Highly ambitious but dumb about technology? That must be the Lastminute.com MD...

Travel Weekly's diary page, Rear View, this week highlights how John Bevan, UK managing director of Lastminute.com, might have shown his true colours at a recent travel industry love-in.

The normally shy and retiring Bevan [Is this right? Ed] was guest of honour - and therefore required to do a speech - at an ITT Odyssey Supper.

But in front of the great and the good of the UK travel industry, Bevan admitted: "I am not at all au fait with technology.”

Well, that's fair enough - one wouldn't expect him to be on-call when the servers blow up at everyone's favourite pink OTA, brandishing one of those funny electrical current pens that light up when they connect with a microchip.

But, as Travel Weekly continues: "Lacking a grasp of computers has not put Bevan off his stride either. He sees no reason why he can’t progress his career further and become the company’s next UK chief executive".

“I hope I will climb the [career] ladder even further – Ian [McCaig] watch out, I’m after your job.”

Luckily for Bevan - and Travolution can concur, as we are frequently on the receiving end of his, er, Scottish wit - McCaig will probably take this threat in his stride.

Travel Weekly was sufficiently moved by Bevan's aspirational speech, however, to declare he will be in the top job within 12 months.

We've started counting down the days already...

UPDATE: Heading off incurring the wrath of the Lastminute.com press office, it goes without saying that if a succession plan is in place, Bevan would indeed be a stong contender. :-)

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The year of global convergence

So, it seems 2008 is the year for Travelocity to move to a common technology platform for its online brands - lastminute, travelocity, reisefeber....

The company says it has set itself milestones over the coming months to achieve the migration.

We bet it has!

Orbitz Worldwide had many a false-start last year when it was going through a similar project with its ebookers brand.

They could send the handbook over to Sabre although somehow we think that's unlikely.

Besides, Sabre chief innovator, Dr Ben Vinod, tells us it is all going well and 'rapidly.'

He talks about the potential for exploiting 'synergies', which in this case means enabling all of the brands to use the same solutions such as Travelocity's 'experience finder.'

Whatever angle you look at it from - it makes for exciting times ahead!

Linda Fox, lead reporter. Travolution

Friday funny #94 - WTF!

Bill Geist asks if the modern vernacular of the Wisconsin Tourism Federation (WTF) means it should consider a change of name?

Possibly.

Jokes aside, this is a general problem across the web as lazy journalists and buzzphrase-obsessed PR types look to shorten everything into manageable and media-friendly slogans.

But it seems to us that OTC, for example, really doesn't sound as powerful and global as the Online Travel Corporation.

There are plenty of others...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The final word on Ryanair? Over to you ABTA...

This from the Office of Fair Trading this evening:

The OFT is aware that Ryanair has now changed its website to display prices on the first page of its booking process that include fixed, non-optional costs. The OFT welcomes the steps taken by Ryanair and other airlines towards greater price transparency for consumers and continues to monitor the situation closely.

The OFT's view is that all holiday and travel price indications displayed anywhere on websites should include all fixed, non-optional costs, and particularly welcomes moves by some holiday and travel suppliers, such as those ABTA members and airlines who are now displaying fully inclusive prices everywhere on their websites.

The OFT continues to monitor the market to ensure that consumers are no longer being misled and that businesses are not being harmed by misleading holiday and travel price indications that do not include all fixed non-optional costs.

The OFT believes that a competitive market requires consumers to be able to easily and quickly choose between prices that are comparable, fair and not misleading.

Now given ABTA's ire over this issue in recent weeks, will this be the end of the story? Hmmm...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair abta

Accessibility or bust

Our recent article on major changes to online accessibility regulations is getting a fair bit of coverage across the media.

It's a massively important issue.

Julie Howell, an accessibility guru in the UK who co-wrote the piece with Rune Leth Andersen, a colleague from Fortune Cookie, spoke to the BBC earlier this week.

Here is the interview.

More coverage, some of which explores the issue even further and adds some interesting analysis, can be found here:

• E-Consultancy.
• TMCNet.com.
• Rolling Rains.
• BizReport.com.
• HotelMarketing.
• IT Backbones.
• Marketing Services Talk.
  

Howell will be speaking on this issue at the E-Access: Technology For All conference in London on April 23.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: accessibility fortune cookie

Is the social networking boom losing momentum?

Our latest column for Travel Weekly:

There are murmurings in the force about the sustainability and usefulness of social networks.

Last year saw the huge growth of Facebook and Bebo, and the continued dominance of MySpace.

For every cynic in travel, there was an e-commerce boss ‘looking at launching a social network’ at the height of the frenzy last summer.

But while Facebook might have taken a hit on its user numbers between December 2007 and January 2008, questions remain as to the long-term viability of social networks per se.
Some sites are seeing a decline in user engagement and monetising the concept is proving difficult for many.

Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and travel network WAYN.com would appear at this stage to be somewhat protected simply by virtue of the volume of users interacting with the sites.

They pretty much caught the wave on its way up.

But ask many of those refuseniks from last year and they will feel somewhat justified that they didn’t spend fortunes developing and maintaining social networks.

The issue here is primarily one of scale and an ability – or inability – to target an audience and add value to their time on the web.

We are hearing increasingly how travel companies are desperate to reach these network-obsessed users, but are thinking the best method will be to hit them in the existing networks, such as Facebook, through widgets and applications.

Where social networks might work is when they are driven – once again, like the perennial Long Tail of Travel theory – into specific niches.

The new smallfishbigocean.com business social network for small operators and niche agencies is a good example.

Cliche corner, but time will tell; this is still a relatively new area for businesses and consumers. Nobody will risk dismissing ideas at a time when a point of difference is so important.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook bebo

Cheapflights US up and running with new design

As reported a month ago, Cheapflights in the US was busily beta testing various elements of its new site.

We published a sneak peak of the new site in our February edition.

