followsummer travel news for March 31, 2016

Uber, Ola Face Off in Battle For India’s Booming Taxi Market

Aiming to wrest control of India’s booming taxi market, two cab-hailing smartphone apps — Uber and Ola — are promising hundreds of millions in new investment while also facing off with one another in court. San Francisco-based Uber reportedly plans a $500 million infusion of new funds, apart from the $1 billion already committed over the past nine months, according to Indian newspapers. The company declined this week to comment on those reports. Meanwhile, Ola Cabs promises to add another 2,000 cars to the fleet of 26,000 it already commands in New Delhi, chief spokesman Anand Subramanian said.

Read more on Skift

Shangri-La Hotels and the Future of Content Marketing in China

Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts feels the pressure to satisfy content cravings of Chinese consumers perhaps more so than hotel chains anchored elsewhere in the world. Steven Taylor, chief marketing officer of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, sees a convergence of customer experience and marketing and views the CMO role as a “guardian of the customer” that’s concerned with more than launching campaigns. He views guests themselves as a form of media, one they enjoy consuming for their selfies or other inspiring images, and regularly meets guests to listen to them to gauge content interests.

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Tinder Passport And 4 More Ways To Make Travel Social

Nearly gone are the days of flying into a city and trying out your best opening line at the bar or hoping to luck out into a social circle at the hotel watering hole. We live in an era of apps and immediate gratification, so it makes sense that you can make technology work for you in the most old school of endeavors: human companionship. There are a few new innovations that we’d like to highlight at the moment that either makes romance or simple friendship a far easier enterprise while you travel.

Read more on Travel Pulse

How New Apps Could Make Everyone into An Airport Expert

A growing number of airlines and airports are developing smartphone apps that can help streamline the process of finding your way through airports. Most of these are quite simple, doing nothing more than helping passengers find their way to their gate or helping them skim through restaurant listings and then providing them with directions from their current location to their eatery of choice.

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