The new "Travel Channel Layover Guide With Anthony Bourdain" has debuted to become the top-selling iPhone paid app in the travel category, Twitter site @NextTopApp reported and a network rep affirmed.
The $1.99 app is Travel Channel'sfirst travel guide application first made available on iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com) on March 7 (Wednesday).
The app aims at providing "the highly curated vision of Emmy-winning host Anthony Bourdain" with practical tools to help users create their own Bourdain-inspired excursions, the Scripps-owned network said.
It features exclusive content from the network's hit series, The Layover and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, and lets users customize trips from an afternoon pub crawl to a week-long immersion of food, drink and fun across 10 featured cities: Amsterdam, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, Rome, San Francisco and Singapore.
A demo is available at http://www.travelchannel.com/mobile/bourdain-layover-app.
"Today's launch is the latest example of Travel Channel's expansion across multiple platforms as a travel lifestyle brand, providing a highly engaging, content-rich user experience closely integrated with on-air programming. We've been tantalizing viewers with inspiring programming for years," Travel Channel president Laureen Ong said in a release. "Now, with the launch of this app, we're closing the gap between the linear channel and digital platforms, taking it to the next step to actually enable consumers to get traveling!"
Functions include:
- An integrated timeline that allows users to plan and adjust their own personalized itinerary using Bourdain's recommended Points of Interest (POIs).
- A layover builder (or itinerary builder) that automatically estimates travel time to help you plan your own layover. Users can browse and filter POIs, save favorites to "My Layover," and adjust the order of destinations. The app uses Google maps to estimate travel time between POIs on your itinerary.
- Customized video intros and notes about each city from Bourdain himself as well as inspiring images of each destination, and a personal list of travel "Do's and "Don'ts" anchored by Bourdain's always-unique perspective and voice.
- Exclusive inspiration lists created by Bourdain that provide an unexpected backdrop to visiting each city, including his favorite movies, music and books. His recommendations vary from watching the Steve McQueen classic, "Bullitt," before heading to San Francisco to studying the "Au Pied de Cochon" cookbook by Martin Picard while planning a trip to Montreal.
- Integrated social features including checking-in to locations, earning badges and sharing to Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.
