14 May 2013
South Africa has been chosen from a shortlist of seven countries as the world's dream destination.



WAYN.com (Where Are You Now?) compiled the finalists using data obtained from 21m of its global user community, who were then asked to vote for their favourite.

After more than 15,000 votes were counted, South Africa finished ahead of fellow nominees Indonesia, Fiji, Dubai, India, Brazil and Turkey.

'The immense popularity of South Africa as a tourist destination has been reinforced by this competition,' WAYN co-founder Jerome Touze told News 24.

'The activity we are seeing correlates with the recent announcement by president Jaco Zuma that the amount of foreign visitors to South Africa has grown by 300%.'

South Africa has a number of world-class destinations including the capital city Cape Town - famous for its Table Mountain backdrop - the Winelands region and the Kruger National Park, home to the 'Big Five'.

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LONDON – WAYN announces the winner of its closely fought competition to discover the top dream destination in the world. South Africa has taken the coveted top spot with more than 15,300 votes and joining them on the podium is Brazil, followed closely by Dubai.

Jerome Touze, co-founder and CRO of WAYN said: “All seven countries and cities nominated were extremely worthy contenders and dream destinations in their own right. The immense popularity of South Africa as a tourist destination has been reinforced by this competition, and interestingly the activity we are seeing correlates with the recent announcement by President Jaco Zuma that the amount of foreign visitors to South Africa has grown by 300% to 13.5 million visitors, 9.2 million of which were tourists.

It is also fascinating to note the strong interest coming from Asia, and particular India, which is one of South Africa's BRICS partners. Out of the 408,000 fans of South Africa on WAYN, there are now over 108,000 fans from India alone”.

In total an incredible 78,000 votes were counted for all seven of the destinations, which also included Fiji, India, Turkey and Indonesia. The nominated destinations, both cities and countries, were selected through a combination of market research data and tracking user engagement on WAYN.com. WAYN built an exclusive microsite for the competition and offered members who voted the chance to win an iPad.

Touze added “We are delighted by the phenomenal response from our members, the total number of people who voted exceeded our expectations and offers invaluable intel on where our members want to go. We are planning to build on the success of this campaign over the next year by offering more leading award recognitions for the travel and tourism industry”.

Thulani Nzima, Chief Executive Officer, South African Tourism said: “We are privileged to live in an incredible country, a land of spectacular wildlife, awe-inspiring adventure and unique heritage and culture. It is home to warm, welcoming people, eager to share it with travellers from around the world. We are already touched by the hundreds of thousands of friends our destination has made on the WAYN.com platform and we are delighted with this accolade, which we hope will make more people’s dreams of visiting South Africa a reality.”

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London - South Africa has beaten six other sought after world destinations to take the coveted top spot in travel-related social network, Wayn's recent dream destination competition.



Up against six other sought after destinations - Brazil, India, Dubai, Fiji, Turkey and Indonesia - South Africa managed to garner more than 15 300 votes from all over the world.

Brazil scooped up the second position, while Dubai came in at a very close third.

Jerome Touze, co-founder and CRO of WAYN said: "All seven countries and cities nominated were extremely worthy contenders and dream destinations in their own right. The immense popularity of South Africa as a tourist destination has been reinforced by this competition, and interestingly the activity we are seeing correlates with the recent announcement by President Jaco Zuma that the amount of foreign visitors to South Africa has grown by 300% to 13.5 million visitors, 9.2 million of which were tourists.

It is also fascinating to note the strong interest coming from Asia, and particular India, which is one of South Africa's BRICS partners. Out of the 408,000 fans of South Africa on WAYN, there are now over 108,000 fans from India alone"

In total 78 000 votes were counted for all seven of the destinations. The nominated destinations, both cities and countries, were selected through a combination of market research data and tracking user engagement on WAYN.com. WAYN built an exclusive microsite for the competition and offered members who voted the chance to win an iPad.

Touze added "We are delighted by the phenomenal response from our members, the total number of people who voted exceeded our expectations and offers invaluable intel on where our members want to go. We are planning to build on the success of this campaign over the next year by offering more leading award recognitions for the travel and tourism industry"

Thulani Nzima, Chief Executive Officer, South African Tourism said: "We are privileged to live in an incredible country, a land of spectacular wildlife, awe-inspiring adventure and unique heritage and culture. It is home to warm, welcoming people, eager to share it with travellers from around the world. We are already touched by the hundreds of thousands of friends our destination has made on the WAYN.com platform and we are delighted with this accolade, which we hope will make more people's dreams of visiting South Africa a reality."