The beta is now over and a full relaunch, with new back-end functionality, was unveiled today out of the price comparison site's Boston office.

The top line improvements, according to Cheapflights:

• Enhanced location-based search function gives travelers more ways to find excellent deals.
• Gives advertisers new, more profitable ways to target consumers.
• Changes improve scalability facilitating easy international expansion.
• An expanded content library covers everything from airport security information and currency exchange rates.
• Tips on the best times to visit more than 500 highlighted destinations worldwide. This proprietary material is written firsthand by Cheapflights’ own in-house editorial staff.

Expect the UK site to follow suit shortly, or at least by the end of year.

Kevin May, edition, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights cheap flights

Dopplr goes to Singapore

Online travel start-up darling Dopplr is rolling out a few releases this week, although these will probably fail to address some of the concerns raised recently on the likes of TechCrunch UK.

Anyway, the Singapore release - as Dopplr call it - will include "nearby" and "near-miss" coincidences - i.e. users will be able to see when a fellow user is passing by your destination or if they are staying in the same place within 2 or 3 days.

Dopplr will then offer to send them an email, etc.

Nice touch.

But there's another thing in the release that I imagine Dopplr will be hoping will soothe some of the irritations people have with Dopplr - it's Add Trip functionality.

From now on users will be able to add new content direct from Google Calendar. Great if you use iGoogle, of course, but it's a step in the right direction.

Full - if slightly lengthy - instructions.

Dopplr members can connect with me here.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: dopplr

Going, going, gone through the roof

Now that 20m people in the UK have a Paypal account, how long will it be before more travel dotcoms will allow transactions through the eBay-owned payment provider?

Less than six months ago Flymonarch.com signed up; PayPal’s web site also lists UK short break specialist Superbreak and online ticket exchange Viagogo. But that’s about it.

The benefits of paying for travel using PayPal are limited. But if online travel is about choice and service, shouldn’t it be an option? There are 20m online shoppers in the UK who might like to try.

Alex Bainbridge blogged at the time of the Flymonarch announcement about this. He also speculated about whether there was something going on with flymonarch and eBay travel.

eBay Travel? Whatever happened to that one?

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Word-of-mouth study says the wrong thing

A letter to the editor!

Dear editor,

I would like to thank you for an interesting article on the impact of online word of mouth on airlines.

Certainly the various Google media studied will give you an idea about online sentiment towards various airlines.

However, social media analysis is much more than deriving an index from comments just in Google media.

To start with, there are myriad specialist airline (e.g. SkyTrax, FlyerTalk) and general travel (e.g. Thorn Tree, TripAdvisor) forums in addition to more comprehensive blog searchers (Technorati, BlogPulse), usenets and microblogging sites not to mention social network groups.

You need a comprehensive search system to estimate the total opinion universe on the airline in question and to locate references to airlines across all social media in multiple languages.

Secondly, to derive insight (as opposed to general impressions) you need human analysis to break down those references into opinions (check-in, on board experience, environmental policy etc) and sub-concepts (food and drink, flight attendants, seats etc) and a positive, negative or neutral value assigned to those opinions.

Further questions that need answering - who is expressing the opinion (customer, potential customer, journalist), what is the web traffic of that website, how often is it updated, how original is the content, how much interaction does the site permit?

I don't want to denigrate Kaizo's study. In fact, I hope it serves to raise awareness about the impact of word of mouth, However, I would not want your readers and other travel sector stakeholders to believe that monitoring and extracting insight from social media is a matter of Google searches.

This paper in the Market Research Assoication's Journal of Online Research goes into this subject in more detail.

Jon Moody, market engineering, Asomo Service

Ryanair problems continue on many levels

Plenty of mutterings everywhere about the Ryanair "upgrade".

Alex Bainbridge has the best analysis so far.

But, for all the apparent problems, I bet the sale is still going well.

A side issue to the technology/performance story is the fact that ABTA and the Office of Fair Trading are still hopping mad about how the airline's drive to towards price transparency is still, er, less than transparent.

Simon Bunce, ABTA's head of legal services, doesn't mince his words here:

Ryanair has fobbed off the OFT for over a year with the excuse that they could not show clear, unambiguous prices on its website because they didn't have the technology.

Clearly, despite working on their website all weekend, they still don't have the technology. Either that or they just don't care about how they deal with their customers.

UPDATE: Ryanair is saying "technical" problems have led to further delays and the new pricing will come into play today...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair OFT ABTA

Finding transparency in search

There’s a big difference between talking about ‘ improved conversion rates’ in a press release and using the same phrase in a regulatory filing. So when moneysupermarket group plc tells the London Stock Exchange that its travel vertical has improved revenue per visitor as well as revenue per transaction in 2007, the OTAs need to look at numbers as closely as travelsupermarket’s direct competitors.

Travelsupermarket.com’s 2007 numbers show big increases across its metrical board;

• visitors 37m (06: 19.7m)
• transactions 30.6m (06: 17.2m)
• click-based revenues £13.6m (06: £6.8m)
• total revenues £15m (06: £7.5m)
• revenue per visitor £0.41 (06: £0.34)
• revenue per transaction £0.43 (06: £0.40)

Looks like the millions of pounds put into TV advertising is working then! Analysts were shown a slide based on a ‘custom defined Hitwise report’ which ranked travelsupermarket as the UK’s most visited travel comparison web site in January – the key month for bookings in the UK.

So travelsupermarket.com seems in quite good shape for its new MD. Travolution Towers has learnt that there is a shortlist of three – former travel supremo Chris Nixon is overseeing the hunt and said he wanted someone with international experience at senior level. Travel or search experience – watch this space.

And what about the travel search generally? Kayak’s takeover of Sidestep at the back-end of last year showed the sector has legs when commentator such as Henry Harteveldt at Forrester pointed out that, in the US at least, travel search's market share was holding steady at 12-15% of the online travel sector.

