Travolution Blog

+++FINAL POST on the BLOGGER TRAVOLUTION BLOG+++

2008-10-23T15:23:00.001+01:00

This is the FINAL official post on the Blogger version of the Travolution Blog.

The Travolution Blog can now be found at the main Travolution website, which re-launched on Thursday 17 October 2008.

The blog is here - http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/

Please use this new feed for your RSS readers - http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/rss.xml

We are not deleting previous content.

+++PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE ABOVE+++

See you at the new Travolution Blog

Switch your Readers - new blog somewhere else now

2008-10-20T12:16:00.000+01:00

Just a few more days until we turn off the Blogger version.

The Travolution Blog can now be found at the main Travolution website, which we re-launched last week.

The blog is here - http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/

Please use this new feed for your RSS readers - http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/rss.xml

We will publish this message every day for a week, giving you all time to re-connect with us over there.

Cheers!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Warning: Time is running out, switch your bookmarks

2008-10-18T10:15:00.000+01:00

Reminder: Switch your feeds

2008-10-17T10:56:00.000+01:00

The Travolution Blog can now be found at the main Travolution website, which we re-launched today.

The blog is here - http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/

Please use this new feed for your RSS readers - http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/rss.xml

We will publish this message every day for a week, giving you all time to re-connect with us over there.

IMPORTANT - Please re-direct to the new Travolution Blog

2008-10-16T15:01:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

The Travolution Blog can now be found at the main Travolution website, which we re-launched today.

The blog is here - http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/

Please use this new feed for your RSS readers - http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/rss.xml

We will publish this message every day for a week, giving you all time to re-connect with us over there.

Thanks to Blogger for hosting us for three years. Hello Movable Type...

Cheers!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Readers - An apology

2008-10-08T09:50:00.000+01:00

Just in case you're missing us recently, we're in the process on some major changes with the Travolution and the main Travolution website.

This will all be unveiled shortly.

Thanks for your patience. Normal service will be resumed, don't worry (but not here).

Full details on new site and feeds will be published here soon.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Yahoo to get up close and personal

2008-10-01T21:05:00.000+01:00

Some good blog fodder from today's Yahoo 2009 preview with developments centred on relevancy, open internet and social media.

What does it mean? The search giant is taking those cornerstones and applying them across its new homepage, search, mobile and mail.

The result is consumers being able to aggregate search, mail, social networking sites and anything else targeted and relevant to them in one place.

The new homepage (currently in beta) enables users to plug in applications such as eBay and flickr from a library. Search developments include much richer, relevant results as well as anticipating what consumers are trying to find. The search service is also being opened up so developers and other companies can use it within their sites. And mobile developments include quicker access from the phone's menu and providing users with relevant answers and valuable information.

The thinking behind the developments is the consumer quest for 'return on attention' - a higher return on the time we invest - here's wikipedia says.

Yahoo research shows 68% of us feel it is getting more difficult to to balance life and work, 89% of us have information fatigue syndrome and 63% are worried that if we switch off we will miss something.

So, according to Yahoo Europe marketing man Kristof Fahy the search giant has to continue to do the basics really well and think about new areas such as personalisation, relevance, being open...

The developments look slick so watch this space as releases are slated for end of the year/early next year.

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Whole Travel - nice site, cool tools, wrong time?

2008-10-01T08:29:00.006+01:00

An interesting new site launched in the US this week.

Whole Travel is primarily a travel portal for the eco-concious amongst us but has some very good Uptake-esque search functionality allowing users to browse for products based on emotive keywords.

Some very good pieces of functionality and Ajax-driven tools, as well as decent look and feel, too.

But as comments on TechCrunch ask whether a travel site like this will fall foul of the economic situation, where consumers become less concerned about the environment and focus on price.
So we asked Whole Travel for a response:

1) Whole Travel contains not only luxury resorts, but also $10.00 camping sites. It has a wide variety of experiences

2) 42% of online travelers identify themselves with green and said that it's a major factor in their decision making

3) It's a niche area that is usually not as affected by price

4) Economic situation affects everyone on some level, but this particular niche will most likely not be as affected as most beause of their desire to find travel experiences.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution meets Greg Dyke

2008-09-30T14:29:00.004+01:00

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

2008-09-26T14:16:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-26T12:38:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-26T11:47:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-25T09:55:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-22T08:54:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-19T12:17:00.002+01:00

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

2008-09-18T22:02:00.001+01:00

"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

2008-09-18T17:40:00.000+01:00

Murphy's Airport Parking from Holiday Extras on Vimeo.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

StreetView on Mobile - Imagine the opportunities for travel

2008-09-17T20:14:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-17T19:57:00.000+01:00

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?

2008-09-17T13:00:00.002+01:00

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

2008-09-16T21:13:00.000+01:00

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...

2008-09-15T12:36:00.001+01:00

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.

 src="http://www.onvos.com/web/exposure4-productions/view.php?movie=7889" FRAMEBORDER="0" SCROLLING="auto" WIDTH="778" HEIGHT="400"> In these challenging times - Every Little Helps! Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

XL: Creative thinking from Co-Op Travel

2008-09-15T11:02:00.002+01:00

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

2008-09-12T14:02:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-12T13:40:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-12T13:31:00.002+01:00

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?

2008-09-12T10:42:00.006+01:00

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

2008-09-12T07:39:00.008+01:00

[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

2008-09-11T14:07:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-10T10:31:00.005+01:00

[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!

2008-09-09T14:43:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-08T08:44:00.003+01:00

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

2008-09-05T10:56:00.001+01:00

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!

2008-09-03T09:21:00.001+01:00

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?

2008-09-02T12:11:00.004+01:00

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

2008-09-01T11:44:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-01T08:38:00.000+01:00

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

Goodbye Zoom, hello BA

2008-08-29T13:02:00.000+01:00

Hitwise were quick of fthe mark this morning, sending out data to hacks which shows the main beneficiaries of Zoom's collapse, in terms of web traffic.

Following the announcement yesterday, Flyzoom.com became the eighth most visited airline website in the UK for a short while - ironically, the first time it had reached such lofty heights in its history.

Meanwhile, Hitwise data shows that British Airways has been the number one site passengers and other curious visitors have gone to after reading the messages on the Zoom homepage.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Question Time - Meet your panel #2 - Mr Cooke

2008-08-29T10:59:00.000+01:00

With a month to go until the latest Travolution Question Time on the 23 September, brought to you in association with Fortune Cookie, it's time to introduce another member of the panel in more detail.

So, similar to Mr Tanzer, appearing at a Travolution event for the first time is Justin Cooke, managing director of leading digital agency and sponsor of the event, Fortune Cookie.

So here is the official biography:

Justin graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in Computers in Theatre.

His first job was at BBC Films, which led to a role as a creative director for Rondor Music (part of Universal Music).

Justin joined the travel division of Miller Freeman (part of United News & Media) in 1995 and developed its first online strategy.

Justin founded Fortune Cookie in 1997 with the aim of making it one of the most respected interactive design agencies in the world.

Management Today once called Justin the ‘Internet in Human Form’ - something that he is both extremely embarrassed about and secretly proud of.

He is an Executive Member of the British Interactive Media Association.

And some unofficial stuff from us:

London-based Fortune Cookie has grown massively in recent years and become a significant player in web design for the travel industry.

Its work with Kuoni has been praised for transforming the operator's online presence and the agency won a Travolution Award in 2007 for its work with Kuoni-brand Voyages Jules Verne.

It also won a Travolution Award this year for design work on Small Luxury Hotels on the World. The agency's work in the field of accessibility is also widely regarded as industry leading.

Tickets and more information.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Another day, another gloomy airline homepage

2008-08-29T10:00:00.000+01:00

The end in May of the niche business class airline SilverJet was a hot topic for weeks in the trade press.

The gushing coverage it received (including, we hasten to add, a Travolution Award for its website in 2007) during its two years in the skies seemed to many, on reflection, rather over the top in the end.

Anyway, pretty much out of nowhere yesterday came the collapse of Zoom Airlines, the transatlantic budget carrier with routes out of Glasgow, Gatwick, Belfast, Cardiff and Manchester.

How do airlines deal with this from a web perspective?

SilverJet posted a letter from its chief exec on its homepage, thanking cusotmers and staff, outlining how it hoped to get the airline up and running again with new investment, but very few details as to what stranded passengers should do.

Zoom has tried as best as it can to direct passengers to alternative airlines or routes, with links to relevant sites.

