from other search engines by focusing on suppliers that add value and benefit the traveler. - Peter S. Shin, Mobissimo Business Development

With routes initially focused on its central hub in Columbus, OH, Skybus' low fares will give travelers yet another reason to pack up and head out. Click here to be introduced to Skybus and $10 airfares.

The States, a 10 episode mini-series on The History Channel will be a sweeping look at each of the 50 states of the United States of America.  Perhaps you didn't know something about Delaware, or that forgotten paradise of North Dakota, now you can learn about them all by tuning in to The States on The History Channel.  Mobissimo is one of the sponsors for this mini-series, you will see updates on scheduling and other pertinent information about the series right here on the MobiBlog.

Hotels. I think most are all the same, it's a room, a funny smell, and over-priced drinks at the hotel bar. Boutique and luxury hotels are now de rigueur, if you haven't stayed at the Faena in Buenos Aires, 60 Thompson in NYC, Hotel Costes in Paris, you're not really living. Starwood Hotels has launched a new hotel brand - aloft.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., September 28, 2005 - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) and its stylish W Hotels division revealed today at the Phoenix Lodging Conference, the official name and concept details for its much-anticipated new brand in the select-service hotel category: aloft. Conceived by the same W Hotels team that is widely regarded as creators of one of the most successful new brands in decades, the aloft brand will bring this tired, stagnant travel segment to new heights.

aloft. I don't know if the travel segment is 'stagnant,' but I guess it's good marketing prose. Amenities, style, and the scene, it's what's these hotels are all about. Whether or not you want to bump into Lindsay Lohan or Paris is another thing. Trust me, you find just as exciting people at the Motel 6.

The first time I went to New York, I stepped out of JFK and heard, 'Hey, f**k you!' from one cabbie to another. I was 6 at the time, it was a traumatic experience. I have come to love NYC like a second home, but that initial experience always kept me on guard. And now, my beloved city has been voted the most friendly.

The magazine sent reporters "undercover" to 36 cities, in 35 countries, to measure courtesy. New York was the only American city on the list.

In a city with a reputation for being in-your-face, New Yorkers seem to be expressing themselves with a new one-finger salute: a raised pinkie. In fact, they seem to have even better manners than people in London, Toronto and Moscow.

Apparently New Yorkers are friendly, and that's not just post 9/11. So go visit NY, fares on Mobissimo are only $320 from SFO.

---

Many of you already know that Mobissimo has just launched the India site, Mobissimo.in.  The press is already flying about this industry leading launch - online, television, print, the media coverage for this is well ... overwhelming, we could not be more pleased.  Mobissimo's CEO sat down with Eye for Travel's Ritesh Gupta to discuss the significance of Mobissimo.in's launch.

 In an exclusive interview with EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta, Beatrice Tarka, chief executive officer, Mobissimo, shared information about timing of the launch, plans for India and other Asian markets. Excerpts:

How do you assess the timing of Mobissimo’s entry into India? How do you assess India as a market for online travel?

At Mobissimo ...

You can read more about the interview here.  At Mobissimo we are committed to offering the best travel tools available, whether national launches like Mobissimo.in or even MobiDeals, Mobissimo is always leading the travel industry with prescient travel tools and relevant and hyper-useful search tools.

Mobissimo announces today the launch of Mobissimo.in, the first travel search engine for India. With the launch of Mobissimo.in, travel search in India has become that much easier. In one site, Mobissimo.in searches every Indian airline, online travel agency, and low-cost airline. Mobissimo searches popular Indian airfare sites like Air Deccan, Air Sahara, SpiceJet, GoAir, Jet Airways, Air India, and Kingfisher as well as the leading Indian online travel agency MakeMyTrip.

'Mobissimo.in marks an important step in global travel search.' says Peter S. Shin, Sr. Director of Business Development at Mobissimo. 'The global market for online travel is growing tremendously in international markets like Europe, where we also have Mobissimo.fr and Asia, where only Mobissimo searches fares from low-cost airlines like AirAsia, JetStar, and SpiceJet.'

Mobissimo.in addresses the need on the India subcontinent for travel search as the Indian travel industry has been growing at a staggering rate of 62% a year. Mobissimo.in also searches hotel and car sites for India travel in addition to the widely acclaimed Mobissimo Activity Search. With Mobissimo Activity Search you can simply put in your origin city and then search for activities like Beach or even Cricket. Only Mobissimo offers this tool to help travelers find the best destination to meet their needs.

I fly. I fly a lot. I fly Star Alliance only. Except short hauls. Anyway, I'm approaching close to a million miles flown and the sad thing about it - I've paid for 99% of all of them, no business travel here. I've been with Mileage Plus since I could walk. With the recent troubles at United and its emergence from bankruptcy, a new vibe is definitely in the friendly skies. They love to fly, and it shows - am I mixing slogans? Pilots, yes, the guys who should be focusing on the 100 ton machine they're controlling are taking a more active role in customer service.

Under the program, you'll be more likely to see an actual pilot at the gate to explain to you why your flight is delayed. While airborne, frequent fliers may find a flight attendant pressing a note from the pilot into their hands: a personal thank-you for being aboard. And kids traveling alone will in some cases be offered a chance to call home while in flight, using a pilot's credit card.

Nice. And this isn't just pr driven fluff. On a recent international flight, the flight attendant brought me a business card from the pilot with a note expressing his appreciation for my flying United. A nice touch. Later on the train to switch terminals, his name was emblazoned on his luggage, so I introduced myself and thanked him for his card, we talked for a bit and then proceeded to the airport bar where we got completely hammered and then he flew a 767 to Newark. Just kidding. A good marketing campaign for United, costs them virtually nothing, but the little things, yes, the little things are what count.