December 2007 Archives

Our predictions for 2007 12 months ago didn't work out fantastically well - but then, who would've forecast the mergers of Thomas Cook-MyTravel and TUI-First Choice.

One we did get exactly right was the floatation of MoneySupermarket (parent company of Travelsupermarket).

So without further ado, are the Travolution Predictions for 2008. Add your own in the comments section below (please keep them serious).

* Consolidation for the first time amongst the OTAs in Europe. Hotel-strong Expedia to buy air-strong Opodo perhaps?

* Cheapflights to NOT go public on the London Stock Exchange.

* Holidays Uncovered content to feature on TUI Travel sites by Easter.

* TripAdvisor to incorporate third party OTA booking engines.

* Expected economic squeeze will be felt in High Street retail before OTAs.

* New websites for at least 50% of Europe's flag carrier airlines.

* SilverJet to reach Heathrow (codeshare?).

* Homeworking agencies growth to plateau.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: predictions 2008

Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine asks:

What if a plane flight were networked and became a social experience with its own economy?

A brilliant post.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Ahead of our own crystal ball gazing post (currently being written), check out the predictions from the Travolution RSS reader.

Guardian's John Naughton - Internet's own 9/11.

Drama 2.0 - The lighter side of the tech world.

Mashable's Adam Ostrow - News Corp to sell MySpace. Mobile social networking. Blogs become acquisition targets. Facebook goes truly mainstream. Start-up consolidation. Microsoft buys Yahoo. Email lives.

Mashable's Mark Hopkins - Battle between apps. Intellectual property. Rise of Green Tech. No bubble bursts.

ZDNet's Dana Blankenhorn & Paula Rooney - Battle for the network.

Computerworld's Stacy Collett - Google in 2008.

Struan & Associates Tourism Destination Crisis's David Beirman - Gulf states growth. Eco tourism. Eastern Europe. Stopover in Asia.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley - Microsoft in 2008.

Guardian Travel Section - Destinations aplenty.

We will add more as they come in during the next few days.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

[With thanks to Les Explorers]

On the first day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
A tip to expand my business globally

On the second day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the third day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Eleven podcasters podcasting,
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Twelve Stumblers stumbling,
Eleven podcasters podcasting,
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!

Merry Christmas to you all...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travelpost has created a handy guide for those twiddling their thumbs at US airports over the holiday period, itching to get on their laptops and avoid the gift shops.

The definitive guide to wi-fi hotspots and wireless connections.

Might be handy...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: wi-fi wireless airport

News of the Kayak-Sidestep deal is sinking in on both sides of the Atlantic.

Travolution has collated some reaction - most of it, unfortunately, off-the-record - from various bosses of online travel companies and representatives from both companies.

Boss of rival UK search engine:

Given the promise of travel search has yet to be fully proven with the mass market consumer, this is consolidation too early. Are they buying/merging brand or technology or client relationships?

Maybe they are consolidating to be bought by a generic search engine?

Steve Hafner, Kayak chief executive and founder:

Kayak.com is a technology company focused on perfecting travel search, and SideStep.com is a media company with in-house sales expertise and user-generated content.

By merging, each brand can improve its offering while continuing to focus on its individual strengths. With less than 10% overlap between existing Kayak.com and SideStep.com users, each site stands to gain millions of new users.

Another meta search boss:

Kayak want to dominate the meta search market in the US and as both sites are very similar they have simply bought more users and share. What

I am impressed with is taking on over £197m debt to finance the purchase. It will be interesting year in 2008.

I do not see a huge impact for us, as both Kayak and especially Sidestep have made no real ground this year in terms of market share or acquisition of visitors. Even their combined market share is still relatively small.

Rob Solomon, Sidestep chief executive:

From its inception as the first travel search engine, SideStep.com believed that consumers would prefer an objective and comprehensive travel shopping experience.

Joining forces with Kayak.com will help make this vision a reality for mass market consumers.

Former Sidestep senior executive:

Yes, big news - good for both I believe.

UK online travel chief executive:

Great vote of confidence in travel search. Kayak has always had a slight tech edge.

Great to see both firms becoming profitable: again, underlines the attractiveness of travel search as a business.

Thrilled that an East Coast tech company is doing so well.

