March 2007 Archives

What is the world of online travel coming to when the leading players in this space start employing fictional characters to pump up their sales and then issue a press release commenting on the escapades of their made-up creatures to boot?

First we had Cheapflight's "Where the hell is Biggles?" campaign on YouTube, and now we have "The Roaming Gnome" from Travelocity hitting the screens of MySpace.

US-based interactive marketing company Click Here says its latest online effort to showcase Travelocity’s beloved ad icon is realising huge success.

In a press release, Click Here notes that the gnome is “not all about fun and games” (of course not, gnomes are serious business).

The company adds, “Travelocity’s foray into MySpace with The Roaming Gnome was made with increases in traffic, bookings and brand loyalty/buzz, as well as exposure to new audiences, clearly in mind”.

Case in point: with minimal hype following the profile’s soft launch, The Roaming Gnome has thus far amassed more than 3,300 friends (gnomes have friends???).

To help keep the brand top of mind in the social networking space, The Roaming Gnome’s profile has an array of features for his friends to enjoy, including downloadable icons, wallpapers and profile skins; videos; ringtones; games; a search/booking widget; and access to the Gnome store on Travelocity.

And that's not all. The Roaming Gnome will apparently "actively" (what!) communicate with his friends via regular blog entries and bulletins.

Well, how do you like that?

There's only one slight problem from what I can see: It's not terribly original.

According to urban legend, several years ago a couple of backpackers nicked a gnome from an older couple's front garden.

For the following 12 months, the backpackers sent postcards to the couple, featuring the gnome in various settings around the world--the Pyramids, the Great Wall, etc.

One day, the couple woke up to find their gnome placed comfortably back in their garden, albeit looking slightly worse for the wear.

The story goes that the gnome's parents (parents???) told a local reporter about the incident and the travelling gnome legend was born.

Then again, he probably didn't have nearly as many "friends" as Travelocity's gnome.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

We at Travolution are all in favour of comments to our blog postings and though we would love to reply to all of them, there are some comments in particular which absolutely deserve editorial feedback.

Amadeus's response to Tuesday's "Two down, two to go" blog post regarding the ongoing negotiations between British Airways and the GDSs is one such example.

In its comment, Amadeus, which, like Worldspan, has yet to finalise a distribution contract with BA, observed, "The idea that we would delay discussions on any agreement in favour of a minor short-term gain is wrong. In any case, until 10 April the situation, in terms of booking fees, is the same for all GDSs".

Amadeus is, of course, correct. I don't really think the GDSs are trying to take financial advantage of BA.

Rather, the point was that BA has taken more than its fair share of punches during what has become a rather protracted negotiation process, and those who might be quick to blame BA alone for the delay should consider that there are two sides to every story.

The airline has stood its ground despite mounting pressure from the travel trade and the prospect of paying higher GDS fees while it works out the terms of its new distribution contracts.

This tactic, while initially unnerving to BA's leisure and business travel partners, is likely to result in a greater return for the airline in the long term, which can only benefit its shareholders, travel agent and GDS partners and travellers.

So, for the record, my point was that it is time to put an end to the endless finger-pointing (amusing as it may have been for a while), and to focus on other important issues at hand.

Speaking of which, Heathrow's Terminal 5, whose successful opening and operation is a critical part of BA's long-term strategy, is scheduled to open in exactly 363 days.

April 10th may very well be an important date, as Amadeus pointed out, but, in the grander scheme of things, it's the landmark date of 27 March 2008 which will really make a difference to the future of BA, its agent partners and travellers.

Let the countdown begin.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Can't imagine seeing these here in London - just yet.

Expedia in the US has been working on a bit of a guerilla marketing campaign, in the guise of yellow and blue-clad dancers.

The suitcase wielding, Fame-wannabes have apparently been, erm, wowing the crowds across a string of US cities. Here's a clip from New York:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBxfXsyjKsY]

Will we perhaps see them outside Buckingham Palace?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

British Airways has signed a three-year inventory distribution deal with Sabre TravelNetwork which will give the GDS's travel agent subscribers access to all of BA's fares. The inventory will be available to all Sabre connected-travel agents worldwide.

The new Sabre opt-in program guarantees travel agents in the UK and Ireland, through adjusted financial terms with Sabre, full access to the current BA content, including the complete range of published fares the airline sells through its own web site, any third-party website, and its own reservation offices.

Opt-in schemes, whereby agents pay a portion of the GDS fee in exchange for full access to content, are nothing new. The concept was madely widely known back in 2004, when BA was re-negotiating its previous GDS contracts. Sabre says this is the first time, however, that it has offered agents an "opt-in" programme.

BA reached a similar agreement with the Galileo distribution system a little more than two weeks ago, but not with its soon-to-be sister company, Worldpsan.

Amadeus, which is not typically a lagger, also has yet to secure a deal with Britain's flag carrier.

Now I'm not trying to start any rumours here or anything, but maybe, just maybe, the companies' failure thus far to reach an agreement is not actually BA's fault.

You see, since BA's previous GDS contracts expired on 28 February, the airline has been paying a handsome GDS "rack rate". Maybe the likes of Amadeus and Worldspan figure there's no harm in milking BA for a little while longer--you know, just till the end of the month.

Let's see what Friday brings....

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Hitwise has revealed the top ten most popular UK travel websites in 2006 across five verticals - Agencies, Cruises, Destination and Accommodation, Maps, and Transport.

Places calculated by percentage share of overall visits of sites between January and December 2006.

No huge surprises, but still interesting to see who's leading the way.

Agencies:

• 1 Expedia.co.uk
• 2 Lastminute.com
• 3 Thomson.co.uk
• 4 Thomascook.com
• 5 Uk.Mytravel.com
• 6 Firstchoice.co.uk
• 7 Cheapflights.co.uk
• 8 Airline-Network.co.uk
• 9 Teletextholidays.co.uk
• 10 Travelsupermarket.com

Cruises:

• 1 POCruises.com
• 2 Cruisedeals.co.uk
• 3 Thecruisestore.co.uk
• 4 Fredolsencruises.com
• 5 Oceanvillageholidays.co.uk
• 6 Princesscruises.co.uk
• 7 !st4cruising.com
• 8 Royalcaribbean.co.uk
• 9 Islandcruises.com
• 10 Idealcruising.co.uk

Destinations and Accommodation:

• 1 Lastminute.com
• 2 Travelodge.co.uk
• 3 Activehotels.com
• 4 Superbreak.com
• 5 Ichotelsgroup.com
• 6 Gumtree.com
• 7 Laterooms.co.uk
• 8 Information-Britain.co.uk
• 9 PremierTravelInn.com
• 10 Tripadvisor.co.uk

Maps:

• 1 Multimap.com
• 2 Streetmap.co.uk
• 3 TheAA.com/travelwatch
• 4 Maps.Google.co.uk
• 5 RP.RAC.co.uk
• 6 Ordsvy.gov.uk
• 7 Maps.UK.ask.com
• 8 Mapquest.co.uk
• 9 UK.local.yahoo.com
• 10 Maps.yell.com

Transport:

• 1 Easyjet.com
• 2 Ryanair.com
• 3 Britishairways.com
• 4 Nationalrail.co.uk
• 5 BMIbaby.com
• 6 Thomsonfly.com
• 7 Thetrainline.com
• 8 Flybe.com
• 9 RAC.co.uk
• 10 Jet2.com

And here are the top ten searched-for brands in the UK (with EasyJet coming in fifth position):

• 1 Ebay
• 2 Bebo
• 3 Argos
• 4 Amazon
• 5 Easyjet
• 6 BBC
• 7 Autotrader
• 8 Tesco
• 9 Ebay UK
• 10 CBBC

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

SUBJECT: Advice in Startin a Travel online Site...