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WAYN (Where Are You Now?), the travel and lifestyle social network, has created a talent deal with CONTENTed digital media to carry sports and entertainment programming across its network.

WAYN will now have a number of programming and talent initiatives based around major events and their geographical destinations, presented by famous celebrities.

It starts with the British Lions rugby tour in Australia next month, with Lewis Moody, the content and commentary led by former England captain.

WAYN.com claims to be the largest travel and lifestyle focused platform in the world, with more than 21 million members in 193 countries.

Peter Ward, chief executive and co-founder of WAYN, said the CONTENTed deal offers a "unique, highly social and engaging platform".

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WAYN has launched a new VIP offering for its members with hundreds of exciting and exclusive travel deals worldwide.

The WAYN VIP Club will allow members privileged access to travel and lifestyle benefits with hand-picked offers from around the world on airlines, nightclubs, technology, insurance, hotels and car hire.

This is in addition to the social benefits already included in the club.

Launch partners include American Airlines, Worldhotels, Avis and Eco Carrier.

Jerome Touze, chief revenue officer, and co-founder of WAYN said: “We are excited to launch WAYN VIP, which is a key part of our plan to develop the next generation social travel platform.

“The VIP club provides users with a unique opportunity to access a huge range of travel and lifestyle deals, ensuring they get exceptional value for money from their membership for a small fee.

“The interface allows users to search offers by destination or by category, thereby provoking inspiration on where to go and what to do when they get there.”

He added: “WAYN is going through a period of transition and the launch of WAYN VIP is just one of many captivating features still to be released.”

WAYN re-launched in February this year with a new design interface and a complete transformation of the platform to enable its users to better discover where to go, what to do and who to meet.

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Former DailyDeals marketing chief Kai Herzberger has been named chief operating officer of travel and lifestyle social network WAYN.

The company, which claims more than 21 million members in 193 countries, has also taken on Ben Andrews, previously global product manager at Yahoo! Answers, as director of product management.

Chief executive Peter Ward said: “Kai will head up operations through a period of significant transformation following the recent relaunch of the site.

“Kai brings to the table a wealth of experience growing and managing fast growing internet start-ups and e-commerce businesses, including DailyDeals and BuyVIP, with a great pedigree of strategic and operational excellence.

“Ben is an extremely experienced product manager, having helped Yahoo! Answers grow to over 250 million unique visitors a month on web and mobile.”

He added: “We now have an excellent A-Player team and are committed to building a culture of excellence. This will help us to deliver upon our vision to help people better discover where to go, what to do and who to meet.”

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WAYN has announced the recruitment of Kai Herzberger, previously chief marketing officer at DailyDeals, a member of the Google Family, to head up operations as chief operating officer.

The company has also employed Ben Andrews, previously global product manager at Yahoo! Answers, as director of product management.

WAYN has over 21 million members in 193 countries with over 50 global tourist boards, airlines, hotels and travel operators as partners.

WAYN has become one of the world’s leading platforms for driving user engagement and influencing travel decisions.

In December 2012 WAYN won the title of World’s Leading Travel Social Network’ at the World Travel Awards.

Peter Ward, chief executive, WAYN said: “We’re delighted to have Kai and Ben on board.

“Kai will head up operations through a period of significant transformation following the recent re-launch of the site.

“Kai brings to the table a wealth of experience growing and managing fast growing internet start-ups and eCommerce businesses, including DailyDeals and BuyVIP, with a great pedigree of strategic and operational excellence.

“Ben is an extremely experienced product manager, having helped Yahoo! Answers grow to over 250 million unique visitors a month on web and mobile.

“We now have an excellent A-Player team and are committed to building a culture of excellence. This will help us to deliver upon our vision to help people better discover where to go, what to do and who to meet.”

WAYN has recently undergone a complete transformation of its platform, generating over 70,000 tips, reviews, trips and activities daily.

The site partners with over 50 global tourist boards, airlines, hotels and travel operators as partners and has become one of the world’s leading platforms for driving user engagement and influencing travel decisions.

