Smart-City Booking Platform Nashville.city to Boost Local Economy

A new SMART-tourism platform has launched in Nashville with the promise to redefine the online reservation booking experience by leveraging technology to put the power back into the hands of local businesses. Nashville.city was launched as the first market in America, with cities across Tennessee and the nation being added rapidly. 

“This platform was created as a response to the ‘extraction economy,’ where the traditional booking engines charge local businesses large commissions and take those dollars out of the local economy,” said Rob Monster, CEO of DigitalTown, Inc., the company behind the development of the SMART-city platform. “Nashville.city provides the technology to enhance the customer booking experience, create cost savings for merchants and consumers while reinvesting commission dollars back into the local economy."

DigitalTown is partnering with state and local hospitality and tourism associations to introduce the service, and the cost savings are reinvested to benefit the business community. Looking ahead, Monster sees a globally connected, experience-driven platform that is hyper-local in focus.
“DigitalTown levels the playing field for small businesses who may have traditionally been required to surrender a significant percentage of the sale to a large booking engine, with no leverage to negotiate,” Monster says. “Now a small bed and breakfast, independent restaurant or a local boutique can have the same online accessibility to customers as a more powerful competitor. Moreover, we can tailor the search results in a very sophisticated manner to ensure the user is finding exactly what he or she is looking for from verified local merchants.”

Greg Adkins, president of the Tennessee Hospitality & Tourism Association, says DigitalTown is the missing link for enabling communities to maximize the local economic benefits of travel and tourism. “Through this technology, there’s an opportunity for not only chambers of commerce and visitor’s bureaus to leverage it from a revenue standpoint, but we’re non-profit organizations, and our hearts are in the right place,” Adkins says. “We can give our members – the hotels, restaurants, attractions and other merchants – a much more advantageous commission structure on bookings. Everyone wins, and those dollars remain in our local economies."

Nashville entrepreneur Benjamin Goldberg, whose company, Strategic Hospitality, stewards some of the city’s most popular destination restaurants, sees the benefits not only to his company, but also to the community at large.

“We are excited to have an alternative direct reservation platform in Nashville, a comprehensive, one-stop shop for tourists and residents to book a reservation, book their hotel room, and even purchase local retail goods, all from their phone or computer,” Goldberg says. “I truly believe this new smart tourism movement with DigitalTown and the Tennessee Hospitality & Tourism Association will help other state associations across the country become part of the new digital movement as it gains market share.”

Businesses are encouraged to visit Nashville.city to explore the platform and join the movement by establishing their individual pages, which can include photo and video galleries; menus and products; links and mapping; and booking and purchasing functionality, among other features.

DigitalTown, Inc. (DGTW) powers Smart Cities to succeed in the Digital Age. The company provides turn-key hosted solutions to power "Digital Towns," which improve Quality of Life for residents and visitors through integrated solutions for economic development, civic engagement and digital inclusion for cities around the world. For more information about the company, please visit www.digitaltown.com.

Safe Harbor Language: Any statements contained herein related to future events are forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act 1995. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. DigitalTown, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update any such statements to reflect actual events.