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is ***** ********,

Having recently finished doing my International Tourism Mgt. BA, I now want to start running an online travel website, currently just needing some advice.. particularly in terms of once created the website, the steps i need to take in terms of buying the flight seats and accommodation (rooms) and car hire etc... and being loaded down to the site...

please do get back to me in terms of any advice on the request.

Look foward to hearing from you,

*******

Just a quick one this evening as the Travolution team has been extremely busy most of today - awards, deadlines for April edition of our magazine.

BBC News 24 has just shown an interesting item about online fraud and how apparently 12% of users have fallen foul of criminals in the past year, losing an average of £875.

Read the full story.

The findings were released as part of a government-backed campaign, called GetSafeOnline, to warn internet users of online fraud.

No information available about fraud in individual verticals.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

ADVERTISING AWARDS

Best Use of Online Advertising

• Love Creative for STA Travel
• Harvest Digital for Cruise Thomas Cook
• Harvest Digital for Cheapflights
• KitCatt Nohr for Virgin Holidays
• Agency.com for BA.com

Best Use of Affiliate Advertising

• The Dedicated Partnership for UKSeries.com
• Affilinet for Paramount Hotels
• Buy.at for LateRooms

Best Use of CRM

• CreatorMail for Thomson
• Lastminute.com (in-house)


MARKETING & INNOVATION AWARDS

Best Use of Social Media

• Jumeirah Hotels - The JCast
• TravellersPoint maps
• STA Travel Blogs
• EnjoyEngland/Yahoo! Answers
• Avis WeTryHarder Blog
• Select World Travel Blog

Best Agency for Search Engine Optimisation

• Neutralize for Justtheflight.co.uk
• Spannerworks for SN Brussels Airlines
• Tamar for National Car Rental
• Greenlight for Monarch Airlines
• BigMouthMedia for Superbreak

Best Agency for Website Design

• Adams Creative for TravelOwl.co.uk
• Designate Communications for Wales In Style
• Five By Five for Island Cruises and Club 18-30
• Netizen Digital for various
• Fortune Cookie for Kuoni UK
• Nucleus for various


TRAVEL AGENT AWARDS

Best Travel Agent Website

• RailChoice
• Travel Designers
• Isango.com
• STA Travel
• Expedia.co.uk
• WhyDontYou.com
• TravelRepublic
• PackYourBags.com
• Expedia Corporate Travel

Best Use of Technology

• DirectLine Holidays
• Door2Tour.com
• Comtec
• Dolphin Dynamics
• Touch Clarity


TOUR OPERATOR AWARDS

Best Tour Operator Website

• Leger Holidays
• Thomson
• VisitBattlefields.com
• Voyages Jules Verne
• Sunisle.co.uk
• Kuoni.co.uk
• VillaPlus
• OnTheGoTours.com
• DirectSki.com
• ErnaLow.co.uk

Best Use of Technology

• Adventure Company/Netizen Digital
• Kuoni


SUPPLIER AWARDS

Best Hotel Website

• Paramount-Hotels.co.uk
• Jumeirah.com
• BestWestern.co.uk
• Hyatt.com
• Sheraton.com
• VonEssenHotels.co.uk

Best Airline Website

• FlySilverjet.com
• BA.com
• FlyBMI.com
• ThomsonFly.com
• VirginAtlantic.com

Best Travel Insurance Website

• GoTravelInsurance.co.uk
• JourneysTravel.co.uk/InsureMore.co.uk
• 1StopTravelInsurance.co.uk

Best Car Hire Website

• USRentacar.co.uk
• TaxiTransfers.co.uk
• HolidayAutos.co.uk
• Avis.co.uk


TRAVEL INFORMATION AWARDS

Best Travel Portal

• TravellersPoint.com
• TravelGator.com
• WalesInStyle.com
• WAYN.com
• EnjoyEngland.com
• TripAdvisor.co.uk
• Viator.com
• Yahoo.co.uk/Travel

Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website

• Kinkaa.com
• Australia Travel Market
• Cheapflights.co.uk
• Sidestep.com
• TravelSupermarket.com
• Kelkoo Travel

Best Use of Technology

• Teletext Holidays Linguabot
• IfYouSki.com
• Cheapflights.co.uk Partner Portal
• Icelolly.com TV
• Online Travel Brochures


TRAVOLUTION SM@RT AGENT OF THE YEAR

• Mann Link Travel
• Sunmaster
• Coachtrips.com
• Select World Travel
• C&B Maddocks Travel
• Travelcare


NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

• Isango.com
• TravelZoo UK
• Sidestep UK


ONLINE TRAVEL BRAND OF THE YEAR

Shortlist to be made from winners of Best Travel Agent Website, Best Tour Operator Website, Best Airline Website, Best Hotel Website, Best Car Hire Website, Best Travel Portal and Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website categories.


TRAVOLUTION ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Shortlist will not be published

Lots of "years" there...

But those were the words used by one of the most senior people in the travel industry this week when, during a private dicussion, he described the reasons behind events of the past few months.

There is no doubting that what has happened, for example, with the planned mergers between four of the leading travel players in the UK, is a pivotal moment in how the industry is reacting to the new world of digital consumerism.

But did we all expect the consolidation, which is essentially a move to protect businesses and consumer revenue in the face of competition from the pure web players, to have kicked in so quickly, and with such enthusiasm?

Would we have second-guessed the current machinations just 12 months ago? Probably not...

What is clear, our confidant says, is that the REAL impact of the web and the hugely empowered consumer is probably knocking at the front door of travel perhaps two years earlier than expected.

The leading players are now moving quickly to ensure they are not staring at a worrying bottom line in just 24 months time.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

There is no doubt that the mainstream giants are facing many of the same challenges as some of those in the travel industry.

The final session of the day demonstrates this is many ways. The heavyweights have finally been wheeled out: Alan Rusbridger (editor of the Guardian), Andy Duncan (CEO of Channel 4) and Tom Loosemore (web 2.0 project director of the BBC).

So what are the similarities?

The old media houses have been forced to take a long, hard look at what their customers are doing in their daily lives: how people consume programmes or newspapers; how they find out what is being broadcast or printed; and how they share their experiences of what they have seen or read.

Travel companies are facing the same challenges: how people interact with travel brands; how they find out what travel products are available; and how they share their experiences of where they have been.

And what has been driving this change? It's the web, of course.

"I think we’ll look back in 200 years time and say the internet revolution was bigger than the broadcast revolution," says Loosemore.

What is clear, listening to final remarks from the panel and various delegates, is that the media [travel] companies that do not adapt to the new consumer landscape will struggle, or cease to exist.

If anyone thinks consumers in one/two/five/ten years time will be behaving in the same way as they do now, they are sorely mistaken.

Media [travel] companies are starting to adapt - BBC, Guardian, Times are good examples in media, Thomson, Thomas Cook and BA, in travel - but there are many, many others that are not.

Nobody here will stick there neck out and say who may or may not survive in the new digital world. And we wouldn't dare suggest who may be under threat in travel.

But, as we've said many times before: travel companies need to understand the new landscape, in which consumers are taking far more control of their purchasing decisions than they ever before.

The challenges, if possible and if the enthusiasm is there, should really be seen as opportunities.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Ben Hammersley, a multimedia expert from GuardianUnlimited, when asked about his reaction to US media giant Viacom and its $1 billion court action against Google/YouTube over copyright infringement:

"They are taking a Valentine's Day card and burning it in front of the person who gave it to them."

Although this next one came a close second, also from Hammersley, who clearly took a witty pill over lunch.

In response to a question about micro-chunking [no wikipedia entry on this one, but basically a way of buying small pieces of content, rather than whole bodies of work, such as for the music industry]:

"Micro-chunking comes around every 18 months. It is one of those buzzwords that come around that is nothing more than a good excuse to have a conference. As a word, you can ignore it. As a concept, you need to know what it is."

