Distribution Strategies

Whole Travel (www.wholetravel.com) has become the first online travel site to provide the "blue sky" search functionality.

Published: 01 Oct 2008

Whole Travel (www.wholetravel.com) has become the first online travel site to provide the "blue sky" search functionality.

The company says the website "shifts the paradigm of online travel search," which is typically constrained by dates and specific locations, by enabling and encouraging consumers to enter search terms that represent the experiences they seek around the world – for example, "organic coffee farm" or "remote mountain trekking".

It is built on a database of more than 4,000 of the world's boutique and sustainable hotels and resorts.

"Sustainability is a meta-trend that is hitting all consumer markets, and it's not showing any signs of slowing. Travel is the world's largest employer, so we found an opportunity to make a difference by providing travelers with unique, relevant information and direct access to booking, at no cost to them," said Matthew Davie, CEO, Whole Travel.

"By making sustainable travel even easier to find than traditional travel opportunities, we're greening the travel industry one trip at a time," added Davie.

Other than Blue Sky Search and Sustainability (all of site's 4,000 resorts are sustainable, with a simple and clear evaluation system used to rank each on a 1-5 scale. The ranking system, Whole Ranking, looks at four categories: environmental practices, economic management, social and cultural support, and customer interaction), there is another feature in Visual Navigation (users can browse more than 20,000 photos for inspiration as they narrow down their searches and find the ideal trip).

Whole Travel is located in Palo Alto, California and is privately funded.