The folks at NBA were good enough to create a podcast for our sister brand Travel Weekly - so if you want to hear judges' thoughts on why those brands made the shortlist, hit the audio player below...
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]]>In its early years the internet was heralded as the great disintermediator, allowing manufacturers and suppliers to have direct interaction with their customer bases.
This was Phase One. It was rapid. There was a dramatic increase in market transparency that allowed people to see prices and products from multiple suppliers, allowing them to compare prices and buy direct.
As the internet grew, that market transparency began to diminish. With thousands of sites selling a product/service, how could someone determine whether they were getting the best price?
This ushered in Phase Two. New companies such as Travelsupermarket and Kayak re-established market transparency with innovative technologies, aggregating data and essentially reintermediating the supply chain.But if the likes of Travelsupermarket have good technologies, the likes of Google have incredible ones, allowing them to usher in what appears to be Phase Three. Its reach and resources make Google the ultimate informational intermediary, essentially reintermediating an already reintermediated supply chain.
All Phase 2 intermediaries should now be rethinking their business models in light of this move, and at the very least determining how they should operate in the next few years.
The speculation in the run-up to the deal was rife, and is likely to continue for some time to come, not least until the deal gets through the regulators.
Google has been quite transparent in terms of its official communications about the deal, giving the market something concrete upon which to base their panic/delight/disinterest. Delete where appropriate.
As ever, the press release doesn't give much away, but a microsite within Google's online press office is more forthcoming.
Based on what we know so far, the following quotations, taken directly from the microsite, are probably the most relevant.
"Google does not plan to sell airline tickets directly"
"By acquiring ITA Software, Google plans to offer new flight search tools that makes it easier for users to comparison shop for flight options, availability and airfares"
"We are very excited about ITA Software's QPX business"
"ITA Software's European revenues aren't large enough to warrant European regulatory review."
The deal makes a lot of sense in a number of ways, but then are also technological, cultural and commercial implications which have many experts scratching their heads. One thing is for certain and that is uncertainty.
]]>It looks a lot like a win for The Traditional, with face-to-face taking 38%. But there are a couple of questions I think are worth pondering:
1. Can the logic of market share tell us much here?
'Prefer' has clear implications if you're talking about something close to a win-lose scenario (e.g. Coke vs Pepsi).
But what does it mean to say you 'prefer' to sit down and talk about a holiday than, say, pop some photos on flickr? I prefer it too, but I still do both.
There are broad implications to be drawn about the volume of people who engage in each activity, but they're obvious - face-to-face is so firmly baked into everyday life as to be virtually unavoidable.
2. Are the categories themselves airtight?
What if - as I did last week - I post photos on Facebook, then talk my parents through the gallery next time I visit them? Face-to-face or social networking?
]]>Look out for:
> A look at how the three GDSs match up
> Mobile's rise to prominence
> 10 technologies to watch this year
We're also running a gadget competition with Traveltek. Guess which useless, gimmicky gadget we've got to give away and you could win a not-so-useless Apple iPad.
This edition reflects Travolution's recent media partnership with the Travel Technology Europe show, which inspired much of the content.
Lee Hayhurst, Travolution editor
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Says NMA:The verdict:
]]>"Clearly influenced by Google online aesthetics and usability, Zugu beta provides a pretty good user experience, albeit a search layer above travel providers, so you are at Opodo or BA or others mercy once you select an option.
Search and results speeds are good and everything loads double fast, but will it do so under load?
Sorting options are also very good and the site makes good use of Web 2.0 interface design while keeping everything well organised and uncluttered.
Main gripe is that once I viewed details of a chosen flight the 'select' or 'book now' button wasn't where I expected it to be.
While I quite liked the name, I found the brand mark typographically mean and spiky. I'd be more generous, warm and cuddly.
The lime livery is what one American client once termed 'monkey-vomit green', but I like it."
Here's a snippet:
"In the past year, eBay has seen its holiday and travel category grow significantly in response to consumer demand for new ways to book a holiday. As a consequence, the travel industry needs to change the way it works.
Many retailers have opened up to the world of online but not explored its full potential. eBay has proved that retailers can have great success and benefit from incremental sales to their existing channels.
Travel retailers must now look at harnessing the web beyond their existing offering to reach new online shoppers."
A general call to arms? Or does it translate as "swallow your fears and work with us"?
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The Q3 results today tipped the airline to end the year with a profit of €275m (£240m). In the sector's weakest quarter - October to December - it slashed losses to €11m. I wonder what BA will report when its third quarter results come out on Friday.
For a Travolution audience, the key metric is one that Ryanair doesn't even bother mentioning anymore - all of their business is transacted online at www.ryanair.com. Traffic figures for the site must be phenomenal - especially as all of its passengers also have to visit ryanair.com to check in online.
That's 66 million passengers - call them online customers - this year. I imagine there are very few online travel agents who gets 66m hits a year, never mind 66m bookers. And if things go according to plan, there will be 85m Ryanair passengers in Europe by 2012.
Ryanair.com effectively has a "total transaction value" of €2.4bn for the first nine months of the year, with €1.9bn from seats and €0.5bn from ancillaries.
Ancillaries is a great catch-all phrase which includes checked baggage fees, card charges, as well as the revenues earned for the partnerships it has in place with car hire providers, hotel providers, travel insurance suppliers etc. There is even a dedicated cruise channel on the site.
Unluckily, Ryanair does not break out the ancillary revenues in any way, declining when asked to give Travolution even a top line indication. So we'll never know how many cruise bookings Costa Cruises secures via its deal with Ryanair, nor the terms of that deal.
Most people think that Expedia Inc invented the media model for travel sites, but Ryanair is also pretty good at monetizing its traffic. It's a pity we'll never find out exactly how good.
Martin Cowen
]]>Ebookers has designed the site to be incredibly simple, but that verges on obligatory when producing pages for mobile browsers.
That said, it would be interesting to know how it performs on various different handsets - whether it's simple enough to be user-friendly on my clunky N95 as well as a web-friendly iPhone.
So if anyone has road-tested it, drop a note in the comments section...
Homepage
Search pages
Results pages
Apparently the site recently featured an amazing deal on flights to Tel Aviv from "mom and pop" agency Moses Travel.
The deal proved so popular that Cheapflights had to call the agency to check it was happy with the number of incoming leads. And it was - it had filled its flights and planned to put on another.
Ecsery says the move by operators to reduce capacity has boosted demand for deals in the DIY market, adding that airlines' often complex pricing structures were also pushing consumers to shop around.
A couple more quotes on that subject that we didn't use in today's news story:
"The awareness among the consumer that they have to be careful with their money will not go away for a good five years."
...and...
"Price is still so important, and yet it has never been cheaper to fly than now. Sometimes people do not end up booking at the cheaper price but when it is advertised it's like moths to a light."
Lee Hayhurst
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The sixth season of Lost premieres in the US on Tuesday, so speculation that this is a bit of viral marketing seems reasonable.
Commenter KristoferA has another theory, though:
"Probably a countermeasure against screenscrapers"
Wonder much Kayak users who want a real Sydney-LAX flight will enjoy being Lostrolled - hopefully Lost lore is widepsread enough for them to see it coming...
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