Question Time - Meet your panel #2 - Mr Cooke

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

With friends like this...

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

Travolution Summit - panel videos!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

People love using Wikipedia for information about travel companies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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

Technorati tags: wikipedia wikitravel wiki encyclopedia

Kuoni vs Opodo

Interesting that while Opodo has recently regionalised its business, after spending years running everything from a single point, Kuoni has today gone the other way, scrapping country-based operations for three separate divisions based on market products.

The new divisions are: SBD Style ("brand and service-driven products"), SBD Smart ("vacations that primarily offer outstanding value for money") and SBD Destinations ("local land arrangements").

UK managing director Sue Biggs has left Kuoni as part of the shake-up. Quite a turn of events as just four days ago Biggs could be heard welcoming CV Travel to the portfolio following its acquisition by Kuoni UK.

It seems that the industry is in such an uncertain state that major brands, such as Kuoni and Opodo, are still willing to radically overhaul their business models just at the point when most companies and their staff would be looking for stability.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: kuoni opodo

Travolution Awards - Winners

The winners of the Travolution Awards have been unveiled at a ceremony in London:

ADVERTISING AWARDS

Best Use of Online Advertising

• Love Creative for STA Travel
• Harvest Digital for Cruise Thomas Cook
• Harvest Digital for Cheapflights
• KitCatt Nohr for Virgin Holidays
• Agency.com for BA.com

WINNER: Love Creative for STA Travel

Best Use of Affiliate Advertising

• The Dedicated Partnership for UKSeries.com
• Affilinet for Paramount Hotels
• Buy.at for LateRooms

WINNER: Buy.at for LateRooms

Best Use of CRM

• CreatorMail for Thomson
• Lastminute.com (in-house)

WINNER: CreatorMail for Thomson


MARKETING & INNOVATION AWARDS

Best Use of Social Media

• Jumeirah Hotels – The JCast
• TravellersPoint maps
• STA Travel Blogs
• EnjoyEngland/Yahoo! Answers
• Avis WeTryHarder Blog
• Select World Travel Blog

WINNER: STA Travel Blogs

Best Agency for Search Engine Optimisation

• Neutralize for Justtheflight.co.uk
• Spannerworks for SN Brussels Airlines
• Tamar for National Car Rental
• Greenlight for Monarch Airlines
• BigMouthMedia for Superbreak

WINNER: Neutralize for Justtheflight.co.uk

Best Agency for Website Design

• Adams Creative for TravelOwl.co.uk
• Designate Communications for Wales In Style
• Five By Five for Island Cruises and Club 18-30
• Netizen Digital for various
• Fortune Cookie for Kuoni UK
• Nucleus for various

WINNER: Designate Communications for Wales In Style

TRAVEL AGENT AWARDS

Best Travel Agent Website

• RailChoice
• Travel Designers
• Isango.com
• STA Travel
• Expedia.co.uk
• WhyDontYou.com
• TravelRepublic
• PackYourBags.com
• Expedia Corporate Travel

HIGHLY COMMENDED: STA Travel
WINNER: Expedia.co.uk

Best Use of Technology

• DirectLine Holidays
• Door2Tour.com
• Comtec
• Dolphin Dynamics
• Touch Clarity

WINNER: Touch Clarity

TOUR OPERATOR AWARDS

Best Tour Operator Website

• Leger Holidays
• Thomson
• VisitBattlefields.com
• Voyages Jules Verne
• Sunisle.co.uk
• Kuoni.co.uk
• VillaPlus
• OnTheGoTours.com
• DirectSki.com
• ErnaLow.co.uk

WINNER: Voyages Jules Verne

Best Use of Technology

• Adventure Company/Netizen Digital
• Kuoni

WINNER: Adventure Company/Netizen Digital

SUPPLIER AWARDS

Best Hotel Website

• Paramount-Hotels.co.uk
• Jumeirah.com
• BestWestern.co.uk
• Hyatt.com
• Sheraton.com
• VonEssenHotels.co.uk

WINNER: Paramount-Hotels.co.uk

Best Airline Website

• FlySilverjet.com
• BA.com
• FlyBMI.com
• ThomsonFly.com
• VirginAtlantic.com

HIGHLY COMMENDED: BA.com
WINNER: FlySilverJet.com

Best Travel Insurance Website

• GoTravelInsurance.co.uk
• JourneysTravel.co.uk/InsureMore.co.uk
• 1StopTravelInsurance.co.uk

WINNER: GoTravelInsurance.co.uk

Best Car Hire Website

• USRentacar.co.uk
• TaxiTransfers.co.uk
• HolidayAutos.co.uk
• Avis.co.uk

WINNER: HolidayAutos.co.uk

TRAVEL INFORMATION AWARDS

Best Travel Portal

• TravellersPoint.com
• TravelGator.com
• WalesInStyle.com
• WAYN.com
• EnjoyEngland.com
• TripAdvisor.co.uk
• Viator.com
• Yahoo.co.uk/Travel

WINNER: TripAdvisor.co.uk

Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website

• Kinkaa.com
• Australia Travel Market
• Cheapflights.co.uk
• Sidestep.com
• TravelSupermarket.com
• Kelkoo Travel

WINNER: TravelSupermarket.com

Best Use of Technology

• Teletext Holidays Linguabot
• IfYouSki.com
• Cheapflights.co.uk Partner Portal
• Icelolly.com TV
• Online Travel Brochures

WINNER: IfYouSki.com

TRAVOLUTION SM@RT AGENT OF THE YEAR

• Mann Link Travel
• Sunmaster
• Coachtrips.com
• Select World Travel
• C&B Maddocks Travel
• Travelcare

WINNER: Coachtrips.com

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

• Isango.com
• TravelZoo UK
• Sidestep UK

WINNER: SideStep UK

ONLINE TRAVEL BRAND OF THE YEAR

Shortlist to be decided from winners of Best Travel Agent Website, Best Tour Operator Website, Best Airline Website, Best Hotel Website, Best Car Hire Website, Best Travel Portal and Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website categories.

WINNER: Expedia.co.uk

TRAVOLUTION ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Brent Hoberman

Further details and comments from the judges are available on the Travolution website.

Travel touchpoints - London to Berlin

An exercise once favoured by media agencies to test the exposure of a client was to note the number of times people came across a brand during a typical journey.

So, faced with a reasonably lengthy trip from London to the ITB exhibition in Berlin last Wednesday, I decided to measure how many times I was exposed to travel brands - but only when a web address was included - during the course of the journey.

It wasn't an overly scientific piece of analysis, but about as thorough as I could make it. And it passed the time...

Perhaps the most interesting conclusion is that there is a phenonmenally higher ratio of billboard advertising on the rail network in the UK than in Germany.

So here's the list [all are billboards, unless indicated]:

Walthamstow Central station
TransportforLondon

Kings Cross St Pancras station
First Capital Connect
Expedia
HotelClub

Train advertising - Kings Cross Thameslink to Luton Airport Parkway
ThomsonFly.com
Monarch Airlines

Kentish Town station
Kuoni
Air Malta/Malta Toursim

West Hampstead station
Kuoni
VisitLondon

Cricklewood station
Kuoni
Air Malta/Malta Tourism

Hendon station
ThomsonFly.com

Mill Hill Broadway station
Air Malta/Malta Tourism

St Albans station
Monarch Airlines
Air Malta/Malta Tourism

Harpenden station
Kuoni
Air Malta/Malta Tourism
Pure New Zealand

Luton Airport Parkway station
Air Malta/Malta Tourism
SilverJet [ticket barriers]
ThomsonFly.com

Taxi Luton
SilverJet

London Luton Airport
EasyJet
Ryanair
Thomson
Ibis Hotels
WizzAir
Aer Arann
Monarch Airlines
VisitLondon
EasyJet
SilverJet

EasyJet in-flight magazine

Kazan
Residencepinede Hotel
EasyCruise
VisitCostaDelSol
Verbier resort
Chamonix resort
Courcheneige hotel
Armagh and Down
First Capital Connect
Sheraton hotels
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines
Radisson SAS
Tourisme Alsace
ITB Berlin
Le Meridien Lingotto hotel
Hotel La Laguna
Grupotel
Gatwick Express
Southern Railway

Berlin Schoenefeld Airport
AirBerlin
Germanwings.com
Cyprus Tourism
ITB Berlin

Hauptbahnhof DB station
Turkey Tourism

Zoologischer Garten U-Bahn station
Romania Tourism

...and then I arrived at ITB, at the Messe exhibition grounds iun the West of the city, and, frankly, one couldn't move for travel marketing everywhere - so I gave up...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Is the real mash-up the industry itself?

Tim Walters from Fatwire writes:

Just when you get used to the idea that mashup is not the first step in the preparation of a capirinha, Air Berlin announces plans to merge with DBA.

This reminds the mainstream business press that BA is likely to take over Iberia; Lufthansa has an elective affinity with Austrian; and Air France-KLM still obstinately refuses to become further hyphenated via the seemingly inevitable purchase of Alitalia.

Emirates, meanwhile, might acquire Austrian. Or British Airways. Or Britain.

[Are you sure? - Ed]

Not to be outdone by the avian few, the rest of the travel industry also has a bout of merger mania (or its flip side, a hankering for “strategic reorganisations” and break-ups).

In August, Royal Caribbean buys Spanish cruise and tour operator Pullmantur; MFS is sweeping the better part of the Australian/New Zealand retail market under its skirts; Travelodge is sold to Dubai investors; and KarstadtQuelle is about to buy Thomas Cook from Lufthansa, only to immediately flip Condor to an unnamed venture group. Kuoni calls off the marriage with First Choice, and banishes the over-eager bridegroom.

Seeking to eliminate redundant cost centres, Thomson/TUI will merge Hapagfly and HLX. (Haflxpag?)

Hilton buys Hilton from Hilton. Then there is (or is not) Cendant (Travelport).

In short, nothing like a revolution in product distribution to shake up an industry.

But: what does the future hold? What do your tea leaves or cappuccino foamed-milk stripes tell you about the upcoming mergers, acquisitions and renderings-asunder?

When and how do the UK’s “Big Four” tour operators become the “Big Three” – or less?

How will the GDSs diversify to counter the rise in direct distribution?

Bubble or not (see Kevin May’s recent posting), how will the online ecosystem (OTAs, consolidators, meta-searchers, etc.) evolve?

Who eats and who gets eaten? Or will Google just buy everything, Emirates included?

Tim Walters, director international marketing and strategy, FatWire Software