A more powerful Kayak is just like a successful Google or Travelzoo, helping to convince travel companies that advertising on the web is more cost effective than traditional media.

The acquisition means that Kayak becomes a very clear leader in the USA in meta search with only very small companies (eg Mobissimo, Farechase) now to compete with.

Thoughts?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: sidestep kayak

Looking for things to do before Christmas?

Worried that you might send the relatives to sleep over Christmas dinner with tales of widgets, start-ups and, er, blogging.

Try the E-Consultancy E-Bore-ometer test.

I scored 40%. There's still hope for me - and the relatives - yet.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Kayak has bought rival Sidestep!

Full story here. Techcrunch and Wall Street Journal broke the story, although WSJ says its a merger.

Vibeagent founder Adam Healey has some more numbers. As Tim on the BOOT points out, with just days to go in 2007 we have the deal of the year.

Not quite, from a European perspective (anyone remember the mergers of the Big Four!), but it's still a hugely significant development.

More as it comes in during the day.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: sidestep kayak

Okay, so we've recently stated publicly (in front of 900 people at the ABTA Convention) that Travolution is banning the use of the phrase "Web 2.0".

But here is a guest post from Tim Walters of Fatwire Software, with his own typically offbeat approach to the subject:

A colleague just sent me a recent article on Ecommerce Times containing a nice example of the misunderstanding of Web 2.0 – namely, the half ridiculous claim that Ajax and JavaScript code are "at the core of Web 2.0."

Sorry, but I can blog until my fingers drop off (as Kevin May regularly does) without encountering or needing any Ajax. (It's only half ridiculous because they hedge it by stating that the core of Web 2.0 are applications that use Ajax code – and a blog site isn't in that sense an application.)

Certainly, Web 2.0 has involved Ajax and blogs. But I think the best way (that is, the productive and profitable way) to think about Web 2.0 is neither as a set of technologies like Ajax and JavaScript nor a set of functionalities like blogs, wikis, UGC and tags.

Instead, think of “Web 2.0” as a name for the utterly revolutionary shift from product- or company-centric sites to consumer-centric sites.

If you succeed in creating and nurturing a consumer-centric site, it might use Ajax, and it will probably have blogs and user generated content – but it might not, and it doesn’t have to.

On the wider front, you still see articles titled, "Web 2.0 – Hype or Reality?"

Sorry again, but by now this is like asking in about 2004: "The Internet – Hype or Reality?" (Someone should write a piece titled, "The Question of Web 2.0 Hype – Hype or Reality?")

Yes, the term is applied far too often and far too loosely to far too many things – but if you base any online business strategy on the belief that Web 2.0 is just hype, you're going to be Dead 2.0.

It's understandable that people are confused. But the real problem isn't the confusion – such that the confusion would slowly dissipate and people would come to terms with the need to stop managing content and start managing the web experience.

The real problem is that the confusion keeps people from concentrating on – or even recognising – the Real Problem – that is, the fundamental revolution in the consumers’ relation to the enterprise and the brand.

Worrying about blogs and forums and customer generated media and Ajax – or even not worrying about it, but happily and proactively implementing them – is just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

While you're tinkering with your company- or product-centric site, the consumer-empowerment iceberg has doomed your fundamental approach to the online/digital channel.

Recognise it really quickly, or just start playing Nearer My God To Thee.

Tim Walters, director international marketing and strategy, Fatwire Software

Like most businesses, Travolution receives almost on a daily basis a pitch to lose lots of money become the benefactor to a huge financial windfall.

Please send us your bank details and a contact address once you have deposited the $50,000, etc, etc.

But here is a new - and rather novel - one:

It comes from a certain Sergeant Lee Boyd, an American soldier in the "Third Infantry Division" in Iraq, who has discovered $25 million from "fleeing regime leaders".

There is a rather handy link to a BBC story to "understand events that took place in Iraq" and how the cash was discovered.

Our man in the fatigues continues:

"Basically, since we are in government service and we are not allowed to have or keep discovered looted funds around us, we have decided to look for someone to help us relocate and keep this funds for us, that is why I have contacted you, so that you can keep it for us in your safe account or custody untill we complete our foreign service in Iraq.

"You will take 30%, while 70% will be for me and my partner. This business is confidential, and it should not be discussed with anyone. There is no risk involved whatsoever as it is only me and my partner that knows the present location of the money."

