Travolution meets Greg Dyke

Wholly unrelated to Travolution, but...




Here's all our other - slightly more relevant - content from the Advantage Conference last weekend.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Sneak peak: New Travolution site

Some people have been asking:

Full instructions on how to use the new site will be provided on launch day.

Subscribe to the print edition and you would've seen this a few weeks ago.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The plot thickens - slightly

Now you might have thought the Google trademark issue had just gone away especially when some of the protagonists of the major lawsuit backed away in the summer.

However, there were many who, when we wrote about it in our May edition, told us to watch this space especially post the summer downtime.

Low and behold, a statement from DialAFlight saying it is 'instituting legal proceedings against Flight Centre UK for infringement of its DialAFlight trademark on Google'.

Flight Centre says it has 'removed the phrase that says DialAFlight' but stresses it is not required to do so by Google and, perhaps more importantly, has not 'infringed any trademarks'.

Allegedly, this is not the first time DialAFlight has warned Flight Centre off - the brand, which is part of the Lotus Group, confirmed a similar incident last year.

So, the beast rears its ugly head once more and the coming weeks and months are likely to throw up more as competition on the internet intensifies and the peak selling period approaches.

What does it cost to institude legal proceedings - couple of hundred quid for a cease and desist letter? And is it all just sabre-rattling?

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Heads up: Changes to the Travolution Blog

In the next five days or so you will need to change your RSS feeds and bookmarks for the Travolution Blog.

We are moving the entire blog onto a new platform (Movable Type) which coincidentally will sit inside the all new Travolution website, which launches - all going well - next week.

All existing content will be migrated into the new system. Yes, I know, we're going to lose a lot of inbound links - so Blogrolls will need to be changed as well (please).

We will publish the new feeds here and on the new Travolution site in the coming days.

Just giving you all prior warning...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution @ Advantage Conference

Catch us at the Advantage Conference in Sitges, Spain, this weekend.

Travo and Travel Weekly will be there in force. We are doing a masterclass with Richard Carrick of Hoseasons.

Update: We will be blogging live on a dedicated new site.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Setting the record straight - Part Two: Travolution

Some concern recently about a new project from Audi, called Travolution.

Just to let you all know, it is nothing to do with us.

We're obviously extremely flattered they have decided to name a vehicle-traffic light communication system after us.

We will not complain if they want to lend us one of their 'Travolution' cars...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Setting the record straight

US researcher PhoCusWright “debunked” six online travel myths at its first ever ‘analysts forum’ this week.

The company uses its own research to correct the misinformation, although some of the issues raised aren’t as cut and dry as the release suggests. Also remember that the myths are specific to the US market.

See what you think. Here goes:

MYTH THE FIRST: “The number of online travel buyers in the U.S. is declining”
Not true. Growth is slowing, but it’s still growing.

MYTH THE SECOND: “More and more online travel shoppers use supplier sites than online travel agencies”
Not true. OTAs are still a bigger part of the market than brand dotcoms, but it’d be dangerous to downplay the influence of supplier direct.

MYTH THE THIRD: “Travel agencies are experiencing a resurgence as travelers return to traditional purchasing channels”
Not sure . eMarketer, another US research business, may be behind the myth. It’s look at the US market, issued in August, talked about “a renewed appreciation for the expertise and personalized services offered by traditional travel agents”. Maybe this is about methodology as much as mythology.

MYTH THE FOURTH: “The next generation of travelers prefers to do everything online”
Not true. PCW debunks this with a stat from its own research - less than half of what 18-28 year olds spend on travel is spent online. So where do they spend the rest?

MYTH THE FIFTH: "Social networks and travel reviews have the greatest influence on travel decision-making".

Not sure. PhoCusWright says that OTAs and destination web sites are as popular with Generation Y travellers as social networks and reviews. Interesting to watch what happens as the OTAs and destination sites become more social , and vice versa.

MYTH THE SIXTH: "Online travel markets need high credit card and Internet penetration to succeed".
Not sure. India’s online travel market is growing despite 98% of the population not using credit cards or having access to the Internet. Maybe the 2% who do are wealthy enough to sustain and grow the business.