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Antony Mayfield from Spannerworks is here and has already got himself into trouble.

Our man with the heavy fingers irritated a fellow delegate by bashing away on his laptop during one of the sessions this morning.

Word of his dastardly crime is spreading amongst the assembled bloggers in the room.

Vecosys.com puts its very well:

"And possibly some conference controversy as Antony Mayfield was asked to 'stop typing' by a delegate who appears not to understanding someone might be blogging a conference about changing media… Perhaps she didn’t get the memo."

Antony come to terms with his misdemeanor here.

Back to the conference...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The current debate is about advertising and getting brands noticed in the digital age.

Representatives from Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, Lateral, Internet Advertising Bureau and Millward Brown are on stage.

Douglas Smith from digital marketing agency Lateral suggests three rules for creating strong brands on the web - tips that some online travel companies embrace wholeheartedly (Lastminute.com, Expedia), while others dismiss entirely:

• Understand how people feel about a brand, then immerse in their lives
• Get a big idea, and then stick with it
• Use rich media for online advertising

[No mention of search]

Guy Phillipson, the entertaining chairman of the IAB, highlights a number of online ad campaigns - sadly not in travel - that have performed well.

Alongside promos for Flash detergent and Mini, he mentions the now infamous Dove viral campaign, which has now had 2.6 million views on YouTube and cost the fraction of what a TV ad campaign would cost to create and distribute.

It is so fantastic, we think, you can watch it here now...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U]

A fantastic lesson for travel brands who want to embrace social media with advertising campaigns.

Here is a good example from a travel brand: Cheapflights' Where The Hell Is Biggles?.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

It is a somewhat fanciful notion that there are hundreds of companies out there that are in constant "blue-sky" mode, lazing around on wacky chairs in bold-coloured rooms, coming up with great ideas for their brands.

And, what's more, risk-taking is apparently a lot of fun.

According to Joanna Shields, the international president of social networking site Bebo, their tiny team of around 30 people have often spent months formulating an idea and it has subsequently failed, only for something that was conceived and built in a afternoon has had a massive impact.

The point Shields and others on a panel to discuss social media, including Stefan Lechere at Google, are making is that if brands do not play with fire every now and again how will know if their consumers will embrace it.

My mind goes back to a conversation with a senior executive at one of the UK's leading multiples travel companies a few months back.

He said the company had tried out quite a few social media tools across their portfolio of websites - some had paid-off considerably in terms of conversions or leads, while others were quietly dropped within weeks.

I remember another senior figure from a small tour operator who told me recently that he was too afraid to ask his developers about introducing Google Maps to his website, thinking that it would be a lot of legwork and stress.

He didn't even know that Google Maps can be implemented with a widget as simple as an coded API - something any right-minded developer would not be scared of.

Funnily enough he walked away with a slightly more confident approach to trying out ideas.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

For obvious reasons the conference here focuses heavily on how mainstream media companies are tackling the new media landscape - but there are heaps of interesting parallels for the travel industry.

While the delegate line-up is made almost exclusively of media-related people (newspapers, magazines, radio and TV folk, plus the trendy young things from digital marketing, creative and planning and buying agencies), much of the content would - indeed, should - strike a chord with those involved in thinking about the strategic direction of travel companies.

Just to set the scene and a couple of soundbites that should mean plenty to travel:

Emily Bell, director of digital content at Guardian News & Media: "The user is on the loose… if you can’t provide them with the content then they will go somewhere else!”

Geert Linnebank, senior advisor to CEO of Reuters, adds: "Choice abounds for the consumer. We no longer have the choke-hold on the flow of information any more.”

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

A bit self-indulgent maybe, but one of our regular Google Alerts notified us this week of a scheme being run by the Audi car company, called "Travolution".

What on earth is going on? We can cope with an Edinburgh-based travel agency called Travelution, but do we see competition on the horizon?

Well, no... It appears Audi is developing a project that coordinates traffic light phasing and car movements. In other words: smart technology to allow cars to travel at a regular speed, rather than slowing down and speeding up at junctions.

"'Travolution' is a contraction of the two terms Traffic and Evolution," says the company. Geddit?

"This reduces fuel consumption, pollutant emissions, noise and travelling time.

"We perceive this area to offer considerable potential. And as an innovative car manufacturer, we are playing our part in tapping that potential.

"After all, the reduction of CO2 emissions should be achieved not only by vehicle-related measures but also by appropriate infrastructural measures."

The project is actually being run in conjunction with the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt, the Technical University of Munich and GEVAS Software GmbH.

Well, we're just happy to be, erm, doing our bit...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

[More on the AutoBlog. The Audi Investor Relations page for Annual Press Conferences is currently down]

Tomorrow (Thursday 22 March) sees Travolution break away from travel for a day as we will be attending the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit 2007 in London.

Speakers include senior representatives from Bebo, Internet Advertising Bureau, Netvibes and Google.

Alongside them will be a host of high profile brands - just like those in travel - that have seen major changes to the way they do business following the arrival of the web, including Vodafone, Sony Ericsson, Orange, Electronic Arts, BBC, Channel 4 and Reuters.

We will be blogging live from the event during the day.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Fascinating post on the excellent Blog on Travel about Spanish hotel brand AC Hotels, which has apparently been de-listed by Google.

The post explains at length perhaps why the chain has fallen foul of the search engine giant.

But in a nutshell:

• Poor SEO
• Mis-use of Flash
• Bad meta-tagging

Tom's post is well worth a read. [Check the comments at the end - especially the one about the MD of AC Hotels and his supposed opinions of the internet]

Kevin may, editor, Travolution

Don't say you haven't been warned. If you miss the deadline tomorrow, Wednesday 21st March at midday, then you will have to wait until next year to enter the Travolution Awards.

Categories are listed here. And there is an online entry form here.

The response to this, our first awards programme, has been excellent, with nearly 100 nominations received via our website.

Perish the thought that one of your competitors will scoop an award in a category in which you could have clearly entered - and perhaps won!

Judging takes place next week in London. We have assembled 18 of the finest minds across the industry to scrutinise the entries.

Any last minute questions regarding the awards can be emailed to me.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

This week we re-launch our guest blogger programme. Kicking us off is Justin Morshead, chief executive of AdPrecision.

Recently one New York Analyst suggested internet advertising will be worth over $80 billion in 4 years (that’s a compound growth of about 21% per annum). Here in the UK, partly driven by the strong broadband uptake, we learnt that Google’s UK advertising revenues are set to outstrip those of ITV.

In the same way that Microsoft dominated the 1990’s and told the majority of us how we would interact with our computers, Google is beginning to dominate this decade by helping consumers explore vast quantities of available information and to find what they are looking for.

The vast majority of Google’s revenues are from search advertising, response driven marketing that is attracting substantial revenues from businesses that pay by the click – that is to say they pay partially by results. It’s clear as internet advertising begins to overtake newspaper advertising in volume that publisher’s lunch is being eaten.

If you were to look back at a different industry that faced similar challenges five years ago, some interesting parallels appear. Between 1998 and 2002 the travel industry became one of the first industries to trade online.

The well capitalised companies such as Expedia and Lastminute.com were spending between £15 million and £25 million per year on technology and similar amounts on advertising in a race to grab consumer spend and to create some long-lasting brand equity.

The traditional players in the industry at first ignored the issue, feeling they owned the market. When the race to catch up began in earnest, some horrific crashes happened, notably to Airtours, whose technology overspend and MyTravel rebranding contributed to their demise and shaky rebirth.

Well, publishers can rue wasted opportunity as much as they like, the key now is to compete for valuable ad spend and to do this publishers need smart thinking, capital funding and the ability to experiment with different models.

Ah yes… experimentation. Business schools give it a little lip service, shareholders don’t think much of it, but for the last three years most major advertisers have been working with mix of display advertising, search advertising, contextual advertising and cost per acquisition deals to find the right mix for their money. Publishers too need to move from the safety of display advertising to understand the revenue implications of each channel and work out the mix that is right for their sites.

Of course any decision making processes need to include the consumer. It’s important to understand that as far as the user is concerned advertising is content and needs to be pertinent to a site’s audience.

The long-term effects of inappropriate search or display advertising on a site will be degenerative to traffic. Conversely, appropriate advertising will boost traffic and create virtuous circle of more traffic and more spend. The simplest example of this is the creation of a marketplace or directory on a dedicated site where people can buy and sell specific items. Display advertising does not drive traffic – indeed it can do the opposite – but non-display advertising has the possibility of increasing site traffic.

Publishers have broadly three choices for non-display advertising on their sites. They can control advertising in the same way as they have done off-line; they can outsource specific verticals to channel specialists such as jobsite for jobs, OTC for travel; they can use a search marketing company to supply third party advertising such as Google, Yahoo! or Miva.

Of all these the last is the easiest option but potentially the lowest earner and drives the least consumer satisfaction. After all most of the audience understand what search engine product looks like – its pretty ubiquitous – and they may expect something more focussed from the site in question.

Apart from abandoning the brand to the search engines content, the other issues publishers have with this model is the lack of control. There is little or no control over which advertisers might appear on site, nor on the revenue that can be made.

The next model is the usage of vertical market specialists to create content and drive revenues. There is a plethora of very expert companies who can provide full-service travel search and booking, mortgage and savings information, job-boards etc., who are hungry for the right kind of consumers.

This is an area of great success for the last three years. Valuable revenues of varying scales have been driven out and the vertical specialists can largely be pasted onto the site with very little management overhead. However as publishing management takes a closer look at what is going on, three things become apparent: firstly there is an eventual disenfranchisement of the publisher’s brand as consumers become aware they are being sent to another service provider; secondly there is still no control over the content and thirdly – from left field – there is little or no mechanism for bringing on existing print advertisers into the mix.

This last issue of migration is a niggle. Should we abandon print relationships – valuable as they are – or make an attempt to co-opt print advertisers into a new model?

This brings us to the final choice for non-display advertising, which is to take parts of it in-house. In-house, means in control – leveraging existing advertiser relationships and focussing at the same time on trying to provide the advertising content that the consumer wants from the brand. It’s a model publishers know well and –what’s more – can successfully work online.

It is worth pointing out than none of the above three options are mutually exclusive, there are ways of combining two or more to create the best revenue return and the best consumer experience.

Justin Morshead, chief executive, AdPrecision

A quick moment to bask in some happy news. Travolution has been shortlisted for this year's prestigious PPA Awards, in the category for Monthly Business and Professional Magazine.

[They allow bi-monthlies to enter, before you ask]

These are the leading awards for the UK publishing industry and cover both consumer and business titles.

The winner will be announced on Wednesday 9th May in London.

In our category we're up against:

Business Life - Cedar Communications
Creative Head - Alfol
Financial Director - Incisive Media
Insurance Age - Incisive Media
Management Today - Haymarket Business Media
Real Business - Caspian Publishing
Safety Health Practitioner - CMP Information

This is a great achievement after just 18 months on the scene. And great recognition for all the writers and staffers (Simon Ferguson, Charlotte Davies, Tricia Holly Davis, Melanie Rule and Flora Ioannou) who have worked their socks off to get this brand off the ground.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

[Updates at the bottom of the post]

All hell is breaking loose this morning as the rather predictable merger between TUI and First Choice is absorbed by the travel and mainstream business media.

The deal will see the pair, to be known as TUI Travel, eventually listed on the London Stock Exchange and responsible for around 27 million customers a year.

Here are the numbers:

• Pre-tax cost savings of £100 million a year
• Yearly proforma revenues of £12.1 billion
• 51% owned by TUI; 49% by First Choice
• A total of 200 holiday brands [yes, that's two-zero-zero]
  

Of course this all makes perfect sense for the two companies involved. Indeed, Thomas Cook and MyTravel did almost exactly the same thing in February- creating "The Big Three".

So now we have the Big Two.

What immediately springs to mind is that the consolidation so widely expected across the industry is still coming from within what people still call "the traditional end" of the market.

But is the current trend for creating large travel companies simply by combining the resources and brand power of existing travel players the best strategy - or even the only strategy?

We would suggest that the recent developments actually gives people a glimpse at what might be happening at a global level.

Or, more conspiratorially, the two recent deals are an attempt to ward off potential suitors from across the Atlantic Ocean.

In fact, when looking at which companies are left amongst the clutch of so-called large travel providers, it seems rather odd that a crossover hasn't happened already.

Clearly some business between one of the large US players - Expedia, or one of the Sabre or Travelport-owned companies, such as Travelocity or Orbitz - and a traditional European travel company would create a rather tantalising travel mega-brand.

The formation of a company which incorporates the servicing power of an established supplier/multiple with the online expertise and brand power of an US travel provider would undoubtedly be a very exciting prospect.

So why hasn't it happened?

The large European travel providers would argue that their recent efforts - Thomon/TUI in particular - to beef up their online presence has meant it can compete happily with the growing US ownership of the travel industry. They would clearly not want to a merger...

This is perhaps so - traditional players still want/need to protect their interests. So attention has to turnto the travel conglomerates dominating the US market.

With piles of private equity money sweeping through the industry in the US it seems inconceivable that interest has yet to turn to the European tour operator market.

While we are not suggesting that the recent deals have been created simply because of a need to protect themselves against a US invasion [admittedly a rather unfortunate turn of phrase] - it is worth bearing in mind.

It must surely only be a matter of time before the US moneymen run out of potential small-to-medium sized online travel companies to buy and look elsewhere, perhaps at the unique European tour operator market.

UPDATE: Peter Long, the chief executive-in-waiting of TUI Travel, is reported to have told a press conference this morning:

"Expedia, Travelport and Travelocity are the new competition. The more business we can get online, the more we can drive down our cost of acquisition."

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Just when you thought it was safe to check into a budget hotel, Travelodge has gone and introduced a cuddling pillow for lonely guests, aptly called the “Cuddillow”.

There is a press release knocking about today which is worth a mention, really as part of a wider debate about online reviews of travel products.

Consumer opinion site Reviewcentre.com has named Jet2.com as “Best Airline”, according to users of its travel product section.

The site aggregates reviews to give an overall score and also asks consumers to rate areas of a business such as value-for-money, customer service and punctuality.

So we decided to take a look. Jet2.com’s new honour has been bestowed on it from just 21 reviews on the site, handing it a worthy overall rating of 90%.

But look at Thomas Cook, which had a similar number of reviews (23), but managed a far less impressive overall score with 52%.

The same goes for ThomsonFly (25 reviews and a paltry 28%).

The point here is that when – if there is one – is the so-called Tipping Point for online reviews.

• What constitutes a robust and accurate indicator of a product’s performance in terms of the number of reviews?
• Do consumers have an in-built mechanism whereby they start to believe an overall rating of a travel product but only after, say, 50 people have a reviewed it?
• Would people believe Jet2.com is a better airline than BA (50% in this case) because it has a higher rating despite only having 20-odd people review it?