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Since its re-launch in 2006, WAYN has managed to become one of the few social startups to secure funding despite a recent downturn in social media investment. After changing its market strategy over the years, the ‘Pinterest for travelers’ has relaunched its site once again in February. WAYN (Where Are You Now?) claims to be the world’s largest travel and social network and tries to fuse commerce with social. WAYN has, and still is, showing interest in key emerging markets such as South Africa, India and Indonesia and is planning on localising the site in Brazil, China and Russia in coming months.

Founders, Peter Ward and Jerome Touze ‘provide people with inspiration on new places to discover, fun things to do and interesting people to meet.’ Like other social networks, users of the site have profiles, can upload pictures or rate (or ‘like’) other users, places or services. The social network houses user data for 21.5 million users in over 193 different countries, making it a compelling option to potential advertisers.

Advertising and user monetisation have become the company’s two main sources of revenue. Advertising has a strong presence as tourist offices have started relying on social networks to strengthen their online presence. Since February WAYN has tried to revamp its business position as well as commercial image. It has a ‘differentiated commercial offering compared to Facebook and other online social ad platforms.’ The company now focuses more on ‘integrated advertising, social engagement [and] market research.’ Despite investor confidence in social startups having been in decline in general, the monetisation of WAYN’s user base through a credit system has managed to retain investor attention.

Advertisements and market research
Two weeks ago WAYN released it’s top seven dream destinations by encouraging users to partake in surveys incentivised through earning credit or winning prizes. Surveys like these have become part of designated market research the company offers. Customer participation and polling services are highly encouraged. Like other social media platforms, advertisers can target its users based on interests, intentions, location and behaviour.’ Personal information as well as polling information is extremely valuable for advertisers as the company ‘collects 70k data points every day on where people have been, where they want to go, what they like and love and what they have done and would love to do.’

By bringing the popularity of social media to the table, the company has an advantage over content publishers like Lonely Planet, for example. This sets it apart from competing travel websites. WAYN has achieved this by mostly tapping into national country tourism boards of emerging markets who want to engage more closely with their target markets. It has made industry-specific organisation contributions to partnerships ‘over 50 global tourist boards, airlines, hotels and travel operators.’

Emerging market integration
WAYN has managed to gain a foothold in emerging markets by localising itself by having offices in London (UK) and New York (US), but more importantly Cape Town (South Africa), Szczcecin (Poland) and New Delhi (India). The company also wants to ‘open up to’ other emerging markets and localise itself in key regions such as Brazil, China and Russia in coming months. By trying to enhance its presence in the emerging market sector shows that the company has invested interest in maintaining itself in key growing markets.

By having signed deals with, among others, companies like India Today Group (ITG), Indonesian Tourism, Airbnb and South Africa Tourism, WAYN has managed to gain access to millions of people’s travel data in countries with a strong growing middle class. India for example, which together with its booming middle class, has more than 137 million users online. It’s estimated that ITG has access to almost ‘100 million of India’s educated population, via 38 magazines, four Television channels, seven radio stations, 12 web portals and 56 apps across mobile and tablets.’ India alone has more than 130 million internet users with China, Brazil and Russia also under the top six.

User Monetisation via incentives and viral marketing
There has been a definite decline in social startup investment recently. At the height of the social media frenzy in 2006, WAYN secured series A funding to the tune of US$11-million, but more intriguingly, when investment in social startups started to decline, WAYN closed a series B round of US$5.5 million in 2012. This shows that even though the market has grown weak, investors are still interested in throwing their money at social networks with prolific business models. So what sets WAYN apart from the rest? The way it monetises its user base via incentives is one reason. Another is the fact that the company has its feet in both the social-lifestyle and travel industry. This makes it appealing to advertisers. Although there is a VIP service option users aren’t charged registration fees and monetisation of its user base is based on the idea of buying credits in order to gain website benefits.

It’s important as noted by Peter Ward that ‘money vs traffic is the trade-off.’ Premium vs freemium subscriptions. WAYN tries to find the sweet spot in between. Users used to pay for a premium service in order to interact with other users but can now merely choose to upgrade based on incentives. Premium VIP members accounts for only one percent of the site’s users but for 10% of user traffic.

Users can pay up to US$14.99 for a VIP subscription fee. WAYN encourages users to earn credits either through PayPal payments, sharing personal information, taking part in surveys or inviting friends. Unlike TripAdvisor WAYN wants its users to be ‘discovering new things to do, engaging with users and sharing experiences beyond reviews, via their profile.’ The subscription service does has its perks in revenue but hints at the cringe-worthy characteristics of a dating site.

The site undergoes a similar popularity-voting system such as Zuckerberg’s infamous Facemash where users earn ‘likes’ or can rate each other’s photos. Users can increase their popularity (or earn), by buying certain benefits such as having your profile picture shown first when other users are seeking nearby friends. Basically the more active your are or information you put online, the more credit and popularity you gain, the more WAYN can ‘commercialise user data’ and the more advertisers will flock to the website.

This might come at a cost as the website’s ‘openess’ and constant viral attempts can tarnish its reputation. The company is known for its incentive based marketing tactics. For example, users can ‘Invite 30 friends to join and get a 30 day free VIP subscription’, earn credits when a friend accepts your invitation or partake in polls. At the end of the day all of these incentives generates more personal data which adds to its advertising revenue. The company has a history of founding itself under the criticism of unhappy users, claiming it’s marketing tactics are unethical. Criticism ranges from claiming spam-driven tactics to stealing user data.

Some might find some of the company’s viral and popularity tactics unsavoury. These tactics seem to be working though. Among other things, WAYN’s monetisation of its users and viral strategies seems to be paying off though as the company remains afloat in an increasing dog-eat-dog environment of social media. The company’s interest in emerging markets adds to its success as its increasing an already successful foothold.

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Fiji has been chosen as one of the top seven dream destinations in the world by 21 million worldwide users of a popular travel website Where Are You Now? (WAYN).

The island paradise has been chosen alongside Indonesia, South Africa, Dubai, India, Brazil and Turkey.

The nominated destinations (both cities and countries) were selected by employing a combination of market research data and tracking user engagement on WAYN.com. “Most recently, India saw an increase number of interest, both for business and leisure travels in destinations such as Delhi, Punjab, Uttrakhand and Kashmir” said Jerome Touze, co-founder of WAYN.com.

"Brazil was also voted favourite destinations in Latin America, with 40% of respondents from a panel of 38,000 users saying it would be their first choice in the region. It will be interesting to see which destination will achieve the top spot when it comes to our user vote, but being nominated in the top seven is already a great recognition of the work these destinations are doing."

Dubai is in a very strong position with over 10 million tourists having travelled there in 2012, its highest ever annual visitor figure. The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) revealed a 9.3% increase in the number of visitors to the Emirate in 2012.

WAYN’s 21 million users will have the chance to vote for their favourite destination in the next two weeks, out of the seven listed, with prizes up for grabs for those who vote. Additionally, each nominee will receive US$70,000 of marketing promotion globally, out of a US$500,000 marketing contribution from Where Are You Now? Ltd.

"I’m extremely excited about this campaign. We are in a position whereby we have data on over 21 million users in over 193 countries who communicate regularly with one another about their trip plans, where in the world they want to go and what they want to do when they get there."

"Going forward, we intend to roll out more leading award recognitions for the travel and tourism industry, so watch this space," Touze added.

Fiji's Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum late last year launched a re-branded slogan, Fiji- "Where happiness finds you" to promote the South Pacific nation as a more attractive and friendly tourist destination.

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TWENTY-ONE million users on the popular travel website Where Are You Now? (WAYN) have picked Fiji as one of their top seven dream destinations in the world.

Fiji was chosen alongside popular tourist destinations like Indonesia, South Africa, Dubai, India, Brazil and Turkey in a competition run by the website.

Users will vote for their top destination in the next two weeks. WAYN is a website where users can advise each other on where to go and what to do when in cities all around the world — creating an instant travel guide for anyone anywhere in the world.

And this latest achievement for the country comes as no surprise to the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association.

"This is no surprise to me," association president Dixon Seeto said. "In fact I'm somewhat surprised that we are not ranked higher up."

Mr Seeto said Fiji was marketing itself as a South Pacific paradise and with the new re-branded slogan "Where happiness finds you" the number of visitors to the country could only increase.

"Many resorts and hotels in Fiji rank in the top in many holiday categories whether it be for island fun or family resorts."

He explained this all contributed to Fiji's allure as a travel destination.

Jerome Touze, co-founder of WAYN.com said he was extremely excited about the campaign.

"It will be interesting to see which destination will achieve the top spot when it comes to our user vote but being nominated in the top seven is already a great recognition of the work these destinations are doing."

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