OREANDA-NEWS.  July 04, 2012. Enterprise Estonia has launched an innovative new tool on www.visitestonia.com : the Travel Planner. Available in seven languages, it is designed to make holiday planning easier for travellers by allowing them to put together an itinerary that takes all of their interests and wishes into account.

It produces a detailed route map with instructions on how to get from one point to the next and provides information about the latest events, active recreation opportunities, attractions, places to eat and the special offers that are available at the time.

Travel plans can be saved and revised, users can create their own accounts and the tool can be shared with friends. Users can click on the map for recommendations with photos and videos, with detailed instructions on how to get there provided in every language.

“Not only is the idea of the Travel Planner itself unique in Estonia, but so is the technology we’re using for it among similar international applications,” explained Tarmo Mutso, Marketing Director  of Estonian Tourist Board, Enterprise Estonia. “The majority of similar tools on offer are ‘bookmark-based’, meaning users have to know exactly what they’re looking for – do their homework in advance, look up information and put everything together themselves. But the Travel Planner comes up with options itself, based on users’ interests, opening times and the popularity of tourism sites – and you can set preferences yourself when it comes to what you’re most interested in. If you Google something, you have to know what you’re looking for first, but someone who’s thinking of coming to Estonia won’t necessarily know all there is to see and do here.”

The Travel Planner is available in Estonian, Finnish, Russian, English, Swedish, German and Latvian – the languages covering Estonia’s main target markets, as well as the domestic market. As such, search results are optimised primarily with foreign tourists in mind.

The Travel Planner was developed by Enterprise Estonia, Nortal (formerly Webmedia) and the research and development centre ELIKO (the Technology Competence Centre in Electronics, Information and Communication Technologies) with financing from the European Fund for Regional Development.

In all seven languages the Travel Planner makes use of the data from visitestonia.com tourism information system, which contains details of more than 1600 tourism companies and 7000 sites around Estonia.

You can access the Travel Planner at visitestonia.com/travelplanner