Kayak.com had 5.72% of the UK market in Jan08, according to travelsupermarket’s Hitwise report. Sidestep, bless, had 0.94%. Kayak remember raised $196m as part of the SideStep takeover: Mobissimo is lurking with its revamped intuitive and customisable engine. SkyScanner – 11.34% of the UK market in Jan - picked up some funding of its own in November.

And with the market leader in Europe’s biggest online travel market confirming improved conversion rates and hikes in visitors and revenue per visitor, 2008 could be the year when travel search finds itself.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Blog-tastic!

The world has gone blog mad.

Last week we heard how a blog has been created around fans of Carnival Cruises.

A story in the Houston Chronicle tells us the bloggers all met up recently on board Carnival Freedom after making friends through the cruiseline's blog.

And, now there's a gastro-blog.

No, it's not some horrible virus striking people down. It's a foodie commentary blog called Marriott in the kitchen from chef Brad Nelson of the Marriott Hotel, Washington D.C.

To give him his proper title Nelson is 'culinary VP and corporate chef', and as such gets to travel around the world, creating, testing and best of all, tasting dishes.

Nice job if you can get it. Travel the world, eat great food and write about it! Actually the strapline for the blog is food, travel, thoughts...

Nelson can be no stranger to the blogging phenomenon as Marriott's Bill Marriott established a bit of a first when he set up his corporate blog a few years ago.

We can't wait to hear more of Nelson's blog, his culinary creations and likes and dislikes but he'd better watch out. Even we can have too much of a good thing!

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

US travel commentator reckons one OTA will go 'buh-bye'

That's "bye-bye" to rest of us.

But interesting comments from Christopher Elliott, US travel troubleshooter.

His theory is that customer service has fallen to such a low that cusotmers are "holding online agencies responsible for bad travel experiences".

Read his article here.

Humm. Not sure about this one...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

British Airways - When business people think differently from consumers

The Business Superbrands survey is out today and is grabbing plenty of coverage across the mainstream media.

The poll of 1,500 business professionals and a "council of senior business leaders" found Google at the top of a list of 500 companies.

No surprises there.

It beat off Microsoft, BP, BBC, GlaxoSmithKline, Rolls-Royce Group, Financial Times, British Airways, Fedex Express and Hertz in the top ten.

The brands are evaluated for their 'quality', 'reliability' and 'distinction'.

Roll back a week, however, and consumers had a different story to tell when it came to British Airways.

The Kaizo Advocacy Index - which measured online 'word-of-mouth' on news sites, blogs, forums and groups for five major UK airlines - found BA was not at all popular with consumers.

In fact the airline was found to be only marginally more popular than Ryanair! [Something to keep Willie Walsh awake at night]

Now this probably says something about the survey(s), consumer taste or business preferences - or all three, of course.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: british airways superbrand

Ryanair bookings up and running - 'ahead of schedule'

Did anyone really think Ryanair would close its website booking engine for three days?

Er, no.

Anyway, drama over and full functionality returns.

Now a cynic might suggest that the coverage of the "closure" in the mainstream media was rather handy (PR driven, perhaps?) as returning users will be overjoyed to see the airline's "5 Million £10 Seats" promo.

Hmm.


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair website closure

Ryanair will NOT 'close' its website this weekend

Contrary to reports everywhere, Ryanair.com will not be puling its website down this weekend.

A call to Ryanair this afternoon to double-check the closure was still scheduled to take place for 72 hours from 22 February, revealed that all the functionality - apart from the air ticket booking facility - will still be available to users.

Car hire, Isango tours, hotels, insurance, etc, will remain in place.

You just can't book a flight.

Nevertheless, this message has hardly been communicated well to consumers.

Here is the current homepage. [You just be able to see our circle around the note]


UPDATE: [No doubt about it now - 60 minutes after official shutdown of the booking engine]


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair closure ryanair flight

End of the line for above the line and below the line and through the line

Or something.

Excellent post on E-Consultancy.com outlining what will be the demise of decades of thinking when it comes to advertising and reach and targeting and process.

Let's not obsess about that line any more. Let's think instead about the line between acquisition and retention.

I think this is a much more meaningful line, and the crossover point is the moment of 'conversion'.

Wonderfully put.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

In a southerly direction

Denmark’s Centre For Regional & Tourism Research has revealed its eighth annual look at the European online travel sector, and while the top-line finding is good news – online is taking a bigger share of a growing market - the surprising thing is that there are few surprises.

[See Travolution news story]

The most notable change when you drill down into the stats is the increasing proportion of business coming out of southern Europe – Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. These four territories accounted for 14% of the €49.4bn worth of online sales in Europe 2007 – the region had 12% of the total in 2006 and 10% in 2005.

While the UK and Germany continue to grow, there is evidence that they are maturing – meaning that OTAs and supplier-direct are competing for the business of an established online community, rather than target fresh blood.

Reference CRT’s research with Internet World Stats. The UK and Germany, at the end of 2007, had 66.4% and 64.6% of their population online respectively. If you ignore Portugal which has a surprising 73.1% online, there are new subscribers waiting to get connected – Spain has 56.5% online, Italy 57% and Greece 35%.

[Note, these stats do not differentiate between dial-up and broadband]

While the volumes in UK and Germany will always trounce southern Europe, it will be interesting to see how the global dotcoms approach these increasingly important secondary markets. A lot of the US-owned dotcoms have rethought their approach to Europe since entering the market in the early noughties, realising that what works in one territory can easily bomb in another. Hence the move towards localised marketing.

Similarly, the product range for the OTAs needs to become localised to capture local business. Spaniards tend to holiday in Spain, self-drive is a factor, as is the use of rail over flights. Throw in regulations, credit card use and broadband penetration and you start to build a picture of how complex the European online travel landscape is.

But it’s still growing, and will continue to grow. CRT reckons that in 2009 online travel in Europe will be worth €67bn.

Enough to go around? We’ll see.

SES London - Keep an eye on the brand

If you have ever seen a presentation on SEM you will almost certainly have seen the heat map showing where users' eyes go.

The classic screen shows quite clearly a red cloud in the top left indicating that the top three organic (or paid if up there) listings get the eyeballs.

Well that's all changed. Now with blended search, often referred to as Universal search as in Google Universal, where images, vidoes, news, blogs, maps etc appear in the listings the eyeballs are attracted to other areas of the screen.

See Enquiro Research.

Simply put, an image on position #4, for example, grabs attention above (or should that be below) and beyond the top three listings.

This is a great opportunity to get exposure through social media optimisation.

Travel operators can as such grab the eyeballs then the clicks through placement of GOOD and tagged pictures/videos of resorts on Flickr, YouTube.

But there's a “but”. It also means that Reputation Management is more important now then ever.

Bad reports whether in blogs, on YouTube or in mainstream media will shoot into the SERPs on your brand name complete with imagery. And don't think it can't happen to you.

In the next five years 83% of companies will face a crisis that will negatively affect their share price by 20-30%, according to Oxford Metrica.

Datamonitor report that 33% of people who lose trust in a brand will actively campaign on the internet against that company - and that figure is on the rise.

The lesson is simple you need to be ready to deal with a crisis far more rapidly then before - quite how you do that get's a little more complex...

That's my last blog from SES so sorry to finish on an alarmist note but if there's one lesson from these three days it's that, now more then ever and for good and for bad, you can't take your (tracked) eye off your brand on the internet.

Matt Brocklehurst, marketing director, Latitude Group

Industry Will Die! [In Scotland]

Great press release kicking about today from Alan Rankin, chief executive of the catchily titled Aviemore and Cairngorms Destination Management Organisation.

Our man in the Highlands says:

The tourism industry will be dead in the water unless it adopts the opportunities presented by new technologies.

Rankin is concerned after learning the results of the Scottish Tourism Survey, which found 59% of companies felt they "could do better in terms of embracing technology".

In fact, the Scottish tourist industry is worried about a heap of things related to technology, including an inability to get funds to develop and increase the use of technology, not having broadband in every area, web marketing, and utilising "Web 2.0".

Most worryingly for Rankin, Scotland might not be able to "meet the challenge as quickly as emerging markets".

The Tourism Innovation Group, which is quoted in the press release, reckons Scotland's main tourist destinations should create "effective digital portals" to tap into mainstream social networks and encourage user generated content.

Will this work?

It seems that if some of the more isolated areas don't even have broadband coverage then pushing the more whizzy elements of a web presence need to be re-thought in favour of getting the basics right on sites which cater for those across the extremes of the bandwidth.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Demonic packaging

Activities, tours and getaways specialist Isango! wants us all to celebrate the end of Lent by "spicing up our travel and indulging our vices".

It has suggested a number of destinations where we can all, religious sensibilities permitting, commit each and every one of the seven deadly sins.

In order to achieve eternal damnation, Isango! recommends:

• Lust: belly dancing lessons in Tunisia
• Gluttony: learn the art of Swiss chocolate making
• Greed: Gucci and Prada discount outlets in Italy
• Sloth: getting pampered at the Ananda spa in the Himalayas
• Wrath: quad biking in Australia
• Envy: a private tour of the homes of the Hollywood A-list
• Pride: lunch at the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi

Travolution Towers has come up with its own list, local to London. We are not confident that lowering our carbon footprint will count for anything come Judgment Day.

• Lust: Amora – the world’s first sex theme park – in Leicester Square
• Gluttony: ‘eat as much as you want for £6.95’ outlets – lots of them in Leicester Square
• Greed: The January sales
• Sloth: avoiding the January sales
• Wrath: kickboxing lessons
• Envy: listening to City traders discussing bonuses in overpriced tacky wine bars in the Square Mile.
• Pride: a tour of the Emirates Stadium.

Feel free to tailor our trip, or suggest your own.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Technorati tags: sex theme park seven deadly sins Lust Gluttony Greed sloth wrath envy pride

SES London - SEM Cool tools & tricks

I've been told that if you're over 30 you should stop using the word cool and this probably counts double if you're talking about search engine marketing.

Anyway, leading on from the top travel marketing tips I presented at a recent Travolution seminar, here are some cool tools & tricks I picked up at SES on Wednesday that may help you get some quick and often cheap wins.

1. If you write a blog make sure you register it at Google, Google blog search, Yahoo, DMOZ and others as well as syndicate - check out Syndic8.com.

2. So you know that if you have GOOD video content you share it on YouTube and tag it and you probably know that you should use other video sites but don't have the time. Go to Tubemogul.com where one upload is sent out to 12+ video sites - and it's tagged.

3. Find out who the most popular/influential blogger in your travel sector and charm him/her to be a guest blogger for your site.

4. Need inspiration for a blog - how about interviewing someone, writing a book review, a "how-to" or a survey.

5. Want a free/cheap tool to see where on the page people are clicking on your site? Try Bunnyfoot and Crazyegg.

Also Google web site analyser will help you optimise conversions.

I've not had a chance to try all these myself yet but they're certainly worth investigating.

Matt Brocklehurst, marketing director, Latitude Group

Here's looking at you, kids

Haven Holidays, the owner and operator of 35 holiday parks in the UK, has added some new features to its web site aimed at making the online experience more fun.

A few weeks ago, Travolution reported that Haven had signed up Nasdaq-listed JDA Software for a new multi-channel revenue management system. Aimed, one assumes, at making the online experience more profitable.

UK holiday and caravan parks have a number of issues to overcome, in terms of profitability as well as the product perception.

Haven – and others in the sector – are using the web to address these issues. JDA will help Haven manage inventory during to drive short break business during the parks’ less busy periods outside the school holidays.

The consumer-y features launched today include an improved kids zone channel, designed to get the kids to engage with the brand before the holiday.

As a family holiday business, it makes sense to get kids onside, although whether the web-savvy ,instant-messaging, PS3, Bebo generation will be satisfied with Haven’s offer to ‘play games, download pictures to colour in themselves and take part in competitions’ remains to be seen.

Back in the mists of time – okay, mid-2004 to be precise – Mintel released a report called 'Marketing to Tomorrow's Consumers'. 46% of parents said that their children had 'some level of influence' over the choice of the main family holiday.

Tour operators are always keen to big up their kids club products – such as First Choice’s ‘we’ve taught more than 7,000 kids to swim’ TV ad campaign – but how serious is the online travel sector about engaging kids before or after their break? And how receptive would the younger generation be?

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

SES London - MicroHoo: The Big Switch view

Now this is what I call a great way to start the day.

Nick Carr, author of the Big Switch, gave the keynote address here this morning at SES. OK, it was a video recording from the US but it was that good it got a round of applause (including me) which felt a little strange!

I've never clapped a video before.

Still it was filmed specially for SES and it offered a perspective on the Microsoft Yahoo deal which makes sense.

His view is that computing and software is increasingly being used on the web with documents saved there as opposed to downloading the software to your PC.

Related to this is the trend for software providers becoming more and more like media companies offering their software (content) for free or cheap to consumers, relying on ad revenue for their profits.

So here's the rub - if this continues where does this leave Microsoft?

Could the giant have its carpet pulled from it?

They can't take that risk obviously. They need web properties, distribution networks and social sites. Hello Yahoo!.

The other gem from Nick was that this trend could produce a digital elite. Take Craigs List which sells more ads then many traditional, massive media concerns.

Employees? 20. Skype which now serves more customers then BT has only 200 employees compared to BT's and other telco's thousands.

And YouTube only had 60 employees when bought by Google for 1.6 billion.

The recent lay-offs from Yahoo! take on a slightly different light now.

Matt Brocklehurst, marketing director, Latitude Group

Technorati tags: microsoft yahoo google skype youtube

Travolution Awards 2008 - entry site open

Entries are now starting to arrive for the Travolution Awards 2008.

Information about the categories, rules and regs, and an online entry form is available on our dedicated site.


New category this year: Best Consumer Travel Blogger!

Enter - or miss out.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

SES London - Cash in China; Mobile in Japan

Boy, search is complex in Asia.

In Japan keyword choice is made that bit more difficult in that the same word will have multiple spellings.

Venice, for example, has six well used versions so you need to make some informed decisions on which version(s) you use on your site.

Japan has a different no 1 SE - Yahoo with 47 million users per month to Google’s 27 and Rakuten's 27.

The number 1 social network is not MySpace or Facebook but Mixi with 17 million users.

But probably the most intriguing fact is that more people in Japan now access the
internet via mobile then PC.

But China, forecast to overtake the US in internet users this year, really takes the biscuit (I would say Fortune Cookie but apparently these don't exist in China and are actually made in Mexico).

China search is dominated by Baidu.

This is very different from Google, not least in that paid inclusions sit at the top of the 'natural results' yet 90% of users don't realise they're paid for.

On the subject of paying most Chinese still prefer to pay in cash.

Particularly in travel with 60% of online transactions on C-Trip (the Chinese 'equiv' of Expedia) involving cash on demand that involves a man on a moped arriving at the online buyers doorstep, getting the cash then handing over the tickets.

This will change as credit cards are growing but, in the meantime, this is a stark example of just how different internet business really is in China.

Matt Brocklehurst, marketing director, Latitude Group

SES London - Google is really big!

The annual Search Engines Strategies gig in London this week is considered to be one of the biggest events in the calendar for digital marketers.

Our man with the laptop and a keen eye for new business new thinking on SEO is Matt Brocklehurst from Latitude Group.

He'll be sending a number of despatches throughout the three-day event.

Number 1:

It's been global - content-wise but also every speaker seems to be from the US. Isn't that what SES New York is for?

Anyway, I've found out that, guess what, Google is big, I mean really big internationally.

Presentations looking at the global search market confirmed that in Europe Google is the no 1 Search Engine in every country save Russia with Yandex and Czech Republic with Seznam.

But no matter whether you’re in Belgium or Bosnia, one of the keys to doing well in the natural rankings is the more local your site appears the better Google likes it.

So look at getting national extensions, .fr, .de etc, links from other local sites and, of course, use the native language. You also need to be careful with your keywords.

The Google algorithm for English speaking websites is more advanced and will group together and recognise similar words such as tour, touring or tours.

Not so in other languages. Google maybe everywhere but to succeed internationally you need to treat it different in each market.

Matt Brocklehurst, marketing director, Latitude

When the chips are down

We keep hearing that when times are hard people go back to what they know.

That can mean the long, established brands and traditional ways of researching holidays.

So, to hear that classified ads site Freeads has seen a 67% rise in travel searches since the beginning of the year, is no surprise.

In addition, the number of travel-related ads has trebled year-on-year with more than 700 overseas holidays and 250 domestic advertised on the service.

What next? The rebirth of travel agents? No, we've already heard that one!

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Tired? Emotional? Overworked?

Apparently eight out of ten people who work in the travel and tourism industry are regularly working "beyond contract" - in other words: extra work for no pay.

The Chartered Management Institute also says on average senior managers are giving 40 days per year to their employer for free.

Around 35% are putting in the extra hours just to keep up with the demands of work, but a remarkable 43% are doing it for love by choice. The survey shows an extra 1 hour 18 minutes is worked every day.

Bosses will be able to take some heart from the survey when they learn that only 2% of those questioned said they blamed their own managers for the increase.

Health Warning: 54% of managers reckon the long hours means they are unable to exercise.

More from the Quality of Life survey. Unfortunately the CMI did not drill down into different parts of the sector.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: lifestyle overtime Chartered Management Institute

Matching humans

Some would argue machines have been replicating the role of a travel agent for years.

But other sectors will have to wait until 2029.

[And on the same BBC page there is a story about robots being used instead of animals for testing - so that's alright then]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: human machine travel agent

Travo weekly round-up #5

Here are the top stories by visits on the Travolution website for the week ending Friday 15 February 2008:

• Virgin Holidays set summer 2008 for online relaunch
• TravelSupermarket shortlists three for top job
• Budget Travel swaps Anite for BlueSky
• Comtec seeks funds for growth strategy
• Expedia to build dynamic packaging comparison tool

Best of the blogs:

• Open Skies down under, from The BOOT
• Dynamic packaging in NZ, from Travel Remark
• Gotcha Capitalism, from The BOOT
• Stupid killer apps, from Drama 2.0
• Google slap, from Search Engine Land

Please further recommendations in the comments section.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Grauniad takes a hit on user generated content - lessons for travel

This is not hot news as such but has raised a few issues.

The Guardian website has fallen foul of its readers this week following a blog post penned - apparently - by a 19-year-old heading off on his first jaunt to Asia.

Readers reacted with varying degrees of scorn, dismay, anger and vitriol to the drivel penned by Max Gogarty as he explained what travelling to Asia meant to him ("finding himself") amongst other things.

Guardian's "Comment is Free" editors have since closed the comments section of the blog post. Yes, we recognise the irony.

Was this a wise decision?

And what conclusions can be drawn about travel and UGC?

First of all the Guardian brand was taking quite a pasting in the comments, so in some respects it probably was a good idea to halt the discussion - regardless of the ramifications for its supposed CiF channel.

There are no direct comparisons to a travel brand being on the end of such carnage (as Travel Weekly put it) through user generated content.

It appears at this stage that consumers are - on the whole - far better behaved and balanced in their approach when it comes to commenting on what they would perceive to be poor products.

What travel companies, especially hotels, appear to be doing as a result of bad ratings on sites such as TripAdvisor is reflecting on the problem and rectifying it before the issue spirals out of control.

Consumers are unofficial watchdogs these days.

Unfortunately the Guardian seems reluctant - or doesn't know how to, some would argue - to admit it has made a mistake in commissioning something likely to disappoint its readers.

It will recover, of course. But many will remember this - at times, hilarious - faux pas.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: max gogarty guardian blog guardian travel skins

What Expedia expects

Expedia is making a big consumer PR splash today - just in time for those desperate hacks on the Sunday newspaper travel supplements who have run out of ideas for top ten lists, perhaps?

A huge research project, including a survey of 14,000 Expedia users, has led the OTA to create what it's calling its ten travel trends for 2008.

The glossy press pack includes an intro by EMEA president Dermot Halpin:

Our research indicates travel being motivated by a desire to expand cultural horizons - both with the rise of mini-breaks to more exotic destinations, as well as people participating in cultural or other leisure activities as part of their trip.

Hopefully these trends will inspire you as you plan and book your next trip.

[Through Expedia, of course]

So what about the trends:

1) Extravagant escapism. Brits are willing to pay more for their travel. If they want luxury, they will opt for it more often than not.

2) Creative tourists. We want to take part in and learn stuff, such as wine tasting, rock climbing, sailing and, er, dancing.

3) Rise of the super-break. This is interersting. More people are looking at mid-haul destinations for a few days away. Popular places include Dubai, Hong Kong, Egypt and South Africa.

4) Fly cheap - sleep expensive. More people are buying low-cost flights in order to select a more expensive hotel at the destination.

5) The 'new' package holiday. Great line here: "We're not talking about a return to the 1960s". Ouch. Travellers are increasingly packaging together products such as car hire, tours, transfers and theatre tickets into their holiday.

6) Low cost flights. Two-thirds of travellers reckon price is the detemining factor when choosing an air ticket. This isn't going to change.

7) Holiday maximising. Ooh, controversial one here. Apparently Brits lose 4.4 days a year in holiday allowance. And if you earn around £30K a year this means you are giving back around £550 a year to your boss. Nice! However, we are being more discerning in this area and taking longer bank holiday breaks in order to use our entitlement.

8) Wellbeing and nostalgia breaks. Bizarre as it may sound to some, going away to get healthy/clean-up/find yourself is becoming popular. As is returning to childhood holiday destinations.

9) Lobby snobbery. Not only do we want cheap flights, we also want - and will pay for it - the best hotels, based on their location, atmosphere, style of room, service and food.

10) Traveller reviews. Talking up TripAdvisor and user-generated content, for obvious reasons, as it owns the company. Consumers love reviews and ratings. Travellers are also increasingly inspired by the likes of Michael Palin, who has been credited with reviving the the Eastern European tourist industry.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: expedia trendy

Online Russia: hard currency and social media

Some curious insight into Russian online behaviour here from Russia Profile.

According to the Nielsen Global Online Survey more than a fifth of the population is online (30m) but 77% have yet to make an internet purchase.

Those that do buy books, electronic equipment and then videos, DVDs and games - in that order.

And, this is where it gets interesting - most Russians prefer to use a travel agent or pay cash direct to the airline for tickets.

Credit cards are not widely used and the most common method of payment for online purchases is cash on delivery.

The Russians also rely very heavily on word of mouth and recommendations and less than a third go back to the same shopping site twice.

Could there be a massive opportunity for social media here?

Here we are moving towards cashless society and brands frantically trying to foster online loyalty while our friends over there are sticking to hard currency.

I wonder if as you move gradually Westwards online behaviours merge?

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

The Thomson Oracle

"Customer choice and technology are blowing away the traditional ways we choose a holiday," says Thomson in a press release.


The wise heads at the company put their minds to good use recently by predicting [often not the best idea but let's see what they think] what might happen to some elements of travel:

• Holodecks – for an advance preview of what their holiday might feel like, Thomson.co.uk customers could soon experience Star Trek style “holodecks”, where holograms, simulated sounds and smells will enable them to discover virtual hotels and resorts, and even soak up a “real” sensations, like a stroll on the beach, skiing on the slopes or simply partying the night away!
• Mobile phone swipes – Customers deliberating over their future holiday will soon be be able to save holiday information to their phone by swiping their mobile over a dedicated in-brochure/on-line bar-code. The digitally transferred information will then be downloaded by a travel consultant, who’ll be able to see the customers’ preferences before making any recommendations as to their destination.
• Rapid contact facilities – Thomson.co.uk envisage a rapid contact search facility that will help people track family and friends overseas. By simply logging onto a dedicated website, a pop-up will show the location of the family or friends phone.

#2 and #3 really aren't that far away though, are they?

Nathan's Midgley of Travel Weekly's typically waspish response last year to holodecking.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: thomson science fiction RFID airport mobile

Yorkshire downs tools to grab free flights

PING! Email arrives from Jet2.com.

Apparently 13% of the population in Yorkshire were sufficiently moved enough a few days ago to enter an online competition to win free flights on the airline.

The story behind this astonishingly high figure is absolutely true.

Over 500,000 sun-seekers from Leeds, Bradford et al logged on between 10am and 4pm on Tuesday this week to claim one of the 10,000 free flights. Apparently only 10,000 of those that entered were from outside Yorkshire.

The competition was part of fifth birthday celebrations for one of UK's biggest regional airlines.

Rumours that the region's economy will take weeks to recover after thousands of workers abandoned their posts on Tuesday have yet to be verified.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: yorkshire jet2

TripAdvisor catches up with Travolution

You heard it here first, but the Mother Ship in Massachusetts has finally announced TripAdvisor's purchase of HolidayWatchdog.com.

No other nuggets of information in the press release.

We've heard - and TA is understandably keeping schtum on fees - that the deal is worth around £9-£10 million.

So well done to Chris Brown and Chris Clarkson, HW's founders, who are both well respected in the affiliate world and wider travel community.

Unsuprisingly they have chosen not to stick around once the transition is complete.

Below is a picture showing the last time TripAdvisor caught up with Travolution. [Sorry Charlotte]


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: tripadvisor holidaywatchdog acquisition

Don’t wait around when it comes to technology take-up

Our latest column in Travel Weekly:


What does an exhibition showcasing the best technology the industry can muster prove to the rest of the sector?

Well, many things, it would appear – especially if you were privy to some of the conversations we had with people at last week’s Travel Technology Show in London.

The simple answer is that the sheer number of products being launched or upgraded indicates that demand for the latest kit is higher than ever before.

Suppliers, operators and – perhaps worryingly for them – independent agents are feeling they need to be faster and more efficient with their back-end technology to match the requirements of consumers and/ or other systems.

This poses a problem for many companies, as technology often doesn’t come cheap.

The dilemma for those that oversee the technology infrastructure at many firms will be: should we invest now in order to steal a march on our rivals or wait for the next wave of improvements?

We would suggest the first approach is the best way forward. The rate of change in the industry is too rapid for executives to sit idly by and hope for some kind of respite from what is essentially natural – if rather frustrating – evolution.

A worry for some with this apparent ‘newness’ everywhere is that small or independent companies might struggle to keep up with the investment being made elsewhere.

Unfortunately there is no easy answer to this particular part of the issue.

Investment in IT systems is just as important now as it was when automatic and online distribution first reared its efficient, yet irritatingly, complicated head.

It seems for many we spoke to last week, that some sacrifices will have to be made elsewhere in a business in order to address these fundamental issues affecting the industry.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

User Experience is King

Our mantra for the year.

The latest edition of our magazine is out now.

David Bicknell's excellent cover story.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: user experience travolution

Social Media versus Search

More from TFM&A.

The effectiveness of advertising travel products on social network sites is still up for discussion – users are coming to the sites to interact, not transact.

Enter stage left Blake Chandlee, UK commercial director for Facebook, keynoting to an eager audience.

[Not that Facebook is a social network site, by the way – "it's a utility to help members manage their relationships, a social media platform", apparently]

Chandlee bigged not only Facebook but the social media(utility) sector generally.

Live demos of products and scary growth charts galore, but things got really interesting in the Q&A when a figure from the back mentioned the m-word – monetisation.

The banner ads on Facebook, sold through Microsoft, we know about, but Chandlee introduced a different revenue stream – targeted ads within a member's profile.

"We want to integrate ads into the conversation," he says.

He pulled up his own profile on screen, which featured a video ad for a film which had been mentioned by a friend who had added a review of the movie to her own page.

The connection is obvious – less so the return on investment for these ads, which are to be sold on a CPM basis. If a friend tells me about a great holiday they've had in New York, an ad for New York might appear.

Earlier, Chandlee mentioned that social media was changing the dynamics of search – suggesting that members are starting to ask their "social graph" for travel inspiration rather than Google.

If this trend develops, and Facebook can offer travel suppliers genuinely targeted ads, could social media sites start to steal some of search's fire?

Co-incidentally, I picked up a copy of a magazine called Brand Management just after Chandlee's session which included a Q&A with Lastminute.com's chief marketing officer Simon Thompson. "PPC annual cost inflation within the travel category is now close to outrageous," he says.

So will targeted ads within social media sites exploit concerns over the cost of PPC?

Chandlee kept referring to Facebook's 23-year-old founder Mark Zuckerburg as a visionary.

Visionary enough to threaten search's dominance on online marketing spend? Not so sure...

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook microsoft social network

Seizing the opportunity

Travelmarket.com, a Scandanavian meta search engine with designs on the UK scene, had some fun with a viral video a few months back.

The company created an ad to poke fun at what was one of the biggest scandals for years in Denmark (indeed, more than the infamous cartoons), when a spectator ran on the pitch at a crucial European Championship qualifier against Sweden.

The Denmark "fan" was sufficiently moved after an altercation between a couple of players and hit the referee. The nation went into meltdown and the story dominated the headlines for weeks.

Travelmarket, not wanting to miss an opportunity, made a video mocking how the Scandanavian press was trying to track down the culprit after he was released by police.

Within 48-hours it had 300,000 views on YouTube.

But then the Danish football association got in touch. It seemed sensible, for obvious reasons, that the similarities of the actors' shirts to those of the actual Danish team be, er, reduced.

Travelmarket had to then remake the video - but, alas, the momentum was lost. The new version, uploaded seven months ago, has only had a modest 12,000 views since.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

E-news stuff going on today

Don't panic, dear readers.

50% of subscribers to the regular Travolution e-news bulletins were privy today to a new-look we are currently testing.


The new template is designed to include more content than before but in a more compact and - we hope - readable form.

If you haven't received it today, chances are you'll get a peak on Friday, when we swap the databases.

If you haven't subscribed, you can do it in just a few simple steps.

Anyway, today's top and exclusive news story: Virgin Holidays, we have discovered, will unveil its new all-singing, all-dancing website to consumers in the summer.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Good to see someone has a sense of humour

Alex Bainbridge, clearly filled with enthusiasm after his appearance for Travolution at the Travel Technology Show last week, has written this cheeky post.

EXCLUSIVE: Google finally announces travel industry strategy - disintermediation.

Funny lad.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: google troogle

Getting it right with Mr and Mrs Right

Case Study time at the TFM&A conference in London today. And travel is an obvious area where CRM can work wonders.

Customers tend to book their holidays at the same time of year, each year, according to TUI Travel, with January and June still the twin peaks in the cycle.

Its e-CRM manager Louise Kendall says Thomson – still the UK's biggest holiday brand – is using this business-wide finding to timetable campaigns targeted as previous bookers.

Customer retention is becoming increasingly important for travel businesses, as promiscuous consumers put it about, loving and leaving suppliers because there are so many seats and beds around.

So, why should someone settle for Mr/Mrs Right now, when we're confident that Mr/Mrs Right will always come along?

Thomson will email you a year after your booking, gently reminding you that they are still around and interested, if you are.

A week later, there will be a more determined approach - emotional blackmail might be a bit strong, but there is an attempt to pull on our heart strings – if not purse strings – by featuring images and videos, reminding us of that great time we had together last year, and how easy it would be for that to happen it again…

Personalization of emails is nothing new - it is doubtful that there are any online travel businesses sending out the same email to its entire database.

Mark Brennan, MD of Thomson's email partner CreatorMail makes the distinction between a generic email blast and an e-trading platform – once email products are instilled into the fabric of an organisation and resources made available, you can create an emotional bond with the recipient, turning the email into a cost-effective marketing device, rather than a trash-can item waiting to happen.

[NB: TFM&A has obviously done its research in this area. CreatorMail won a Travolution Award in 2007 for its work with Thomson - Ed]

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Technorati tags: thomson creatormail email marketing

Cheapflights and the strippers

Yes, you read that correctly.

The latest viral marketing promotion from the gang at Cheapflights is, er, a rather saucy number.

From this:


To this:


Take a look.

We were first shown this cheeky effort by a very enthusiastic female executive from Cheapflights - who shall remain nameless - at the Travel Technology Show last week.

Those with prudish neighbours at work may want to watch their backs.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights stripper cabin crew

Kartoo - the most bizarre search engine ever

For sheer quirkiness, Kartoo.com would score ten out of ten.

On first look it looks and feels like many search engines. But once the keywords are entered all hell breaks loose.

This the result for "london berlin flight":


Kartoo describes itself as a visual meta search engine - which is correct, in some respects.

The user interface displays results in a kind of tag cloud/map environment, where users can select a result and then be deep-linked into the source site.

Hover over a link and additional information appears on the left hand site with links elsewhere into the site.

The site looks and feels, in some respects, like the product of a mad brainstorming session over a few bottles of wine - but is actually quite addictive. Which is obviously the point...

But we probably haven't done it justice in our description, so the best thing to do is go and play with it and report back here in the comments section.

NB: some further detail on the chaps behind Kartoo is availabile on Wikipedia.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: kartoo meta search travel search

Viva la Travolution!

Apparently.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travo weekly round-up #4

Here are the top stories by visits on the Travolution website for the week ending Friday 8 February 2008:

• TripAdvisor buys HolidayWatchdog.com
• British Airways Holidays set June 08 for DP push
• Ryanair to shut website for three days
• Travel trends for 2008 - report
• Mobissimo unveils dramatic new site

Best of the blogs:

• Reputation in a social network, from Travel Technology
• Travel writing cliches, from Travel Weekly
• Reuters CEO on the semantic web, from Reilly Radar
• Why Google is unstoppable, from ValleyWag
• Soggy, from Seth Godin

Travel Technology Show coverage:

• Live blog
• News round-up

Please post further recommendations in the comments section.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

When link-love isn't love

We get on average around five requests a week asking us to link to other sites - often for no other reason that we have a decent enough Google page rank, good traffic and perform very well on Technorati.

Unless it is a site where there is going to be some kind of value to our readers (an ecommerce or new media blog, new online travel blog, etc), we either politely turn down these requests - or ignore them.

We have built our reputation and healthy performance on the web by creating - hopefully! - decent content, rather than linking to blogs about ski goggles, clubbing in Ibiza or jungle adventure companies.

Simple!

On a lighter note, Webmasterworld has produced this fantastic slab of sarcasm - How not to ask for a link: A few easy steps based on an email I just received.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati: technorati link love