That’s because Gozo is smaller, less populated and much quieter than the main island of Malta. The booming sounds of pubs, the screaming kids, big tourist groups following their guide – it all goes away when you set foot on Gozo. It’s the kind of place where people are hard-working (the Maltese say also hard-headed) and yet very friendly, almost naive in their way of life; doors to houses are kept open or simply unlocked when the owners are gone.

The island’s capital, Rabat (known today as Victoria), offers everything you need for a few hours of shopping and sightseeing. Yet the major attraction of Gozo, aside from its people, is its serenity and natural beauty. The clear, blue waters of the hidden bays, the fishing villages, Merlot vineyards. It all sums up as a gift to soul that seeks relaxation.

I fell in love with Malta and especially Gozo after visiting there a few times and simply can’t wait to go back again. The L’Imgarr (Limjahr) Hotel used to be my favorite but it no longer exists. So there are two others which you must try if you come here: The St. Patrick’s Hotel on the water at Xlendi Bay (Shlendi) and the Ta’ Cenc Hotel (Tah Chench). If you’re anything like me, you’ll never want to go back home.

To get to Gozo, you can take the Gozo Channel Ferry from Cirkewwa on the Maltese side to Mgarr on the Gozitan side. During the summer months, the ferry literally operates 24 hours every day. You can also get there by Harbour Air Sea Planes operating flights from the Valletta harbour.  

“The Azure Window”, Gozo, the Maltese Archipelago. Photo courtesy of the Malta Tourism Authority

“A farmhouse in Gozo, the Maltese Archipelago

Photo courtesy of the Malta Tourism Authority Gozo Tourism Video: 

This blog post is copied from our main site blog.

Here are a few highlights of the ongoing development on GoScopia.com:

1. Change in Categories Displayed

Some of the services categories we show, when the user clicks on a map icon, or even in general throughout the site, are either outdated, confusing or no longer relevant. The reasons for this are many, mostly because as we developed the site from the start, we tried to make each service category relevant to the current search or area of the screen. An example of this is “Airports”. In one area of the screen we show the word “Airports” as a category and in another area of the screen we show the word “Flights”, even though they both relate to the same data.

 In working on GoScopia.com, our life basically evolves around three major terms: “nodes”, relating to airports, rail and bus stations and ports or ferry terminals, “modes”, relating to the modes of transportation accessible at each of the nodes or around a particular location such as flights, trains, buses, ferries and car rentals. Finally, we have “services”relevant to travel such as tours, hotels, airport parking, tour operators and even airport lounges. 

So to simplify things for the users and even ourselves, we have done some serious thinking about the way we display the nodes, modes and services. In the very near future, our pop-up windows will be more interactive and allow the user to move forward and backwards in the same window while searching between main categories (nodes) and sub categories (modes and services). So if currently, when clicking on an airport icon you see the categories of “Scheduled Airlines” and “Air Taxi”, you will soon see just the category of “Airlines” or “Flights”. Clicking on that link will bring you to the next stage of “Scheduled Airlines”, “Charters”, “Air Ambulance” and “Air Tours”.The great part about it is that within the pop-up window itself, you will be able to move back and forth between the main categories and the sub categories. Didn’t find the sub category you were looking for? No problem, just click on the back button within the pop-up window and start over from the main menu.  

Our hope is that the new display methodology will simplify things for the users and also for us. 

2. Adding Sea and Other Ports

 This is really exciting! We’ve been dealing with airports, bus and rail stations for so long, we figured the time has come to “up the ante” a bit and add almost 9,000 ports around the world. This includes sea ports, river ports, marinas, ferry terminals and anything else that will be relevant to our seafaring friends.

A short Falucca cruise on the Nile can show you Egypt from an angle not seen by others. Photo courtesy of the Egypt Tourism Board

 The object of adding the ports – just as it has been with airports, rail stations and bus stations – is to allow our users to easily find nodes of transportation around any given point worldwide and to quickly and easily see and book the transportation modes and other services available at or nearby those nodes.

To each port we will add the modes of transportation available at that port, such as cruises (sea and river), transportation to and from the port, nearby hotels, local tour operators, yacht rentalsand many others.  

