With luxury travel seeing a surge in bookings for remote destinations and exclusive experiences, Goway Travel partnered with Therefore for a transformative rebrand and digital overhaul. With its 55th anniversary on the horizon and in response to post-pandemic market shifts, Goway, under the direction of new VP of Marketing Mitchell Fawcett, sought to expand its global reach and provide a more personalized online experience. The resulting fully composable website architecture aligns with Goway’s editorial-led marketing strategy and has already increased conversion rates by up to 50% since launch on June 3.
Client
Goway Travel
Industry
Travel
Type
Rebrand and Composable CMS-driven Website Design and Development
Technology
Drupal, React, Gatsby
Partners
Netlify, Platform.sh, AWS
Project Link
Services Provided
Digital Strategy, Visual Identity Design, UX Research, Content Audit, Content Strategy, UX Design, Design System Development, User Interface Design, Drupal CMS Development, Automated Testing, Post-Launch Support, Conversion Rate Optimization
Goway.com was last redeveloped in 2013 using the Django CMS. Since then, Goway has expanded its offerings across all seven continents, resulting in over 70,000 web pages to showcase its growing roster of tailored trips.
Goway Travel’s expertise spans diverse regions and travel styles, making Goway a versatile partner for travelers and travel advisors. However, this vast collection of content became increasingly cumbersome to manage. The problem was compounded by an outdated architecture that focused on product categorization rather than customer-focused navigation, making it difficult for travelers to find relevant information, and ultimately hindering lead generation and conversions.
The site was struggling with poor usability and slow load times, especially on mobile devices which made up over 50% of traffic. Critical integrations with new systems, such as iVector for reservations and Salesforce for CRM, were all but unattainable with the current setup.
Overall, the outdated platform couldn’t support Goway's ambitions for significant growth and wasn’t aligned with modern digital marketing strategies, including personalized content and dynamic pricing.
Goway’s origins date back to 1970, following the golden age of air travel when travel was an experience to be savored. During this time, the world became more connected, and international travel became more accessible.
Inspired by the past and looking to the future, our Goway rebrand and newly tailored visual identity focused on what will define the next golden era of travel—personalized experiences, facilitated by human expertise combined with advanced technology and data.
The Goway rebrand explored several creative territories, emphasizing a consistent and cohesive design across all touchpoints. The focus was on personalization and tailor-made experiences, reflecting Goway's expertise in crafting bespoke travel adventures. The tone of voice aimed to be like advice from a trusted friend —knowledgeable, approachable, and professional. The creative driver was to rekindle joy and youthful excitement and a new colour palette was introduced, breaking from the previous blue and red scheme to a more ownable palette that would stand out among competitors.
Content Strategy & Governance
To evaluate Goway's existing content, we performed a comprehensive audit to distinguish valuable content from the outdated. This process involved amalgamating goway.com with blog.goway.com, unifying all content under one roof and creating a seamless journey from inspiration to booking. We used custom Python scripts and ChatGPT to restructure unstructured content and fill in gaps. Primary user research, including tree testing, helped us align the content organization with users' mental models. These efforts informed our design decisions and set the metrics we continue to monitor post-launch to ensure optimal performance.
Composable Architecture Delivers Freedom & Flexibility
Recognizing the need for a major digital transformation, the new Goway website was envisioned as a central composable content hub from which various content types could be efficiently delivered to customers and partners, tailored to their preferences and consumed at their convenience.
Agility became a core principle of this new architecture. Our strategy was to integrate a variety of best-of-breed services, each specializing in specific functions, allowing for ultimate flexibility and the freedom to replace any service with a better one as needed.
The fully composable architecture included several key components. Amazon S3 was used for image storage, with Netlify caching images in the CDN to enhance performance. MySQL on AWS provided cost-effectiveness and scalability, while AWS Solr indexed all Drupal content, offering fast search capabilities and control over version and cluster management. An AWS API Gateway managed connections to S3, Solr, and the MySQL database, decoupling content management from the Drupal build. Platform.sh hosted the Drupal CMS, squarely focusing on content management, with Netlify handling builds and CDN deployment, featuring static site generation using Gatsby.
Travel API & Salesforce Customized Integrations
At the same time as the redesign and rebuild of the website, Goway was embarking on another major initiative to replace its incumbent reservation system. iVector was to be the primary reservation system, replacing Travelbox, handling daily updates of trip itineraries, accommodations, and pricing. Meanwhile integration with Salesforce was also essential for managing customer data, streamlining CRM activities, and enhancing marketing automation.
These integrations aimed to improve content management, customer service, and overall operational efficiency. The system has to ensure seamless data synchronization and support for advanced features like targeted communication and personalized customer experiences.
Streamlined CMS Editorial Workflows & Custom Dashboards
Lastly, the Drupal admin interface was extensively customized to provide Goway’s editorial team with a streamlined experience. Custom dashboards offered shortcuts for common tasks, while integration with Netlify’s API exposed build and publish statuses for both content lists and individual items. The navigation was organized to reflect the business's workflow without imposing constraints on how users consume content. A flexible data model was created, ensuring the content could be used across multiple platforms and channels, recognizing that its final destination might extend beyond just the website.
Key Metrics
Additional Achievements
Mitchell Fawcett, VP of Marketing
80 Atlantic Ave, Toronto, ON Canada
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