Look out for more deals in the user review sector

Do not underestimate the significance of the purchase by TUI Travel of Holidays Uncovered, which we were pleased to unravel with the help of Travel Rants earlier this week.

Although the newly formed PLC didn't mention it by name in its trading update on Wednesday 26 September ("an independent package holiday review site"), Holidays Uncovered is most definitely now a TUI Travel-owned property.

[Nevertheless, Graham Donoghue, new media director at TUI Travel, brushed aside any queries about the deal during the Travolution Question Time on Tuesday night]

A bit of digging around in the past few days has revealed a number of things:

• No-one has a clue as to how much the deal is worth (an affiliate network told us today it regularly pumped around £30,000 a month into Holidays Uncovered, and guessed at around £2 million).
• Secondly, the deal was so hush-hush, with even some senior members of TUI Travel kept in the dark.
• The previous owner has never been seen in public and spends much of his time, according to one source, on the QE2.

In all seriousness, this deal is a major step forward for TUI Travel as it looks to develop its brand along similar lines to Expedia, which bought TripAdvisor in 2004.

The Holidays Uncovered site has, in the words of one TUI exec, "user experience from hell" - but it is likely the site will be overhauled over the coming months.

There is, inevitably, a certain amolunt of scepticism in the industry as to the motives behind the deal and whether TUI can do to Holidays Uncovered what Expedia did to TripAdvisor - in other words, a successful integration of an independent review site into a mainstream business without it losing its credibility.

There are plenty of reasons as to why the deal has taken place, but primarily because of its reasonably high traffic and very good page ranking. "SEO-ed to the hilt", is how one contact put it rather more bluntly yesterday.

It certainly appears that every second site is introducing or improving its user reviews, mainly to improve user experience and help with search engine optimisation.

But in a market which is seeing so-called traditional companies making huge efforts to boost their web presence, it is likely that deals such as that for Holidays Uncovered - or between individual review sites - will become commonplace in the next few years.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: expedia tui thomas cook tripadvisor review

Leaky Opodo - Whistleblowing 2.0

Everyone was getting rather excited a few days back as rumours started to circulate of a sale of the French tour operator Karavel by its owner Opodo.

The source of the rumour was Online Travel Crunch.

Opodo duly confirmed the deal yesterday.

What most people at the time didn't realise as the rumourmill turned is that the owner of the Online Travel Crunch is one Mario Gavira.

Alex Bainbridge had some ideas - but a quick call to Opodo (shock, horror: the old fashioned method) soon revealed Gavira's identity. He is an account manager in France for Opodo!

UPDATE: Online Travel Crunch is mysteriously offline as of Saturday 29 September. Wonder why...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: opodo whistleblower karavel

Travolution Question Time photos

The first Travolution Question Time took place on Tuesday evening this week.


Thanks to all those who came along.

Some more photos from the event are on our Flickr album.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Reaching age groups must be done through better service

Our latest column in Travel Weekly:

We finally have a better idea as to how different age groups interact with travel brands on the Internet ­ and how they may well do so in the future.

The Travolution Generations project showed us, for example, that while older age groups are suspicious of social networking sites such as Facebook ­ this year's online darling ­ they are more than happy to spend hour upon hour browsing websites to find a deal.

Perhaps this is not surprising given the continued increase in the number of homes with broadband connections and the number of people with access to the web at work.

Nevertheless, some myths have been turned on their heads, such as how more than 40% of over 16 to 24-year-olds consult a travel agent before they book a holiday.

What the research also indicated is the desire of all age groups to extract as much useful information as possible about their trips, whether that is via comprehensive content on websites, knowledgeable people in call centres or staff in agencies.

Once again, customer service is still the most important aspect of any relationship regardless of the channel you find yourself working in.

The challenge, of course, for retail agencies is to capture consumers ­ whichever age group they fit into ­ at some point in the purchase cycle.

This may be an unwanted leap for many agency workers to comprehend, but the traditional high-street shop could be ­ in the future ­ just an information centre for consumers.

But this is not something of which agents should be scared. A multi-channel world means that we will all have to rethink how we target people in the future, regardless of their age.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: Travolution Generations facebook Travel Weekly

Dabbling in contentious issues

Travel companies very rarely take a stand on political issues (apart from environmental ones, which they are forced to by default).

In fact, it is about as likely as a motion being passed at the Labour Party Conference actually having an impact on government policy... but that's another story.

So somewhat refreshing - depending on your point of view - to see WAYN sticking their necks out and joining a protest in London against whaling in Japan.

Marketing boss Annika Erskine (in the WAYN t-shirt) is pictured here with Margaux Dodds of Marine Connection, organisers of the march.

The question is this, however: does WAYN really care about this issue or is this just a smart piece of branding considering its target demographic?

I suspect we might trigger some comments here.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: wayn dolphin whale japan protest

The Long Tail of Travel - bizarre holiday #94

We are always keen to identify the more obscure niche travel products, as part of our Long Tail of Travel project, so we are grateful to a colleague who has pointed us in the direction of a holiday for beekeepers.

Anyone who fancies extracting a little beeswax from a hive for a few weeks, in a slightly more exotic location than the back garden, can now jet off to the Caribbean for a Beekeeping Safari.

More niche holiday suggestions are welcome via the comments.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: bees caribbean

Carnival Cruise Blog is still a very rude one

Cruise giant Carnival must be getting increasingly frustrated with the continued presence of rather naughty posts on the unofficial Carnival Cruise Blog.

Two weeks ago we alerted Carnival respresentatives in the UK to the pornographic links being posted on the homepage of the blog.

They told us the blog actually belonged to a travel agent in California and he would be notified immediately. Unfortunately it was another two days almost before the posts were removed.

Since then the porn demons have been posting busily on the blog, courtesy of the ridiculous open access policy the owner continues to employ.

Carnival has significant brand management issues to iron out. Unfortunately, in the meantime it's open season for the dirty link-baiters.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: carnival cruise carnival open access
porn

Weapons of Much Distraction

Sponsors at travel industry conferences are forever giving away USB memory sticks - in fact, we have a grand total of ten gathering dust in the Travolution locker.

But, as the market saturates with industry conferences with these devices for storing data, Thinkgeek has found a rather more engaging use of the USB port for bored officeworkers: the USB Missile Launcher.

Watch as, one by one, three spring-loaded missiles arc 5 to 8 feet gracefully to your quarry. Giggle girlishly at the realistic sound effects with every launch.

Er, quite...

It strikes us (no pun intended) that conference sponsors in the travel industry would do well to explore rather more innovative, computer-hosted toys.

In fact, Gadgetspy has produced a list of the Most Pointless USB Gadgets. Our own favourite is the USB Slippers set.

Top five USB Gadgets for Travel conferences?

[UPDATE: The Flight International blog has also found a rather nifty, travel-related office tool - the indoor plane!]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: missile launcher weaponry USB

Dude, Where’s my dog? – TripAdvisor’s Business Travel Survey

After an unexplained hiatus [are you sure - Ed?], Tim Walters from Fatwire Software returns with one of his unique guest blogger posts:

My few contributions to TripAdvisor – which range from constructive criticism to eternal damnation – seem to confirm Kevin May’s theory that user reviews serve primarily to warn off the innocent rather than promote the virtuous.

In any case, they’ve won me the dubious honor of taking part in a current email-based TripAdvisor Business Travel Survey [results out today, in fact] – and it’s not quite clear whether they aren’t having one on at my/our expense.

Question from the survey: What do you like least about business travel?

Now, think about it for a second. Is your mind filled with images of:

• Travel to the airport
• Long lines at check-in
• Long lines at security
• Degrading security procedures
• Long lines at the gate
• Finding out, after suffering to be first in line at the gate, that you’re only first in line for the bus
• Knowing that first on the bus is last off of the bus
• Awful food inflight, for which you’re often charged far too much
• Bus from plane to terminal, etc.

If so, then clear your mind, since TripAdvisor offers the following choices:

• Missing your significant other and/or family
• Missing your pet
• Visiting new cities but not having the chance to do any sightseeing
• Being away from your own bed/home
• Messing up your exercise schedule
• Having to eat out all the time

Right! That’s it! What I really dislike about business travel is that it prevents me from springing up from my own bed, going for a jog around the lovely sights of downtown Bonn with my beloved pet (hopefully a dog), and returning to a fine home-cooked breakfast prepared by my significant other and/or family!

All other indignities, TripAdvisor seems to think, are insignificant.

So, just to be true to the concept, shouldn’t TripAdvisor offer online reviews/comments from users of their online survey?

Tim Walters, director international marketing and strategy, Fatwire Software

You took a copy of Travolution where?!? Part 2

Such was the rather unexpected popularity of last week's offering, Travolution Goes Skydiving, the kind chap featured in this latest entry has sent in quite a few, which we will publish over the coming weeks.

Paul Reynolds, who has spent the last year working for P&O Cruises, is snapped here in Vung Tao, Vietnam.


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: vietnam vung tao

Tips from the T-List - collective wisdom in action

Travolution is pleased to be assisting in a project to create an e-book collecting some of the best writing from travel bloggers from around the world.

The Tips from the T-List is being created and edited by Stephen Joyce, Jens Thraenhart, Mathieu Ouellet, Yeoh Siew Hoon and Travolution.

We want those involved in this year's original T-List to send in their best posts which outline the best ways to use online marketing to promote online travel and ecommerce.

The instructions:

1. Complete and fax back the consent form to +1 604 648 9651 or email it to tlist@rezgo.com.

2. Send three of your best posts. The editors will select one of these posts to appear in the book, with the goal of providing insider experience and expertise in how online marketing can benefit travel and tourism. The posts should be your own work and should be things like tips, observations, or helpful hints. Please do not send news items or trend oriented posts because these will become outdated very quickly. Concentrate on original thoughts, tips, best practices, etc. Please limit the piece to 300-500 words max. You can either email your nominations, or use the T-List Wiki.

3. Send us a good quality headshot (if you want it included).

4. Send us a good quality screenshot of your blog or website.

5. Send us a very brief biography of yourself, your location (which will be added to a map of all bloggers) and the description of your blog.

6. Send us your full name, address, phone and email so we can send you a copy of the book. Only those contributors who make it into the book will receive a copy, however, we will be making a free e-book available for download that you can distribute.

7. Make sure you add your information to the T-List Community on Facebook, where you can also find links to more information and blogs.

8. Entries need to be submitted by 30 September for inclusion in the book.

The e-book will be made available at various conferences around the world, including our own Travolution Conference on 1 November.

More information can be found at the CanadaEConnect blog.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Ryanair and its emotional baggage

Worth sending readers to this simply because it so darn funny.

Ryanair to charge for 'emotional baggage'

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair

Some of the meta search engines don't deserve our money, say Expedia

At a recent Travolution advisory board meeting, Clive Peoples, head of customer communications for Expedia UK, was brutally honest about how the company rather dislikes views some meta search engines.

There are a lot of companies out there that will spend a lot of money just on advertising just to generate traffic and get bought by another company – and they are not long-term models. I have no interest in helping them do that.

In the US there is work we’re doing with Kayak and other companies, but there’s just an awful lot of companies launching and we’re not looking to channel any of our profits into their back accounts to help build them up.

Ooh, ouch.

Now many people would assume that Peoples just happened to be talking about TravelSupermarket, which has splashed a rather considerable amount of cash on TV advertising - and has failed to persuade Expedia to work with it.

When pushed a little further, Peoples said:

We’ve got a very large brand, which is very good for us as we get a lot of traffic directly.

Not being present on TravelSupermarket does not cause us any problems at the moment, because what we are seeing is that people are going to TravelSupermarket and are coming to us anyway as well.

We think this is rather fascinating stuff from Expedia and goes to the heart of the meta search-online travel agency issue.

What stage should the likes of TravelSupermarket be at before Expedia will allow its products to be listed? Some would suggest that a recent floatation - via its MoneySupermarket parent brand - on the London Stock Exchange might illustate resemble some degree of longevity.

But perhaps not.

Tim Frankcom from Yahoo! and Kelkoo defends the meta search model against accusations that it can destroy brands.

It’s going to be good traffic because it’s been refined, been through a filtering mechanism, so if it can be acquired at the right price and as long as they can convert it into a booking, then it actually makes sense for OTAs and suppliers to take part in it.

The problem exists in other parts of the industry, where business types are still struggling to find ways to work together.

At a recent private dinner in London, the boss of an online travel agency struggled to comprehend why the boss of a very large traditional tour operator would still not allow a partnership.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: expedia travelsupermarket meta search travel agency

Travolution Generations has arrived

Many of you will have received a copy of September edition of Travolution. [Make sure you don't miss out next time]

You can access all the Travolution Generations content on the main Travolution website.

One part we have not highlighted over the summer - we wanted to keep it under wraps - is an exclusive article by Rob Solomon, chief executive and president of Sidestep, where he explains why the company has embraced social networking sites uch as Facebook. A fascinating read.

The digital edition of Travolution Generations - and other issues over the last year - can be downloaded for free.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: sidestep facebook Travolution Generations

Future of Travolution up in the air

Well, not quite.

Following our post on Sunday night, launching our rather irreverant You Took A Copy of Travolution Where?!? series, Travolution's resident skydiver also put together this clip.



Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: skydive parachute australia

Lastminute.com marketing team were 'perplexed' by electrocution ad

In April this year we ran a post featuring a bizarre video ad which had been produced for Lastminute.com.



Understandably the post sparked a few comments.

Yesterday the producer of the ad, Matt Huntley, got in touch to let us know what happened:

I wrote, directed and co-produced this ad. There was no involvement from Lastminute.com whatsoever.

It was funded by me for my showreel, it could have been for any travel company but at the time Lastminute.com weren't doing TV commercials.

We presented it to their marketing deparment in the hope of selling it (more for the exposure than the money) but they didn't seem very interested (more perplexed!)

Shame as it has proven really popular. But what the hell do I know?!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: lastminute.com execution electric chair

All aboard the GDS love-in - not quite

The European Commission gave the thumbs-up last week to an extraordinary deal between two of the giants of the GDS world, Amadeus and Sabre.

The pair are launching Moneydirect, a rather clever payment "solution" for travel providers and needed the EC to clear any competition issues.

There is plenty of detail to follow on this but there is one crucial question (apart from the name of the business, which sounds more akin to a financial services price comparison site):

What about Travelport (Galileo and Worldspan's parent organisation)?

Amadeus-Sabre say they want this to be the start of an industry standard solution for payments. But the other half the GDS sector feels indifferent, has ideas of its own or is biding its time to see whether Moneydirect works.

[The system has been up and running successfully in Australia and New Zealand]

During a briefing last week, Moneydirect chief operating officer Laurent Chartier (from the Amadeus camp) pointed us to some comments from Jeff Clark (Travelport), who said the project was a "good idea" and "positive for all parties".

However Chartier would not say how negotiations had gone so far with Travelport. Indeed there is a board of directors for the new company, which is staffed with Amadeus and Sabre execs.

Either way the development is a very good one for an industry, many execs behind the scenes admit, beset with old systems which are not up to the task of handling high volumes and coordintating multi-distribution platforms.

Let's just see how long it takes Worldspan-Galileo to join the club.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: worldspan moneydirect sabre amadeus galileo travelport GDS

You took a copy of Travolution where?!? Part 1

Thought we'd get the first of an indeterminate - and Sunday evening-type, timewasting - series off to an incredible start with this effort from Australia.

Reader Joel Carpenter took a copy of the December 2006 edition of Travolution to well over 10,000 feet and then threw himself out of the aircraft (surely a rather extreme reaction after reading an analysis of the GDSs - Ed).

Carpenter said:

"This is after freefall, once my canopy was open. You can see that the mag got pretty torn up in freefall, but 200km/h winds will do that."

Quite...

You can send submissions via email and we'll add them on the blog.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: skydive parachute australia

It must be very distressing not being cool anymore

This time last year Opodo was celebrating after learning it had been named one of the coolest brands in the UK.

But reaching such, er, heady heights means there is often only one way to go, according to the 2007 CoolBrands survey, and that's downwards.

In fact, such has been Opodo's dramatic fall from grace that rival online travel agecncy Expedia is now deemed cooler and Opodo didn't even manage to get on the "qualifying" group.

Say what you like about the methodology behind the CoolBrands and SuperBrands scheme (Bebo and MySpace qualified, Facebook didn't), but its PR is fantastic and the national press lap it up reproduce the results every year.

Other travel catgeory winners included:

Virgin Atlantic (general)
Babington House & The Cow Shed (hotels)
Japan (destination)

The top 20 cool brands included Amazon, YouTube, Google and Ebay.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: opodo expedia superbrands coolbrands

We need to talk the language of social networking sites

Our latest column for Travel Weekly:

Is there any value in engaging with social networking if you are working for a travel company?

This is a critical question that needs answering now that millions of people are gripped by the social networking frenzy.

It is worth pointing out that by “social networking”, I mean using sites such as Facebook, Myspace or Bebo, rather than taking off to the pub for a drink – although the similarities for travel are not too different (just remove the alcohol element).

At a Travolution advisory board meeting earlier this summer we asked some of the leading figures in the industry how they felt a travel company could engage with sites such as facebook.com.

The group agreed that travel companies should not try replicating what social networking sites are doing. “Stick to what we are good at”, would summarise the opinions of the group.

In fact, “it is not that easy to go and generate a community,” said one member.

However, what travel companies should be doing is learning how to engage with people that are using these sites. Previously people would talk to friends, family and agents when looking for ideas as they considered where next to go on holiday.

This is still taking place, but people are happy to do this on a social networking site – sharing videos and memories.

Some travel companies are learning how to do this quickly. Sidestep.com and tripadvisor.co.uk have developed quirky – and useful – applications that fit into a member’s facebook.com page.

Whether they are getting any leads from these toys is another matter. But they are right to try. For perhaps one of the best examples, look at the STA Travel page on the same site.

The agency is not trying to be a social network, but has managed to create enough of a presence that it is talking the language of the social networker.

NB: Join the Travolution group on Facebook. Or the Travel Weekly Group.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook myspace bebo social networks social media

When open access and lack of brand control goes wrong

Here is a lesson to bloggers and travel industry brand managers the world over.

The Carnival Cruise Blog has fallen prey to a rather unfortunate piece of, er, link-baiting today.

The blog's home page, which is generated by posts from users about their experience of cruise holidays with Carnival, was populated by links to some rather unsavoury hardcore pornography sites.


[Nathan on the Travel Weekly Blog noticed some odd activity on an RSS feed a few days ago]

The initial response from Carnival Cruise in the UK when we called them this morning went something like this:

"OH MY GOD!"

However, the plot thickened when Lynn Narraway, Carnival's UK director of sales and marketing, called back to say the blog is actually nothing to do with Carnival Cruise but is run by an independent travel agent in California who just happens to sell their products.

Understandably, Carnival is hopping mad about this and is desperately trying to contact the blogger in order to get the material taken down. [The posts were finally removed during the evening of 13 Sept - two days after they first appeared]

The lessons to be learned here are very obvious:

• If, as a blog editor, you allow anybody to write posts there REALLY SHOULD BE checks or filters in place to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen - at all.
• If you are global and high-profile brand (like Carnival) and are aware of a blog which looks like it belongs to the company in terms of its branding, you need to persuade the blog owner to at least highlight its independence.

In fact, the header for the blog currently reads: "Carnival Cruises. Community for Carnival Cruise Line and Cruise Ships."


Confusing for the consumer? You bet.

Carnival does associate itself (via its corporate investor pages) with a modestly successful blog, written by senior cruise director John Heald.

We imagine there is a lot of what PRs call "firefighting" going on in Miami (Carnival global HQ) at the moment.

Unfortunately Carnival's strapline, "The Fun Ships", is resonating with readers of the Carnival Cruise Blog slightly more than marketers were anticipating.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: carnival cruise carnival open access

What to do with anonymous comments

A lack of blogging action over the last few days. Apologies for that.

The September edition of our magazine is complete. Just a few days until it is distributed to readers...

Some housekeeping and a check with readers:

We are becoming a bit concerned about the number of anonymous commenters on the blog over the course of the summer.

Indeed, we recently discovered that a constructive yet rather malicious comment on the blog had been posted - anonymously, of course - by someone from one of the other B2B travel publications in the UK.

We have no issue at all with criticism being made against the blog and our style, or readers disagreeing with the opinions contained here.

But it occurs to us that genuine debate, rather than cowardly point scoring, is what has made the Travolution Blog one of the most popular travel industry blogs on the web.

So let's try and keep it that way.

We have been forced to activate Comment Moderation on only a number of occasions since the Travolution Blog became successful in early-2006.

Unsurprisingly it often stifles debate - but it does allow us to screen comments. We really do not want to turn it back on.

Please let us know what you think...

Ironically it is the same issue some independent review websites are faced with.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The Recommended

We happily participated in the T-List earlier this year - but the fact is that it grew to such a unmanageable size that anyone trying to find the decent ones was faced with a frustrating and time-consuming task.

Stephen Joyce recently re-published the T-List but separated it into sectors, such as consumer, business, etc.

Using his industry list as a base, this is Travolution's The Recommended for anyone interested in the travel industry and its relationship with the web and new media. It is not intended to be a list of "travel blogs".

All the sites listed below are updated regularly and are "blogs" - rather than news sites which joined the T-List and clearly masquerade as blogs.

Like the T-List, we would like this to grow to become a de-facto first port of call for industry folk and those with an interest in the online travel industry and new media.

Usual procedures apply: let us know via the comments section if you think your blog or another we have missed should be included on the list. We will happily add more if they qualify. Spread the word by re-posting the list yourself on your own blog.

There is an element of link-baiting here, of course, but we feel the T-List has actually become a rather over-sized beast which doesn't actually give our Travolution readers a decent snapshot of the blogosphere.

So here it is, The Recommended:

A Luxury Travel Blog
Blog on travel
Blog Rydges
The Brand Canada Blog
BuhlerWorks
Bull City Mutterings
Dot tourism
E-hotel
Farecast Blog
Fasten Your Seatbelts [German]
Happy Hotelier
Hawthorne Hotel
Hotel Blogs 2.0
Les Explorers
Marriott on the move
Mashable
Musings on Travel & E-Commerce
New York Hospitality
Online Travel Review
O'Reilly Radar
PhoCusWright Blog
Radar
Randy’s Journal
Realtravel
Relactions Blog
Search Engine Land
Stephen Joyce
Sunverse
The BOOT
The McCluskey Blog
The Tourism and Hospitality Diaries
The Travel Cooler
The Travel PR Blog
Tourism INTERNET Marketing Blog
Travelremark
Travel and Web 2.0
Travel Rants
Travel Start-ups
Travel Weekly Blog
Travolution Blog
Travel & Tourism Technology Trends
Tourism Trends
Web 2.0 travel tools
Vacant Ready
Zeitgeist

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: t-list The Recommended

HQ pic struck a chord with the bloggers

Some wind-down-its-Friday material.

A post earlier this week about where we run the Travolution operation struck a chord with ProBlogger.

Our floor-based set-up is now featured alongside other bloggers around the world.

Here are the list of the others bloggers Darren Rowse has picked out:

• Lindsay’s blog HQ is pretty unique - he really gets out and about! [it's a boat]
• David Appleyard’s HQ is slightly more traditional than a boat
• Lorraine’s setup is out on the patio and seems to have everything she’d need
• Glenn’s looks very cool - and he’s got a 30 inch screen!
• Kevin’s setup is down low [that's us!]
• Tejvan shares his room
• John has a pretty major set up with lots of screen real estate
• Char gives a glimpse in their home office (lots of storage!)
• James is a Mac man
• Eve shows us her set up - nicely integrated into the room
• Cifra put together a video tour
• Tomaz shares their setup
• Mark also does a video tour
• Anthony has just renovated his office and has lots of pictures.
• Ian thinks his HQ is better than ProBlogger's
• Dave shares a picture of his - wow, that’s a big microphone!
• MoneyNing’s set up is a little different to most
• Rich Minx does another video tour
• Sebastian gives us a look at his
• Taste Like Crazy shares theirs on video - complete with cat, dog and baby
• Marisa posts hers
• Dean shares his on video - very organised
• Jeremy has shared a few pics too
• Serge posts a picture of his
• Doug just moved and needs a desk
• Nate shares his mobile podcasting setup on video
• Chris is in the process of moving house - so he’s blogging from a coffee table

This collection of blog HQs was gathered in less than two days. Incredible...

Our friends on Travel Weekly missed the cut. But here is TW Towers.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Online travel in India has unique challenges of its own

This week's guest blogger is Akif Khan, from Cybersource, who offers some handy advice to those eyeing the booming Indian market:

As one of the economic centres of the world it is commonplace for companies to conduct business in the UK.

During the past few years we have witnessed a growing number of Indian businesses such as ICICI Bank, InfoSys and Tata Group also establishing themselves over here.

Conversely, it has become fashionable for UK companies to outsource operations to India, as a way of cutting costs to keep apace with market pressures.

This is now changing. In an attempt to mirror the successes of their Indian counterparts in the UK, more and more UK companies are deciding to establish themselves in India. They are more interested in developing trade in the local region.

By establishing additional operations in India, we have found that we can explore the local opportunities as well as address the challenges UK online retailers face in the Indian market.

From our experience, one of the biggest growth areas in India today is the online travel industry with around 50,000 to 75,000 transactions being processed a month for some retailers.

However, as India’s online retail market is fairly young, the issues of fraud are only surfacing now. As is the case with retailers worldwide, fraud is a real issue for both Indian and UK retailers in India. Most fraud cases involve Indian fraudsters stealing details from international cards obtained from call centres or tourists for instance, resulting in most Indian merchants declining international credit cards due to high levels of risk.

One main challenge that UK retailers face in India is the different buying patterns. In India it is normal for one person to have a credit card and use it 10-12 times per week to purchase goods for family and friends. This would be deemed an extremely suspect transaction over here!

Other challenges include a lack of police action and the manual approach that many Indian retailers still continue to adopt on a widescale.

If both Indian and UK merchants can work together alongside industry bodies to combat fraud, we can focus their energy on fighting a common enemy whilst strengthening both economies. This will not completely eliminate fraud by any means but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Akif Khan, head of client and technical services, Cybersource

Technorati tags: india fraud cyber crime

Travolution HQ

Quick post here for a blogging community project on ProBlogger.net. The site's creator Darren Rowse has asked readers to take a picture of their blogging set-up.

The picture shows Travolution HQ on a particularly busy Wednesday afternoon in London's East End.

Travolution is based normally at Quadrant House, Sutton, Surrey, home also to Travel Weekly and other Reed Business Information titles.

However, continuing problems after yesterday's industrial action on the tube network in London means it's actually easier to work from home!

Equipment:

Toshiba Portege S100 laptop
Nokia N70 mobile phone
Notebook
Flatplan for our September edition

We travel light...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Holiday Which? magazine turns its attention to user generated content

Half-asleep and making a cup of tea just before 7am this morning, the fuzzy background chatter of BBC Radio Five Live suddenly sounded serious and relevant.

Sheelagh Fogarty, the breakfast show's co-presenter with Nicky Campbell, was chatting breezily about user reviews on travel websites!

Thankfully the BBC is not branching out into trade journalism for the online travel industry - rather Lorna Cowan, editor of Holiday Which?, was plugging the latest edition featuring an investigation into user generated content and reviews.

A subscription wall prevents us from linking to the piece [email us for a PDF].

The scare tactics which have featured in a number of articles about UGC over the past year or so do seem to have disappeard in the main from consumer titles.

This latest piece highlights a few examples of bogus reviews, but the safeguards being put in place by the likes of TripAdvisor are explained in full. Readers - in the UK - are also reassured with news that legislation to prosecute the hoaxers, or "those who falsly represent the consumer", is due in 2008.

Still, Holiday Which? being the sceptical organ it is, asked Steve Fazakerley, one of its principal researchers for an opinion:

I used to think user websites were a great idea, then I actually visited some hotels which had decent reviews – and I thought they were rubbish.

My opinion now is that a hotel which has bad reviews is probably bad, but a hotel with good reviews might not be that good. Sites are useful for filtering out the worst, but I wouldn’t trust them for the best.

Thankfully it seems the idea we have been saying for ages is finally filtering through: user generated content does actually act as an unofficial consumer watchdog when researching holiday products.

[Read our interview with TripAdvisor in 2006]

Holiday Which? says:

The more people do this [leave reviews], the more companies may strive to counter negative reviews with better service and better quality.

With the increasing popularity of forums, written reviews, photographic and video evidence, it would seem in a hotel’s best interest to offer good services in the first place rather than risk damage to their reputation through a host of bad reviews on websites.

Hurrah.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: tripadvisor
user review user generated content UGC

Click Here to go straight to Online Hell

Here is the summary of a post straight out of the top drawer from Alex Bainbridge at Travel UCD. [Reproduced with his kind permission]

Alex has analysed how many times Click Here appears on a string of top travel websites.

Why has he done this? Well, it is supposed to be standard practice these days for websites NOT to use the term Click Here to guide users around a site.

Using Click Here 1) goes against Web Accessibility Guidelines [blind users will only hear "click here" when their mouse pointer goes over the text] and 2) it is also the quickest route to a search engine knowing nothing about what else is on a site. In other words: bad.

Travel websites, of course, would know all about these bad habits. Well, perhaps not:

List shows website, number of pages with Click Here, total web pages and percentage of total.

LateRooms - 43 - 819,000 - 0.01%

TravelRepublic - 33 - 1,000 - 0.01%

OnTheBeach - 2 - 16,900 - 0.01% [pledged to remove remaining soon - see Comments]

Kayak - 137 - 206,000 - 0.07%

Wayn.com - 260 - 308,000 - 0.08%

Ebookers - 100 - 56,000 - 0.18%

Priceline - 2,790 - 651,000 - 0.43%

Expedia - 1,300 - 274,000 - 0.47%

Thomson - 62 - 12,400 - 0.50%

Boo.com - 1,840 - 302,000 - 0.61% [has pledged in the comments section to remove 'Click Here's]

Easyjet.com - 23 - 3,610 - 0.64%

Thomas Cook - 159 - 19,900 - 0.80%

Lastminute.com - 13,500 - 1,620,000 - 0.83%

VisitBritain.com - 3,860 - 376,000 - 1.03%

Opodo - 449 - 19,700 - 2.28%

Travelocity.com - 10,400 - 346,000 - 3.01%

TravelSupermarket - 294 - 9,000 - 3.27%

FlyBmi.com - 149 - 2,640 - 5.64%

Virgin Atlantic - 61 - 1,060 - 5.75%

XL.com - 58 - 859 - 6.75%

Hilton.com - 18,600 - 172,000 - 10.81%

Orbitz.com - 21,800 - 110,000 - 19.82%

MyTravel - 2,980 - 10,500 - 28.38%

NationalRail - 3,180 - 10,200 - 31.18%

First Choice - 408 - 1,240 - 32.90%

Ryanair.com - 9,720 - 15,500 - 62.71%

So a glass of champers to Laterooms, TravelRepublic and OnTheBeach. Soda stream lemonade to Ryanair and First Choice.

Click here for Alex's analysis and methodology. Well worth a read...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

[Before the emails roll in: we are no angels. The current incarnation of the main Travolution website has a few. Let's leave it at that for a few more weeks at least.............]

Technorati tags: WAI Web Accessibility Initiative usability

Ebay sale was a nice move for Singapore Airlines

The first seats for the inaugural flight of the Sinagpore Airlines Airbus A380 have now been sold on Ebay.

We covered the story a week or so ago.

The BBC reports today that the airline has flogged two tickets for a mammoth £50,000 - a first class seat would ordinarily sell for around £1,700 each.

In quite a nice touch for Singapore Airlines, which clearly could have made a packet from the sale, any money raised through sales on Ebay will go to two childrens' hospitals in Sydney, Australia, and Medecins sans Frontieres.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ebay singapore airbus a380 singapore airlines

TUI Travel sharewatch

TUI Travel officially came into being today.

For those with their heads buried in the sand since early this year, TUI Travel is the trading name of the recently merged First Choice and holiday division of the German TUI AG group.

The new PLC is listed as of this morning on the London Stock Exchange.

See the Yahoo Finance ticker for TUI Travel.

So the old Big Four are now the Big Two. Hogwash.

Listen to anyone with any clout in the industry and they will admit that the "Big Two" is a bit of a fallacy. There are many other "big" travel providers around these days.

The sooner the industry wakes up to the new world the better. Thankfully this is finally happening.

Meanwhile, over on the Yahoo Finance page for Thomas Cook PLC shares, EasyJet has found itself in a rather nice position today with a banner ad for its latest sale. Three cheers for online advertising...


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: thomas cook tui travel shares

Up, up and away

For those struggling to fill their days in between playing with Facebook, Last.fm and working, here's something to check out:

Technical issues (firewalls, poor graphics cards etc) are preventing us from fully exploiting this rather exciting development from the brainiacs at Google.

Buried in the code for Google Earth is a flight simulator!

Apparently users only need the latest version of Google Earth before pressing CTRL-ALT-A and it's taxi, full thrust and gear-up!

Some pictures from Mashable and Boing Boing below. Google Earth has intructions on how to control the two aircraft available: a rather speedy F16 Viper or the rather more sedate Cirus SR22 four-seater.

Anyone had a go yet? Please report back...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: google earth flight simulator