 Yes, we’ll even show the Lido dock on GoScopia for Sea of Galilee cruises in Tiberias, Israel. Photo courtesy of the Israel Government Tourism Office

 The interesting point I’d like to make about the cruises, is that we will not only display the ports of embarkation, but also the ports of call by the cruise lines at each port. As an example, searching the island of Komodo in Indonesia, will show the user that Komodo is a port of call for Azamara Club Cruises, which embark in Singapore and disembark in Hong Kong (or vv). 

This all relates to our overall goal, which is to provide our users a quick, easy and simple way to create their own intermodal travel itineraries to any particular place while picking and choosing the services or attractions of interest inthat particular location. Think of it this way: You know you want to visit Komodo, which is visited by Azamara Cruise Lines which originates in Singapore, where you can enjoy a pre-cruise tour after arriving here with Singapore Airlines which you boarded at the Rome airport to which ValYou Drivers brought you safe and sound in a comfortable, private transfer.

 For the first time in history, a website allows you to plan backwards in time!

We’ll of course keep you updated as we progress with development. Thanks for reading! 

Our development of GoScopia is moving along nicely and we are today able to quickly show our users which airports and other modes of transportation are available just about anywhere worldwide. Why don’t you give us a try to see for yourself, just search for any place, click on the map icons to see information, or add modes of transportation from the blue area on the left of the map.

Now the time has come for us to add cruise ports which will allow for significant search capabilities on GoScopia. In the same way that we have information about services at the airports (pop-up on the map), we will also be adding information about services available at cruise ports, including ports of embarkation, disembarkation and ports of call.

If you would like to be considered as a local tour operator to which we will refer our website users for the purpose of pre-cruise, post-cruise and shore excursions, please do the following:

1. Go to this website and find your country: http://live.unece.org/cefact/locode/service/location.html

2. In your country list of ports, find the port(s) that are applicable to your services and write down the port code. Example, in Afghanistan, the first port code is AFASH, the second is AFBAG, etc.

3. Send an email to info@scopiatech.com with the subject “CRUISE PACKAGES” and your country name. In the email, list the port codes in which you can offer services, as well as the type of service. For example:

AFASH – Post Cruise, Pre-Cruise, Shore Excursions, Transfers, Hotels.
AFBAG – Shore Excursions

4. Please DO NOT send us an email saying “All ports” or “All services”. We do not want to list services at ports to which cruise lines do not reach or where there are no services. Please list only those ports (codes) where there are actually cruise ships and tourism services.

This is our initial stage of gathering information about potential suppliers. In the next stage, once we have picked the tour operators most suitable for our needs, we will ask for service itineraries, pictures, videos and other information.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you and to working together.

Best wishes,
Ophir

So every year, as the date nears, I already know exactly what I will be doing for her birthday. A few years ago, after spending hours of searching through dozens of flower-delivery websites and not finding what I wanted, I stumbled upon a Yellow-Pages listing for a small flower shop located just a few blocks away from my mother’s house. The owner is a very polite, older gentleman and once a year, he becomes my most trusted friend for a few minutes.

He remembers me (“Oh, It’s you from America!”) and always asks how I am and if life has been good to me. He knows my mother lives in an apartment on the third floor and notes that she seems to like Perennials so he suggests a new plant every year to put next to the others, easing my anxiety of not knowing the difference between a Mongolian Carnivorous Cactus and a Chilean Llama Lilac. When we’re done discussing the order, he takes down my credit card number and tells me exactly what time he’ll be delivering the plant, so that I’ll know when to call my mom at just the right, happy moment.

This man is ”the little guy”, the small business owner we all hear about in news about the economy. He doesn’t even have a website. Just a small shop and an old phone. He knows nothing about CRM, Widgets, banners or SEO…But the service he provides is probably the best there is, from all the huge chains and online stores which dominate every page on the search engines. If you were to search for “Flower deliveries” in  my home city, his store name would probably be on page 216 of the search results, at best. Still, there he is. Decade after decade of impeccable service to people like me, all of whom I am sure are thankful that he hasn’t changed his ways.

Flowers in Northern Israel, (photo by Mor Or)

It’s about this gentleman, “the little guy”, that I think when I imagine what GoScopia is all about. We’re not about showing just the obvious solutions, the big companies with the huge marketing budgets and with hundreds of locations worldwide. For them, we are just another website out of thousands trying to get their advertising dollars. For us, “the little guys” – be it local tour operators, specialty guides, independent car rental companies, airport shuttles or hidden B&Bs – for us, they are partners, because they are just like us.

They are the ones working hard every day to jump out of the over-populated fishbowl and shout to the world: “I am here and I am very good at what I do!” We are therefore building the GoScopia platform in a manner which will allow “the little guy” to present herself or himself to the world as a pinpoint solution to a pinpoint need in a pinpoint location.

Our advertising fees are very fair (from US $100 per year for a banner), the display of the solutions – big or small companies – is rotated randomly so that everyone gets the same chance at showcasing themselves. It’s all designed with “the little guy” in mind.

Anyone who has been in the travel industry for any length of time, knows full well that no matter how bright and colorful the website might be or the size of the company behind it, it really comes down to the person who will take care of everything. And who better to serve the travelers or the agents, than someone local, a professional who really knows her or his way around, who understands how things work and what needs to be done to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience for the customer?

When traveling abroad, we all need and probably want a local friend who can give good advice about driving directions, help with logical itineraries to fit our interests and budget or inform us about the difference between a Carnivorous Cactus and a Llama Lilac. It’s that special touch - the human touch - we get when dealing with “the little guy” wherever we may be going (you can also see a note to tour operators on our advertising page).

I hope, as time goes along, that we can convince as many local “little guys” to become our friends and partners, and advertise on GoScopia. It seems to me that having them on board will make our site that much more special.

June 9, 2011

Contacts:  Jim Graziano,  jgraz510@gmail.com +1-920-883-9085

GoScopia.com Starts to Take Off With Travel and Transportation Professionals.

 Milwaukee, WI, USA:  Scopia Technologies LLC, creator of the online travel search engine GoScopia (www.goscopia.com) has seen an increase in use from travel agents and freight forwarders looking for the best solutions for their customers. GoScopia.com is a new travel search engine, showing visitors which airports, rail stations, bus stops and ground transportation options are near any destination for which the visitor chooses to search. For travel agents, the site is a quick method to find the appropriate travel options for their customers.  Also, the site’s data base includes small airports, cargo and other unscheduled flights, as well as showing the distance between an airport and a given address which is critical information for freight forwarders.

“Although we initially set out to attract the on-line traveler, we always knew the depth of our data would be valuable for other travel and transportation professionals,” said Jim Graziano, CMO for Scopia Technologies LLC. “Seeing site traffic from large travel agencies and freight forwarders confirms the strength of our data and the need for an on-line travel solution that offers choices well beyond first-tier airports and rail stations.”

By typing in an address, travel professionals can immediately see which airports they need to access for their clients.  This becomes even more important for freight and transportation arrangers who are looking for the closest airport to a delivery point so they can minimize the cost of drayage and shorten the transit times for their customers

 “In today’s business climate, speed and efficiency are critical elements that can offer any company a competitive edge,” added Graziano, “The point of creating goscopia.com was to give our users quick access to the information they need, allowing them to make better, more informed choices. It’s no surprise savvy travel and transportation professionals see such great value in that which Scopia has to offer .”

Scopia Technologies LLC and its site www.goscopia.com deliver door-to-door travel solutions for the on-line customer. Users have the ability to search individual destinations and discover the multi-modal travel options that will save them time and money. It is a unique service using patent-pending technology to aggregate transportation modes, schedules and travel services specific to the origin and destination(s) from and to which the GoScopia user is planning to travel. The company is currently exploring possibilities of developing a mobile platform which will allow users to find and book nearby travel related products “on the go”. More information can be found on the corporate website, www.scopiatech.com and the development stages can be followed on Twitter or on Facebook.

1. First payment from a client:

Every entrepreneur waits for this. Correction: entrepreneurs don’t wait for this. They work very hard to get to it. It’s the amazing, humbling moment in time when the first client (not mom or cousin Dave, but an actual client) puts down money on the table and says: “I believe in your product and I am willing to pay for it.” We have just experienced this elation for the first time this week and will continue to work very hard to see it happen again and again and agin…forever.

Here’s a screenshot of our first-ever payment received in the amount of $425 (it was actually $450 but the bank took some of the transfer):

2. Users from around the world:

As I wrote below in my previous post, we run a dual reporting system for GoScopia.com, utilizing the fantastic tools of Google Analytics as well as our own internal reports. The reason for this is that with our own reporting system, we can quickly and easily determine what people searched on our site and where they are from.

In the previous post, I wrote about visitors from 68 countries who actually used GoScopia.com to search for information. Since then, the number of countries our users are from has increased to 72. To me, this is a badge of honor for GoScopia because it tells me we are heading in the right direction of what we want to be – a global company with a universally understood product which can be used by anyone, anywhere.

I have had some potential advertisers tell me that they won’t advertise with us until we have “X” number of unique visitors to the site, with a report from Google Analytics to prove our case. This raises an interesting marketing question…Suppose you own a shop that sells red shoes. Which of these days would make you a happy shopkeeper?

1. A day in which 10,000 random people walked by your shop, of which about 200 actually walked in. Or,
2. A day in which 1,000 people walked by your shop, all of whom have an interest in buying shoes. About 100 of them walked in. Or,
3. A day in which 50 people walked in, specifically looking for red shoes.

I don’t know yet if Goscopia can provide our advertisers with a platform similar to #2 above or #3. But of one thing I am almost sure – we probably don’t want to become a #1 type of platform, generating high numbers of random visitors and “bots” which do nothing for the advertisers.

I am very excited that people (and not bots) from 72 countries around the world – USA, Iran, New Zealand, Israel, China, Germany, India, Chile, Estonia, Korea, Senegal and many others – used GoScopia and hopefully found what they needed on our site. As a business, the question now comes on how we can continue to provide useful information to users while providing the best and most relevant advertising platform to advertisers.

There has to be some sort of added value to the advertiser based on the fact that users from 72 countries searched for information on GoScopia. We just need to find out that value proposition and present it in a clear and concise manner.

This brings me to the third major, and most significant event of the week…

3. Pop-up map displays:

Until now, we’ve displayed our content to users on a map, color-coded by the types of transportation and in a list below the map. The user could search for a location and see the modes (types) on the map, while the names of the modes and other relevant information were displayed only in the list. The process went something like this: See purple #1 on the map, then head down to the list to see that purple #1 is Frankfurt Airport. If you didn’t know that there was a list below the map, then we had probably just lost a client who did not understand what it is we do.

As of yesterday, we’ve added a few fantastic new features, making the search much quicker and simpler on GoScopia:

1. Users can now search GoScopia for any location (address, city name, airport code, major attraction and even geographic coordinates). Toggling the modes on/off is easy prior to or after the search is performed (may be helpful in reducing the number of icons displayed on the map).
2. The map is displayed with the color-coded icons. The colors of the icons correspond with the colors of the modes which can be seen on the right side of the screen. Clicking on a map icon will open a menu of the services (airlines, rail, bus routes, car rentals) available at that specific location.
3. The list still exists below the map. Clicking on the icons on the right side of the screen will take the user straight down to that category of transportation in the list. It’s important, by the way, to explain that the list exists for the purpose of showing the distance to available transportation around a specific address or city center.
4. In the list area, clicking on the icon by the bus station name or the car rental station name will zoom the map to that location and take the user straight up to the map for easy viewing, as well as an open pop-up window ready to book.
   

   Pop-Up on the new and improved GoScopia map display.

All in all, I believe these enhancements to GoScopia will make our site friendlier and much easier to understand. The pop-ups from the map create a very unique advertising opportunity, in my opinion.

Thanks to Moira, Qiang and Jim for all their hard work to make this happen. What a team, I tell you. What a team!

Here are some links to follow Scopia Technologies LLC and our development efforts: Linked-In, Facebook, Twitter and on our news page.

We began looking at data from our internal reports back on March 6, 2011. The report can tell us which country the user is from and which country the user searched. It gives us a rather clear picture of the interests of users from different countries for the purpose of making our product more useful and usable, as well as provide more relevant advertising.

So from March 6, 2011 until today, I am pleased to say we have welcomed visitors who actually used GoScopia from 68 countries and territories worldwide. These friends searched for locations in 87 countries and territories.

Here are the lists. On the left, where the users are from (ISO code and name) and on the right, the countries searched (ISO code and name).

In doing so with GoScopia.com, I am amazed and very proud of what we have achieved so far based on which, it isn’t so far-fetched to begin thinking that the future is ours. All we have to do is hang on tight, believe in our direction and not let go of the dream, to create the world’s best travel and tourism portal.

Keeping a good and strong focus on our direction isn’t as easy as it may sound. Competitors in the online travel arena are plentiful. Many companies try to provide services similar to what we eventually want to create with GoScopia, except they devote a whole website to just that one aspect of it. The best way to meet our competitors and learn about the online travel universe in which we exist, is to visit Tnooz, a complete encyclopedia of everything that has to do with online travel. The new companies are showcased in T-Labs. In the very near future, GoScopia should be presented there as well. Regardless, I believe our scope of capabilities and services in the creation, aggregation and use of transportation data for the benefit of the clients and our company, outweighs much of what our competitors can do. There is a huge benefit to our experience in, and understanding of, the travel industry. This, as opposed to many of our competitors who put together something “cool”, but which will probably have very limited use on its own in the near and distant future.

All that being said, maintaining a certain level of paranoia is always a good thing in business. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer…”.

What We Have Achieved So Far:

Data is the most important aspect of any respected online travel portal and so we put a lot of emphasis on finding, uploading and maintaining data in easy, efficient and sustainable fashions. So far we have created systems and working methodologies for…

• Airlines: Upload, maintain and display the routing information for the vast majority of the world’s scheduled carriers, if not all. Also, do the same rather easily with Air Taxi and any other non-scheduled
• Airports: We are able to display not just the location of over 9,000 airports, but also distinguish – by use of a special algorithm - the airports’ size and relevance to a particular search.
• Rail Stations: Through two main sources, we are able to generate, maintain and display data for thousands of rail stations worldwide. We expect this list to grow rapidly, since rail companies all serve their data in different ways.
• Buses: Whether public transportation or private shuttle companies, we are able to  generate, maintain and display data for thousands of bus stations and routes.  
• Ferries: Amazingly, ferries aren’t that hard to maintain because most of them operate very simple routes between two or three terminals. So today we display dozens of ferry companies from San Francisco to Boston to New Zealand.
• Rentals: Thousands of rental-type locations can be easily stored, maintained and displayed for cars, RVs/motor homes, motorbikes, bicycles, mopeds, scooters and the like. If you can rent it and it moves – we can easily upload all of the locations onto our database.
• Others: We’ve been able to aggregate, load and store data about hotels, airport parking and even lounges, although this matter needs to be further investigated and churned a bit. It’s a huge market out there and we want to be able to offer the services in the most relevant manner possible.

Displaying the data in an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand fashion is a goal with the highest priority at Scopia Technologies. If we want users from all countries and walks of life to access GoScopia.com through all available web platforms – PC, Tablet, Laptop or Mobile -  then the data has to be continuously streamlined in a manner that is easily understood by all. Our ultimate goal is to make sure that even a 10-year-old from Papua or a senior citizen of the Seychelles will be able to easily and simply interact with GoScopia, just like a college kid from New Jersey. This is why the use of icons is so important for us at GoScopia. Big, colorful and easy to understand.

There is a direct connection between all aspects of our website search and results. The icons are visible when choosing which modes of transportation to search. The same color icons are then numbered and displayed on the map and finally, the same colors and numbers are visible in the list below the map. We think it’s a rather easy way of communicating with our users, regardless of what language they speak. The addition of the Google Translator widget to our website has been remarkable in allowing users to translate search results into their own language, thereby making GoScopia even more universal. I would like to think we are heading in a global direction, rather than the usual run-of-the-mill-English-only-type-of-trip-planning website.

GoScopia search results translated to Thai

What We Can Offer at the Current Stage:

• Travelers: For leisure or business, GoScopia can provide immediate solutions to very simply, yet important questions, such as “What is the nearest airport to X and which airlines fly there?”, or “Is there public transportation at the airport”, or “Are there motor home rentals nearby the place we’re going?” All these questions and many more are answered easily, immediately and simply on GoScopia. In addition to the data we display, there are also relevant advertisements in the form of banners. By “relevant” I mean advertisements relating to the user’s physical location, advertisements relating to the destination city/country searched or a combination of both. We have an advertising page for those interested and we’re trying to get “advertiser #2″ after achieving the first one, Ezop Travel of Turkey.
• Travel Agents: We’re at the point where we can easily flush out our banners and upload banners specific to an interested agency, thereby providing them with their own “GoScopia site” as a white label product for use by their clients. On the other hand, travel agents spend much of their time seeking exactly the solutions provided on GoScopia (the questions asked bove by travelers are usually the same questions asked by the travel agents). In addition, many of them have preferred suppliers for enhanced commissions or negotiated rates. We can easily help an interested agency to create an efficiency tool for use by their agents, not only to find the nearest airport to a particular address, but also which preferred airlines fly there, which preferred hotel chains have locations by the airport, preferred car rental companies, etc. All the agent has to do is click and book. The reservation will automatically include their ARC/IATA number or corporate account.
• Airlines: As with the travel agents, here to we can easily “flush out” our banners and create a white label product for airlines, or a data feed based on their website. Airlines are always seeking for new ways to enhance their revenues (aren’t we all?) and GoScopia can help them do it easily, in addition to providing their users with tons of added value when visiting the airline’s website. Imagine you’d like to fly to ABC-City using XYZ-Airline but, alas, neither XYZ-Airlines nor their partners fly to that airport. With GoScopia, we can easily show the nearest airports served by XYZ-Airlines and their partners, along with other useful information and products, the commission from which can be shared between us.
• Hotel Chains: The same goes for hotel chains. Anyone in the e-commerce industry knows the worst thing that can happen during a potential client’s visit to the website is…when they leave to another site to get more information. With GoScopia, hotel chains can keep visitors on their website and provide them with valuable information on nearby airports, limos and shuttles, attractions and much more.

Our Next Steps:

There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re heading for very interesting times. We’re going to utilize all this fantastic data we have collected and will continue to collect, to create intermodal itineraries according to the user’s profile, trip requirements, preferences and many other parameters. We also plan on creating websites specifically for mobile platforms of all kinds. There are, of course, many other plans but let’s keep something for future blog entries.

Regardless, it does seem to me that Scopia Technologies LLC, through our site GoScopia.com, has an integral part in the future of online trip planning.

Technology upgrades allow site visitors to find public transportation options by typing their destination address or city in GoScopia.com . The site immediately displays the airports nearest the user’s intended destination, and with one additional click on the “Public Transportation” button next the airport’s name, the display will show the name of the public transportation stop or station and the routes served. A link to the transportation agency is also provided for additional information the user may require.

“This is a great enhancement for our users. With our proprietary search algorithms, our users are able to find public modes of transportation options in more than 150 cities, towns and regions worldwide.” said Jim Graziano, CMO of Scopia Technologies. “The public modes are displayed by distance from and direction to any address, city name or attraction.”

Beyond simple airport listings, Scopia has always offered multiple options for taxis, limousines, buses, trains, ferries, car hires and other modes of transportation. The difficulty in providing public transportation has been many public transportation agencies do not list their schedules and route data in a usable format on the Internet. Thus, it was a much more manual process to gather that information.

Currently, the company has augmented its data with more the listings available from global schedule aggregators. Scopia is helping push this data availability concept with agencies throughout the world. By providing local public transportation agencies with a global platform, Scopia hopes to offer public transportation routes and schedules for every city in its data base.

“Public transportation has always been a cornerstone of our service offering,” Graziano added. “So many people across the globe rely on buses, rail and shuttles to save cost, help the environment or both. That’s why we are continuously working with providers to add more cities and make the data more useful and relevant to our users.”

Scopia Technologies and its site http://www.goscopia.com deliver door-to-door travel solutions for the on-line customer. Users have the ability to search individual destinations and discover the intermodal travel options that will save them time and money. It is a unique service using patent-pending technology to aggregate transportation modes, schedules and travel services specific to the origin and destination(s) from and to which the GoScopia user is planning to travel. More information can be found on the corporate website, http://www.scopiatech.com and the development stages can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/scopiatech or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GoScopia.