Here is the list of "Top Airlines" on ReviewCentre.com, with the number of reviews and overall rating:

American Airlines – 36 reviews – 25%
British Airways – 84 reviews – 50%
BMI – 19 reviews – 68%
Britannia Airways – 11 reviews – 55%
British Midland – 5 reviews – 40%
Continental – 15 reviews – 67%
EasyJet – 64 reviews – 55%
Emirates – 37 reviews – 35%
Iberia Airlines – 57 reviews – 19%
Jet2.com – 21 reviews – 90%
KLM – 30 reviews – 40%
Monarch – 51 reviews – 39%
MyTravel – 63 reviews – 43%
Ryanair – 63 reviews – 48%
Singapore Airlines – 11 reviews – 55%
Thomas Cook – 23 reviews – 52%
ThomsonFly – 25 reviews – 28%
United Airlines – 47 reviews – 32%
US Airways – 17 reviews – 18%
Virgin Atlantic Airways – 77 reviews – 56%

Eagle-eyed readers will remember BMI and British Midland are, in fact, one and the same, as well as Britannia Airways and ThomsonFly.com...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

...as Antony Mayfield, social media expert from Spannerworks, often says in his presentations.

Anyway, thanks to Heather Hopkins at Hitwise for sending over a link to this handy online gizmo.

TouchGraph is a web-based system that allows website owners to explore a visual representation of the network of links between them and other websites, based on Google's database of related sites.

Here is the Travolution Blog on TouchGraph:

It's actually quite a handy exercise to check out which travel brands are linked to others via the web.

Oh, and it's free...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

It appears our rumourmill round-up yesterday was right on the button:

1) Travelport’s OTA brands, Orbitz and Ebookers, will seek an IPO on either the New York or London Stock Exchanges.

Travelport has just issued a press release confirming as much.

The short statement says:

"Travelport Limited, the parent company of the Travelport group of companies, announced today its intention to sell a portion of its ownership interest in its Orbitz Worldwide businesses, comprised of Travelport’s business to consumer businesses, in an initial public offering.

"The size of the ownership interest to be sold and the amount of proceeds to be received from the disposition of Orbitz Worldwide are yet to be determined. A portion of the proceeds will be used by Travelport to reduce its outstanding indebtedness."

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Came across a new blog this evening. It needs little explanation...

The Worldspan Alumni Blog.

Most of the entries rather helpfully point users to job vacancies around the US or highlight other news, such as births, marriages and deaths of ex-Worldspan employees and their families.

But this has to be the best entry, from July 2005:

"Well well well. Time to pull my big ole foot outta my mouth. After having very recently gleefully posting that I had heard no news of any layoffs in quite some time, it seems that karma was just out to get me. Indeed I have heard some widespread reports stating numbers between 65 and 90!

"We wish those that have fallen prey to the most recent round of layoffs the very best of luck in landing on their feet."

Oh dear...

Unfortunately there has not been a post on the blog since February 2006. A shame - we would love to have read what RoboWizard, the blog's author, had to say about the Travelport deal.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Some might suggest anyone involved in the recent GDS negotiations will not be requiring any of these, but British Airways has produced a series of podcasts to help people sleep.

The broadcasts, which are clearly aimed at long-haul passengers rather than beleaguered GDS executives, cover issues such as "Sleep basics", "Managing travel fatigue" and "Synchronising your inner clock".

Amazingly, BA actually has a resident "sleep expert", a Dr Chris Idzikowski, who has been drafted in to narrate the Doctor Sleep Podcasts.

The first three are available now, either direct through from the site or from iTunes, with a further three to be added shortly.

Rumours that the next three will be called "Sleep while arbitrating", "Dreaming of a dot-com wonderland" and "Negotiating with the fairies" have yet to be confirmed...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

UPDATE: It appears the digital agency behind the podcasts, the catchily titled Agency.com, has been spreading the word elsewhere. Tim on The Boot writes more here...

With so much speculation doing the rounds recently about the fate of some leading online travel brands, especially concerning Travelport and its portfolio of brands, we thought it might be worthwhile listing them all:

1) Travelport’s OTA brands, Orbitz and Ebookers, will seek an IPO on either the New York or London Stock Exchanges.

2) In lieu of an IPO, Orbitz and/or Ebookers will be snapped by potential suitors Expedia Inc, Priceline, or Sabre Holdings.

3) Sabre Holdings, which has received European Commission approval to be acquired by US-based private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group (TPG), will itself be spun-off, possibly to Amadeus (though that alliance might have a tough time getting regulatory approval).

(TPG separately owns a stake in G2SwitchWorks, which was created by a former Orbitz executive to rival the traditional GDS systems, and has co-invested in non-travel related projects with private equity firm The Blackstone Group, which has a stake in Travelport.)

4) Silver Lake Partners and TPG will keep Travelocity as their core asset and build up a complementary portfolio by acquiring other consumer-facing travel brands…possibly Expedia.

5) Google will buy everything - end of story.

But seriously, since all four GDSs and their respective subsidiaries are already loosely affiliated through mutual stakeholders, a re-shuffling of assets as enumerated above is not inconceivable.

The big question is just how much shuffling can the market and regulators bear?

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

BA appears to be moving towards a resolution over its stance with the GDSs.

The airline has issued a statement confirming a new content deal with Travelport-owned Galileo (but not the soon-to-be-Travelport-owned Worldspan).

The short press release says the new "long-term, global full content agreement" will run for three years from 10 April 2007.

Discussions are apparently ongoing with Worldspan, Sabre Travel Network and Amadeus.

There are perhaps a few lines in the release that hint at the issue right at heart of the discussions experienced by all parties in recent weeks:

"The new opt-in programme offers travel agents in the UK and Ireland the opportunity to access all of British Airways' fare content that is made publicly available through the airline's sales channels, including BA.com."

Ignoring the "travel agents in UK and Ireland" line - the deal is actually for agents elsewhere in the world, a BA press officer confirmed - the statement reveals BA's continued desire to push its content through an many non-GDS channels as possible.

Secondly, BA's Tiffany Hall says the agreement will "reduce the airline's distribution costs".

The airline's head of marketing and distribution sounds like she has got exactly what they wanted.

So it's champagne all-round, so far. BA gets the first of its deals; Galileo is just damn relieved to have signed.

However travel agents could be facing higher surcharges on some routes than they had under the former opt-in clause, says a source close to the new agreement.

Bets are on for which GDS signs next...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Before I tell you what I'm about to tell you I have to first emphasise that I'm a big fan of technology.

I don't get people who moan about "all of this new age media".

I love text messaging. I love email. I love Skype. I really love blogging.

In fact, the day when I don't have to buy another Christmas card or write a paper thank you note can't come soon enough.

When is social etiquette going to catch up with technology anyway?

But. And this is a BIG but...when technology goes wrong, it goes very, horribly, awfully wrong.

My husband's 40th birthday party, which was meant to be a surprise, is a case in point.

I recently sent a blast email to all of our friends and relatives alerting them of the planned surprise party, with "surprise" being the operative word there.

As I do not have contact details for all of my husband's friends (no surprise there), I asked one friend to email the others.

He is more than happy to assist. "What a great idea. Can't wait. I'll get on it straight away," he emails me back enthusiastically.

Great. Except...he then proceeds to send a blast email to all the guys, INCLUDING my husband.

HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember...surprise....errrrrrrg!

Not exactly a travel-related tale, but I'm sure all of you bloggers out there can appreciate the point.

Maybe society isn't quite ready for all of this new age media after all. Next time, I'll post the invitations (and send Mr Enthusiastic a bill for the stamps!).

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

An exercise once favoured by media agencies to test the exposure of a client was to note the number of times people came across a brand during a typical journey.

So, faced with a reasonably lengthy trip from London to the ITB exhibition in Berlin last Wednesday, I decided to measure how many times I was exposed to travel brands - but only when a web address was included - during the course of the journey.

It wasn't an overly scientific piece of analysis, but about as thorough as I could make it. And it passed the time...