There is then a gentle threat about not telling anyone - oops - and asking for our "physical address". OK, sure.

Beware of emails from men with guns...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: iraq infantry

Interesting conversations yesterday with the boss of a new-ish online travel outfit and, later, with a senior figure in the digital marketing community.

Big question marks over the role of online travel agencies.

But this remark is in an interesting, if rather bizarre, one:

OTAs pretty much created this industry - but they are no longer growing. Suppliers are now driving the innovation and user experience. Before, everyone else was standing around cleaning the toilets, but it has corrected itself because of the power of the internet.

I suspect Messrs McCaig, Halpin, Martos, Josephs and Furner will disagree.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: lastminute expedia opodo ebookers travelrepublic online travel agency

The main TripAdvisor.com website is now in the new design.

In October the UK site - you read it here first - was used to test various elements of the new design.

Comments so far have been very positive about the new design, although the words "transactional" and "OTA" are often used.

[Meanwhile, TripAdvisor reckons three quarters of people would rather stay in a hotel than their relatives over the Christmas period. Well, of course...]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: expedia tripadvisor

Dara Khosrowshahi talks to the FT today about Expedia's plans for Europe (and beating the likes of TUI Travel and Thomas Cook Group) and other territories.

In a nutshell:

• Expedia is more agile than its competitors because it is pureplay online and has few assets.
• "Aggressive" marketing campaign next year for Europe
  
• China will become like the US in terms of behaviour
• New internationally focussed strategy
• Online travel agencies will continue growth
  

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Nice bit of trickery perhaps in the Financial Times this morning regarding Cheapflights.

The article says the big daddy of the price comparison world will make a decision in the next few weeks on whether it will float in 2008.

The company has declined to comment on the story.

Cheapflights has stated publicly that a floatation, sale or private equity investment would be likely going forward, rather than the status quo (which isn't bad, to be fair - it's been profitable since Day One) - moving earlier this year to appoint Long Acre Partners as financial advisors.

Anyway the dreaded "person close to the situation" has told the the FT the Cheapflights’ management will “come back in January and start to make some decisions based on the markets”.

So this latest twist is either 1) a rather unfortunate leak or 2) a classic piece of Square Mile PR to get the City warmed up before the Christmas break over a potential deal or floatation.

By remarkable coincidence the FT reports how Cheapflights is "expected" to announce the appointment of the Maitland corporate PR consultancy.

UPDATE: Maitland is the new corp PR agency for Cheapflights.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights floatation shares city

"User Experience is King"!!

Well, that's what we reckon.

Here is the leader column we wrote for the December edition of Travolution magazine:

The travel industry is continually at some kind of ‘crossroads’. In the hyperbolic world of the business news media, this is often due to the mergers of major travel providers, a relaxation of regulatory rules or adhering to the demands of green lobbyists/political parties.

The reality is that the industry, known for its incredible resilience, manages to adapt to these obstacles remarkably easily. Indeed, perhaps this is why we hear of new ‘crossroads’ on such a frighteningly regular basis.

Nevertheless, these apparent turbulent intersections on the path the travel sector attempts to traverse are almost always born out of the actions of the industry itself or official bodies.

So, therefore, it is perhaps the current ‘crossroads’ that we find so fascinating.

Indeed, the fundamental shift in consumer online behaviour is a veritable spaghetti junction in the grand scheme of things – and one not of the industry’s making.

There is evidence to illustrate this switch: four of the top 10 websites in the UK in October this year would be classed as experiential rather than solely providing information or a transactional element.

This is not to say that sites popular just a few years ago (such as Amazon) are on the wane. Far from it, in fact – consumers are just behaving in a different way on the Internet.

They are also asking for more from the providers of services during their time on the web.

This is a problem for the travel industry because, until very recently, it has been focused primarily on the transactional elements.

So-called ‘user experience’ has invariably been left to ensuring accessibility guidelines are complied with (or not, as is often the case) and sizeable sums of money being spent on flashy designs.

Research from Forrester a few months back indicated that online bookings in the US are falling despite an increase in the number of visitors to corresponding website. This is a disturbing trend.

At a recent conference, Travolution faced the wrath of the industry by declaring that if the sector as a whole fails to improve the user experience on its websites then this trend will actually become a serious issue. This argument irritates many because it comes just a few years after they have been urged to go online in the first place.

Nevertheless, consumer behaviour is changing at an astonishing pace – a fact of life, unfortunately – and the travel industry needs to react accordingly.

A concerted effort by travel companies to improve user experience on websites can only benefit their consumers, and the sector as a whole. Indeed, there are a number of key advantages for the modern travel company.

Providing value for consumers’ time on the Internet will inevitably lead to a better relationship with them, earning the company more than just the recognition it variably gets from the – often vast – sums of money it spend on online marketing.

Meanwhile, as consumers develop that much-coveted relationship and use a site to do more than simply book a travel product, companies will inevitably understand more about their customers – where they LIKE to go, what they are KEEN on doing, who they PREFER to go with.

These are aspects of a consumer’s preferences that are difficult to determine through a one-way relationship based on booking a product.

The cultural shift in consumer behaviour on the web has to be matched by the industry, simply in order for it to meet the needs of consumers now massively empowered by the ability to assimilate information and share their experiences.

This is the real and exciting crossroads the industry now faces.

[More debate on our open thread from a few weeks back]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

According to Brand Republic, budget hotel chain Travelodge is offering any couple with first names Joseph and Mary a free night's accommodation over the Christmas holiday!

The puff on the company website continues the, er, festive theme:

"Today's Mary and Joseph will stay in a spacious Travelodge family room which can also cater for a baby and a manger.

"A free car-parking space will be provided for the donkey and there are plenty of £29 rooms available for the shepherds and Wise Men to book."

No, no, please stop...

The Brand Republic story says there is a dedicated "microsite" for customers to sign up for the amazing deal. As far as we can tell it's actually an email address at head office.

Bah humbug!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

There is goodwill in the air - apparently.

And it is also the season for meangingless consumer surveys!

This week's effort comes from First Choice which has asked 3,000 people to single out what they hate about Christmas.

Leading the list of 50 irritants is Novelty Tit-Tat, followed "The Sales", Christmas Carol Ringtones, Traffic and Queues.

The remaining include such galling items as Brussel sprouts, Fig rolls, Pine needles and heavyweight topics like Putting on weight, Rubbish television and The Queen's speech.

Thankfully nowhere amongst the 50 is Trying to book a holiday online.

Hurrah!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

A fair bit of hullabaloo yesterday about Bebo's announcement to allow third party applications.

These ranged from:

Bebo embraces Facebook [Techcrunch]
Bebo snubs Google [Techcrunch]
Nielsen's top ten social networks: Where's Bebo [Mashable]

We've got an interesting angle - Where I've Been will be the first travel app - on the main announcement.

If the Bebo application platform is a "clone" of the Facebook one we can probably expect many more travel-related tools to launch on Bebo in the coming months.

[Recent post about the most popular travel apps on Facebook]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: bebo facebook opensocial

Steven Scott of Airmiles, who we named as one of the Rising Stars of the UK online travel industry in October, has a nice little project on the side.

Travelography is a image bank of high quality travel-related photography which Scott is punting to the travel industry.

There are some cracking shots on the site and, here's the user generated content bit, budding snappers can send their own pictures to Travelography for distribution.

Scott says:

"We set up Travelography because we know how tight the margins are in the travel industry these days.

"That’s because we’ve worked in the travel industry for some time and understand the budgets constraints that you work under."

Yes, indeed.

Good luck to Steven and interesting to see travel types having a crack at something else away from the day job.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

We've heard in recent days and Mashable has announced that social networking site Bebo will follow in the path of bitter rival Facebook and open its platform to third party applications.

Developers are being invited to an event in San Francisco, California, this afternoon (GMT) where they will be told who are the first partners and how the system will work.

You can almost feel that a travel-related app will be on that inital list, such is the synergy between social networks and travel experiences.

The debate Mashable is focusing on surrounds whether Bebo will use the new Google OpenSocial system or develop one of its own.

We will update if anything concrete about travel comes out of the event in SF.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: bebo opensocial san francisco

The Plain English Campaign likes to kick the boot into companies who mask the simple use of language with corporate-speak or gobbledygook.

This year's winners from the travel industry include:

Virgin Trains for a letter about problems booking online - "Moving forwards, we as Virgin Trains are looking to take ownership of the flow in question to apply our pricing structure, thus resulting in this journey search appearing in the new category-matrix format. The pricing of this particular flow is an issue going back to 1996 and it is not something that we can change until 2008 at the earliest. I hope this makes the situation clear." Erm, yes, absolutely.

BAA for a sign at Gatwick Airport - "Passenger shoe repatriation area only." This is obviously somewhere different from the Customer Pause Zone just before immigration. Travel Weekly's chief sub Megan Turner was moved recently to take a picture.

Translink for a sign at Coleraine railway station - "Every Autumn a combination of leaves on the line, atmospheric conditions and prevailing damp conditions lead to a low adhesion between the rail head and the wheel which causes services to be delayed or even cancelled. NI Railways are committed to minimising service delays, where we can, by implementing a comprehensive low adhesion action programme." Or, getting rid of the leaves.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: jargon buster gobbledygook

£750,000...

According to research from the Interactive Media in Retail Group, three quarters of a million quid was spent in the UK at nine minutes past one this afternoon.

This is all to do with the pre-Christmas online shopping frenzy, triggering what is expected to £370 million in sales just today - almost double the average online shopping day.

IMRG, understandably, claims today will the biggest single day in the history of shopping on the web in the UK.

Which is nice...

Some more online Christmas shopping facts:

* The biggest hour ever will be between 11-12am that day, with sales worth £32.400,000, two hours earlier than the peak hour last year, on Monday 4th December 2006.

* 40% of the sales that day, worth £148,000,000 will take place outside of traditional shopping hours, either before 9am or after 6pm (i.e. when most high street shops are shut), up from 38% last year.

* Monday 10 to Sunday 16 December will be the biggest e-sales week of the year, with online sales worth £2.359 billion, almost three times the £0.885 billion average for the year.

* Total Christmas e-retail sales (i.e. Q4 2007) are expected to reach £17.6 billion, an 82% increase of the £9.6 billion recorded for the same period in 2006.

* Full year 2007 e-retail sales will be £53.3 billion, 76% higher than the £30.2 billion recorded for 2006, and considerably exceeding the £42 billion IMRG estimated at the beginning of this year.

* The UK's 27 million online shoppers will generate 860 million parcel deliveries in 2007.

It's just a shame if you want to buy a Wii.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: wii christmas xmas shopping nintendo

The holiday season approaches - 2008 beckons...

We want to collect the opinions of the travel industry in order to compile a list of the biggest news stories and most important developments of 2007.

We will add ALL entries made via the comments section into the main post. Also, feel free to copy this post onto your own blog or site and re-post it with your suggestions. A worthwhile Meme to end the year.

The list begins:

• Thomas Cook-MyTravel merger (Travolution) - the start of a new shape for the European travel industry.
• MoneySupermarket-TravelSupermarket floatation (TravelRemark)
• Avis launching a blog (Avis)
  
• DoSomethingDifferent making their content available to OTAs (DoSomethingDifferent)
  

Good luck and thanks in advance...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: 2007 review online travel 2008

New Media Age today reports how Thomas Cook will redesign its main website in March next year.

Makes sense - especially with news that it will essentially merge its Thomas Cook TV and the website platforms so 17,000 hours of footage can be streamed online.

Exciting times...

However. What will it do with MyTravel.com? The site always performed pretty well in terms of traffic and has a page rank of 4 [same as the Travolution blog!].


But now in the shiny PLC world of Thomas Cook Group, MyTravel doesn't really exist.

What would you do?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: thomas cook mytravel

Google brings out bitter strong emotions in anyone connected with new media - and certainly most working in the travel industry.

So interesting to hear a discussion about the Search Engine Daddy and its hold on the industry at this week's TTI Open Space event in Windsor.

Led by Stella Travel’s Gordon Maynard, the debate was titled ‘What will Google do to the Travel Industry?’ - but it quickly morphed into 'What can the industry do about Google?'.

Here are some suggestions from the assembled brains, including Dermot McNally (Directski), Carlos Pereira (Ceejay Travel) and Bill Taylor (Advantage Travel Centres):

• Get together and propose how travel product search could develop. Try and work with them rather than working against them.
• Sit down with Google and have a sensible discussion with them and use collective power to influence them.
• Ensure Google remains an information medium, which of course they say they will, and not a selling medium.
• A blank boycott – take your money elsewhere and pursue better deals on other sites.
• Develop a more optimised service with other platforms.
• Concentrate on natural search.
• Measure the real returns you are getting and make sure there is no wastage.
• Build a competing travel search engine.
• Forget about Google and concentrate on your website because search engines are driving traffic to it that is often lost.
• And, finally, persuade Google to buy Expedia because its search engine is a lot better than anyone elses.

Why so much concern about Google?

Because the industry feels it must participate but there is a lack of control. Many also feel there is no real middle ground.

As Anite’s Ed Spiers put it: “There was a gap for more flexible travel and the need to get a structured view on an essentially unstructured market.”

Linda Fox, freelance journalist

Technorati tags: google expedia search

Our latest column in Travel Weekly:

Travolution used a keynote address at the ABTA Convention last week to highlight the problems travel companies face with user experience on their websites.

This broad generalisation was deliberate in order to appeal – or not – to a wide cross-section of different interests at the event.

Understandably not everyone would have agreed with our conclusions: that the industry needs to match the fundamental changes in consumer behaviour with better functionality and user experience and in order to meet their increasingly needy requirements.

Research published recently by US-based group Forrester indicates that that despite an increase in traffic to online travel sites, the number of bookings remains static or is falling in some cases.

This is primarily because users are poorly served either by the quality of information they receive online or what they are able to do with it.

The types of sites web users are now flocking to in recent years (multimedia, social networking) illustrate a shift in how people now want to use the internet.

Five of the top ten sites in the UK are in this category.

For example, exactly two years ago Amazon was a top ten website in the UK, according to Hitwise. It is now in 19th position, but no one really suspects it is selling fewer books – quite the contrary.

This shift in usage is beginning to have an impact on travel (the most popular travel-related website is now Google Maps), and will only increase.

Travel companies must be ready for this change and be prepared to position themselves as multi-channel operations, serving consumers in as many ways the customer needs in order to research and book products.

For too long the travel industry has made a bold assumption that it knows how to reach its customers.

It is now the other way round. Consumers know exactly how they want to reach travel providers and interact with them – and, most importantly, with one another.

[Join the debate]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

There are some cynics about. But something to mull over...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr7lDlUfw9w&rel=1]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Hat-tip: Jebworks

Technorati tags: youtube web 2.0

We apologise if anyone is offended by this post.

The Consumerist in the US picked up on a email marketing campaign by Spirit Airlines to promote its, er, MILF Sale - "Many Islands, Low Fares".

Now many a young man and/or fans of American Pie will know that MILF actually stands for something completely unrelated to the sale of cheap holiday tickets.

Spirit Airlines denies it had any idea about the unfortunate connection, blaming it - rather mysteriously - on a British executive within the company who rubber-stamped the campaign.

We wonder if chief executive Ben Baldanza knew what was going on? He likes courting controversy...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Here is the final version of the e-book, Tips from the T-List - a collection of writing from bloggers around the world working in the business of travel.

You can even download your own Travolution version, customised for delegates at our Autumn conference in November.

Download the Tips from the T-List here.

Those who helped produced the book:

Stephen Joyce, Publisher
Jens Thraenhart, Editor in Chief
Mathieu Ouellet, Editor, North America
Yeoh Siew Hoon, Editor, AsiaPacific
Kevin May, Editor, Europe, Middle East

We are pleased the project worked out so well and hope readers enjoy the book.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: t-list blog

There are now almost 300 travel-related Facebook applications - some very good, some very bizarre.

But as Facebook is all about sharing information, experiences, videos and photos, rather like what people do when they return from holiday, this is probably a low number considering there is a grand total of nearly 10,150.

The current top five apps in terms of most active use are:

Petrolhead - 295,000 (12% use every day)
What City Should You Live In? - 23,000 (11% use every day)
Local Picks? - 19,000 (5%)
Traveler IQ Challenge - 52,000 (4%)
Cities I've Visited - 132,000 (3%)

Incidentally, the final three of that list were developed by TripAdvisor or one of its subsidiaries.

But which are the best out of the 300? [We don't have time to go through them all, so thought it would handy to ask you lot...]

Tips via the comments section.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook apps

...thank goodness for that.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The WAYN mobile speaking translator.

Report back please...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: WAYN social networking mobile