So despite Zoom apparently being a budget airline, it is still trying to offer some kind of customer service - even in the face of financial collapse.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: zoom canada

Best Western and The Sunday Herald - train wreck waiting to happen

2008-08-28T14:19:00.001+01:00

A press release from Best Western yesterday about a new online assistance tool did nothing to take the industry's attention away from an almighty row between it and the Sunday Herald, one of Scotland's national newspapers.

This tale has got legal action written all over it, so we'll just point to the relevant publicly available information - which may well get pulled at some stage.

* The Sunday Herald publishes a story about the "World's Biggest Cyber Heist" involving Best Western and the theft of eight million customer identities.

* Best Western slams the story with a strongly worded statement.

* Story on ITWire attempts to support the original article.

* Best Western places large message on its homepage, once again, disputing the story.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: best western sunday herald

Skyscanner tries one method of pushing search results into Facebook

2008-08-27T17:00:00.000+01:00

Came across a quirky feature on the new Skyscanner site this morning when, inevitably, we were looking at Ryanair fares on other websites.

Underneath the search results there is a small Facebook logo titled "Brag about this flight on Facebook".

Click on the logo and, if you are logged into the ominpresent social network, a new window appears in Facebook with a message already set up, allowing members to add the results onto their profile page or send as a direct message to friends.

Nice idea and probably being done elsewhere. It was the subtlety of it, ironically, which got it noticed in our case.

Facebook better watch out though. It doesn't want to be added to The List.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Predictive search on Google is here

2008-08-27T14:56:00.001+01:00

Not ready for the UK just yet (our Google guy tells us), but the predictive search function which has been knocking about for a few years under the title of Google Suggest is finally up and running on Google.com.

In simple terms, as a user enters a series of keywords into the main search box, suggestions and the number of results are included underneath.

NB: Google toolbar has had the feature for a while, minus the result count.

Analysis and more on SearchEngineLand.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

British Airways London-New York social network

2008-08-27T11:37:00.003+01:00

British Airways is talking up its first foray into user generated content on the E-Consultancy website site.

The Metrotwin.com project sounds intriguing and could be a huge success if - as always - the volume of participants is a healthy number.

There is an interesting interview with Chris Davies, digital marketing manager at BA.com, about the site - a network where visitors to London and New York can compare attractions, etc.

The site itself launches shortly, but visitors can sign up to an alert to be notified when it launches. There is also the inevitable Metrotwin Twitter page.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Full list of Ryanair 'scrapers'

2008-08-26T20:49:00.016+01:00

Fantastic and intriguing letter from Ryanair to the European Commission has just been published on the Ryanair website.

Not only does it outline in detail the carrier's concerns over third party sites but also gives a complete list of sites which have been on the receiving end of a cease and desist letter from Ryanair.

[Our story from today]

It's very confusing (cheapflights is included, for example, but is clearly a media site although it is potentially picking up Ryanair flights through its advertisers) but is basically a who's who of the online travel industry in Europe.

The reason you will not see any Expedia-owned sites is - we suspect - because of the deal Ryanair currently has the online travel agency.

The companies without domain extensions are travel technology companies, such as Dolphin Dynamics.

It's long, but worth reproducing.

So here goes:

Cheapflights.co.uk
Edreams.es
Govoyages.fr
Opodo.com
Rumbo.com
Booking.com
Activehotels.com
Priceline.com
Lastminute.com
Travelocity.com
Onlinetravel.com
Rejsefeber.com
Ebookers.com
Octopustravel.com
Thomson.co.uk
Thomsonfly.com
Tui.com
Tuifly.com
Volagratis.it
Uk.travel.yahoo.com
Edreams.com
Edreams.co.uk
Edreams.fr
Edreams.it
Discounttravel.de
Edreams.de
Opodo.de
Opodo.fr
Opodo.it
Opodo.es
Opodo.ie
Opodo.be
Rumbo.es
Priceline.co.uk
Lastminute.it
Lastminute.es
Onlinetravel.de
Onlinetravel.co.uk
Ebookers.co.uk
Ebookers.de
Ebookers.fr
Ebookers.it
Ebookers.es
Ebookers.se
Ebookers.ie
Tui.it
Thomsonfly.es
Volagratis.co.uk
Volagratis.com
Volagratis.de
Volagratis.fr
Volagratis.es
Yahoo.co.uk
Yahoo.de
Yahoo.fr
Yahoo.it
Yahoo.es
Yahoo.dk
Yahoo.no
Yahoo.fi
Yahoo.ie
Yahoo.be
Bravofly.co.uk
Bravofly.de
Bravofly.es
Bravofly.fr
Bravofly.com
Rumbo.pt
Urlaub24.com
Sparfluege.de
Jetcenter.be
Ebookers.at
Opodo.co.uk
Thomsoncities.co.uk
Tescotravelstore.com
Viaggiare.it
Ebookers.ch
Flugreisen.de
Fly.de
Vivacances.fr
Wegolo.com
Travelpaths.com
Holidayhypermarket.co.uk
Logittravel.com
Megaflieger.de
Billig-flieger-vergleich.de
Lowfares.it
Flight.de
Flight.co.uk
Flights.de
Flights-low-cost.com
Mundiespana.com
Mondial.at
Skyscanner.net
Kelkoo.se
Billigflieger.de
Cheapfares.de
Azfly.it
Holidaybookings-direct.co.uk
Fleetwaytravel.co.uk
Flugbuchung.de
Latebreaks.com
Mediatravel.co.uk
Lowcostbeds.com
Crestaholidays.co.uk
Olympia.it
Holidaydiscountcentre.co.uk
Solfaktor.com
Haystravel.co.uk
Jetlinetravel.com
Vliegwinkel.nl
Uktravelshop.co.uk
Globetravel.co.uk
Sun4udirect.com
Dolphin Dynamics
Travelfusion.com
Dohop.com
Europebyair.com
Mobissimo.com
Sidestep.com
Lateflights.co.uk
Lessno.com
Lowfares.com
Esky.pl
Bilety.rezerwuj.org
Travelnow.pl
Bewings.com
Probiz.pl
Lotnicze-bilety.pl
Pasazer.com
Skybargains.co.uk
Avigo.de
Volabasso.it
Kayak.com
Kayak.es
Jetnav.co.uk
Flightcentre.co.uk
Cheapestflights.co.uk
Linielotnicze.org
Flightdeals.co.uk
Travelsupermarket.com
Lowcostport.pl
Avio.lv
Traveljungle.co.uk
Airfaresbasement.com
Lowcostholes.com
Jumblefly.com
Betterdealtravel.com
Weekrent.com
Traveleurope.com
Pinpointtravel.com
Phillips-travel.de
Greatlatedeals.co.uk
Portmantravel.com
Travelagent.ie
Ticket.no
Flybilligst.com
Billig-flieger.de
Reisen.ch
Easypilot.net
Reisen-experten.de
Start.de
Airlinetickets.de
Billigweg.de
Airline-direct.de
Meilleures-offres-bols.com
Sprice.com
Billiger-fliegen.com
Gohop.ie
Quick-flight.com
Barrheadtravel.co.uk
Flightsdirect.com
Flightline.co.uk
Travelrepublic.co.uk
Flight.pl
Cheaptickets.de
Travel-betterdeals.com
Taguseeasy.pt
Telme.com
Vliegtarieven.nl
Netviagens.sapo.pt
1aflight.com
Dejongintra.nl
Elmarreizen.nl
Goedkope-vlucht.com
Besttickets.nl
Airfare.nl
Budgetair.com
Atrapalo.com
Reise.de
Sudtours.nl
Vliegensvlug.be
Vligticketszoeken.nl
Vliegtuigtickets.com
Arrowtours.ch
Auf-und-davon.de
Discount-flug.de
Flyandfly.de
Flyandflygay.de
Globetrotter.ch
Guenstige-linienfluuge.ch
Helvetictours.ch
Jetreisen.ch
Mymalta.co.uk
Myberlin.co.uk
Citybreak.uk.com
Nur-flug-tours.de
Spartours.de
Specialflights24.de
Airport-travelnet.de
Andano.de
Fareliners.com
Flug4.de
Gabelflugprimus.de
Flugprimus.de
King-of-travel.de
Mcflight.de
Tbooker.com
Travelport.de
E-ibiza.de
Hugenloh.de
High-fly.de
Lmx-touristik.de
Netticket.de
Ticketman.de
Titanic.de
Travelinside.de
Traveltopia.de
Yakee.de
Hitchhiker.com
Galileo
Flight4all
Uniglobe
ClickWithTechnology
Easyair
Lastminutetour
Europelowcost.com
Volilowcost.it
Momondo.com
Onetravel.com
Completetravel.co.uk
Otbeach.com
Urlaubstours.de
Cheaptickets.nl
Directline-flights.co.uk
Hot4holidays.co.uk
Lowcostairlines.nl
Tenerifevip.com
Mca-hotels.com
Tenerife-lowcostflights.com
Low-cost-mallorca.com
Viajar.com
Moneysavingexpert.com
Bestflights.com.au
Directhit.nl
E-travel.ie
Farecompare.com
Govolo.com
Illicotravel.com
Routehunter.com
Skylow.com
Ulises.com
Voyageons.com
Terminal33.com
Flugauchung.com
Neckermann.de
Reiselinie.de
Travel24.com
Booking.isik.de
Fernweh-reisecenter.de
Tuerkeitravel.de
Ferienlive.de
Citysam.de
Travelscout24.de
Maketravel.de
Icc24.com
Swoodoo.de
1st-travelnet.de
Unterkunft.de
Abm.fr
Crystaltravel.co.uk
Packyourbags.com
Vladivostokavia.ru
Fru.pl
Htravel.pl
Easyvols.fr
Skyforfly.net
Travelovo.pl
Eprzeloty.pl
Cheapflightseats.com
Citalia.com
Citalia.ie
Marsans.es
Sunshine.co.uk
Pureholidays.com
Lilligo.com
Amadeus.net
Escape2poland.co.uk
Funfly.pl
Watsonholidays.co.uk
Yourholidays.com
Travelchannel.de
Last-minute.de
Travelnova.de
Thomascook.de
Lineforyou.pl
Onholidaygroup.com
A1travel.com
Terminala.com
Muinbilligflug.de
Ferien.de
Ferien.info

