Booking.com has revamped search on its mobile and digital properties so users can find travel destinations that fit their passions, supporting the discovery of new locations.

The new search experience prompts users to enter in their passions for vacation on the toolbar and an approximate location range that can extend to worldwide. Booking.com’s new toolbar now equips users looking for a new vacation places based on the kind of activities they are interested in, rather than being limited to searching for a specific location or hotel.

“People have been constrained when it comes to online travel search,” said Leslie Cafferty, vice president and head of global communications at the Priceline Group, owner of Booking.com. “You have to know your city and/or the hotel you want to visit in order to book on most major Web sites.

“This works for people who know definitively where they want to go,” she said. “But what about the experience seeker who wants to find the best destination to fit whatever his/her passion might be?

“If I love surfing and I want to find a new destination with amazing surfing, how can I do this without having to go to two different websites, one with curated information to do my research, and then one to book the destination I decide on.”

Booking mobile searches
Users on Booking.com can enter a wide range of interests and passions for their future vacations such as skydiving, dancing, food-focused locations and beautiful views. The search bar will provide locations and hotels that best match these activities.

For instance, if a user is interested in skydiving, the search will provide a list of places known best for the activity and in a ranking order. Vacation goers can also adjust the area range they are looking for, ranging from worldwide to a specific city.

Booking.com has noted there are more than 200 passions to choose from in the new search, such as truffle hunting and learning the tango. The destination rankings are based on consumer reviews and experts in travel.

Booking.com mobile wins
The travel service also recently linked consumers’ New Year’s resolutions to travel bookings via a new mobilized Web site that matches an adventure to a user’s goals (see more).

Booking.com also joined forces with global multimedia publisher Time Out to roll out a native campaign featuring social media influencers to fuel mobile bookings from spontaneous millennial travelers (see more).

“We are creating an experience on Booking.com that allows people to search for destinations by passion,” Ms. Cafferty said. “You can discover amazing places tied to your passions, and book the destination all in one place.

“No other digital travel site is built for this,” she said. “Booking.com is a mobile-first company.

“Today one third of bookings are made on a mobile device and we expect that will be 50 percent within two years. Mobile is not an afterthought for us, so every product we built is completely optimized for mobile, and Passion Search is no different. You can search the world by your passion using any device.”