Travolution@WTM-Web 2.0 is Not Geeky

Those of you who are die-hard Web 2.0 enthusiasts—you know who you are—will be pleased to hear that the general consensus at the Travolution World Travel Market conference is that 2.0 is not for geeks.

I repeat: 2.0 is not for geeks!!!!!

Now they we’ve got that out of the way, we can continue our “future of the web” discussions with passionate abandon. Hurrah!

"The emergence of Web 2.0 will prove to be particularly important as we transition from a supplier-centric to a consumer-centric society," John Bray, vice-president advisory services, PhoCusWright, told conference attendees.

In the same way iTunes has transformed the way people buy music, and consequently how musicians are paid, Bray predicted that 2.0 will transform the way people purchase travel online, and how advertisers interact with prospective customers.

Whereas in the past, people searched for the perfect price, Web 2.0 will enable people to search for the perfect trip by supporting travel planning behaviours that have always existed.

“Sharing photos and asking friends for recommendations are not new behaviours—they’re only new because of the way they are being delivered.”

2.0 will also enable suppliers to distil and organise their products and tailor them to individual consumer tastes.

“Today, if we all searched for a trip to Andalusia, we’d all get back the same results." The future, according to Bray, is that "the search results will be predictive and will respond to what you’re looking for.”

“Web 2.0 is not just yet another channel shift and it’s not a fad. It applies to everybody in this audience,” said Bray.

And the best part: “This is not all about being geeky.”


Tricia Holly Davis
Freelance Journalist