A new Irish travel website www.stickyfingerstravel.com aimed at parents holidaying with children has been launched.
The site is a one-stop shop for parents with tips on family-friendly destinations, things to do with the kids, booking facilities, destination guides, research and general advice.
It covers holidaying in Ireland and abroad. The advice is independent and unbiased and covers all budgets. It incorporates social networking features such as forums and user blogs.
Site owner and editor Tara Cosgrove said the idea for the site came from her frustration at finding family-friendly travel sites specific to Ireland. That, coupled with the explosion in online social networking and the fact that she saw parenting websites being used for swapping travel tips, led her to set up the site, which is hosted by Webtrade.
The content for the site originates from online and offline research, focus groups and personal experience.
Cosgrove hopes to reach 30,000 visitors a month in the first year, between 40,000 to 50,000 visitors a month in year two and 60,000 by the end of year three.
At present, revenue comes from affiliate commissions.
“We haven’t tried to sell any advertising yet. We’ll do the advertising once we get the figures up and have a steady flow of traffic,” Cosgrove told siliconrepublic.com.
“In terms of current revenue streams, you can book pretty much any type of accommodation or travel through the site and we would receive a commission based on that. We’ve partnered with Booking.com, Gulliver Ireland, eBookers, Cartrawler, AFerry and Annualmultitrip.com.”
Content on the site is free and will be constantly updated, partly due to its user-generated aspect, which Cosgrove believes will make it a ‘sticky’ site.
“We think it’s a site people will come back to again and again. It’s only the tip of the iceberg as yet in terms of content.”
The site features a parents’ travel forum where parents can ask questions, swap real travel experiences and travel tips with each other. Parents also have the opportunity to share blogs about their travels because real experiences are unquestionably the best benchmark to see if a holiday will suit you and your family.
There are also tips on child-friendly companies, such as those who assist the travel process by sending your baby food, nappies and even luggage ahead.
By Niall Byrne