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Hat-tip: Musings

Last word on the PR debate

2008-08-26T15:51:00.001+01:00

...but probably not.

Following our recent foray into PR Week territory, such as Neil MacLean's guest post last week and Friday's classic example of badly thought out pitches, here is an interesting survey conducted by digital marketing agency BigMouthMedia into the enthusiasm - or lack of - by PR agencies for digital and social media services.

The main finding in the survey is that 79% of UK PR agencies have "yet to develop a set of online and social media services".

Some might argue that if agencies are not set up internally to deal with new media, there is a high likelihood that they will not be able or willing to do the same for their clients.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Question Time - Meet your panel #1 - Mr Tanzer

2008-08-26T13:11:00.003+01:00

With a month to go until the latest Travolution Question Time on the 23 September, brought to you in association with Fortune Cookie, it's time to introduce the panel in a little bit more detail.

Appearing at a Travolution event for the first time is Mark Tanzer, chief executive of industry body Abta.

So here is the official biography:

Mark took over as chief executive of Abta on 1 September 2005. His background is in the private sector, where he has held senior positions in strategy and corporate finance in a number of industry sectors.

Immediately prior to joining Abta, Mark was group strategy director of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas.

Before that he was strategy director of the Automobile Association, which was acquired by Centrica in 2000.

While with Centrica, Mark spent 18 months on secondment to the Home Office as senior director of the Immigration & Nationality Directorate, where he was responsible for a wide-ranging programme of change and reform.

Mark is 47 years old and lives in Kent. His interests include sport and opera.

The unofficial biography would go something like this:

Abta was always synonymous with the world of travel agents (it's former title was the Association of British Travel Agents), but with the distribution of travel products shifting online, the organisation has been forced to evaluate where it figures in the minds of consumers and the industry alike.

Tanzer arrived with a fantastic pedigree but he has needed all his experience and management skills to instigate a programme of huge change - from the top-down.

[This is how he saw his first year in charge]

The industry has warmed to some of Abta's changes, such as the merger with the Federation of Tour Operators, but there is still a reasonable amount of scepticism as to its role in the future.

You will need to be at our Question Time to get answers to some of these questions. He isn't appearing in this unique and intimate type of event at any other point this year.

Tickets and more information.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

More Trip RIPs - TripHub

2008-08-25T21:10:00.000+01:00

After the demise of TripUp in March this year, another Trip-titled travel site has gone to 'travel 2.0' heaven.

TripHub, a US group-travel booking site backed by an Expedia exec, closed its doors this weekend, blaming the "current economic environment and state of the travel industry".

One wonders how many of the other Trip sites will be here in 12 months time?

I suspect Tripadvisor is safe...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The mere mention of Ryanair gets people hot under the collar

2008-08-24T10:38:00.001+01:00

"Ryanair 'created panic' by cancelling third-party web bookings", says an article in the Telegraph.

Er, that was half the point.

A follow-up, of sorts, to the ongoing Ryanair saga, which contains nothing new apart from a collection of quotes from Flybe and the Air Transport Users Council.

Our take on the situation is here.

However, there is an incredible section in the above story.

Holidaymakers also complained that Ryanair’s announcement created panic among those who had booked their flights through a website singled out by the airline.

Ashleigh Brettwood from Seaham, Co Durham, booked two seats on a Ryanair flight to Girona via www.otbeach.com. Having seen a television report that mentioned otbeach.com, she assumed her booking would be cancelled and rebooked two seats on the same flight through Ryanair. She paid £208 — £63 more than the cost of the original tickets. She subsequently discovered that her original booking with otbeach.com was still valid.

“My boyfriend and I wanted to go on a budget break, but we’ve ended up spending a fortune,” said Miss Brettwood. “I’ve tried to contact Ryanair ever since, but the line is constantly engaged.

“It’s disgraceful that people who have booked their flight months ago are now being forced to rebook, and probably pay more. I expect some people have had to cancel their holiday altogether,” she said.

Now, there really is the only one question that needs answering:

Why didn't you contact On The Beach before booking more tickets through Ryanair?!!?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Tips for pitching in stories - frustrating exchange

2008-08-22T15:22:00.004+01:00

Fabulous post on Techcrunch UK written by Mike Butcher (disclosure of sorts: he was deputy editor of Media Week when I worked there) about the best methods to use when pitching in stories.

He outlines 15 ways to get him, as editor of Techcrunch UK, to feature Startup A or Startup B.

The tips range from being a "great contact" and being a friendly blogger to understanding when a story is actually a story and making the top people available for comment.

So much of this resonates with Travolution. Our guest blogger post the other day certainly stirred things up.

But this particular one made me laugh:

11. Understand who you are talking to:

I often get PR pitches from PR people and startups trying to sell me stories which have nothing to do with TechCrunch.

“So I have this great story about a wireless transmitter that can detect submarines from 300 miles!” “Er, yeah, but you know we don’t write about those on TechCrunch, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s a GREAT STORY!”. If you spent even 5 minutes reading TechCrunch you’d know this, but you’d be amazed how many people don’t. I hear from them. Every. Day.

Here is the rough outline of an exchange I had with someone on the phone yesterday:

Caller I've never spoken to before: 'Hi, how's tricks, did you get the press release I sent yesterday about a new tour operator in the North Indian region?' Over-familiarity is never a good start.

Me: 'Yes, I did thanks.'

Caller: 'Well, is it something Travolution will write about? I've been reading Travolution for a while now and think it is a great story for you. They are going to some amaaaaaazing and untouched parts of the region.'

Me: 'Right. As you well know, Travolution writes about the online travel sector and the machinations behind the scenes of companies using the web as a distribution channel, their business strategy and overall trends on the internet. We do not write about destinations.'

Caller: 'Okay. Well, just let me know if you need anything as they are in some amaaaaazing places and that part of India is incredible - the Himalayas are amaaaaaazing and we think it's going to be the HOT destination of 2009.'

Me: 'Yes, I'm sure it is - goodbye.'

Enough said...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Is this really the end of the Google saga?

2008-08-22T14:10:00.000+01:00

With a number of companies dropping out of the fight, some might suggest Google has got off lightly given that so many were hacked off with the search giant for its controversial

But will this be the end of the issue?

Following our story this morning, it appears some are determined to push the issue. Just a shame they won't go public with their ire...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

A quick note about leaving product promotions in comments

2008-08-21T14:33:00.000+01:00

We are finding increasingly that some visitors are using the comments section of posts to plug their products.

Travolution is always happy to hear about launches, etc, but please get in touch via email - the link is also on the right-hand side of the blog in the Related Links section.

We have a zero-tolerance policy regarding comments - if it isn't related to the post, then it gets deleted.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Tripadvisor launches officially in India, quietly in Japan

2008-08-21T06:00:00.006+01:00

As we revealed in May, Tripadvisor is setting its sights on the Far East and the Indian subcontinent.

A few months earlier than expected, but the world's biggest hotel review site has unveiled its Indian site today, tripadvisor.in.

A good move for the Expedia-owned site, of course, although one wonders why India was chosen first rather than China, given the enormous attention the 2008 Olympic host is currently getting.

Anyway, Tripadvisor.cn still blank.

But check out the flags at the bottom of a number of the Tripadvisor country site homepages and you'll notice that Tripadvisor Japan is also up and running in Beta.

Global domination beckons...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: tripadvisor expedia india china beijing olympic games 2008

New Skyscanner site in Beta

2008-08-20T15:29:00.001+01:00

Check it out the new Skyscanner website. Explanation of features.

Results page:

Route map:

Busy week in meta search land.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: skyscanner

Challenges for Mr Kayak Europe?

2008-08-19T11:44:00.000+01:00

Kayak has moved today to appoint its first European and Asian managing director, namely Faisal Galaria, a seasoned global exec from Skype, FON and most recently jaman.com.

It's a critical position for Kayak, let's no beat around the bush here.

After receiving plenty of plaudits for its user interface and Ajax-heavy gadgets - a Travolution Award in 2008, in particular - it is now time to start delivering on the huge expectation.

So what will be the key goals for Galaria in his first 12 months?

Will the current strategy of white labelling and plenty of online marketing be enough to push Kayak beyond the gushing praise of many in the industry to become a major player?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: kayak sidestep meta search travelsupermarket

Google without the Google bits

2008-08-18T14:53:00.000+01:00

Many searches on Google these days aggregate Google-related results, such as Youtube videos, Knol data and Blogger content - sites, which by amazing coincidence, have a high page rank.

Step forward Google Minus Google, a site which strips out the Google stuff and presents apparently pure internet search results.

But as one commenter on John Battelle's blog (hat-tip, ta), says:

I see that this site still contains ads by google!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The problem at the heart of travel PR

2008-08-18T09:22:00.001+01:00

Fantastic guest post from Neil MacLean, author of the Travel PR Blog:

The marketing blogosphere is navel-gazing again, this time about the current state of PR.

No surprise there then. Every few months somebody declares PR dead and a bevy of PR’s write about how the world would go to hell in a hand basket without them.

Eventually the whole thing settles down until yet another A list blogger gets hit by a hundred irrelevant pitches.

It makes me wonder though about the state of the travel PR business, particularly in the UK where I personally lobbed press releases into waste bins for the best part of 20 years.

Is the UK travel PR business dead?

Not totally. It just smells like it.

The problem is the business still swivels on traditional media relations.

Scan the PR’s own pitches and you’ll find all the emphasis on cosy relations with journalists and the "ability to control press coverage on our clients' behalf".

It doesn’t take a PhD in fragmented media to know that model is about as up to the minute as Mr D’Arcy’s breeches.

Sure, some travel PR’s make noises about new media and getting down with Facebook, but many still gaze at email with the wonder of war-time kids setting sight on a banana.

They’ll protest - ok, I’ll protest for them - that they have had great success getting, I don’t know, three regional hacks out to Barbados to cover the Deck Chair festival.

But travel companies increasingly find those sums don’t add up anymore. It’s just not worth it.

I know a travel company which scored a four page spread in a Sunday broadsheet and only received one call about the trip next day.

Besides, traditional press coverage is like a sugar rush. The returns are short-lived and you have to keep on doing it over again.

PR needs to be more closely tied with results. It must be seen to generate measurable revenue for the client. It needs better strategies to generate long-term benefit.

For that it needs to speak directly to the public as well as hacks, build relationships with customers, treat Google as vital media, drive search traffic, communicate the benefits of the product to anyone with a broadcast voice, official or not. In short it needs to go where the market is and go online.

Here are some of the skills a modern PR agency needs - online copywriting, web monitoring, SEO, search marketing, basic web dev, multimedia content creation, web analytics.

The alternative? Marketing money will continue to shift to the people who already pitch this stuff and therefore can provide truly measurable results: the search marketing companies and digital agencies.

And then what will be left for the poor travel PR’s? A few quid for organising cocktail parties at WTM.

PR in this country needs a travolution (that’s not trademarked or anything is it?). [That's enough "'lutions" - Ed]

Neil MacLean, Travel PR Blog

[Neil MacLean writes the Travel PR Blog and provides online media services. A former journalist, he wrote travel features for the Sunday Times, edited the Daily Mail travel section and was launch producer of Expedia in the UK]

Read about Travolution's new press release policy.

Technorati tags: marketing PR future of PR

Who is doing the slapping here - Ryanair or the industry?

2008-08-15T13:55:00.002+01:00

Today's revelation that Ryanair has already cancelled the tickets of around 2,500 people since it implemented its controversial no-screen scraped tickets shouldn't be a huge surprise.

The airline is fiercely stubborn when it comes to marketing and distribution - an approach which clearly comes from the top of the company.

And it has done well out of it so far, let's face it.

Our source for the story told us that all the ticket cancellations so far had been carried out online - in other words, no passengers had turned up at the check-in desk and been turned away.

This is quite a feat.

But given that 400-500 customers every single day this week have been on the receiving end of a cancelled ticket by Ryanair - or at least the intermediary has - it seems strange that some of the UK's tabloid press have not run 'Outraged of Essex'-style stories this week.

This leads us to believe that the cancellations have carried out strategically, to minimise any groundswell of negative consumer opinion.

Our mole with the harp in Dublin asked us if we had received any calls as yet. We have not.

Anyway, Musings made a good point about Ryanair yesterday. The airline is protecting itself - it's a natural reaction in some respects, especially in troubled times for the air industry.

Ironically, the travel trade has reacted like there is a huge injustice here - even Abta has waded in.

But one wonders that if this issue had been brought up by any other supplier than Ryanair, which is often the industry's favourite whipping boy, primarily because it does things single-mindedly and without the need for the trade, then the reaction would be any different?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair

Tripadvisor and Kayak may read the same books

2008-08-14T21:39:00.000+01:00

What a remarkable coincidence.

Press release from Tripadvisor today, about the Top 10 Literary Destinations around the world.

Post on the Kayak blog today, about the Top 5 Literary Destinations around the world.

Well fancy that...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The affiliate channel is growing up

2008-08-13T13:00:00.001+01:00

Guest blogger post from Tom Morgan of AffiliateFuture:

So the credit crunch continues, and most analysts agree we’ll be lucky to turn the corner to recovery a year from now. As staycations replace vacations, fuel surcharges evoke a state of panic for the public at large and airlines go bust, it seems the odds are stacked against us all.

But for those with a survival mentality now is the time to take tighter control of the marketing budget and find a way to make it work with minimal financial exposure.

Few in the travel sector running online promotions are not familiar with affiliate marketing, in fact the sector has made affiliate marketing its own while other verticals look to travel for strategic counsel.

Despite all the negatives, a recession actually bodes well for affiliate marketing; since spend is directly proportional to revenue it shouldn't be affected by a reduction in the marketing budget.

The additional good news is that any drop in overall consumer spend will be more than offset by online's increasing share of total spend, a conclusion substantiated by IMRG’s recent research.

We’re working with our travel advertisers to help them drive more sales through the affiliate channel because it's cost effective and accountable.

Search solutions enable providers of package holidays, dynamic deals and individual holiday services to return up to date deals to consumers in response to their specific searches, a service that is growing in popularity as people determined to take a break seek out the deal most suited to their requirements and budgets.

And for their part our travel merchants are adopting a ‘high exposure, low risk’ strategy by upping the ante with new incentives for affiliates and higher than average commissions.

In short they’re replicating the pattern of behaviour of direct response channels in previous recessions. Take the last downturn as an example when total advertising spend dropped by 2% DM grew by10%, demonstrating the importance of accountability and cost effectiveness in challenging times.

Which is why in the coming year I expect to see the spotlight being turned on affiliate marketing as greater responsibility is placed on the channel.

There will be an increased focus on efficiency, quality of sales and delivering incremental revenue as every penny needs to be justified.

The networks and affiliates who can deliver value under this scrutiny are set for a bumper time.

Tom Morgan, managing director, AffiliateFuture

The steady rise of thomascook.com

2008-08-13T07:43:00.001+01:00

The Thomas Cook Group PLC interim management statement for the period since 30 April 2008, issued this morning, sheds further light on the growing popularity of thomascook.com.

We continue to see rapid growth in our two largest e-commerce businesses with a significant increase in bookings on the web. Northern Europe leads the way, with 48% of total bookings year to date made on the web and 53% in June.

In the UK, 26% of bookings for summer 08 have been online and early signs for Winter 08/09 and Summer 09 are encouraging, with total tour operator bookings to date through our main website, thomasCook.com, up year-on-year by 89% and 113% respectively.

These growth figures are impressive and indicate - if evidence were ever needed - that consumers are turning online in the mainstream holiday market even with a brand which still places - it says - a lot on its High Street retail presence.

Indeed, Thomas Cook is starting to mirror the same the thrust into the online channel shown by Thomson (TUI Travel) 18 months ago.

The obvious question is where will the momentum end? Or is it, in fact, really just beginning for Thomas Cook and its online aspirations?

The decision to make thomascook.com the primary portal for customers, many believe, is a wise one and explains last week's moves to close the websites of Manos, Panorama, Escapades and Aspro.

What will be interesting, of course, will be the impact of the new thomascook.com website, rolled out in bits and pieces over the past few months, but almost universally agreed by industry watchers as a strong contender for one of the better mass market tour operator sites in the UK.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: thomas cook thomson

Who will blink first?

2008-08-12T14:56:00.001+01:00

Kayak

or

American Airlines

??

Someone will have to.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Scrapers and slappers!

2008-08-12T12:43:00.000+01:00

A provocative headline for you. And not just to get your attention

Francesca Ecsery, UK managing director of Cheapflights, came up with what could the phrase of the year when talking to Travolution at the launch event last week for their new UK site.

When chatting about the recent Ryanair spat with meta search engines, Ecsery laughed cheekily and then said:

Well, we're not one of those that scrapes and slaps.

Fantastic!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights ryanair

Every face tells a story

2008-08-11T13:41:00.001+01:00

Thankfully the headline is not a reference to the, er, classic Cliff Richard single from 1997, but describes quite nicely the results of the Oban Multilingual 'Face of Global Search' survey.

Following the release today of the survey looking at online travel search habits, Greig Holbrook, director of Oban Multilingual, has also penned some analysis of the results:

What the results clearly show is that travel search is a very culturally diverse activity and that search plays a huge part in both the research and purchase of holidays for global travellers.

The growth in Chinese on the web has been phenomenal and reflects the fact that over 900 million people on the web don't speak English (around 70%).

Ninety-nine percent of those people who took part in the research indicated that they have booked travel online at some point. This once again reflects the fact that globally, people are becoming increasingly familiar with booking their travel online.

This means that suppliers not only need to cater from them in their own language but also, as much as possible, allow them to buy successfully from the site. This means the sites need to be very well localised to reflect all search and online purchase behaviours.

Chinese travel searchers don't seem to want to use Google, often preferring their own engines like Baidu much more. With the huge increase in Chinese searchers actually buying online in 2006-2007, it makes more sense than ever to make sure that optimisation for China is focused on local search engines.

It is not surprising that travellers going to different place are looking for different web features. International travel searchers are becoming more specific in their online behaviours so that in addition to multilingual web optimisation, global social media optimisation also needs to take place. In this context, a site properly optimised social media that is visible to a variety of cultures will prosper.

The finding that those who look for multilingual websites tend to avoid Google reflects the fact that international searchers are increasingly demanding good quality multilingual sites which are visible in their own search engines and not simply on Google, as Google is very often not the preferred engine or method for sourcing travel bookings.

In terms of Spanish people travelling to the UK, we have already found that travel sites often fail to provide good optimisation in Spanish for visitors who are seeking to visit the UK.

Spanish people may use some English phrases to search or they may use Spanish, but very few travel sites provide them with the experience they need so they are often forced to use English sites.

There is a great opportunity for travel companies to tap into the demand for travel from Spanish searchers; both for holidays within Spain and for travelling elsewhere like the UK.

Greig Holbrook, director, Oban Multilingual

Lifestyle vs boutique hotels

2008-08-11T12:07:00.001+01:00

Slightly off-kilter post here, but something that came up when I met the kind folk at Mr & Mrs Smith a few months back are the definitions being used by hotels.

Prompted by my questioning, Mr & Mrs Smith promised to write a post on their blog to explain why an establishment might be called a 'boutique hotel'.

The detailed post gives a few examples of what could be ticked off on a list of boutique-esque qualities and reels off a number of its own hotels which meet the criteria.

The issue here is that industry people, let alone consumers, do not understand the difference between a 'boutique' or 'lifestyle' hotel.

There are bound to be dozens of differences between the two, but to many people it sounds a lot like marketing twaddle created for glossy travel magazines and Sunday newspapers.

Oh yes, darling, we stayed at the most amazing lifestyle hotel last weekend. Absolutely marvellous.

Huh!

What do you mean? My lifestyle or your lifestyle?

It really could mean anything at all.

The problem is one of ensuring that customers can differentiate between certain types of hotels, beyond the marketing puff.

The wholly unscientific - but often interesting - Google test shows that "boutique hotel" claims 9.54 million results, with "lifestyle hotel" rummaging up 8.28 million.

One wonders how many hotels appear in both?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Kayak-American spat heading to the courts

2008-08-08T16:28:00.002+01:00

Just when people thought the row between Kayak and Amercian Airlines couldn't get any more bitter (last installment: War of Words), it turns out that American Airlines has now filed a lawsuit against Kayak.

Papers were filed in Tarrant County, Texas, on 6 August. [Open PDF]

This suit is to stop Defendants ongoing violations, and recover damanges for prior violations, of the terms of its contract with American to distribute American fares and related information.

It goes on:

Defendant intentionally violated these rules in order to secure lucrative referral or other fees form third parties in connection with sending them bookings on American flights or giving them preferred rights, which caused Amercian to incure substantional, unwarranted costs.

This is going to get very messy indeed.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Beijing visitor numbers are not that impressive - so bargain bucket hotels aplenty

2008-08-08T15:00:00.000+01:00

Dramatic scenes this afternoon on the TV at Travolution Towers (i.e. our BBC iPlayer!) of the opening ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But it has emerged this week, courtesy of data from hotels.com, that there is apparently a bargain to be had for last-minute travellers.

The reason for this is that the anticpated stream of visitors has not materialised. In fact, it is expected there will be just a maximum of an extra 30,000 tourists in the city in August this year, compared to the same month in 2007.

Another interesting fact is that in April this year the average price of a room in the Chinese capital during the Games was close to £400. This was slashed to £144 in July.

So unless you have desire to protest on behalf of the Free Tibet movement, now is a rather good time to visit the Smoggy City.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: beijing olympic olympics olympic games china tibet

RIP: Panorama, Manos, Aspro, Escapades sites

2008-08-08T09:50:00.000+01:00

According to reports, Thomas Cook will be closing the websites of specalist operator brands Panorama, Manos, Aspro and Escapades this week.

They were acquired by Thomas Cook as part of the merger with Mytravel, but a decision has been made to to bring the online presence of the operators into the main thomascook.com site.

Users will be re-directed automatically.

So here is your latest chance to see them before they are consigned to Web Heaven/Room 101:

May they rest in peace...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

What happened to the Long Tail of search?

2008-08-07T07:07:00.001+01:00

Many of us will remember how, just a few years ago, many search engines and digital marketing agencies espoused the benefits of bidding for long tail search queries.

It was widely believed in some circles – indeed, some evangelised continuously – that users would gradually use a selection of keywords when searching, especially for travel products.

The theory went that search phrases such as “holiday rome”, for example, would be replaced by something along the lines of “city break rome pantheon april gatwick four star”.

There were some who even suggested long tail search queries would transform keyword bidding and SEO practices within two years.

So did it happen?

The MD of a London-based search agency, whom we met with yesterday, suggests it has not at all.

Consumers, our man with the data tells us, are refining their search phrase each time, rather than using long tail search queries to find specific travel product if they do not find appropriate results the first time.

For example: “holiday rome” becomes “city break rome” or “weekend away vatican” or “hotel rome weekend”. The use of lengthy and detailed phrases to hopefully narrow the number of results just hasn’t proven popular as many first believed.

What are the reasons for this?

Consumers may be sceptical that long, meandering search phrases do not return the required and, most importantly, quality information.

Secondly, users have perhaps found that refining the initial search with more detail is a far more successful method.

Or it could be something else entirely.

Indeed, these could be the wildly incorrect thoughts of a crazy digital marketer, so any additional comments readers have would be much appreciated.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

New comments from Kayak - it was us who pulled the plug, not them

2008-08-06T08:00:00.002+01:00

Our story yesterday about Kayak and it's ongoing row with American Airlines indicated how irritated the meta search engine has become with the carrier and its axing of live feeds.

A statement we received from Kayak admitted that its results were "a little less comprehensive" following AA's decision to cut ties with the meta search engine.

But as it stands today the row is likely to escalate further after Kayak got in touch again last night to effectively add a Molotov Cocktail to an already fiery corporate riot.

A spokeswoman told us:

Kayak.com is disappointed that American Airlines has chosen to misrepresent to loyal users that they terminated their relationship with Kayak.com.

The truth is that Kayak.com terminated the relationship because we refused to concede to AA’s demand to not display AA fares available through online travel agencies alongside those from AA.com.

Kayak.com became aware of AA’s misstatement after our user feedback system started receiving supportive emails from consumers disappointed with AA’s actions, a number of whom forwarded us the inaccurate email AA sent out last night.

We hope that AA will not only agree to again allow consumers to compare AA fares on Kayak.com and SideStep.com, but will refrain from making false statements.

So now it's a matter not only of how fares are represented, but who is telling the truth - apparently.

One suspects that Kayak chief executive Steve Hafner - who is well known for not mixing his words - had a slightly terser series of sentences, but the corp comms people thought better of releasing them into the ether.

NB: See Norm Rose's anaylsis of the Kayak-AA situation.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: kayak american airlines

Innovative ad campaign for British Airways - must be a nightmare to produce

2008-08-05T13:11:00.001+01:00

There's an interesting press release from British Airways kicking about today talking about it's new campaign to extol the virtues of Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow.

The campaign will capture images from travellers as they pass through the airport together with messages about how well certain elements of the airport are working, from the baggage handling to security to efficiency of flight arrivals.

I guess they feel confident enough to do it now. UPDATE: TimesOnline sticks the knife in.

The most interesting aspect of the campaign is that the artwork for the ads will apparently be produced on the morning of publication/broadcast and therefore adding a real-time element to the proceedings.

Sounds like a tricky prospect from a logistics point of view, but BA is known for being slightly more creative than some of the other airlines.

Below is one of the first ones, which start today. It is for the outdoor part of the campaign and will form the basis of the online creative as well.

BBH is the ad agency behind the campaign, with Agency.com following up with online.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Interview for ASAP Travel Blog

2008-08-05T10:43:00.000+01:00

Every now and again we're asked to be interviewed by other sites.

Here's one I did for the ASAP Travel Blog - and it looks like it's the first post they've done.

Not sure about being titled a "heavyweight"!!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Old habits die hard

2008-08-01T13:35:00.004+01:00

Ciaran Lally’s departure from ebookers UK – as reported by Travolution today – is a good example of how some things in the world of publishing remain constant despite the profound impact of the internet on journalism.

The Travolution team is particularly pleased with this scoop. We [the royal “we”, that is] picked it up via a tried and tested source of news, a source which existed before RSS, Google and disgruntled employees’ blogs - a lead from a job ad, courtesy of online travel recruitment specialist Puregenie.com. The wizened old-school hacks who taught us news reporting way back when would be proud of us.

As the line between cut-and-pasted press releases and news blurs, we will use our combined experience – we’re talking decades here - to try to bring Travolution readers unique content.

And when we do cut and paste a press release, we’ll let you know...

So many twists in the tale...

2008-07-31T19:29:00.000+01:00

Our story on Tuesday said American Airlines could pull the plug on its product feed to Kayak because it doesn't like the way its aa.com search results have to compete with orbitz and cheaptickets results for the same flights

The airline said it could end its relationship with kayak and sister brand sidestep as early as TOMORROW unless concessions were made!

In the meantime, site analytics specialist Compete has come up with some pretty interesting stats on what AA stands to win or lose from such a move.

In June kayak and sidestep sent 1.3% of all visits to aa.com.

These visits converted extremely well with Compete's findings showing that almost 5% of all conversions on aa.com came from kayak or sidestep.

And, visits referred from kayak and sidestep to aa.com converted at 9.3% in June, quite a lot higher than the airline's own website average per visit of 2.7%.

The flip side of the coin is this - Compete also analysed the rate of people clicking over to AA flights on Orbitz revealing that 72% make their way to aa.com anyway at some point over a month.

So, AA will seemingly lose a chunk of business by withdrawing from the meta-searchers but in all likelihood get a good chunk of it back a week or two later!

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

I use Internet Explorer in one way but use Firefox like a man! Oh yeah!

2008-07-31T12:00:00.001+01:00

Here's a quick test you can take which the creators hope will be able to identify gender based on your browsing history.

The Mike on Ads blog has all the details of how it works.

And take the test.

Anyway, my results. In IE7:

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 62%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 38%

In Firefox:

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 21%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 79%

I use Firefox for browsing and IE7 for Google Reader and RBI intranet tools.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Hat-tip: New Scientist Technology Blog

Mr & Mrs Smith blog winner

2008-07-31T09:00:00.000+01:00

A few months back we ran a post about how high-end hotel outfit Mr & Mrs Smith were looking for someone to redesign their blog.

Well, they have a shiny new effort courtesy of Jason Badrock.

Take a look at the new Mr & Mrs Smith Blog.

Interestingly, they've also optimised the blog so it can be read on an iPhone.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Don't let bad headlines put you off travelling

2008-07-30T12:54:00.000+01:00

In the TimesOnline travel section:

Meanwhile, in the TimesOnline news section:

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

When will travel companies learn that the ad watchdogs don't like misleading emails

2008-07-30T10:00:00.003+01:00

Jet2.com is the latest travel firm to fall foul of the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.

The latest round of adjudications handed down from the ASA includes a wrap across the knuckles for the low-cost airline for an email it sent which said discounted fares were available on certain flights.

Two potential passengers complained when they couldn't find the low fare on the Jet2 website.

Jet2, in its defence, said the fares were available and provided documentation to the ASA to prove it.

What went wrong here, then? Well, Jet2 didn't mention that the full fare would also include a "complusory fuel supplement charge".

It seems that all Jet2 needed to do in order to appease the ASA is add the word "from" in front the advertised price as only 33% of the fares on each flight were available at the discounted rate.

Read the Jet2 ASA full ruling.

Anyway, Ryanair have learned that you can push the ASA into fits of apoplexy and get a nasty ticking off. But sometimes, as someone mentioned a few months ago, that rebuke is worth it if you can get shift a heap of tickets quickly through a sale.

We are, of course, not suggesting that Jet2 did this.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Mobile travel blog - a bit like others but looks good

2008-07-30T08:12:00.003+01:00

A press release from Telestial.com we featured on the main site today is rather interesting.

[Read about our new press release policy]

Anyway, it's a mobile based service which allows users to update a "journal" (blog!) on the move, which is not new, of course, but then the automatic interface it uses is rather nice.

The Telestial demo.

And some screen shots.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Overseas conferences - almighty row on Travel Rants

2008-07-30T06:10:00.003+01:00

It's probably just worth referencing this simply because Nathan Midgley from Travel Weekly and I have waded in to a blog fight (!!) about why travel conferences are often held overseas.

Take a look, join the baying hordes...

As a journalist I find arguing via a blog deeply unsatisfying. The debate does not ebb and flow in the usual way and, dammit, you just can't see the whites of your opponent's eyes!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

....and so is STA Travel!

2008-07-29T13:44:00.003+01:00

Amazing what can happen in just a few minutes.

STA Travel Buzz is following Travolution and they are also using Twitter in a very different way from lastminute.com's effort.

The page is maintained by "molly", a "travel-happy blogger gal who loves trains, planes and her EeePC" and obviously works for STA.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Directline Holidays are using Twitter in a far better way

2008-07-29T12:31:00.004+01:00

The lastminute.com-twitter debate is still rumbling on.

And it seems the floodgates are beginning to open.

This morning we have had two new followers to the Travolution Twitter account - Devon Hotels and Directline Holidays.

Devon Hotels is using the service very much like lastminute.com, plugging deals etc.

But Directline Holidays appears to using it in a different way, throwing random thoughts about travel into the ether.

The only problem they have, and need to rectify soon, is that the last update was March this year!

So based on the Twitter idea of responding to the question "What are you doing?", some might construe that the only answer from Directline over the past few months was "not a lot"!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: twitter

Cuil will have to get a lot cooler (and relevant) to beat Google

2008-07-28T12:47:00.009+01:00

Silicon Valley loves a new product, especially when it reckons itself to be a Google challenger.

So there has already been plenty of hype about the new Cuil search engine, which has a fantastic pedigree amongst its founding exec team and - the launch clincher - an index of around 120 billion pages, around three times as many as Google, according to a FT report earlier today [link not available].

The engine has some good features and is displayed in an uncoventionial way (assuming Google is the status quo here for second).

For example, the keyword 'london' throws up the usual and relevant results and has a handy extra toolbar on the top-right hand corner which allows users to break down the results quickly into different categories types such as attractions, economy etc.

[Just forget for a moment that Ken Livingstone - pictured in the search results - is not in office anymore]

But we thought we'd also run a quick test, the ubiqutous search query 'flight new york london' to check what kind of results are coming in.

Alas, relevancy disappears entirely.

Type in "new york london flight", however, and you'll get 50 results.

We'll go back to playing around and report back.

Please feedback via the comments section any early impressions of Cuil.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cuil search engine tom costello Anna Patterson

Lastminute.com has a 'social media press office'

2008-07-27T20:13:00.001+01:00

Okay, this is an industry first, of sorts.

Or maybe that's just because of its confusing title.

The pink'uns have created a blog on the blogspot platform to run alongside the Lastminute.com Twitter activity and, one suspects, a whole host of other Web 2.0-esque marketing activities.

The Lastminute.com Social Media Press Office is - by the looks of things - another outlet for offers - but perhaps we'll see some commentary, too, on industry issues, seeing as it's a blog and all that.

[Thankfully the background is not as garish as its Twitter page!]

Maybe this will go some way to appeasing the recent moans and groans from Travel Rants to have more involvement from travel companies in blogging.

Probably not.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Do I want to follow lastminute.com on Twitter?

2008-07-25T16:00:00.002+01:00

Travolution is currently followed by over 200 people on Twitter - the micro-blogging service and on-off darling of Silicon Valley.

[Follow Travolution]

Our latest fan is everyone's favoruite pink online travel agency, lastminute.com. The email arrived earlier today:

The OTA joined the service earlier this week, according to the updates list on the lastminute.com Twitter page.

This is the first UK OTA we have found to be actively using Twitter as a brand. There are plenty of individuals from travel companies using Twitter.

Anyway, inevitably, lastminute.com is using Twitter to flog, er, lastminute deals - five in one day this week.

It also has a decidedly garish screen!

So the question is this: do I want to follow lastminute.com - and have its updates getting in the way of other, perhaps more personally relevant people I'm following - if it is just going to serve deals to into Twitterland?

I can see why they are doing it - just not sure if I want it.

What do you all think?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: twitter lastminute

What Travolution is going to do with press releases

2008-07-25T11:26:00.005+01:00

There appears to be increasing amounts of moaning and groaning about the state of the travel press - it's PR-driven, cut and paste jobs of press releases, no follow-ups or a second perspective, copying content from other media without reference to the source, etc.

Some media providers are more guilty than others, but to counteract one element - re-writing press releases - we are conducting an experiment over the next few weeks.

From now on Travolution will publish in full as many of the press releases it can on the main Travolution website.

These articles in the news section of the site will be clearly marked with "Press Release" at the beginning and not bylined by any Travolution staffer.

Announcements that we feel should be followed up - or are time-sensitive - will be analysed and written by our own team.

It could, of course, backfire horribly in some way, but we'll see.

Please let us know what you think.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Thomas Cook digital mag-brochure - better than many

2008-07-23T13:00:00.000+01:00

Thomas Cook's first every digital magazine is up and running - and it's pretty good.

The Ceros Media-hosted magazine has embedded video and direct links to relevant pages on the main Thomas Cook website.

The question is whether anyone will use it.

Have a look here.

[Disclosure: Ceros produces the digital editions of Travolution and Travel Weekly]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Thomson brand is rubbish say experts

2008-07-23T09:42:00.007+01:00

Well, kind of.

Enormous interest in our story yesterday about Thomson-First Choice not being particularly enthusiastic about the Superbrands programme.

Within an hour or so of our story going out, Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of the Centre of Brand Analysis, which runs the judging process for the Superbrands 500 list, was on the phone.

Cheliotis was keen to point out - as a PR rep had done repeatedly earlier in the day - that there is absolutely no connection between those who pay to be "members" of the Superbrands programme and those who appear on the list.

Fair enough. We had that in our original story anyway.

So then we got onto talking about the judging process for this year's Superbrands 500.

As we noted previously in our , a list of around 1,350 brands is selected by the TCBA from numerous sources. The list is then put in front of an Expert Council of luminaries from media, marketing, ad agencies etc, which decides on a list of the best 750 brands.

The 750 are then put to a public vote of around 2,500 people, which decides the top 500.

So it turns out that Thomson was a lowly 964th in the 2008 expert list and didn't even make the public vote. The experts clearly think of Thomas Cook in a much better light.

First Choice was in 1,039th position.

This means that the all-conquering Thomas Cook was 892 places higher - in the final list - than Thomson. Crikey.

The whole thing gets even more bizarre when Cheliotis revealed that Thomson managed to get in the 2007 top 500 list in 161st.

Some might call this a rather tragic fall from grace (hilarious, Thomas Cook would probably say).

Others will be looking to the Expert Council for an explanation as to why a company which featured in a reasonably high position one year can not even be considered worthy of the top 750 the next.

Cheliotis told us the make-up of the council changes every year, which will account for differences of opinion, of course.

There is "invariably some volatility" in the list, Cheliotis adds. Indeed...

Anyway, we suspect Thomson-First Choice won't be too distraught at missing out this year, as their comments indicated yesterday, but will be keen to see where they feature in the pre-public vote next year.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: superbrand superbrands thomson first choice

Always wear clean undies!

2008-07-22T15:10:00.003+01:00

When your mother told you to always put on clean underwear before leaving the house you probably thought it was in case of an accident.

Well, it seems mothers out there are far more advanced, technologically speaking, than we ever thought.

What our mums were really thinking was new technology about to be introduced at airports across the US that can see through your clothes.

Read the full story from the Chicago Tribune but it seems it's lumps, bumps, warts and all!

Some may call it an infringement of civil liberties blah blah, others are happy for it to go ahead in the interests of security.

Passengers can of course object and opt for the traditional frisk or worst case scenario - strip search!

Choose your poison but Chicago's O'Hare airport will be among the first to get the full-body imaging machines.

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Spying in hotels is very naughty [Puddingwars]

2008-07-22T11:10:00.003+01:00

Hotel Girl points to a bizarre story of how a group of people managed to get into the kitchen of a hotel in the UK's Lake District in order to unearth the secret recipe of its famous sticky toffee pudding.

They managed to secretly film the start of a demonstration of how to make the pudding, only to be discovered by management. Ooops.

Anyway, they posted it on Youtube, much to the disgust of the management.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The Superbrands thing [Sigh]

2008-07-21T16:30:00.000+01:00

So plenty of coverage everywhere about the release of the latest Superbrands survey of top brands in the UK.

Google tops the list for the first time, ahead of Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz and the BBC.

In the travel-hospitality world, British Airways comes out on top (5th), with Hilton (20th), Eurostar (47th) and Virgin Atlantic (70th) all featuring in the top 100.

Thomas Cook has made a great PR play today with its top billing amongst tour operators and agencies in 72nd position, beating Kuoni (340th), Sandals (355th), Expedia (401st) and Lastminute.com (476th).

And this is where all this branding stuff gets murky and silly.

It was only last year that Expedia was named the coolest travel brand in the, er, Superbrands' Coolbrands list.

So, one question:

Is it better to be a 'cool' brand or a 'super' brand?

Anyway, back to the Superbrands list. Well done to Thomas Cook (which, according to marketing boss Simon Carter is "head and shoulders" above its competitors). But is it REALLY 46 places behind the Royal Albert Hall, for example?

Take this one step further and you could also ask the following question:

If the Royal Albert Hall is 46 places ahead of Thomas Cook, how on earth can Thomas Cook be at least 428 places higher than Thomson, its biggest and bitter rival and, let's face it, a fairly big travel brand in its own right.

[Thomson actually doesn't figure anywhere in the list of 500 brands]

And THAT is the problem with branding lists - not that Thomson doesn't feature, but that the results are so random when all evidence to the contrary (sales, adspend, offline and online presence, word-of-mouth and history) indicates that a company such as Thomson should at least have a higher ranking than Maltesers, Stannah Stairlifts and Nicorette!

There are plenty of people who have strong views about Superbrands et al - the comments button is dying to hear from you...

* The Superbrands selection criteria can be found on its website.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: superbrand

That sinking feeling - a digital view of the Venetian population crisis

2008-07-21T15:00:00.000+01:00

Apart from the fact that it is slowly falling into the Adriatic Sea, Venice has a dwindling population problem to contend with as well.

In 1500 it had around 200,000 living on its stilts, but it has been slowly shedding residents ever since - down to 100,000 in 1970, 78,000 in 1990 and just over 60,000 in March this year.

A pressure group. Venissia.com, was formed recently to campaign for protecting the Venetian way of life and attract more people to move to the city, is using the a rather downbeat but unique way of demonstrating the problem.

The shop window, close to the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal, has a direct feed to the official population figure, allowing residents and tourists alike to witness in real time the decline in the number of residents in the famous city.

Incidentally, the blame for the decline is being put squarely on tourism industry. There is a huge surplus of hotels and not enough residential accommodation. In fact, a recent law was proposed to allow hoteliers development access to any other building within their area.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Hat-tip: Guardian Travel

Technorati tags: venice italy venissimo

Title and address FAIL - delusions of grandeur?

2008-07-21T12:30:00.001+01:00

Arriving back at Travolution Towers after some time away, and wading through the snail mail.

Not going to publish the name and company of the sender, although if they know something I don't... please get in touch.

In the meantime, hello Travelocity!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: fail failblog

Anonymous comments - getting outed in public

2008-07-21T09:24:00.005+01:00

Travolution has suffered from the dreaded anonymous commenters on a number of occasions.

But there has been an interesting exchange in recent days on OpenParenthesis which followed a post about importing travel itinerary content onto Dopplr.

It was a reasonably dry article until 'Thomas' posted "I don't find Dopplr very useful" into the comments section.

'Thomas', it turns out, is an employee of TripIt.com - which pioneered the email upload system for travel planning networks.

Anyway, John Eckman, who writes OpenParenthesis, decided to out 'thomas' and within three and half hours got a gushing apology from Scott Hintz, one of Tripit's co-founders.

Our policy here, for what it's worth, is that we have kept comment moderation off for about 12 months or so now. We normally find out, in the same way as most do (via DNS and IP addresses), who anonymous commenters are and will publish the name of their organisation if needs be.

More on Musings.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

With friends like this...

2008-07-16T11:10:00.003+01:00

We think Kuoni's latest tips to recall your holiday might be a recipe for disaster.

The operator has got together with memory expert and cognitive psychotherapist, Professor Martin Conway from the University of Leeds, to devise ways to keep the memories alive, which don't include buying tacky sounvenirs.

It's all about using your senses and top of the tip list is holding a dinner party and serving some of the food you ate on holiday while taking your guests through the trip with holiday snaps.

Could this be a step too far? That old 'you had to be there', saying rings true and friends don't really want to hear about your holiday in that much detail.

Other tips are a little more realistic such as finding a local restaurant which serves similar food and taking lots of photos.

The final tip could again be a bit of a friendship-breaker - as the operator suggests telling everyone about your holiday.

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Mobile travel - public says aye; industry says, er, not sure

2008-07-16T07:32:00.003+01:00

Guest blog post from Michael Lacy, boss of Handy Group:

The chap next to me in the queue outside the O2 store at 7.30 on Friday morning had sold his ‘old’ iPhone on ebay for £180 the evening before.

Ahead of us the sales director of the local Ford Dealership had taken the morning off so he could be one of the first with the new phone, and so it went on.

I probably didn’t need to be there but I wanted to know who these people were, prepared to stand in line from midnight for ‘just’ another phone.

There were fifteen people ahead of me and I turned up at 7.00am. At 8.02am, when the store opened, there were another thirty-five behind me.

At 8.05am O2’s computer systems crashed (again) so it took more than an hour to process just one customer.

And it was the same story at the other 399 O2 stores around the country.

About a third of the queue I was in gave up when it was announced they only had four 16GB versions in stock and others went when they realised they probably wouldn’t see their families over the weekend at they rate they were processing customers.

Yet very few in these lines were ‘geeks’, early adopters for sure, but an eclectic mix of ages, men, women and children (Mum’s were there, armed with ID), previous ‘iPhoner’s’ and those new to iPhone.

This readily available user group opportunity was too good to miss so an impromptu survey was taken – albeit from a ‘sold’ audience; internet access on the move was most important to 40%, internet access and voice was most important to 36%. Internet access was least important to 0%; 40% said they would likely buy travel products from their phone.

After demonstrating - on our own system - how easy it is to buy a week at a hotel in Paphos from Hotels4U or to book a car from Hertz, or a flight on Easyjet – this increased to over 90%.

To someone working in the mobile ‘space’ these figures probably aren’t surprising. But what surprised me was the amazement and acceptance of internet applications built just for mobile.

Most were willing to live with the limitations of viewing a fixed line site in miniature but when shown applications, freely available, with no download from iTunes, no pre-registration – and in full screen, adoption levels more than doubled.

Would any online travel company imagine that producing a website the size of a billboard would be effective? Yet in a recent travel industry telemarketing survey by Handy Group 50% had no mobile strategy.

Michael Lacy, chief executive, Handy Group

Booking with the Beeb

2008-07-15T12:49:00.002+01:00

LonelyPlanet.com has announced a new accommodation booking service in partnership with Expedia Distribution and hostelworld.com.

Travolution reported last week that BBC Worldwide paid c£90m cash for a 75% stake in LonelyPlanet late last year, with a view to exploiting the profit potential of the web site. The commercial terms of the deal with Expedia Distribution and hostelworld.com are not disclosed (‘twas ever thus) but it’s a start to monetizing a site which has 4.6m unique users.

Lonely Planet prides itself on the independence and quality of its advice by using a team of 360 professional writers to review hotels and hostels. But if the site is to become a profit centre in its own right there are many dangers to this independence. When deciding which hotels to review, will LP be more inclined to look at properties which it can sell? If ‘Martin’s B&B’ isn’t available through the partners, but ‘Kev’s B&B’ next door is, which one is the most likely to get a write-up on the site?

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Daily Mail readers more worried about Google than housing market crash

2008-07-14T13:02:00.003+01:00

I’m sure I read somewhere that ‘If news editors are looking for something new with which to strike fear into the heart of middle England, online privacy could be answer.’

This Saturday, the print edition of the Daily Mail belatedly picked up on the ‘Google Streetview car in the UK’ story and plonked it on the front page.

The mid-market tabloid also put the story onto its web site, complete with explanatory graphics. The story has prompted 84 comments.

On the same day another story was posted, headlined House prices falling at fastest rate for 50 years. This one has only 38 comments...

Martin Cowen chief writer Travolution

More Purple Podness - Mobile, tour ops, user experience

2008-07-12T07:51:00.002+01:00

The Purple Pod returns after a small break for the summer. The episode features Alex Bainbridge (Travel UCD), Peter Deane (Handy Group) and David Flower (Gomez).

Men are better than women - says top woman

2008-07-11T08:55:00.003+01:00

To the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington yesterday, where the great and the good of the female variety met for the Association of Women Travel Executives summer lunch.

Your correspondent was invited into the inner sanctum to host an interview on-stage with Carol Marlow, president and managing director of luxury cruise company, Cunard, and member of the Carnival Cruise board in the UK.

Distinctly un-Travolution territory, in more ways than one, but a rather enjoyable event.

One of the guests over lunch explained to me why women conduct business in different ways then men - more considerate, creative, social.

Roll on an hour or so and my final question to Marlow: "What kind of company would Cunard be if it had a man as its president and managing director?"

After bluffing a bit, Marlow made the sisterhood scratch their heads slightly, when she said:

"It would probably be better run."

Her ongue was probably planted very firmly in her cheek, but it was a funny moment.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution