October 2007 Archives

Okay, so yesterday we teased Lastminute.com (and John Bevan) a little bit with their job advertisement for a new UK marketing director.

But some breaking news from TravelSupermarket is straight out of leftfield.

Chris Nixon has demoted himself.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: travelsupermarket moneysupermarket jobs

Lastminute.com is currently looking for a new marketing director for the UK.

The pink giant of the online travel agency world is clearly seeking a person of high calibre, thus its advertisement in the Sunday Times last weekend and now online.

The ad says:

"Must be able to combine rigour of off-line communications with the pioneering spirit of digital, and work with a sizeable team and budget."

Sounds like a nice job.

But hang on a minute. Does the current UK managing director John Bevan know about this throwaway line at the bottom of the ad:

"Will be given autonomy, a chance to make a difference and the opportunity to progress to UK Managing Director."

Surely some mistake?

[Lastminute.com has assured us Bevan is not leaving the company]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: lastminute job

A follow up from last week's Page Rank shenanigans.

Google man Matt Cutts has shed some more light on the issue, via Search Engine Journal, admitting the update was "primarily regarding PageRank selling and the forward links of sites".

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: page rank SEO affiliate text link

A few bits going on:

We say this a lot, but it really is very easy for UK residents to subscribe to the print edition of Travolution. You simply sign up for FREE on the website.

[Overseas readers must pay, alas]

FREE e-news alerts (twice a week, not twice a day).

The Travolution Autumn Conference takes place on Thursday this week. Just a handful of tickets remain. You will need to be quick...

The Travolution team - myself, Charlotte Davies from the commercial side, and the boss, Simon Ferguson - will be in Florida for the PhoCusWright conference from Monday 12 November to Thursday 15 November.

Alas, we miss World Travel Market this year.

Charlotte and I will be hosting a Network Exchange table on Tuesday 13. This will be the first time Travolution has made it to the US, so we would be delighted to meet as many of our US readers as possible - please stop by and introduce yourselves.

I will be taking part in a discussion panel about travel blogging between 10.45am and midday on the same day.

We have also marked the Google party on the Wednesday evening in our diaries!

For delegates attending the ABTA Convention in Tenerife this year, look out for two masterclasses being hosted by Travolution on Thursday 29 November, focusing on the Long Tail of Travel (by Nishma Robb of TravelZest) and Technology & Marketing in the New World (by Peter Hilton of ClickWithTechnology).

Martin Couzins, editor of Travelweekly.co.uk, and I will be chairing these two 30-minute masterclasses.

The sessions follow Travolution's first appearance on the main stage at an ABTA Convention. We were specially invited by ABTA to speak at the convention this year after the enormous success of our seminars at the 2006 event.

I will be joined by Mel Carson from MSN AdCenter for a 45-minute keynote entitled Riding The Wave.

It goes without saying that it will be the highlight of the conference!

That is all...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: phocuswright abta florida tenerife

PING! Press release from TripAdvisor kicking about today which will warm the cockles of the anti-mobile movement.

Apparently 90% of UK travellers gave a resounding thumbs down to a question asking if passengers should be allowed to use their mobile phones on flights.

The Brits are obviously a picky bunch as travellers elsewhere were marginally more accommodating (globally, 78% said no).

Does anyone really think that airlines will listen to a survey like this (when there's a rather tidy sum to be made)?

There is a little bit of hysteria about the whole issue: despite the overwhelming negative response, you can bet passengers would be mightily relieved to be given the opportunity if they needed to make a call during a flight. Something of the Mobile Phone Mast Location about all this.

Anyway, the survey brought up the usual gripes about "horrible Heathrow" (travellers love Schipol Airport in Amsterdam) and Ryanair (winning the airline wooden spoon for the second year in a rowa mongst UK travellers).

But here is the stat which concerns us the most:

45% of respondents (2,500 took part) said they wash and disinfect their hands more often when travelling, but only 40% of grubby Brits.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: tripadvisor ryanair heathrow schiphol

A string of websites and blogs are up in arms over what are some rather fundamental changes to the Google algorithm, which in turn has hit website Page Ranks.

The crux of the issue is this: Google is understood to be punishing websites that sell text-based links to third parties by reducing their relevancy or authority mark, or Page Rank.

This in turn affects their position of keyword search results.

Full coverage of the issue on SearchEngineLand and SEOMoz.

A few emails into Travolution today asking about the impact, if any, on travel sites.

Well at first glance it looks like some blogs (the legendary John Chow, for one) and a number of media sites (including the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times and Forbes) are nursing some pretty serious wounds to their Page Rank.

We have only learnt so far of two travel-related sites affected: World66.com (PR7 to PR4) and Beachhouse.com (also PR7 to PR4).

The chief operations officer of a leading SEO agency told us a number of travel sites could find themselves with a “bit of a situation” on their hands if Google continues its crackdown.

The problem, however, is that there is a huge “grey area” in what Google is doing.

If a website is selling a text link to a third party and the ad copy is relevant to the content, why - asks our correspondent - should the site be punished?

Indeed, a site which has a landing page about Paris may well be penalised simply because it has sold some text links on the same page to, say, a group of city break operators?

On the other hand, the opposite scenario is where some education sites (mainly US universities, which typically have a high authority ranking) have sold links to sites selling Viagra, simply because they know the ad can command a high price.

Either way, Google is cracking down. The short term answer is to probably to stop selling any text ads, if possible.

Another emailer asked: "So what about affiliates?"

We spoke to Commission Junction, part of the ValueClick empire, asking whether as a network it would purchase text links on behalf of clients.

The worry here, email to us by one SME tour operator, is that if Google reduces the page rank of sites containing links bought by affiliate networks, then the number of leads will fall, sales may fall, etc.

The network does not purchase text links, it said, and therefore those using its platform as affiliate merchants will not be affected directly. Of course the host site may well be flogging text ads to others and they will be hit by association.

One mildly amusing irony of all this is that, despite Google’s attempts to crack down on those selling text link ads, type “text link ads” into its search engine and the world’s biggest search engine is happily taking pay-per-click advertising from the likes of TextLinksAds.com, Onewaytextlinks.com and Textlinkbrokers.com. [We did not sell these links!!]

A quick call to Google this afternoon revealed nothing apart from a very carefully worded statement, emailed back a few hours later:

"Google is always working to improve the ways that we generate relevant search results and update our opinions of sites' reputations across the web.

"The Google Toolbar shows an indicator of PageRank, which is Google's opinion of the reputation of a webpage.

"Values in the Google Toolbar can fluctuate for a number of normal reasons, including changes in how we crawl or index the web, or changes in the link structure of the web itself.

"In addition, Google may update the visible PageRank indicator in the Google Toolbar to incorporate not only our view on the backlinks to a page or site, but also to incorporate our opinion of the forward links for a site."

This is clearly going to rumble on and on. Any comments from SEO agencies or other victims?

[ProBlogger has some good analysis and advice for bloggers]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: page rank SEO affiliate text link

Full post coming later on - just trying to get to the bottom of this story in terms of travel.

Have any readers seen their Google Page Rank plummet in the last few days?

Lots of theories being banded around. We've spoken to an SEO agency and an affiliate network and will report back later.

Leave a message in the comments section or email me.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: page rank

Our latest column in Travel Weekly:

Journalists are bombarded on an almost daily basis with the results of a survey, invariably peddled out by a PR company acting on behalf of a client.

“About 90% of consumers admit they have little or no protection against Internet fraudsters,” would be a typical one from a provider of home computer security software.

So imagine our scepticism last week when a survey arrived stating: “50% of the UK’s leading high-street retailers’ websites offer a poorer customer experience this Christmas, compared with last year.”

The survey revealed many high-street retailers risk losing substantial revenue because of sliding standards on their websites.

Unfortunately the survey only looked at non-travel retailers, but it blamed poor usability, confusing checkout processes and so on.

However, look at the principle in the first survey alongside the recent analysis of Forrester, a research group in the US, which said bookings on travel websites in the US are falling due to “inferior” usability, and there is cause for concern.

If consumers are turning away from travel websites because they are offering a poor user experience when they try to buy products, some parts of the industry will face an uncertain future.

Indeed, this should not be seen as some kind of lifeline to traditional high-street agencies.

Consumers – whether we like or not – are drawn to the web for buying travel for many different reasons.

However, just because there are an increasing number of poor-performing websites, doesn’t automatically mean consumers will go rushing back to the town centre – I would guess that in most cases they will simply find somewhere else to go online to buy their flight, hotel or package holiday.

And consumers, let’s face it, do not care.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The Sun newspaper dipped its toes last weekend into the controversy over user generated content on sites such as TripAdvisor.

The writer Graeme Green (Hmmmmm) gushed:

Supposedly written by fellow travellers rather than hotel owners or holiday companies, they should provide helpful “insider” info and point out any problems guests have had with poor parking, dirty rooms, rude staff or rubbish food.

But how much can we really trust what we read?

The article decided to look at the reviews on travel websites and TripAdvisor of the Catalonia Princesa Hotel in Barcelona, and then compare them with the thoughts of an unnamed travel writer.

So what did the journalist discover?

Overall, the TripAdvisor reviews give a fair idea of the hotel’s good and bad points.

Some of the five-star reviews seem over-generous to a travel journalist like myself who has stayed in many different properties, but the Catalonia Princesa is definitely good value for money as an attractive, modern hotel with polite, helpful staff.

Let's get over the shock first of all that a national newspaper has admitted user generated content is A Good Thing (even encouraging readers toleave a review when they return home - hurrah!).

But hang on a second - look at this tantalising sentence contained in the article, referring to Expedia's ownership of TripAdvisor:

Can we trust Expedia not to alter content about hotels where they are trying to sell rooms?

WHAT!! REALLY??

A quick call to TripAdvisor revealed that, as far as they are concerned, it is the first time this accusation has ever been levelled at the site. They didn't even think it was worth responding too...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: tripadvisor expedia The Sun hotel review

Alex Bainbridge has done a sterling job of trying to unravel the rather thorny issue of multi-level marketing in travel.

His post is bascially an analysis of a large MLM company in the US, YTBTravel.com - the business model, how "agents" can earn money, etc.

The practice is highly controversial, being likened by some to pyramid selling and the Ponzi Scheme.

From a travel perspective, YTBTravel claim the programme creates "millionaires" out of hundreds of thousands of workers.

Hmmm.

YTBTravel chief executive Kim Sorensen was even moved recently to suggest that "we have a firm belief that as our sales increase, the YTB concept will be legitimized".

Does that mean it isn't now?

Bainbridge (probably sensibly) sits on the fence. Those posting comments do not. Bainbridge even outs an anonymous commenter as being from YTB. [Yes, we're thinking of doing the same with some of the anonymous commenters here]

It's a long post but well worth a read...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: pyramid MLM multi-level marketing YTBTravel

Terrible pun, apologies for that. [IPC owns Nuts magazine]

The publishing giant has today bought TrustedReviews.com, a user generated content site for electrical products, gadgets and computer gear.

What does this have to do with travel?

Well, there have been an interesting number of developments in recent weeks with mainstream media organisations snapping up unrelated companies - all with a strong online presence.

The BBC-Lonely Planet deal a few weeks back got lost of tongues wagging, for starters.

The point is this. Content-heavy websites are very valuable to mainstream media companies keen to increase their web presence in the face of competition from pureplay online media companies.

[For the most part] Content = Google Juice.

It wouldn't be a huge surprise if media companies start sniffing round some of the user generated content travel sites in the future.

Likely takeovers??

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: lonely planet BBC Nuts IPC

We took a risk and here it is - Travolution's list of the most powerful people in the UK online travel industry.

You can access the full list on the Travolution website. Includes Top 50, Powerful Women, Rising Stars and International Players.

We now hand over to you all to add your comments.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The launch of Worldreviewer.com was announced a few weeks back but the site is now up and running.

On first look it appears to have followed the same strategy as a number of user review sites - strong visuals, prominent use of profiles alongside content.

Thankfully it is a lot better than many of those, primarily because of one major twist: the writers are mainly experts in specialist areas and the content is about experiences, rather than destinations or hotels.

Out goes the common-all reviewer, in comes the vulcanologist or the marine biologist.

Members can then rate the reviews or add their own pictures etc.

Worldreviewer has to make money, of course. Tour operator links, first of all. Plans for a flight search engine soon.

The site is backed by some serious people: James Blackwell and James Dunford-Wood who, with renowned press columnist A A Gill, launched TravelIntelligence in 1999.

Take a look. Comments via the usual button please...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: a a gill worldreviewer user reviews volcano

...for Lastminute.com at least.

It may have missed out on Rugby World Cup fever, but Lastminute.com is now attempting to show off its green credentials with a Paris city break deal through Eurostar.

Press and online ads in the usual places will feature not the usual pink extravaganza but a rather Halloween-esque, ghostly green.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: lastminute eurostar world cup environment paris

One of those decent videos that pops up on YouTube every now and again, explaining it all.........

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM&rel=1]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: youtube information

Hat tip: Jebworks

So SilverJet doesn't even fly to Paris (yet) - but that hasn't stopped it making changes to its latest TV ad in order to target Rugby World Cup fever in the UK.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUJD8aCQVQU&rel=1]

"Bring it home, boys," reads the new patriotic slogan, having ditched the bizarre witty "World's Most Sivilised Airline".

Obviously if the "boys" do win the Rugby World Cup on Saturday they won't be returning with the trophy to London (Luton) on SilverJet, unless they first go via New York on another carrier.

Nice bit of up-to-the-minute marketing though...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: silverjet british airways paris rugby
jonny wilkinson

Shock, horror! Hold the front page!

STA Travel held a party last week in conjunction with Australian mobile provider Big Pond at the Ayers Rock replica in SL.

The Outback Bush Party apparently attracted some 60 people.

Some evidence:

More pictures.

The popularity of the event hardly disputes Wired's scathing analysis on the commercial benefits of Second Life but at least there is hope for those willing to be imaginative enough.

Clearly STA Travel came up with something innovative to attract trendy avatars to what was essentially just one of many events featuring pixelated people dancing about in a silly manner club nights in Second Life.

But what of the long-term prospects for this kind of thing? Answers via the comments section please...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: second life sta travel outback ayers rock

Tim Hughes on The Boot points to the imminent launch of Travelzoo in Australia (since confirmed by Travelzoo).

There is a beta version of the site already up and running.

Marginally less glamorous news, some might argue, is the launch of a Travelzoo office in Manchester, unveiled this week.

It may not hit the highs in the attraction stakes but it is certainly a signal that the company is expanding rapidly to the extent that it needs a regional office just to cope with advertisers from the Midlands, the North of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Either that or Travelzoo is apeing the BBC and moving all its operations to Manchester. Perhaps not...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: BBC travelzoo australia manchester

Lastminute.com is back in favour at the Advertising Standards Authority after last week's slap on the wrists.

The ASA has banned a press ad produced by Ryanair which stuck the knife into online travel agencies, claiming "if you buy a Ryanair ticket through an online agent you're being ripped off...".

Ouch.

Not content with this mild slating of "last minute.com" [note the space between 'last' and 'minute'], the ad continued:

"They overcharge by 100% or more. Don't provide correct terms or conditions. Don't notify schedule changes. Don't provide web check-in or priority boarding."

Lastminute.com - one can imagine - was pretty incensed about the whole thing and complained to the ASA about the headline and allegations of overcharging, schedule changes and incorrect terms and conditions.

The ASA upheld all the complaints from Lastminute.com and has demanded the ad be withdrawn by Ryanair.

In fairness to Ryanair, it did actually have a reasonable go at defending its actions, claiming the ad had appeared in newspapers with a combined circulation of five million and the only complaint had come from Lastminute.com.

One of the frequent criticisms of the advertising watchdog system for press, outdoor and online ads in the UK is that - unlike campaigns for television or radio - it is retrospective.

In this case, some might argue that the damage to the reputation of online travel agencies has already been achieved in the ad and a ticking off by the ASA - which really only the marketing and travel industries will hear about - is a small price to pay [in fact, there is no price to pay in terms of a fine].

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair lastminute advertising newspaper

Have funds, will expand.

This could be the motto for TravelSupermarket as parent company MoneySupermarket looks to spread its wings.

Icero.de was launched this morning for German consumers looking for car insurance price comparison.

This is the first expansion of the core MoneySupermarket brand into Europe and will no doubt trigger speculation that other European countries will be next for local language sites.

The obvious question is whether the travel meta search element will follow? More than likely by our reckoning.

Whether TravelSupermarket will get into Germany before Cheapflights does is another question.

TravelSupermarket would not comment this morning on any plans for global domination expansion overseas but admitted it is always looking at new opportunities. Quite...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights travelsupermarket moneysupermarket germany

Much written about Extravigator in recent months.

From today the discussion and review site is open to a wider audience and aims to be an "independent and open forum for world travellers, with discriminating taste, to share their advice and insider knowledge".

The site makes no bones about who it is targeting: high-end trippers with an Amex card in their wallet a little bit more money to spend than your average traveller.

Topics range from Spas & Treatments and Luxury Air Travel to Wines & Beverages and Top Hotels.


It needs a lot more content at the moment but it's a rather swish looking site - keeping with its theme, understandably.

Any thoughts via the comments section, as always.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: extravigator reviews luxury

Further to our news story, UK users will be the lucky ones at some point today to see the all-new TripAdvisor website.

Bosses are promising a "clean, simple and organised" offering - a far cry, many will point out, from the haphazard structure of the current TripAdvisor site.

Chief executive Steve Kaufer admitted to us last year that the homepage in particular had grown rather cluttered, principally because they wanted to add more gizmos and functionality all the time.

Of course, over time, this leads to a rather messy site.

A screengrab:


UPDATE: There is a user preview tour available. [Thanks to Alex Bainbridge for the link]

UPDATE II: Alex also has some initial analysis of the site.

UPDATE III: Tim Hughes reckons it's looking more like retail site. Indeed it is...

UPDATE IV: Mashable is spreading the word.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: tripadvisor expedia

Travolution is pleased to be taking part in the first Blog Action Day - a scheme backed by the likes of Reddit and Google to draw together blog posts around the world on a single day under one banner: highlighing green issues.

For our post I've decided to look at how much the top travel websites in the UK promote their own green agenda from the homepage and/or if they use carbon offsetting through the booking process.

The top five online travel properties, based on the IMRG-Hitwise HotShops list for August, were selected for the task.

Thomson Holidays
"Greener Travel" information is available for users (but is the second to last item on the left-hand navigation. No passenger online offsetting programme (except with specialist operator Crystal Holidays)

Expedia
No links from the homepage to any environment-based content. No apparent offsetting programme (US Expedia site does use Terrapass system).

EasyJet
"Fly Greener" tab is the first featured on the site's horizontal navigation. No self-offsetting function available - EasyJet does it automatically.

Lastminute.com
Information about the Carbonwise scheme can be obtained via a link from the homepage - right-hand navigation, two-thirds of the page down. Users can offset during the booking.

Ryanair
Environmental policy set out in About Us section from the homepage. No self-offsetting programme for customers.

The moral of the story here is this: don't rely on travel companies to do any carbon offsetting.

Generally speaking some allow customers to do it; some will do it on their behalf; others don't give much credence to offsetting whatsoever.

Climate Care is a good, independent offsetting site.

Further details and a list of all the participcants are available on the Blog Action Day website.

Other travel-related bloggers taking part:

• Travel Rants
• Musings

If you've written a post, let us know via the comments section below and we'll run it here.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: green environment blog action day

We never do this on the Travolution Blog, for no other reason that we just haven't got round to it and it seems a bit consumer-esque, but I am intrigued by what types of places industry people actually like.

In no particular order, my favourite destinations:

• Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
• Hanoi, Vietnam
• Angkor Wat, Cambodia
• Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
• Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

A selection of others:

• Neil MacLean from Travel PR Blog

Add your own via the comments button or link back - we will re-post.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cambodia vietnam nepal malaysia
czech

ComScore data released today reveals a massive 61 billion searches were carried out globally in August this year.

The survey is the first time (apparently) that a worldwide figure has been produced and illustrates the continued dominance of Google in the search market.

The top five search engines:

Google - 37.1 billion
Yahoo! - 8.5 billion
Baidu - 3.2 billion
Microsoft - 2.2 billion
NHN - 2 billion

Here in Europe we average around 85 searches a month, compared to 96 in Latin America, 77 in North America and 70 in the Middle East and Africa.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: comscore search

Travolution's latest column in Travel Weekly:

Every now and again it is useful to do a little experiment.

A few weeks ago I went into an east London travel agent armed with nothing but my own curiosity.

The reason was not, alas, to book a holiday, but I wanted to see how the agent would react to a customer who clearly did not want to make a booking but was simply looking for more information to subsequently secure a deal online.

This type of scenario will become increasingly commonplace as consumers become experts in using a variety of channels to search and book travel products.

Back to the story. My frighteningly upbeat agent – refreshing, despite being so late on a Saturday afternoon – listened carefully as I outlined some ideas for a trip.

I admitted early on that I was just browsing (to use an online term) and would probably book online in a few days.

Despite this obvious blow to her commission, the agent kept with me and asked a lot of questions about my circumstances, preferences, and where I had been before.

Handing me a pile of brochures, she said: “Now, what I suggest you do is take these and check out the destinations on our website or something like the Lonely Planet site.”

I was waiting for a plea to return and book the holiday with the agent – but it didn’t come.

The agent simply advised me to book the holiday on the company’s own website – if I couldn’t make it to the shop – or, failing that, make sure I got a good price elsewhere and “remember who gave you all the decent information and come back next time”.

The question I came away with is this: was this refreshing honesty simply from someone who understands the modern consumer (and has a sense of humour) or an agent who has given up?

You decide.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: travel agent lonelyplanet london

The Daily Telegraph is attempting to whip up a bit of a campaign with its call to keep flights "mobile-free", claiming it has the support of MPs.

A number of airlines, including Ryanair, are looking at the possibility.

Agree?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair mobile telegraph

Lastminute.com took just one booking for SilverJet over a 20-day period during June.

How do we know this?

The weekly bulletin from the Advertising Standards Authority arrived this morning, criticising the duo for an online promotion which offered customers a £100 e-voucher "to buy more lovely things" on the OTA's website if they bought a ticket for the business class-only airline.

The ASA ticked off Lastminute.com as there was a discrepancy in the dates for when customers can obtain the voucher. The ad stated the offer, beginning on the 4 June, would end on the 24 June, but terms conditions said 18 June. The first 50 customers would receive the voucher.

The ruling said:

Travel providers will soon have a new method of flogging their wares, thanks to those ever clever Googlers.

The search giant has announced plans to offer website owners the chance to profit from advertising when they embed video clips from YouTube, Google's video-sharing subsidiary, into their own sites.

Now anyone, including amateur bloggers (goodness me), can take a share of revenues when people view a YouTube clip with relevant ads.

The move marks a significant expansion of Google's AdSense platform.

Here’s how it will work (according to Google):

Video units on Google AdSense enable AdSense publishers to display videos from several YouTube content partners. The video units are ad-supported, and the ads are relevant to both the video and the site content. AdSense publishers and YouTube content partners will receive a share of the ad revenue, so video units enable both groups to earn incremental revenue.

"We're excited about video units because we see this as the first step in content distribution on AdSense," said a Google marketing executive, commenting on the new development.
In theory, this is a great idea which poses endless possibilities for hotels, airlines, tour operators, car hire firms, etc.

However, I stress "In theory".

I mean, would you be enticed by an ad for a romantic holiday to Spain whilst watching the "hilarious" video of the 10 drunken blokes on a stag do in Palma?

I don't think so.

Google may just need to fine-tune the "relevance" bit.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

LIBYA!!!

Where next, Mr Reynolds?!? [Our eager correspondent was previously snapped in Vietnam]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: libya gaddafi cruise

Seriously. It's true. The BA-SilverJet love-in starts here.

Lawrence Hunt and the SilverJet crew look up to BA to such an extent that they have mocked copied its classic TV ad from 1989, using the same ad agency Saatchi (for a cool £100,000, according to The Times).

And the tagline: The World's Most Sivilised Airline (geddit?).

Here's the new one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyzGS0dWo1Q&rel=1]

The groovy ad types in Soho must have been laughing into their lattes during the "chemistry meetings" for this one.

Or maybe not...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: silverjet british airways saatchi TV ad

After the Whistleblowing 2.0 post last week, we have been keeping an eye of whether Opodo employee Mario Gariva would resurrect his blogging activities on OnlineTravelCrunch.

It appears not.

Opodo insisted today Gariva had not been told to pull the blog off the web and he therefore must have done so voluntarily.

I wonder why...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: opodo whistleblower karavel

The BBC's consumer programme Watchdog is a powerful weapon when it concentrates its efforts on a particular company or individual - but Expedia has been taken to the cleaners in the opening slot of the new series this evening.

Three groups of customers shared their bad experiences with the UK's leading online travel agency: Nigel Ricardo's pre-booked hotel in La Rochelle was cancelled; Lee Styles was given the runaround on his way back from Asia; and Leah Daltrey got her dad involved over a problem.

All pretty damning stuff.

Watchdog used some dodgy graphics to illustrate customers entering their details via the web (shock, horror) and then told viewers about "dozens" of similar complaints about Expedia.

Cue analysis from travel journo Alison Rice, who made the usual and valid points about how protection has changed dramatically since the introduction of the web and how buyers should "beware" online.

Unfortunately the presenter Julia Bradbury nodded just a bit too earnestly in the cutaway and then made a predictable comment about the "good old days" when travel was booked through a high street agent.

And finally, back to the studio for Dermot Halpin, Europe president for Expedia, to explain the company's behaviour.

"99.5% of our customers" are happy, Halpin explained, looking reasonably uncomfortable as Bradbury threw accusation after accusation at him.

Responding to (let's face it, ongoing) issues with the Expedia call centre, Halpin stressed that 85% of calls are answered within one minute and 50 people are now employed to deal with problems.

"We are constantly trying to get better," Halpin managed to stress before the end of the interview.

Despite having the opportunity to respond to accusations, as in this case, very few companies emerge from a battering on Watchdog with their reputation restored.

An exercise Expedia will probably not want to go through again in a hurry. And a lesson for other online travel providers.

[Watchdog's online summary]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: expedia watchdog BBC

The Financial Times today reports Yahoo! is considering its options over price comparison site Kelkoo.

[Full report here - will need subscription in a few days]

This is a bit of a funny one as, in terms of travel, Kelkoo almost feels like the outsider these days.

Talk to anyone in the travel search/price comparison arena and Kelkoo barely warrants a mention.

There is always plenty of back-slapping between the likes of TravelSupermarket, Kayak, Sidestep, Skyscanner, even Cheapflights - but when was the last time anyone heard Kelkoo mentioned in the same breath.

Mind you, it has managed to achieve the Holy Grail of travel search: apparently securing a relationship with Expedia, although Travelsupermarket works with on some car hire products.

One suspects this story is going to develop...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: kelkoo yahoo meta search price comparison

OnHolidayGroup supremo Steve Endacott is wildly enthusiastic about most things he has a hand in launching - but this latest venture really got him worked up on the phone to Travolution Towers last week.

TV.FreshHolidays.com is a video-based user generated content site working in tandem with its Fresh Holidays brand.


OHG has taken a rather novel approach by offering an incentive to customers on a holiday to film a review of their trip in-resort, rather than presuading them to do something when they return home.

Usual features include allowing people to embed their videos on their own site, share through a dedicated link, and tag through Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us.

Links aplenty to the flight, hotel and dynamic packaging options through Fresh Holidays.

Huge question mark for us over whether, if faced with a microphone and camera-wielding rep, holidaymakers would less inclined to offer a negative review.

Feedback via the comments section please...
Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: on holiday group user review

Nice bit of coverage in the national press for one of the lesser-known online travel agencies in the UK: HolidayRoomsDirect.com.

The Doncaster-based agency is now - according to The Sunday Times - the fastest growing private technology firm in the UK.

The company achieved a whopping 514% growth in sales between 2005 and 2006.

Other interesting companies on the list [full PDF on the top 100] include G3 (provider of a reservation system for Center Parcs), Masternaut (British Airways cargo software developer) and Nucleus (web design and consultancy - managing director Peter Matthews is one of our regular columnists).

Price comparison site (or "online travel directory") Cheapflights also features, in 64th place, after securing growth of 71% during 2006 and sales of £12.3 million. Amazingly, Soskin and co have appeared in the list for four years in row.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights times technology company

BBC Worldwide has bought Lonely Planet.

Convergence of media continues apace...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: bbc lonely planet