Food for thought...

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Travel shouldn't rest on its laurels

"Letter to the editor" from Mark Simpson, managing director of Maxymiser:

Travel websites may be coming out on top of consumer surveys for design but there is no excuse for standards to slip when it comes to personalisation, lengthy registration processes or ease of use, all of which are vital for online success (Reference: Travel websites lead other sectors in design).

By utilising content optimisation techniques, travel companies can continuously compare conversion rates against different versions of the same web page based on real-time customer behaviour, and automatically present the most effective content to consumers.

Even the most basic content changes, such as changes to button colours, have proven to deliver significant results.

For example, through a number of subtle alterations to content and calls to action on the third page of its site, which equated to a few hundred possible page combinations, National Express was able to increase visitor engagement and drive 14% more visitors through to successful conversion on its coach booking website without impacting on brand identity.

Content optimisation can also be extended to support tailored messaging, with content presented based on the keyword search, traffic referrer or time of day.

Add in behavioural targeting, and organisations can present a landing page that reflects the consumer’s previous online activity, tailoring the content in line with proven interests – and achieving considerable conversion uplift as a result.

Having successfully invested in the core web design elements, the travel industry is already ahead of the game.

However, if they are to maintain this pace and position they must now move beyond the creative elements and look more closely at the overall user experience, if they are to translate their web investment into bottom line returns.

Holiday Extras first viral ad, not playing to stereotypes

Murphy's Airport Parking from Holiday Extras on Vimeo.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

StreetView on Mobile - Imagine the opportunities for travel

Forget how irritating this Google StreetView video is for a moment and think of the possibilities for hotels and destination services.



Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Classy use of maps

Every man and his dog has a map mash-up these days.

But there are few examples where the overall design of the page is taken into consideration.

So a thumbs up to Mr & Mrs Smith, which announced this week it has developed a route planning tool with Microsoft.

It's a decent enough piece of functionality but the way it fits in with the page is so much better than countless other mapping tools.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Sound familiar?

TUI Travel UK and Ireland boss Dermot Blastland is always good value for money when talking to the press, and his ten minute speech at TUI’s first anniversary media bash last night was no exception.

XL Leisure Group’s collapse last week was, Dermot claimed, down to the fact that it “wasn’t a well-run company” and that it “couldn’t compete with the cost-base of large-scale companies like us”.

Scale? Hasn’t lastminute.com’s Ian McCaig made that word his own? Apparently not. Dermot went on to say that the market was polarising into big players such as TUI and Thomas Cook and specialist/niche operators and any businesses “stuck in the middle” will suffer.

TUI of course has a strong set of specialist businesses, so it’s got a good position at both ends of the market. So good a position that Dermot said the business was having “a cracking time”, as indeed is its rival Thomas Cook.

“We’re both having record years,” he confidentally stated.

I wonder if lastminute.com – or any of the online travel agencies - could say a similar thing?


Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Loving the Thomas Cook personalised cruise video tool

We wrote about the new personalised cruise functionality for the Thomas Cook website last week.

It is currently in development and isn't expected to be live until November or December this year.

Despite only a demo being shown to delegates last week at the IAB conference in London, we persuaded e-commerce director Russell Gould to send us a screen shot.

Not great quality, but you'll get a sense of what is going on.

In our opinion it's one of the best pieces of consumer experience-driven functionality since British Airways unveiled their Silverlight project at the Travolution Summit in April.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Get it cheaper somewhere else...

The travel industry is always being told to look to retail for marketing and selling techniques so we thought Tesco's latest online gadget might be one to watch.

Basically, the shopper picks a well-known brand and Tesco provides a cheaper suggestion.

It wouldn't take much for the travel meta search sites or online travel agents to do something similar, even if some are claiming it has matured beyond price now.

So, instead of the latest functionality being about the ability to compare a traditional package with individual components online, the consumer would just be presented with the same holiday he or she had chosen, but cheaper.

XL: Creative thinking from Co-Op Travel

There were a few examples of good use of the web in the middle of all the offers of "help" from the likes of Ryanair, easyJet et al for stranded passengers overseas as a result of the XL saga.

Standing out was an effort from Co-Operative Travel. On Friday morning online marketing Craif Lefevre snapped up the domain name XL-travel-advice.co.uk and through it onto a basic Wordpress template.

The page included reams of information for consumers and links to the CAA and Abta. The Co-Op branding was not in-your-face at all and carried just one simple "Re-booking Agent" link to the main Co-Op homepage.

The whole thing took Lefevre about an hour to sort out, it's getting a fair amount of travel and it wouldn't be a surprise if he has - er, optimistically - snapped up the domain names for other organisations which may or may not find themselves in a spot of bother in the months ahead.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution Journeys has finally arrived

Not the greatest day to be unveiling our latest edition, given the enormous amount of attention on the collapse of XL, but we are extremely pleased with what we have produced.

So after a few weeks in the making, Travolution Journeys is finally a reality. You can read all the content in Travolution Journeys on our dedicated page on the main Travolution website.

Enjoy.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

XL: Spare a thought for the techies, too

A company of the size and amibition of XL (2006: we will be biggest online travel portal in two years) certainly had plenty of developers, technology and infrastructure experts working for it.

Word reaches Travolution that one particular IT specialist who worked off-site most of the time had a rather unfortunate wake-up call this morning.

Rather than hearing about the collapse of his employer from, er, his employer, his wife had to relay the news after hearing about it on the radio.

[Apparently the majority of other staff were contacted very early by text message, email or phone call, asking them to attend a meeting at 9.15am this morning]

The pitfalls of remote working!

Meanwhile it has emerged that the administrators have kept on two members of staff to coordinate things in the background IT-wise - one on the website side and another overseeing the booking technology.

And for those interested in who are the main partners with XL for its technology:

• Anite - for tours 
• Codegen - for dynamic packaging on XL.com and the bedbank
• Astratis - for flights (bookings) (FreedomFlights)
  

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

XL: Watch those searches go up, up and up

PING! Email arrives from one of the country's major meta search engines.

Interesting data:

In the ten hours following the announcement of XL's collapse, just before midnight last night, searches for flights on routes normally covered by the carrier and its operating arm increased by a massive 260% compared to the same ten hours on Thursday morning.

Full coverage.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

XL: bad for consumers, good for the business?

The collapse of XL Leisure Group this morning is clearly bad news for the 85,000 people currently overseas and the 200,000 or so people who have forward booked (according to BBC figures).

For the trade however, it’s less cut and dry. It might even be “a good thing”.

XLLG is the third largest tour operator in the UK, which makes the collapse front page news. However much we liked Silverjet, it was never carrying 2.3m people a year. XLLG’s product ranged from traditional fly-and-flop to private jets and boutique hotels, so expect tabloids and broadsheets alike to go to town on this tomorrow.

[At the time of writing, the news is the most read story on the BBC site]

It’s difficult to talk about this being good when there are parents telling their children that their holiday have been cancelled, surprise 40th birthday weekends scrapped  and XL employees and suppliers worried about getting paid.

But one good thing is that this massive collapse should, once and for all, alert the UK public to the vagaries of consumer protection. XLLG has, or rather had, a divergent business which is proving to be a real-time case study in what is and isn’t protected.

Surely now is the time for the CAA and ABTA and other bodies to get their act together and kick-start some serious press and PR on this issue. If the public aren’t aware of the difference between a bonded package holiday and a self-assembled break after this collapse, they never will be.

There aren’t too many tears being shed at the HQs of TUI and Thomas Cook. The collapse means that significant capacity has been taken out of the W08/9 and S09 seasons, which will have the revenue management teams whooping for joy.

Investors might also be similarly whooping. At 10.30am this morning – two hours or so after the news broke – Thomas Cook shares had climbed 6.38% on last night’s close; TUI was 5.75% up.

The reasons give by XLLG for its demise are the usual suspects – fuel prices, economic downturn and the inability to get additional funding. Interestingly, XLLG’s French and German operations are not being taken to into administration. It remains to be seen if this is an indication that the UK’s travel market is more vulnerable than the rest of Europe.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

XL homepage paints a sorry picture of the industry

[Updates at bottom of the post] 

Another week, another collapse.

But this time it's a big one - XL Leisure Group, the holding company behind XL.com, Kosmar, Freedom Flights, Medlifehotels, Aspire and the Travel City Direct brands, went into administration yesterday evening.

XL is the third largest tour operator in the UK behind Thomas Cook and Thomson Holidays and although it will not be TOO much of a surprise to the industry that it has gone the way of Zoom et al, the fragility of the sector is now hopelessly exposed.

As with previous collapses, details for consumers with what to do are on the XL.com homepage.

UPDATE 8am: Given the sheer scale of the problem and volume of passengers involved, it's no wonder the CAA website is having problems. CAA spokesman tells us: "Overloaded by 200,000 customers with advanced bookings, I'm afraid - hopefully back up soon."

UPDATE 8.05am: Amazing reaction from consumers on Travel Rants blog

UPDATE 8.20am: Dermot Blastland of TUI on BBC Breakfast with Simon Calder of the Independent. Paraphrasing Calder: "Mr Blastland will not say this, but despite the loss of jobs and holidays for consumers, this is actually good news for the industry as it can now start to make money."

UPDATE: 9.30am: Easyjet offers rescue package to stranded flight-only passengers for £75.

UPDATE: 10am: XL press conference from Gatwick. CEO Phil Wyatt looks crushed.

UPDATE: 10.40: Willie Walsh says "not surprised". Other airlines (unnamed) will follow. Walsh reckons around 30.

UPDATE: Go to the Travel Weekly landing page for the joint Travolution-Travel Weekly coverage of the XL collapse.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: XL

Customer service drives mobile adoption

Guest blog post from Gerry Samuels from Mobile Travel Technologies

With over 500¹ million mobile internet users worldwide, and this figure expected to triple by 2013², the mobile web is growing at a phenomenal rate. Whilst travel suppliers need to keep pace with new developments, they also need to ensure they match the provision of services to customer acceptance of this relatively new channel.

Mobile web sites can offer the full functionality of the traditional web plus additional mobile-specific features, however, what customers want to access on a mobile is different to what they want to access on a PC. When travel suppliers and intermediaries embrace this they find mobile to be an ideal means to deliver certain services that fit the context and provide a layer of differentiation over their competitors.

For example, combining online and mobile services means a customer can book on the web then push the booking to their mobile device. Hotel guests can then retrieve their booking on mobile and see directions and maps to help them find their hotel. They can also amend bookings on-the-go, should their plans change. Airline customers can check flight status, purchase additional services, select their on–board seat from graphical seat maps and even check-in.

From the mobile travel services MTT has already developed for travel clients, we are already seeing up to 10% of the number of unique users on the regular web site accessing the site on mobile. In the US, large carriers have over 100,000 unique accesses per month, a trend which is growing by up to 20% per month.

Geographic location and differing costs to access the mobile internet will of course affect to what extent this medium is used. In markets where there is a low cost to access the mobile internet, for example the UK (1p per mobile screen accessed), there is high mobile internet access of up to 30% of mobile phone subscribers. In other markets, where access costs can be 3-4 times that cost, access is lower.

Similarly, in some developing markets such as India and China, where mobile internet is ‘the’ internet for many people, we are seeing the development of mobile commerce, i.e. people making reservations on mobiles, perhaps in advance of other parts of the world.

Whilst mobile services are currently being used mainly as a positive customer innovation, they also offer travel suppliers the potential to reduce costs – for example where a traveller can self-modify a booking rather than having to contact a call centre, and also have the potential to deliver incremental ancillary revenues.

Looking ahead, e-Marketer recently highlighted a report by Neilson Mobile, which anticipates the growth of m-commerce. Similar to the introduction of e-commerce, consumers have initial concerns over security, and are unsure of airtime costs:

"As more mobile commerce services become available and consumers develop a greater trust for phone-based transactions, we expect commerce to be an increasingly important part of the mobile experience next year and beyond," said Nic Covey, director of insights at Nielsen Mobile recently.

¹ Source – emarketer, April 2007

² Source – Juniper Research, June 2008


Gerry Samuels, founder and executive director of MTT

IAB Engage for Travel conference

[Read down for updates]

Live blogging some bits and bobs this morning.

Just finished a speech at the Internet Advertising Bureau's Engage for Travel conference, titled "Challenge for Advertisers with Travel 2.0".

Plenty of nods in the audience when talking about ad budgets and engaging so-called Web 2.0 sites such as blogs and social networks. One of the people I spoke to when writing the speech said there is a real sense that experimental advertising is being reigned in, favouring the measurable - i.e. search and affiliate advertising - marketing campaigns.

****

Lewis Lenssen of Netizen Digital: measure the effectiveness of offline brand campaigns with a strong pay-per-click advertising push.

Price and product are still king. If the product is poor you'll get found out still.

****

Russell Gould, Thomas Cook:

The TCG ecommerce four-point plan - 1) customer acquisition 2) customer retention and growth 3) customer conversion 4) measurement and optimisation. Simple?

Engagement hugely important: maintaining contact constantly (and usefully) with the customer, primarily through email marketing.

Gould is "stunned" by the impact of video on conversion rates on thomascook.com. User who looks at video converts at 30% higher than those who don't.

40% of people that clicked on the recently Thomas Cook interactive magazine then went to the website, via the Book Now buttons.

Gould invites delegates to try the new Beta thomascook.com.

User reviews coming. Not Tripadvisor. Will use negative and positive reviews, will moderate against profanity, etc.

Best bit of the speech: personalised video demonstration.

Videos created live, simply by pulling together clips from the preferences put forward by the user. Very impressive.

****

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Going, going, gone!

It seems JetBlue Airways is to auction a whole load of flights (300 to be exact) as well as six package holidays on eBay.

The airline claims it is the first to sell flights and packages via the service. We're not sure about that - Singapore Airlines did it for the first A380 superjumbo flight, although it was for charity.

Lots of other travel companies have tried shifting holidays through eBay - Thomson, easyCruise to name a couple.

Thomson even had a sort of shop on the service.

And, a couple of years ago there was some anecdotal evidence of reasonable margins from selling distressed inventory through eBay.

So, why hasn't the travel industry adopted it more fully?

Thoughts please.

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

If Travelmuse 'sucks' then there is probably not much hope for hundreds of others

A cracking row taking place in Silicon Valley where tech blogmeister Robert Scoble has slammed the start-ups performing at this year's DEMO conference in California.

Scoble says he visited the website of every one of the finalists and "boy, do they suck. Really, really suck".

Travelmuse is one of the sites under consideration at the event.

Now, let's be fair to Travelmuse for a moment. It's a pretty decent online travel agency. Has plenty of destination content, some handy trip planning functionality, flight, hotel, cruise, package, car hire search and booking engines, ties in some good 'inspiration' tools, and actually looks rather good and is easy to use.

In other words, Travelmuse is A Good Site.

But back to the title of this post, then:

What chances are there for countless other online travel businesses? Let's face it: there are hundreds of travel sites which probably don't come near the level of functionality and usablity of Travelmuse.

Luckily for them Scoble isn't a major investor in travel companies.

And thankfully for Travelmuse, it isn't called Tripmuse.com or something. It wouldn't want to be hit by the Curse of Trip.

UPDATE: Scoble wrote another post this morning 'Useful travel web sites', where he republished a list of suggestions his Twitter friends had put forward in response to a question for recommended sites. The usual suspects were all featured - Kayak, TripIt, Expedia, Mobissimo et al - and one other site: yes, step forward...Travelmuse, which nominated itself.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution


Technorati tags: demo scoble scobleizer travelmuse

Housekeeping stuff

A bit light on the blogging front recently. Unfortunately, not due to hefty celebrations after learning of our shortlisting for the AOP award, but we've been putting the final touches to our September edition.

The magazine went to press last night and will be available from the middle of next week to subscribers, content online a few days later.

It's a bumper 120-odd pages and themed around exploring the customer journey from when they have the initial idea to go on holiday, through the search and booking process, in-resort, and what they do back home.

The main part of the edition included three pieces of exclusive research we have commissioned, carried out by Webcredible, Foviance and EDigitalResearch and sponsored by Travelzoo.

We're extremely pleased with the end results and the fine analysis pieces elsewhere in the mag.

Sharp-eyed readers will also notice the exclusive preview inside of the new Travolution website.

Yes, you heard it here first. A brand new travolution.co.uk is coming very soon.

Big Housekeeping Alert: as part of the relaunch, we will also be directing you to a new address for the Travolution Blog. We are finally leaving the Blogger platform for one within the new Travolution site.

Watch this space.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution up for top award!

News just in:

Travolution has been shortlisted by the Association of Online Publishers for its Research & Insights Project award.

We submitted Travolution Generations from September 2007 - which some have said is one of the best editions of our magazine since we launched.

To recap: we themed the entire edition around the idea of exploring how different age groups interact with travel brands via the web.

Here is the Special Report page for the edition.

I could give a bland "we're delighted" quote, but will simply say it's good to see that little us clearly packs a powerful punch with what we produce as we're up against some serious players:

• Orange
• Guardian News and Media
• ITV Online
• Trinity Mirror
• IPC Media

Here is the full shortlist. Our publishing house, Reed Business Information, has done extremely well with 12 shortlisted entries across 16 categories.

Overall winners will be announced on 1 October.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Something or nothing?

A collective scratching of heads at Travolution Towers this week when the Squeeze Holidays launch press release came through.

[see today’s news story]

Not over its bold statement that it would take "significant market share within its first year of business", but the fact that Paul Evans, CEO of lowcosttravelgroup, was quoted in the release.

Evans “lauded” the arrival of the site – a fantastically archaic word in a release about a dotcom start-up. He said: “Having worked with team in previous guises over the years I have every faith that SqueezeHolidays.com will soon be a formidable player in the online travel arena."

Formidable enough to take some of lowcostravelgroup’s market share?

There is no obvious connection between the two organisations, but that’s not to say there aren’t any less obvious ones. Readers can make their own conclusions about the line regarding an unnamed partner in the story:

SqueezeHolidays has launched with a range of beach accommodation sourced from 'one of the well-known bedbanks'.

We eagerly await Squeeze Holidays' “further announcements in due course”.

[NOTE: The announcement on Neutron Ventures’ web site doesn’t mention Evans’ testimonial. Curious and curiouser...}

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Irony Corner - Microsoft-Ryanair-Ciao

A reader emails the following:

Do you find it ironic that Ryanair is asking Microsoft to help "keep out" screen scrapers (who, one could argue, are price comparison and meta search sites) - on the same day that Microsoft announce they are buying a price comparison site in Europe. [Ciao.com]

Indeed.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: microsoft ciao ryanair

Blog Day: 5 blogs you need to read - a day late, but hey

Travolution was busily attending to other things yesterday, so missed the official Global Blog Day (fancy doing it on a Sunday!?!).

Anyway, for the fourth Blog Day, the idea is that bloggers point to blogs that are "preferably different from their own culture, point of view and attitude".

Our five:

Buzzmachine: Authored by respected former journo and academic Jeff Jarvis, recommended reading for anyone interested in digital publishing and the impact of the web on media.

Drama 2.0 Show: Brilliant Web 2.0 debunking site. Waspish, well-informed, often correct.

Left Field: Analysis and commentary on the airline industry from David Field. Part of the FlightGlobal suite of blogs.

Valleywag: Sideways look at the West Coast (primarily) tech/web community. Doesn't pull any punches. Often very funny.

FAIL Blog: For pure light relief, the best collection from around the planet of daft pictures and cock-ups.

NB: Thanks Les Explorers for the namecheck.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution