Marriott International is getting in on the mobile-gaming business with a new app designed to appeal to travelers.
The hotel company has just launched Xplor, a virtual traveling game for iOS devices that encourages players to explore notable landmarks in five major cities around the globe. The title has players tracking down their missing aunt Sophia. In order to find her, they’ll have to solve puzzles, talk to characters, and see the sights in New York City, Sao Paulo, Paris, Dubai, and Beijing.
Marriott is hoping to use Xplor to attract young people to its brand.
“Social gaming is part of our innovation strategy to engage customers and attract the next generation of social, mobile travelers and employees to Marriott,” Marriott International chief human resources officer David Rodriguez said in a statement. “With more than half a billion people playing social games globally, this is an exciting new channel for our company to promote travel and engage with people.”
To encourage Marriott guests to play the game (and players to book with Marriott hotels), the company is raffling off 100,000 Marriott reward points to five random people who finish the game before Nov. 25.
“I applaud the entrepreneurial spirit behind this game, which was conceived by a group of employees from various departments, age groups, and levels across the company,” Marriott International group president David Grissen said. “They observed guests playing games to decompress between meetings, while waiting to board a flight, or even lounging by the pool, and convinced us to test a new way of engaging with guests.”
Marriott is working with developer Evviva Games to create and run Xplor. This is Marriott’s second social game. The company launched My Marriott Hotel in 2011, which is a Facebook management-style game.
Xplor is available now for free on the iTunes App Store.