Vox Group to Australasia

PETER Smith has taken a new role as the Managing Director of Vox Group Australasia, with a brief to establish the touring and guiding technology company’s 51st global office.

Smith was most recently GM of Beyond Travel Group and has also held other roles with McLachlan Tours, eWaterways, Creative Cruising and Zuji, and told Travel Daily the business launched in 2001 and is now the global leader in both audio guiding hardware and smartphone destination software solutions.

Currently used by many tour operators, Vox systems services more than eight million travellers a year on 20 million audio tours, with the company having 3,500 industry partners.

Rome-based Vox also has an exclusive agreement with the Vatican for its Vox Mundi product, while the company also offers options for tourist offices, airports, cruising, cultural attractions, hotels & travel agents.

Innovations this year target the growing FIT sector, including the introduction of smartphone- based self-guided city sightseeing and museum tours.

Currently Vox city guides cover 16 global destinations, with that figure expanding monthly.

“We’re expecting big things in Australia,” Smith said.

The full product range will be available locally, with the Vox Group global team also including former Insight Vacations global chief John Boulding.

Smith is currently in the process of establishing an office in Sydney, and in the meantime can be contacted on 02 8006 2834 or peter.smith@voxtours.com.