Segnaloitalia: a social network for tourism in Italy

Blognation Italy reports on Segnaloitaly, a user generated recommendation service for the Italian tourist market.

“Creating a community of unconventional Italian travellers, SegnaloItalia is building an online community of tourists who choose independent B&Bs over five star hotels and search for farmhouses instead of holiday complexes.

Developed by the multimedia content production company Bitness.it, headed up by Tiziana Ferrando and Massimo Dalmazzi, SegnaloItalia’s goal is to provide a user generated recommendation service to the internal Italian tourist market.

One of the recent trends in the Italian tourism sector has been the growth of independent holiday bookings with flexibility. An increase in online bookings has also been evident, coinciding with growth of broadband penetration and prepaid cards used for online purchasing. Italians are also searching more widely for travel information, looking at more than one source before booking their holidays. (Source: EuroMonitor)

SegnaloItalia was developed using open source software Pligg, including Google and blog mash ups. The site itself has a Digg-like feel to it, where users vote for the holiday destinations they have enjoyed. The more votes an entry receives, the higher up the ranks it climbs. To date, the site is concentrating on building its Italian community and increasing user numbers.”

Blognation Italy caught up with Tiziana Ferrando and asked about monetising the site and future plans for development.

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