Perhaps the most interesting conclusion is that there is a phenonmenally higher ratio of billboard advertising on the rail network in the UK than in Germany.

So here's the list [all are billboards, unless indicated]:

Walthamstow Central station
TransportforLondon

Kings Cross St Pancras station
First Capital Connect
Expedia
HotelClub

Train advertising - Kings Cross Thameslink to Luton Airport Parkway
ThomsonFly.com
Monarch Airlines

Kentish Town station
Kuoni
Air Malta/Malta Toursim

West Hampstead station
Kuoni
VisitLondon

Cricklewood station
Kuoni
Air Malta/Malta Tourism

Hendon station
ThomsonFly.com

Mill Hill Broadway station
Air Malta/Malta Tourism

St Albans station
Monarch Airlines
Air Malta/Malta Tourism

Harpenden station
Kuoni
Air Malta/Malta Tourism
Pure New Zealand

Luton Airport Parkway station
Air Malta/Malta Tourism
SilverJet [ticket barriers]
ThomsonFly.com

Taxi Luton
SilverJet

London Luton Airport
EasyJet
Ryanair
Thomson
Ibis Hotels
WizzAir
Aer Arann
Monarch Airlines
VisitLondon
EasyJet
SilverJet

EasyJet in-flight magazine

Kazan
Residencepinede Hotel
EasyCruise
VisitCostaDelSol
Verbier resort
Chamonix resort
Courcheneige hotel
Armagh and Down
First Capital Connect
Sheraton hotels
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines
Radisson SAS
Tourisme Alsace
ITB Berlin
Le Meridien Lingotto hotel
Hotel La Laguna
Grupotel
Gatwick Express
Southern Railway

Berlin Schoenefeld Airport
AirBerlin
Germanwings.com
Cyprus Tourism
ITB Berlin

Hauptbahnhof DB station
Turkey Tourism

Zoologischer Garten U-Bahn station
Romania Tourism

...and then I arrived at ITB, at the Messe exhibition grounds iun the West of the city, and, frankly, one couldn't move for travel marketing everywhere - so I gave up...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Daniele Mancini, e-business director of Costa Crociere S.p.A , having failed during yesterday’s panel to bribe Marc Charron, head of TripAdvisor, to remove the negative postings about Costa, tried to tempt the audience by offering a discount on a cruise in exchange for glowing reviews.

Of course, Mancini wasn’t serious (we hope not, anyway), but his point is one that crops up again and again.

Charron concedes that, while there are a few bad apples who do try to defraud the system, TripAdvisor’s “zero tolerance” policy on misrepresentation has severe penalties for site abusers.

Unfortunately, the bell rang before we had a chance to discuss one of the other areas of concern--Expedia's ownership of TripAdvisor.

Guess we'll have to leave that one...for now.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Connie Rheams, vice president at AltiusPAR, a hotel technology company, answers a question from the floor about what should happen to a sector that uses totally different systems and models.

"A bomb would be the best thing that can happen to us."

Now that's honesty...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

After surviving a barrage of intense questioning about the value of his product during yesterday’s panel, William Phillipson of Boston-based technology-provider ITA Software, took the stage this morning to face yet another tough audience.

“After listening to your presentation again it seems like your product is exactly the same as Amadeus’s, so what is the difference?” demanded fellow panel member Sigmundur Halldórsson of Icelandair, which is an Amadeus subscriber.

Phillipson, likely already expecting a repeat of yesterday’s performance, kept his cool, and responded by explaining that ITA is essentially better because it does not carry the legacy systems of the GDSs, and all that that implies, including added costs and difficulty in sharing data in a seamless manner.

Surely the GDSs, given the opportunity, would have something to say about that, but I digress.

Things started to get a bit more interesting when an audience member (ok, it was me) asked Phillipson why Air Canada—ITA’s launch airline client –was not using ITA’s software to handle the carrier’s website fulfilment.

“They will,” said Phillipson.

“So, let’s be clear,” I said. “Air Canada is going to switch its online reservations system from Amadeus to ITA?”

“That’s the plan,” said Phillipson.

But when Martin Ruschen of Lufthansa Systems jumped in and pressed Phillipson on exactly when Air Canada would do this, Phillipson backed off and said that was a question for Air Canada.

That response was obviously not enough to convince some delegates, who remain sceptical about whether Air Canada, or indeed any other airlines, will swap their present GDS platform for ITA’s software.

Guess we better ask the airlines.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Day Two of the PhoCusWright conference is the same Day One - a move to give delegates that need to hold meetings elsewhere in ITB the opportunity to come and go as they please.

Carl Michel (Holidaybreak), Laurie Myers (Octopus Travel) and Damon Tassone (Lastminute.com) are on stage talking about online travel agencies and tour operators.

A question comes up on the big screen message board

"Which of the following OTAs is nithe most precarious position as a business? Opodo or Ebookers?"

"Defintely not Ebookers, because of the [re-design] developments," says Myers.

"I'm ex-Opodo, so I won't comment," adds Michel.

Tassone sits quietly. The debate moves on...

What a shame...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Apologies for the lack of coverage this morning. This was, alas, not induced by a crazy night out exploring the delights of Berlin, but a widespread wirless internet access problem around ITB.

Please believe us.

Up and running now...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

It's official. Marc Charron, head of TripAdvisor, said the company will not, under any circumstances, accept bribes to remove negative reviews.

Well, I'm sure we're all pleased Charron cleared that up, though Daniele Mancini, e-business director of Costa Crociere S.p.A (and the would-be briber) was slightly disappointed.

Of course, after reading some of the less than complimentary reviews for Costa posted on TripAdvisor, we can hardly blame Mancini for trying.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

The future of search will be all about branding, according to Anthony Mayfield, head of content and media for Spannerworks.

"Technical tweaks will mean less than brand equity in the future," said Mayfield.

He advised travel suppliers to aim to build a community around their brand, but cautioned against diving straight into a WAYN.com type of endeavour.

But building trust is no easy task.

TripAdvisor is a case in point.

It has a loyal following to be sure, but there are plenty of sceptics who believe its parent company, Expedia, is pulling more of the strings than it lets on.

When asked if Expedia was likely to keep TripAdvisor at arm's length--or at least continue peddling the perception that it's kept at arms length--the audience's response was a resounding no.

Ouch.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

The conference has just heard a case study from holiday home specialist Interhome, picked by PhoCusWright for its cutting edge CRM.

It uses some whizzy elements from the rest of the site and allows people to build their own brochures. See some of it here.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Don't forget - Friday 16th March is the deadline for the Travolution Awards.

Easy to enter. Be recognised for producing the best sites, products or innovation by your peers (that'll be the judging process).

Have a classy night out in London at the ceremony on Tuesday 24 April.

Enter the awards here. Category list here.

Attention private equity firms: Invest in India, not in China!

That was the message from Ram Badrinathan, senior market analyst, India for PhoCusWright, who spoke just before lunch.

"In China you need 11 licences to business. In India you need a letterhead. In China, TravelSky is the gatekeeper. India is open."

Still not convinced?

Just look at the growth and investment already pouring into the country.

In India, airlines have a 70% to 80% online market penetration (compared with 4% in China).
New carriers have managed to achieve 40% of the marketplace in just two years.

Travolcity is already in India and Expedia is coming soon.

But, it's not all so rosy.

"The challenge will be to go beyond early adopters. The days of picking the low hanging fruit are nearly over", cautioned Badrinathan.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

WAYN.com will surely see its membership spike after a demo of its site kept delivering pictures of...how shall we say...very "friendly-looking" Berlin girls.

Hmmm.

WAYN.com co-founder Jerome Touze (who was presumably unaware of the pictures which had been flashing behind him only a moment ago) proceeded to give an example of how some social media sites can be of use for someone interested in meeting a 25 year-old Swedish girl.

Oh, dear. Damn those automated ads!

Thankfully, Touze says WAYN doesn't accept any users under age 18.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Ten years ago the likes of Brent Hoberman et al - enthusiastic, bright and in their twenties - were the new kids on the block of the travel industry.

A reasonably formal talkback session featuring David Roche (Expedia), Damon Tassone (Lastminute.com), Carl Michel (Holidaybreak) and Steven van der Heijden (TUI Holland) is quickly forgotten as the founders of social networking site WAYN.com take to the stage.

Jeans, trendy haircuts, confident, and clearly riding the crest of a wave.

They speak confidently about the business model and the enthusiasm with which (mostly young) travellers have embraced the WAYN idea.

David Soskin, who has plouged a tidy sum into WAYN alongside fellow Cheapflights executive Hugh Burge and Hoberman, is in the audience. He must be very pleased with his investment so far...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Ever wondered what Travolution publishing director Simon Ferguson gets up to in his spare time? Ok, well...

Simon has started his own blog, The Glass Bead Game, under the pen name and alter-ego of Steppenwolf Voss.

Simon says:

"This blog takes its name from a novel by Herman Hesse, the German writer, and one of the greatest literary figures humanity will ever witness.

"In the book, the Glass Bead Game is an ascetic game played by those who find a way of linking all of the threads of human knowledge - literature, science, history, philosophy, music - through a series of symbols, or glass beads."

Very philisophical and a fascinating read...

Google gets a breather at last. It's time for the airlines to get some airtime here in Berlin, rather than what appears to plenty of muttering about the search giant's ambitions in the travel sector.

We'll ask Esteban Walther [Google] later on, promises PhoCusWright boss Philip Wolf.

William Phillipson from Boston-based tech-house ITA Software takes the stage to highlight the plight of the airlines and their so-called legacy systems.

"There is a mish-mash of systems from over 50 years", he says, including reservation kits, e-commerce, remote access and, more recently, remote access, web and e-ticketing.

The problem with such a plethora of systems is pretty fundamental, Phillipson says. Each piece of kit contains a different customer database, but now the now vastly empowered consumer needs far better servicing, airline legacy technology is just not up to the job.

ITA, understandably, wants to peddle its own "solution", but the panel for the talkback session has meatier issues on its mind.

"Why should we switch?" asks Sigmundur Halldorsson from Icelandair during the talkback session, which uses the Amadeus platform.

"I would not be able to comment on your relationship with Amadeus," Phillipson says, much to the disappointment of the audience. And to paraphrase a reasonably convoluted answer: "Functionality, value and cost."

An delegate asks, via the text system, if ITA has designs on being one of the so-called GNEs (mini-GDSs).

Cue a rather nervous-looking Phillipson, who only answers when the question comes in again from Martin Ruschen (Lufthansa Systems), another member of the panel.

"G2Switchworks is an excellent customer of ours. We are a technology provider and will be willing to talk to anybody out there." Doesn't really answer the question really...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Google is doing an abysmal job of "building vibrant communities around search".

Well, that's the opinion of Paul English, co-founder and chief technology officer of meta search engine Kayak.com, who spoke at this morning's PhoCusWright conference at ITB.

Errm. Does he mean Google, as in Google, Google?

Can't be.

Apparently, this other company, also called Google, is not particularly good at building customer loyalty.

Well, that company should have borrowed more than just Google's name, because Google Google is pretty damn good at building customer loyalty.

And as far as "building vibrant communities around search" goes, well now, Google (the real Google) is also proving to be quite good at that.

One need only to look at how the search giant is gearing up to deliver smarter, more personalised search results to its subscriber base (eg gmail users).

I hope the real Google finds out who this other company is. After all, it's not very nice when people go around giving you a bad name.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

If you have trouble translating CPC, CPA, CPO and other acronyms in the online advertising world, don't fret...you're not alone.

Even the tried and true techies attending the PhoCusWright at ITB conference seemed a bit tongue tied when trying to decipher what was what.

Is CPO the same as CPA?

Is CPC better than CPA?

What's the future of CPO?

The short answer is it doesn't really matter...at least not to the meta search engines.

As Paul English, co-founder and chief technology officer of Kayak.com elegantly summed up, "We'll take money any way you want to give it to us".

Sounds like a good business model to me.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

"It is only a matter of time before Google launches a travel search engine."

Such was the message from the so-called Godfather of search marketing Danny Sullivan, chief technology officer of Search Engine Land, who opened the PhoCusWright@ITB conference in Berlin.

Obviously, Sullivan is a religious Travolution reader. We've been reporting regularly about Google's flirtation with its own travel arm, dubbed Troogle.

Visitors to Google.com searching for a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, for example, will now find direct links to the leading US online travel agencies--Expedia, Orbitz, Cheaptickets, Hotwire, Priceline and Travelocity--in the first search result.

Visitors can also search for departure times directly from the Google results page.

Surprisingly, Google currently does not charge the online agencies for the privilege of sending what are likely millions of holiday searchers to their sites, according to Sullivan.

But the free ride is not likely to last.

"Google is doing this now because it's good for them. They know these agencies are where people are looking for travel and Google wants to show consumers that it can do a lot more than just a general web search."

Sullivan predicts Google will eventually go the way of Yahoo! Travel, which offers a similar "smart" search result, but restricts the results to its online agency subsidiary FareChase.

He added that it will also only be a matter of time before recognised Google users (so those with a gmail or google account) will begin to receive personalised search results, which will vary from the generic results that an unknown Google user would receive.

Google subscribers can already personalise the Google home page with the local time, weather and horoscope.

The big question remains: When will Google finally reveal its true plans for the travel sector?

We still have two full days of conferencing ahead of us, so stay tuned.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Pleasing in some respects, but we single-handedly managed to upset perhaps the biggest internet company on the planet last year.

This was not mischief making on our part [of course not] - we were just reporting the endless gossip sweeping through the travel sector concerning Google and its supposed plans to launch a travel vertical search engine.

At the time Google worked tirelessly to deny any such rumours. We believed 'em...

It now appears that rather than launch a standalone product, Google is quietly introducing various elements - such as today's news, concerning maps - from across its portfolio of products which, given time, will certainly give users a travel-based portal.

Obviously the biggest element, searching only within travel verticals, will be an enormous leap but some might suggest it wouldn't take much to modify the Google Co-Op tool (which we use on the right-hand side of this blog) to narrow search results for users.

So here is the new map element introduced on the UK site for hotel search results.


And here is a rather cheeky mock-up of Troogle, courtesy of SearchEngineWar [we've shown this before, but it's worth publishing again].

It would not be a massive jump would it?

Obviously Google would be changing a fundamental aspect of its natural search strategy, if it were to allow users to obtain results only from travel-related sites.

But asking users to insert a piece of code outlining which sector it is most suited for - like travel - could be a one way of determining if a site can be featured on a vertical search. Policing it would be a nightmare, of course...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

A few weeks back, Kevin Eyres (Sidestep), Alan Josephs (Ebookers) and I spent a few minutes before appearing at an industry seminar talking conference and office freebies.

Indeed, the memory stick appears to be the give-away of choice these days - until this morning's post arrived.

Langham Hotels clearly thinks there are enough memory sticks to go round, so has decided to post "computer brushes" to travel hacks.

The rather fetching pink device, known as the HelLO LOve, "is a convenient tool for cleaning your computer monitor and keyboard". Is that all?

The brushes have been sent out to coincide with a new GDS code for the Langham Hotel chain ("LO", geddit?!?), according to the pink paraphernalia included in the box.

Whatever next...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Some various bits of housekeeping to kick off what is going to be pretty busy week:

1) The Travolution team - myself, Tricia Holly Davis (chief writer), Charlotte Davies (sales and sponsorship manager) and Simon Ferguson (publishing director) - relocates to Berlin for much of this week for the PhoCusWright conference taking place at the mammoth ITB travel exhibition.

We will be blogging live from the two-day event, and appearing on a panel on both days (Thursday and Friday) to discuss the impact of user-generated content on the travel industry.

2) Next up on our mini-bulletin is the Travolution Awards. The deadline for entries is Friday 16th March (i.e. a week Friday). Make sure you get your entries in to us via the dedicated website by that date. Category details are available here.

3) Early bird discounts for the Travolution Summit, taking place on Tuesday 24 April, end this Friday. Take advantage of the special £395 + VAT discounted rate here.

4) ...and, finally, thanks to all you eager readers. The Travolution Blog is on the verge of breaking into the top 30,000 most linked-to blogs on the web. [Not bad considering the source for that lovely stat comes from Technorati, which claims to monitor another 7.4 million other blogs as well as us].

We have also just scored a record period in terms of visitors. All this achieved in just 12 frenetic months. Keep visiting, commenting, and sending in your gossip. It is your input that makes the blog one of the key strands of the Travolution Brand.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

We are often quite sceptical about memetags/rank boosters on the blogosphere, but this one does seem worthwhile as it is based on the Z-List concept, and has a travel-tourism twist.

In theory, by the end of the exercise, we should have a decent list of the best travel and tourism-related blogs on the web. There are some excellent blogs out there and they deserve to have more coverage.

Instructions:

• Write a post.
• Copy/paste the link list from the post you’ve discovered the T-List into it.
• Make sure the links are active and correct.

If your blog is on the list, remove it. This is not a self-promotion post. As Tim Fehlman (Z-List) said: “Don’t worry, because if your name is on mine, it’s on others and will spread.”

• Add your favorite tourism and travel blogs on it
• Add the url of the blog where you’ve discovered the T-List as well.
• Publish the post.
• People will notice the T-List and continue it.

Here is the list:

Hotel Blogs
Radar
Social Media on the Fly
Les Explorers
Chrispitality Media Blog
A Luxury Travel Blog
Travel Rants
Travel Weekly Blog
BootBlog
Erin Julian
My Travel Backpack
Happy Hotelier
The Travel PR Blog
Boot - Business of Online Travel

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The first thing we at Travolution ought to do is send British Airways' chief executive Willie Walsh and the GDSs a bill for our long distance phone calls, such is the global significance of their current predicament.

BA's supposed reluctance to sign new distribution contracts with its former GDS partners portends the beginning of a new era in airline distribution, where corporate and leisure travel agents and ultimately their customers will bear more of the costs.

We here at Travolution have been ringing our sources around the world to find out exactly what BA has up its sleeve in an effort to determine how the future distribution landscape will look.

Our efforts to bring you the latest news on the negotiations have zigzagged their way across the globe.

Mr Orange was on the piste somewhere in the Continent.

Mr White was in the States suffering from a horrible cold and we politely interrupted Mr Pink during an important meeting in Asia. (Admittedly we actually communicated with Mr Pink via text, so that will have to be accounted for the in phone bill)

Ok, enough of the Reservoir Dogs analogy.

We just thought you might like to know that the editorial staff here at Travolution were not down the pub whilst countless travel agents and corporations were sweating over their futures.

Whilst we were waiting for our countless calls, emails and texts to be returned, we thought we'd look up the dictionary definition of "negotiation".

From the Latin negotiationem, a negotiation is defined as a "mutual discussion and arrangement of the terms of a transaction or agreement".

Based on that definition and everything we've been told by our trusty sources, we can hardly call the current round of GDS talks a negotiation.

Walsh has a point. The airlines, for a long time, have been gouged by the GDSs and the distribution of wealth definitely needs to be re-evaluated.

And maybe, just maybe, his hardball tactics will pay off in the long run and will not be at the expense of everyone else.

But is asking for a 100% discount on distribution fees, a demand BA allegedly made at the beginning of the talks (according to Mr Pink) really the way forward when people's livelihoods are at stake?

Is agreeing to pay nearly double GDS fees a good idea? Have we suddenly been cast into the bolier room bartering stalls of Cairo? Surely there is a better, more intelligent, way for BA to move forward.

Let's hope Walsh and the GDSs find some clarity over the weekend.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Well, well, well. It turns out that British Airways' tough-talking chief executive Willie Walsh is indeed a man of his word.

BA has undisputably proved that the days of the GDS dictating what the airlines will pay to distribute their inventory are very much over.

It has been three days since BA allowed its former GDS contracts to lapse without any kind of replacement in sight.

Britain's flag carrier has also snubbed those GDSs which had offered it a short-term extension - a sort of temporary peace offering, if you will - which would have allowed BA to keep paying a discounted distribution fee.

But no. Accepting anything from the GDSs would be a sign of weakness and Walsh will not show weakness.

Apparently, BA's strategy is to pay the maximum GDS "rack rate" in an effort to prove that it won't be bullied into a new contract.

Good strategy. Not!

In fact, in the interim the strategy could be said to have backfired somewhat. [Our news story here]

If I were a BA shareholder, I'd be less than pleased.

The maximum GDS "rack rate" BA faces is around £4 per segment, depending on the GDS, the route, and ticket type, but that is still about double what BA was paying under its old contract.

All of this money you're spending - quite unnecessarily - on GDS fees had better well be worth it in the long-term.

A source close to the negotiations agreed: "We can't seem to work it out. BA is gonig to spend a lot of money this month by paying a lot more than it needs to."

So what does Walsh have up his sleeve?

Sources close to the GDSs say they're stumped and, at this point, are not hopeful that a deal - at least a long-term one - is imminent.

As one source put it, "At this point, we're looking at a temporary solution".

Another source said, "We're not a million miles away [from reaching a deal], but we're not close either".

So now what? BA admits the higher GDS rates are "not sustainable in the long-term" and that it is, therefore, considering "a number of options should we not reach agreements with the GDSs in the near future".

As of today BA says all of its content will continue to be distributed via all the GDSs, but no one knows if that will be the case tomorrow or the next day.

BA has pledged to give its agency partners ample notice "should we need to implement any changes to the way we distribute our fares", but that is not an entriely comforting statement.

If anything, it seems to indicate that BA is well prepared to remove some of its content from the GDS.

There is also the question of how much agents will wind up paying for future access to BA's content.

For now, agents are not subject to surcharges but that situation could change quite easily.

The only thing that is for certain is that BA is prepared to fight to the last round to get what it wants.

We all knew Walsh would be a...well, you know. But I don't think anyone expected him to go this far.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution receives a lot of - how shall we say this politely - not particularly useful press releases.

Today, however, we were delighted to find out about a handy new product from technology specialist GoQuo Ltd .

The company has published an easy-to-use guide for travel businesses which want to upgrade their web sites with a dynamic packaging feature.

The best part: It's free. Yep, that's right. Free.

Entitled ‘The Beginner’s Guide To Getting More From Your Web Site With Dynamic Packaging’, the handbook advises readers on how to assess whether dynamic packaging can help their online business and offers tips on customising the solution to meet their specific business needs.

Admittedly, the title wouldn't suffer from a bit of brevity, but hey.

The handy little book also covers the importance of content and inventory partners; integration options; project time frame, budget and contract terms; and implementation and testing, and includes questions to ask and expect from potential technology suppliers.

The only drawback we can see is that you cannot actually download the guide online. Rather, you must fill out a form on the GoQuo website to request a copy.

A minor detail perhaps.

We still think it's a neat idea and now there's no excuse for not jumping on the DP bandwagon.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution