The Mileage Run

Never heard of this malarkey before, but worth a look.

Apparently some people are so desperate to get upgraded through their frequent flyer status that they are willing to do a marathon run of flights in order to propel themselves to the next level.

The maker of the movie embedded below explains further:

In this case, I had Premier status on United and I was 5,000 miles short of Premier Executive. I made it on Christmas Day 2004, and I traveled from Chicago, to Oakland, to LA, to Las Vegas and then back to Chicago. All in 20hrs. Very tiring. the movie was made from 300 photos and assembled in Adobe After Effects.

The things people do for a glass of champers...



Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Hat tip: Jetvine

The Purple Pod on your iPod

Following the launch of The Purple Pod podcast last week, we have now received clearance from iTunes to stream it into its podcast library.

iTunes users can subscribe here for free [B: this link opens your iTunes application]. iTunes will automatically update your library every time we issue a new edition.


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Imaginative or desperate? Probably both

You've got to hand it FlyBe, caught nearly 175 passengers short of a minimum number required on its Dublin-Norwich route by airport bosses in the Norfolk town.

So an ad was duly taken out on an acting website to find some thespians to take the part of passengers as the deadline neared.

The whole episode has now been exposed and FlyBe is trying to make light of it all.

One only hopes that the actors went 'in character'...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Seems like a long time ago now...

...since we wrote this piece about T5.

Last June in fact.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: terminal 5 T5 flash mob

Flash mob? Cause of T5 chaos?

Obviously not...

Cheapflights at Heathrow Terminal 5 yesterday, on a bit of a promotional drive and hoping to make the most of what was meant to be a great day for British transportation projects.

Maybe the poster in the background is also a clue.


Not sure why the Cheapflights crew - including UK MD Francesca Ecsery - is surrounded by the boys in blue... Protection perhaps?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: terminal 5 T5 flash mob

Words fail us...

PING! The Travolution team takes little joy in making fun of press releases, but after yesterday’s Pontins post, here’s another one.

BA has signed a deal with BT Open Zone which means that all BA lounges will now have free wireless access.

The words put into the mouth of the BT Open Zone spokesperson beggar belief. He says that one of the reasons that wifi access is now free in the lounges is because the demand has increased, driven by ‘the explosion in wireless enabled devices’.

If anyone can think of a more inappropriate phrase to use when talking about airports than ‘explosions in wireless enabled devices’, keep it to yourself.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Trousers are pulled a little too high

Or so it says in a pretty good profile interview of Simon Cowell Brent Hoberman, founder of Lastminute.com.

Read the interview on the Guardian website.

Anyone intrigued to see whether the trouser reference is just cheap journalistic licence to add colour to a feature piece or, in fact, embarrasingly true, can find out at the Travolution Summit in April.

[See, a rather cheap plug from us for our conference]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

When the left hand doesn't talk to the right hand [Pontins]

PING! Email arrives announcing the acquisition of holiday camp firm Pontins by a former boss and friends under the guise of new company, Ocean Parcs.

The first line of the release:

Pontin’s, one of the most popular destinations for holidays in Britain, has been acquired for an undisclosed sum, by a company headed by Graham Parr a former CEO of Pontin’s.

The PR company, however, managed to write the following in the email subject line:

Former Matalan FD Buys Pontins for 46 million.

Not as undisclosed as Ocean Parcs would've liked, then.

UPDATE: Parr is clearly a fan of Pontins, but perhaps not as much as on previous occasions. He was part of a consortium of people which bought the company (the first time) in 1987 for, er, £57.5 million.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ocean parcs pontins

Media companies as operators? The impact could be big

Our latest column in Travel Weekly:

Last week’s news regarding Teletext Holidays and its fundamental repositioning was inevitably overshadowed by the latest twist in the Corfu/Thomas Cook saga.

However, in any other week, Teletext’s decision to become a tour operator through its ThisIsTravel brand would probably be the biggest story of the week. The reason this development is so significant can be seen in two parts.

Firstly, this is a major travel company from the old school, which has seen too much of the perennial writing on the wall and decided to act.

Becoming the travel provider – the boundaries between operator and agent are increasingly blurred – means Teletext can attempt to offer consumers a more inclusive service.

Consumers will either be on a ThisIsTravel holiday, or have used the service to build their own trip. This is nothing new, of course. Indeed, Teletext is hardly a pioneer in this area, it is just reacting to change perhaps quicker than others.

The second reason for its significance concerns its ownership. Teletext is a division of the Daily Mail and General Trust, one of the biggest media groups in the UK and publisher of the newspaper of the same name.

We have been predicting this for a while. There is nothing to stop a media company moving into travel, and DMGT has just proved it. The media giants in the UK are in a reasonably strong position.

They have the eyeballs of consumers and strong brands, often excellent travel-related content, and the web allows them to create trips easily – but they need new revenue streams to shore up their falling print circulations.

This isn’t to say that the Guardian, the Telegraph et al will suddenly be running holidays around the world. But as media and travel converge further, it is something to consider.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Thomson's magic 500

That's actually 500% more money channelled into online advertising (display) in 2007 than in the previous 12 months.

The figures from Nielsen Media Research [here on Brand Republic - registration required] reveal Thomson spent £4.6 million in 2007, a figure which accounts for 26% of its overall adspend and puts it in 17th position overall in the UK.

[Obviously PPC keyword spend is not included in any of these figures]

Other travel firms featuring in the top 100 UK spenders include:

• 32: British Airways - £2.7 million - up 47% (9% of total)
• 40: Expedia - £2.1 million - up 53% (14% of total)
• 52: Travelzoo - £1.6 million - up 662% (100% of total)
• 54: Lastminute.com - £1.6 million - up 124% (26% of total)
• 73: P&O Ferries - £1.2 million - up 88% (34% of total)
• 76: MyTravel - £1.2 million - up 279% (30% of total)
• 87: EasyGroup - £1.1 million - up 2000% (98% of total) Yes, up 2000%
• 88: Eurotunnel - £1 million - up 26% (52% of total)
• 95: Hotels.com - £992K - down 20% (26% of total)

The overall highest spenders in the UK are Personal Loan Express (£28.5 million), Ebay (£19.8 million) and BSkyB (£15.8 million).

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: marketing adpsend

When no-frills airlines run out of ancillary products to sell

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Ouch! Airline Network ignores ad watchdog. Gets slammed.

Airline Network has received a firm wrap across the knuckles by the Advertising Standards Authority this morning after it ignored a request for information about an apparent mis-leading ad.

Lastminute.com made the complaint to the ASA after an email blast from Airline Network to promote long-haul fares.

The ASA asked Airline Network to explain. The Airline Network didn't respond. The ASA didn't like that one little bit.

The full - subsequently upheld - citation.

This last line in the citation should be of particular concern to Airline Network.

We asked CAP to inform its media members of the problem with Airline Network.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: airline network lastminute ASA advertising watchdog

Just a few tickets left - Question Time - TONIGHT

Not everybody wants to see England cave in to France in the international football friendly this evening, so if you're London-based you might just fancy attending the third Travolution Question Time.

The venue and time:

• Soho Hotel, Richmond Mews, London W1F 0BB
• 6pm-8pm

The panel:

• Andrew Botterill, chief executive Global Travel Group
• Ed Kamm, chief operating officer Lastminute.com
• Kenny Picken, managing director Traveltek
• Peter Ward, co-founder and co-chief executive WAYN.com
• Stephane Durand, UK & Ireland managing director Amadeus

The practicalities:

Ring Angela Hamilton-Jones on 020 8652 3803 or email to obtain a ticket (just £55+VAT).

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Rising media stars

Nice to see WAYN's Peter Ward making it into the Sunday Times '40 under 40' rising media stars.

Realistically, at only 29, (we're not a bit green!) he could make it in every year for the next decade. It all depends on his next move though. And what must co-founder Jerome Touze be thinking?

According to the Sunday Times, investment bank Lazard has been brought in to find a buyer.

When we last spoke to him the news was that Lazard was there to 'work through all the various strategic options for the company.'

He also stressed (again) the company was not for sale.

Luckily, we'll have our chance to pin him down on this again tomorrow night at Travolution Question Time.

Other luminaries featured include Brent Hoberman (yes, still only 39 years old), ex-Lastminute.com and now MyDeco.com.

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Here comes The Purple Pod

Good news for all those who can't get enough of Travolution - our podcasts launch this week.

Our new regular 20 minutes or so of commentary and discussion about the online travel industry kicks off with Matt Cheevers of Teletext Holidays and Bruce Rosard from PhoCusWright as we consider the new media model for travel and the importance of bloggers to the industry.

So you can either listen to it here or at our Podomatic page [we're working on the artwork, okay!]. A catologue of previous shows will be held at the Podomatic page.

Better still, you should be able to subscribe to The Purple Pod from iTunes in the next few days. You'll be updated automatically every time we produce a new episode.


Click here to get your own player.

Enjoy. Feedback is always helpful. Commercial opportunities available, too. Contact me directly.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: purple pod podcast itunes teletext phocuswright

BA targets John Lewis - kind of...

According to the Times today, British Airways is to start an online home shopping service where it will sell Duty Free perfumes, gadgets and other apparel to UK addresses.

In fact, the High Life Shop will sell the full Duty Free range, apart from cigarettes and alcohol.

Interesting move for BA. And not really surprising given that msot airlines are trying to boost interest in their ancilliary services.

But once again. Blurred lines between retail, supply, media and digital.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

People love using Wikipedia for information about travel companies

Wikipedia has created a tool which reveals the number of searches carried out for any keyword.

It's interesting in the context of the sheer number of times people are looking for information on individual travel companies.

Obviously one thing to ponder here is the extent to which consumers (let us assume it's primarily consumers for now) will go to learn more about a company.

Is this a question of uncertainty on the part of potential customers? Or the web just showing that if information is there, people will want to find it.

Anyway, here is a sample showing the number of Wikipedia searches in February 2008 for various travel related companies.

British Airways - 230,694
Eurostar - 23,980
Expedia - 21,323
Orbitz - 10,627
Virgin Atlantic - 10,194
Thomas Cook - 8,742
Lastminute.com - 1,273
Ebookers - 968
Opodo - 834
Kuoni - 24

One remarkable thing about this is that Google was searched 334,841 times - just 100,000 more than BA.

And now you can play around with the tool at the heart's content.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Hat-tip: Travelvine [side project of Darren Cronian of Travel-Rants] for flagging this up.

Technorati tags: wikipedia wikitravel wiki encyclopedia

User-generated content - the truth?

The Drama 2.0 Show is required reading - even if just to get a different take on some of the hype surrounding the web.

This latest missive is fantastic (even if it is a tad long).

A Bear Market for User Generated Content. Some interersting implications for travel, especially in the area of user reviews vs user experience.

Our mantra.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Ask the avatar

Alaska is cold and remote so the friendly folk at Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air have created an avatar to keep you company online.

Here's the full story on USA Today and the author of this report is clearly already quite taken with the 'bot' and her profile.

She's called Jenn and you simply type your question into the 'Ask Jenn' box and you get linked to the relevant info page.

Answers are in text as well as spoken unless you want to turn the sound off.

The alternative is you are told to reword your question because she doesn't know how to answer it.

It's a nice feature but raises the question - are avatars there to improve the experience, replicate the human experience or just a gimmick?

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Teletext setting a precedent of sorts

So what about Teletext Holidays and its move into new territory?

After years as a travel deals publisher, Daily Mail-owned Teletext will effectively become a tour operator cum travel agency cum media portal through ThisIsTravel.

All things to all people, perhaps.

What this actually shows is a distinct move towards a more consumer-led, all-round effort to reach – and, most importantly, fulfil – a wider marketplace.

Previous fulfilment partner OTC’s loss is Traveltek’s gain, in many respects, as the Glasgow-based travel technology firm will provide all back-end systems for the new ThisIsTravel platform.

We have said for quite a while that the traditional media houses in the UK are the sleeping giants of online travel.

This is not hyperbole. There is nothing to stop the media companies from attempting to provide a fuller service when it comes to travel deals.

Now this does not automatically mean that the Guardian, Times, Telegraph et al will suddenly start becoming OTAs or tour operators but a slow shift in how potentially they may start to think they can serve their customers better.

Travolution Holidays anyone??

[We jest]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: newspaper teletext holiday

Travolution Awards - get the shortlist

Here you go.

A record number of entries.

We are extremely pleased with the effort people have put in to their entries and the general enthusiasm for the awards - and it's only the second year!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

So this might be one solution to the user tracking issue

...or says AffiliateFuture, when trying to tackle the growing unease amongst consumers - and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, no less - about tracking online user behaviour.

The affiliate network has developed and is patenting a new system which tracks behaviour not through cookies but with a browser-based called VeraciTag.

More details on our news story.

It makes sense, but clearly will rely on consumers not finding out a way to stop this method as well.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Sun, sea, sand and search

Orbitz Worldwide, owner of ebookers.com, has added a feature to its (semi) eponymous US site which might raise a few eyebrows in Europe, not least among the big vertically integrated tour operators such as TUI Travel plc and Thomas Cook Group.

Orbitz.com features a link through to MyIdealBeach.com, where users can specify who they are (such as friends or honeymooners), what they want from the hotel (gay-friendly to all-inclusive) and what they want to do (golf to fishing).

‘Travellers want a different, better way to search for complex trips than just by dates and destinations,’ says Heather Leisman, Senior Director of Merchandising for Orbitz, in the press release.

Too right!

Travellers might also want to search more than the 450 pre-selected hotels currently on offer, but it’s a start.

TUI and TC have argued that one advantage they have over the OTAs is access to beach inventory - through the scale of their buying power, to say nothing of the fact they actually own or part-own a number of prime beach-front properties.

Even if this tool does turn up on ebookers in the future, it is unlikely that the balance of power will shift but it’s food for thought, particularly as Leisman also says that myidealbeach.com ‘marries the expertise offered by a traditional travel agent with the ease, convenience and breadth of options offered by an online travel site.’

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution.

The Godfather says No - others may not

Most people involved in the internet have a tendency to sit up and take notice when Sir Tim Berners-Lee - creator of world wide web - says something.

So many travel companies - and other web firms, especially the ad-led ones - will be mildly irritated/concerned/dismayed at his latest missive during an interview with the BBC.

TBL says he will change his internet service provider if it uses new technology such as Phorm to track his history on the web and create user-targeted ads.

At the moment, three UK ISPs (Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk) are reported to have signed up to the system.

Now, a number of travel firms (Lastminute.com's award-winning system with Touch Clarity, for example) have already been using various bits of other clever kit to track user behaviour and serve them more relevant product information.

And by all accounts it works well.

But having the Big Cheese of the web come out and draw attention to the topic with consumers might just throw up privacy issues travel companies, and others, will be keen to distance themselves from.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: tim berners-lee WWW advertising behaviourial targeting lastminute

The Times likes us

Today is officially A Bad Day At The Office, for reasons we will not go into.

However, every cloud has a silver lining - or something like that.

The Times has namechecked Travolution as the provider of news about Google's Search within Search.

[Full story, part of its 10 Travel Websites to Watch]

Cheers!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Lifting the lid on Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook has been quiet for a while so we were excited at the prospect of catching up on all things online.

Russell Gould has been in the e-commerce director chair for not quite a year and has already brought many a Mytravel experience to Cooks.

Thomascook.com has been revamped and relaunched focusing on four customer segments:

• Those that know exactly what they want
• Those that are browsing for deals
• Those that are just browsing to see what's around
• Those who don't have a clue what they want

Like the work MyTravel has carried out on its sites in the past three years it was a three-stage approach focused on getting basics right in order to improve conversion. The stages were -improving the search and booking technology, navigation and design and the content.

The new Cook's site also moved to the three column approach with deals on the left, inspiration in the middle and the search function on the right.

In short, everything is slicker, speedier and much more thought out.

Surprisingly, prior to this project Thomas Cook redesigns had been based on opinions!

As always, Cooks are tightlipped when it comes to numbers so Russell couldn't say much but the following suggests he is pleased:

Since going live we have had record day on record day. When we did this for MyTravel, on each of four projects we saw in excess of 15% improvement in conversion. Thomas Cook has been greater than that.

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Now who works in an office like this?

[Said in a Loyd Grossman drawl]


Well, it could only be those wacky folk at Google.

These are the offices of the search giant's HQ in Zurich. Guided video tour on the BBC.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Friday Funny

Bourne Leisure is trying to boost its affiliate partner scheme so we thought we'd help them along a bit with this short film plot .

To be read in the style of the voiceover for a US blockbuster thriller!

"Travomotion Pictures Presents 'The Bourne Affiliate'

Following the footsteps of an ex-CIA agent who has turned travel agent..... we give you Matthew 'Butlins' Bourne. He's back and he means business. Affiliate web business!

The action takes place in a UK travel agency somewhere is Hemel Hempstead where cash is king and commission can be earned 24/7.

Also featuring starlet 'Haven Warner' as a top selling affiliate agent who falls for Bourne's charms.

Just the touch of a button, an online button, and earnings and a lot more could be explosive!"

Ends

It was too good an opportunity to be missed but don't worry we won't be giving up the day job.

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Broken broken cheep cheep

Imagine the dismay at Travolution Towers this week when this tasty piece of Easter-driven promotional puff arrived in two pieces.


The fate of this chocolate extravanganza, we hope, does not signal something about the fortunes of its sender, Cheapflights - or Rooster, its PR agency.

We are reliably informed that the chocolate does, in fact, taste rather good. So all is not lost.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Future of hospitality?

Amadeus has released a 24-page white paper which modestly claims to be ‘a blue print for the future of the hospitality industry’.

[We covered a snippet of it here]

Delve into the full report and you get a breakdown of the short, medium and long-term drivers, ranked in order of importance according to its impressive ‘panel of thought leaders’.

‘New technologies’ are ranked second in all three timeframes, suggesting that this vast area will continue to dominate hoteliers’ thinking for some years to come.

Interestingly, new technologies are distinct from Web2.0, of which Amadeus says: ‘Web 2.0 is high up the agenda today but in the medium- to long-term will not be an issue. This is presumably because businesses think they will be able to adapt to its demands in the not too distant future.’

Mobile isn’t that new a technology, but it is starting to make its presence felt in travel, recovering from the debacle that was WAP. Mobile Travel Technologies’ founder and CEO Gerry Samuels recent presentation at PhoCusWright @ ITB showed how one-in-ten mobile phone owners are using their devices for travel-related services. And with more mobiles coming into use very day – particularly in emerging markets - this cannot but be a massive part of travel moving forward.

Amadeus quotes Henry Harteveldt from US research outfit Forrester. His take is that that mobile devices will have to support a number of activities in the future, including coupons or vouchers, SMS short codes for push and pull marketing campaigns, mobile search marketing, mobile advertising and proximity based marketing.

He’s been spot on before – he talked about OTAs making money from eyeballs rather than transactions at HEDNA’s 2005 conference in San Francisco. Cue today’s ‘media model’ discussions.

So where exactly is Amadeus going with mobiles? No clues in the report, other than the observation that ‘The technology platforms used by hospitality companies must support and enable all user interfaces, from phone to fax to PC to PDA to mobile.’

One final thought – in 2008, what’s a fax?

[The full report is available via a link on the press release]

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution.

Priceline does a Farecast

Farecast - the air ticket trend site - has made quite a splash in the US, although the concept has yet to catch on here in the UK.

So Priceline has announced a similar piece of functionality, known as Inside Track.

Innovative, flexible, consumer-focused and price-led tool.

It seems that OTAs are now beginning to look at the whizzy functionality created by the so-called Travel 2.0 start-ups in the US and take the best bits.

This is where it might get tricky - or, alternatively, open up new opportunities - for the Silicon Valley types.

If the big boys begin to wade in with their own nifty tools and tricks, start-ups will be forced to innovate once again. Which can be good (they will always have first-mover advantage) or bad (they run out of ideas).

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: priceline farecast silicon valley

Fraudulent information

A survey of consumers about identity theft appears to have been taken out of context in some quarters.

The study by GB Group found that the travel sector languished in the lower reaches of the trust table when it comes to protecting the financial details of individuals.

Apparently only 6% of those survey trusted a travel company to "keep client details safe from the potential risk of ID fraud".

This compares very unfavourably against the likes of banks (52%). Other untrustworthy sectors included gambling companies (4%) and mobile phone operators (9%).

This has inevitably triggered some hand-wringing about how online data is handled. We are not in the business of defending the sector we write about, but to lump web usage as the trigger for such concerns misses the bigger picture.

Indeed, a call to GB revealed that the survey was conducted to learn what people feel about how well companies protect their personal information per se, not just those details submitted online.

Nevertheless, it seems travel companies need to do a lot more to convince those questioned in this particular survey about how stringent they are with ensuring no-one gets their hands on valuable information.

However, recalling our survey last year of 3,500 members of the public, as part of the Travolution Generations project, and a vastly different picture emerges - especially when it comes to the online element.

To the statement "I worry about the safety of my bank details when booking online", we got this response.

• I don't know - 4%
• Strongly agree - 15%
• Slightly agree - 27%
• Slightly disagree - 27%
• Strongly disagree - 27%

So that's 54% disagreeing, then.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: fraud ID

Free stuff available for free right here where it's free

Interesting post on the Highland Business Research blog, dissecting the latest muse from Chris Anderson (for it is he, man of the Long Tail fame).

Anderson is starting to peddle his new book (Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business) in the pages of Wired magazine.

The blog post asks whether this is relevant - or, indeed, will work - for the travel and tourism industries.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

long tail free stuff

Moscow is a dangerous place

Well, it is in terms of how damaging it can be on the bank account of your average traveller.

The latest Hotels.com hotel price index is released today, and the Russian capital tops the list of most expensive cities in the world in terms of their average room rate.

Here is the top ten, with average price per night and increase/decrease from 2006 to 2007:

• Moscow - £194 - up 22%
• New York - £143 - up 5%
• Dubai - £125 - up 4%
• Venice - £125 - up 12%
• London - £115 - up 15%
• Geneva - £109 - up 9%
• Cancun - £104 - down 8%
• Rome - £104 - up 3%
• Edinburgh - £103 - up 6%
• Oslo - £100 - up 18%

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

What is it about running an online travel company?

David Soskin, chief executive of Cheapflights, steps down.

Chris Nixon, managing director of TravelSupermarket, steps down.

Brent Hoberman, chief executive of Lastminute.com, steps down.

All loved being entrepreneurs. At least two weren't so keen on the numbers game, prefering to innovate and be in "start-up" mode.

Makes you think...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The Biggest Travel Storyline of the Year - really?

So says Jaunted, when talking about in-flight wi-fi.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Search within search - Google's big move on 2008

In typical Google fashion - i.e. no fanfare apart from a blog post - a new piece of functionality is now up and running on the main Google search pages.

Users will now be able to see the search box for a host website included in results for some brand names.

Here's an example:


A user can then type in "Paris" into the second search box and obtain results only from Hilton.co.uk, as seen below:


E-Consultancy points out an interesting issue to all this. Some sites might not be too happy about this as they rely on people using their sites for search as a source of customer behaviour data.

Anyway, we have been trying a few things out and so far have discovered that none of the main UK meta search engines/price comparison sites have the sub-box so far.

In hotels, Hilton, Marriott and Premier Inn do. Sheraton and Travelodge do not.

Airlines: thumbs-up for Ryanair. Not so for EasyJet, BA and Virgin Atlantic.

Big operators/verticals sees Thomas Cook get a box, but not Thomson, Kuoni or Cosmos.

OTAs: Expedia, Opodo, TravelRepublic, Ebookers and STA Travel do not, but Lastminute.com does.

So what's the criteria for whether a box appears or not?

Google says:

Through experimentation, we found that presenting users with a search box as part of the result increases their likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for.

So over the past few days we have been testing, and today we have fully rolled out, a search box that appears within some of the search results themselves.

This feature will now occur when we detect a high probability that a user wants more refined search results within a specific site. Like the rest of our snippets, the sites that display the site search box are chosen algorithmically based on metrics that measure how useful the search box is to users.

One of the interesting things about this is that brand name searches are, by all accounts, still extremely popular despite a supposed surge in online activity by supplier and intermediaries.

Another is will sites be disadvantaged if they CANNOT have their search box included? Not sure...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: google
search

The power of the Big G

Half the way through the afternoon at yesterday's PhoCusWright@ITB event, laptop-laden journalists and bloggers started shifting uncomfortably in their seats.

"The internet connection has gone", said one keyboard-stabbing blogger.

However it took a good few minutes or so before the assembled scribblers realised that it wasn't the web that had gone down, but Google and Google-owned properties, such as Mail, Blogger, YouTube and search.

We've seen no reports about Google having any problems yesterday, so it may have been a local issue to the wireless connectiuon we were all using.

It lasted only about 90 miniutes or so - but it was shocking so many assumed the web had gone down just because Google had disappeared off our screens!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: google berlin

DEADLINE DAY for the Travolution Awards

Visit the website.

Pick a category.

Post your entry form online or email to me.

Time is running out...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Meta search share the love

Now here's an idea:

When asked about whether meta search engines would ever charge users for extra services (such as subscriptions) or for the information they provide, a panel of meta execs shrugged their shoulders.

But then Gareth Williams of SkyScanner suggested something much more interesting:

Give half of the clicking revenue back to users.

Nice!

NB: Trivago is doing this already through a clever membership scheme.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB08: Jury's out

Jurys Doyle Hotel Group CEO Bill Walshe started his session at Europe’s leading travel technology conference by saying that he wasn’t going to talk about travel technology.

True to his word, he didn’t, much. But that’s not to say that his overview of the ‘comprehensive repositioning’ of the Jurys Doyle brand didn’t have some very strong resonances for the delegates in the room.

Such as:

• put the customer at the heart of the everything
• know exactly where you sit within your competitive set brand matrix and deliver accordingly
• don’t bother with 15 minutes focus groups. They come in, look for the free gift and tell you what they think you want them to say to get the aforementioned free gift. Get a marketer and a psychologist to run them
• think about replacing ‘employee of the month’ with ‘innovator of the month’
  

He did say that 30% of Jury Doyle’s business is coming through third party online intermediaries.

Interesting to see how this changes when the comprehensive repositioning of the brand is completed. It seems as his desire for ‘the brand proposition to be delivered at every customer touch point’ is incompatible with a quick and dirty bedbank.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Spade-rage

Brilliant line from Bill Walshe, chief executive of Jurys Doyle Hotel Group and the best speaker of the day, when talking about loyalty programmes.

Given the opportunity he would go back to five minutes before the person who dreamt up the idea of loyalty programmes, and then beat him around the head with a spade.

He, er, doesn't like them. Don't mess with this guy.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB08: Conversions

Google’s travel leader for France, Enrique Nalda, unveiled some conversion rate figures, claiming that the stats were not a secret.

So no reason for us not to repeat them.

General conversion rates from Google for OTAs is 1-5%; airlines 5-10%; cars 10-15%. 'Immediate conversion’ – when a click is followed through to a booking without the user pausing for thought - is between 0.5% and 2.5% for OTAs.

Fellow panellist Bo Jensen, Kelkoo’s country manager for Denmark, kept quiet, although he was nodding in agreement when Nalda said that the conversion rates from search and vertical search was ‘better than affiliates, display advertising or newsletters’.

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Random site you didn't need to know about

But hey...

Gerry Samuels of Mobile Travel Technologies, when talking about the Blackberry during his presentation, managed to waste at least 10 minutes of every delegate's time tonight or when they are back in the office, but pointing them in the direction of a quite bizarre site.

CelebrityBlackberrySightings.com!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Mobile push

So Gerry Samuels from Mobile Travel Technologies is on the main stage.

This is what happened in 2007:

• Launch of the iPhone
• Google Android
• Mobile Web Advertising
• Nokia bought Navtech

So what's up:

• Costs of access
• Multiple standards
• Limited payment systems

Convergence is the real issue here. People use computers and mobiles in very different ways.

Indeed, mobiles are not being used for search and bookings - rather, they are better for what Samuels calls "services", especially in-resort.

The other area is in promotions. Some work for the Malmaison hotel chain, where a print display ad had a SMS number for readers to send to download Malmaison availability and information, saw an impressive 10% conversion rate once people got to their computers.

But there is a change. People are beginning to make last-minute bookings via a mobile phone, facilitated in part by the rise of Google Mobile, which is the most popular website - inevitably - on the mobile internet.

So are you ready for Google Mobile to find you?

You can find out right now:

Go to Ready.mobi to see how well - or not - you rank on Google Mobile.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Five minutes of fame

In a nice touch, PhoCusWright offers five travel start-ups the chance to stand before the audience and explain their product.

This year's line-up at ITB includes the following:

TVTrip
Trivop.com
MyDays
HereOrThere.com [side project of Hugo Burge from Cheapflights]
MyDayTrip.com
PlanetEye

Check them out...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Quotoid #3

'Name any other industry in the world where you need a 25%
global market share in order to make a living.'

Jose Antonio Azon, president and CEO, Amadeus, on the economics of the travel technology sector.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Tazon (almost) answers The Opodo Question

We get a question in to Jose Antonio Tazon, president and chief executive of Amadeus:

Would Amadeus consider selling Opodo for the right price? Indeed, what is Opodo worth?

Whenever the future of OTAs comes up, so does this question...

Typically, Tazon answers it, but doesn't answer it.

We have been aprroached several times.

We tell them: 'Let us work a little bit more with it and then we'll talk about selling.'

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - The critical question

A question we ask via the conference electronic Q&A system of EasyJet's John Kohlsaat, a man with the longest job title in the company (he admits), "general manager, commerical Germany, Central Europe, Baltic and Denmark".

EasyJet's partnership with the GDSs for the corporate travel sector was a significant development last year. Will easyJet expand this partnership to create a GDS feed for leisure travel?

Not enough time...

Shame.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - We missed the boat on meta search

Tom Klein, again, makes a frank admission.

During the discussion, the Sabre man says the GDSs - and Sabre in particular - didn't see the meta search market for what it is worth back in the late-1990s.

And really should've got involved in setting them up themselves.

Wow! This is quite a startling thing to suggest...

Discuss!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB08: Dinosaurs2.0

Tom Klein is group president of Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Airline Solutions – giving him control of the GDS and its small but growing business supplying various systems to various airlines.

But how long will B2B be a separate silo? Klein said at one point that ‘GDSs need to get into Web2.0’. He said that one hotel was currently running a campaign on MySpace using Sabre’s B2B hotel marketing brand SynXis.

Similarly, the airline solutions team is working on tools to help airlines drive even more ancillary revenues on their brand dotcom by tapping into the fact that 'one traveller can have seven different buying behaviours'.

There is a service crisis in the US airline sector. [Only the US?] He said that Sabre needs ‘a different type of access’ from the airlines in order to help the airlines sort out service issues.

It has recently launched cubeless, a social network for corporate travellers which will integrated into GetThere and which American Express, the world’s largest business travel company – will use.

The morphing of B2B solutions into consumer tools is already happening, and vice versa. There will be more to come – Sabre isn’t the only travel technology company thinking along these lines.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Anyone remember Planet Sabre?

Tom Klein, group president for Sabre Travel Network/Sabre Airlines Solutions, puts his hands up and admits failure...

...over the company's ill-fated Planet Sabre project fromt the late-1990s, dubbed "the world’s first full-featured GUI travel booking tool" - a passenger or customer network of sorts.

Fellow panelist Edward Spiers from Anite tries to be nice and suggests "it was jsut ahead of its time".

Klein just shakes his head and says, no, we got it wrong.

We've found this old screen shot:

But can anyone remember it?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Tab sick

Audience question:

Will the current - and very traditional - menu options on homepages disappear over time?

Alan Josephs from Ebookers says: "I'm sick of the tabs!"

Well said, Sir.


This leads nicely to a brief discussion about the search process on an OTA.

It's static, formulaic - old hat, in fact.

Philip Wolf then introduces the intriguing Starwood search initiative: Four Points.

Worth a look.

The future of online travel search? A move in the right direction...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB: Five alive to challenges ahead

PhoCusWright@ITB's opening session saw five leading dotcoms put on the spot when asked about the challenges ahead.

Ebookers.com MD Alan Josephs and Opodo's CEO Ignacio Marcos both expressed concerns about technology. Josephs said that the challenge was getting the new innovations to market before rivals: Martos expressed concerns, for hotel supply at least, that supplier systems were still limiting the inventory available to the consumer.

Expedia and lastminute.com appear more confident in their own systems. Expedia Germany boss Jens-Uwe Parkitny talked about monetizing the traffic as a challenge (see other post). Ian McCaig talked about the challenge of maintaining a relationship with people who had been using the site for ten years at the same time as attracting new users in new segments.

The least famous of the five on the podium was Javier Pérez-Tenessa, founder and CEO of eDreams. This OTA might not have a great presence in the UK, yet, but London/US-based private equity firm TA Associates backed a £100m+ leveraged buy-out of the business in October 06.

Perez-Tenessa is also looking at the challenge of getting suppliers to pay for what is effectively ‘free branding on the site' (cf – media model post). But despite the challenges, Perez-Tenessa was quite optimistic, about his business and the sector. ‘Growth will be strong without doing much’.

Maybe for a business strong in markets with relatively low internet penetration; not so sure whether his four co-panellists think the same.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Media model issues

There is no doubt that last year's announcement about Expedia's media model deal with InterContinental is THE hot topic.

The opening session of the day sees PhoCusWright's Philip Wolf ask a panel of the great and the good of the OTA world - Alan Josephs (Ebookers), Ignacio Josephs (Opodo), Ian McCaig (Lastminute.com), Jens-Uwe Parkitny (Expedia Germany) and Javier Perez-Tenessa (EDreams) - about their challenges/opportunities.

Uwe-Parkitny, understandably, says the shift from a merchant-intermediary system to a media model is a big opportunity.

Expedia is going down this route because there is a lot of money online that can be grabbed.

And, of course, it allows an agency like Expedia to monetise the people that are simply using it as a search engine.

McCaig: the blended model strategically provides a different dynamic. You have to be careful, he adds, about how it affects the brand.

The other panelists:

Josephs: No, we do not support it at the moment. And sceptical.

Perez-Tenessa: You can generate other revenues from the site.

No time for an answer from Martos.

Shame...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Panel pic

On a panel yesterday about blogging.


More pictures from William Bakker.

And the official Bloggers' Summit Flickr Showreel.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

TRAVOLUTION AWARDS DEADLINE 'FAST' APPROACHING

Not long now before our annual awards on 24 April.

Even less time to get entries in!

There are many awards out there but none where you can get up close and personal with the likes of Brent Hoberman of lastminute.com fame, Peter Ward, WAYN, Graham Donoghue, TUI Travel, and many more in the same room.

There are 19 awards covering advertising, marketing, innovation, newcomer, tour operators and travel agents.

Worthy of a mention in their own right are the Smart Agent, Online Travel Brand and Travolution Achievement Award.

The deadline for entries is almost upon us so put your heads together and let us know the digital achievements you're most proud of from the past 12 months.

More information at www.travolutionawards.co.uk

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Quotoid #2

Ram Badrinathan of PhoCusWright, during a discussion on the relationship between travel PR and journalists:

PR is antithesis to life.

Ouch...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Trusting journalists. Or not.

So there are a few sessions today, ahead of the main event, about travel blogging.

Journalism vs blogging - the perennial debate hacks beat themselves up about at far too frequent opportunities.

A debate about whether bloggers and can be trusted more or less than journalists when it comes to travel content raises a good point.

Journos can be bought, goes one argument. Bloggers just spout what they feel about something.

In other words: it's all about objectivity.

The problem with this, if you believe it, is that bloggers are not read by the masses (generally speaking), but the mainstream media has a huge audience.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: blogger journalism

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Aborted landing

So this video below of a Lufthansa flight's terrifying attempt at landing in poor weather last weekend is doing the rounds.

But it turns out that this is not an isolated case. Gerry Samuels (Mobile Travel Technologies) and Ranjan Singh (Isango) were on an Air Berlin flight from London this morning, and the same thing happened again.

The pair do not seem unduly concerned. But then again they've probably just had to grapple with Berlin's S-Bahn network as well...



Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: aircraft bad weather lufthansa scary landing

PhoCusWright@ITB08: Getting the measure of a business

PhoCusWright CEO Philip Wolf introduced a new metric at the PhoCusWright Bloggers Summit in Berlin this morning - clout per headcount.

He pointed out that Sabre employs c5000 people; the combined kayak/sidestep operations have 52.

Soundbite aside, the point made is that these 5K people are a cost that the OTAs have to factor in any pricing to suppliers. Metasearch can provide suppliers with a more qualified lead from a lower cost base.

Perhaps.

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Quotoid #1

Love this.

Gerry Samuels, of Mobile Travel Technologies, on a gradual switch between believers and non-believers in the mobile world as far as travel is concerned:

We had the trough of disillusionment. Now it's the slope of enlightenment.

Our mobile article from December 2007 has more.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: mobile

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - We'll be there

Travolution will be in Berlin over the next few days, blogging live from PhoCusWright@ITB.

In a European first, PhoCusWright be hosting a Bloggers' Summit, where will be taking part in a few sessions and panels, etc.

Check back here for regular updates over the two days.

Last year's coverage here.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: phocuswright ITB Berlin Germany

Pocket Guide?

A report from the Bookseller says Dorling Kindersley has got together with Mobile Systems to enable its top 10 Eyewitness travel guides to be downloaded to mobile phones and other handheld devices.

The first 10 guides include London, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and Barcelona and users go to www.mobisystems.com to purchase the information.

The guides will be available on a number of mobile platforms, initially Symbian S60, with others including Windows Mobile, Smartphone and Blackberry, to follow.

Watch this space for more on how much it will cost and whether you can choose what you download.

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Travel Blogger Award

The deadline for entries for the Travolution Awards 2008 is Friday 7 March - in other words: this Friday.

It is worth reminding bloggers that we are honouring the best UK consumer travel blogger for the first time.

We have had some very good entries in already but I want to show our judging panel what a bright and valuable bunch you all are.

For more information visit the Travolution Awards website - and ENTER!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

A message from Finland

Okay, to kickstart the global spirit the PhoCusWright Bloggers' Summit is aiming for at ITB this week, we have a guest post from Finland:

It would be easy to imagine that the Finnish tourism industry would be one of the forerunners in the internet and rest of the online world. Yes, it would indeed!

Let me tell you a secret: we Finns are at least three years behind most of Europe and about a decade behind the continent behind the big water.

But in my post I am introducing you to two of the best Finnish, cutting edge travel websites.

Last December the tech and travel community here in Finland went bananas. We read in your Guardian newspaper that the Finnish Dopprl could even be the next Facebook!

Our Dopprl in your Guardian!

But, wait a second, the article said nothing about Finland...

Didn't they realise that it is of Finnish origin? One of its masterminds, Marko, is the son of our former president Martti Ahtisaari, and our own Taneli Tikka is nowadays the biggest boss in the company!

For those who don't know, this wonderful site is for frequent business travellers. Here in Finland it seems to be on everybody's lips and even Travolution has talked about it a fair bit.

The other site I thought to introduce I am quite sure you have not heard of before. The name of the service is Vailoma.

Remember, it's me you heard about it first. These guys are really going for it. This means they are either heading for big success or terrible loss.

The site is packed with interesting features, which are mainly copied from other websites from other industries like the Amazon-style recommendation, but who cares if their site works and makes people happy?

I personally like especially their destination widget that brings their website to other websites.

The site is currently in beta version, but if you want an invitation to Vailoma please contact me. I would definitely recommend you to check it out!

And that is all from Finland this time. I will continue with Northern Exposures if Kevin allows me to!

Ilkka Kauppinen

Ilkka Kauppinen is one of the leading Finnish internet marketing professionals and scholars in tourism. His blog, which discusses internet marketing in tourism, is one the biggest Finnish online travel blogs. It is, after all, also the only one.