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

 

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

Sneak peak: New Travolution site

Some people have been asking:

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

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

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Heads up: Changes to the Travolution Blog

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

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

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

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

Just giving you all prior warning...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Housekeeping stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watch this space.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution up for top award!

News just in:

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

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

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

Here is the Special Report page for the edition.

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

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

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

Overall winners will be announced on 1 October.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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

Question Time - Meet your panel #1 - Mr Tanzer

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

Tips for pitching in stories - frustrating exchange

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

A quick note about leaving product promotions in comments

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

What Travolution is going to do with press releases

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

More Purple Podness - Mobile, tour ops, user experience

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).

Take part in a survey, win a prize

This is your last chance to complete a survey we've been involved in with Wiley Travel.

The Whatsonwhen Web Content Trends Survey will take you just five minutes to finish and you could win a £150 Amazon voucher.

Just ten parts to the survey, do it over morning coffee!

Here it is.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travo Question Time - September. A cosmic panel!

The next Travolution Question Time brings together a stellar line-up of executives from across the travel industry for an intimate and engaging evening of debate.

September 23rd in London. Full details here.

Expedia’s new vice president for EMEA, Alex Zivoder, will make his UK travel event debut alongside other well known figures in the online sector, Paul Evans (Lowcostbeds) and Chris Loughlin (Travelzoo). Joining them will be Mark Tanzer, chief executive of Abta, and Justin Cooke, the man behind award winning digital agency, Fortune Cookie.

This, the fourth in the series of Travolution Question Time events, promises to be yet another excellent opportunity to interrogate and network with some of the leading lights in the industry.

Get a ticket (£65+VAT).

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

New addition to the Travolution team - an academic, no less!

A nice bit of housekeeping to share:

Professor Dimitrios Bulhalis of Bournemouth University is joining Travolution as our first research editor.

This honorary position will see him over the coming months coordinate the publication of academic content and research papers for our readers.

Managed to grab a few words with Dimitrios for the announcement:

It is a great honour to work with Kevin and the Travolution team to bring eTourism research to a wider audience.

Bringing eTourism research and practice closely together will enable industry to implement emerging tools and methodologies whilst researchers will benefit from getting involved in real industry problems and professional practice.

I look forward to interact dynamically with the wider community and to exchange knowledge on a global basis.

This is indeed good news for Travolution and our audience. And we're extremely pleased to have Dimitrios on-board.

His blog is here. Dimitrios is part of the School of Services Management at Bournemouth Uni.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Better searchers use metasearches...

Kayak.co.uk is the latest online travel business to try to generate some consumer-facing PR by telling everyone that the Brits will continue to travel despite the tough economic conditions etc, etc...

But there’s a paragraph in the release which might be of interest to Travolution’s readers. When asked about booking,

‘nearly every respondent (96%) said they preferred to research holidays online
instead of visiting a high street travel agent (2%) in order to research new and
exciting destinations and to find the best deals.’

So people who respond to online surveys on a travel web site use travel web sites to buy travel. No surprise there then, other than the fact that one in fifty kayak users still thinks they can get a better deal and advice on the high street!

But there’s more:

Almost half of respondents (46%) typically visit between two and five travel
websites and nearly a third (31%) will visit up to ten. A dogged 20% of
respondents, intent on thoroughly researching holiday destinations and finding
new ways to trim costs, will visit 11 or more travel websites.

This provides a nice contrast with some research put out by Google at the start of the year which said that consumers visit on average 22 travel websites before booking.

It looks as if customers are evolving – those who have cottoned onto kayak are more targeted in their searching than people starting out from Google.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Travo@ITT

Travolution is here in Cyprus for the ITT conference for most of this week.

We are live blogging on the dedicated ITT blog created by the TW Group, so check regularly for updates.

The first of three special Purple Pod podcasts went live last night.

As always you can subscribe to the Purple Pod by adding this feed to your RSS reader or via iTunes [NB: link opens your iTunes application].

It's here as well:

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

A fancy new widget

Some of you will have noticed a new box on the side of the blog, in the top right-hand corner.

This is our fantastic new webcam tool which we'll using at the ITT conference next week.

We will be turning it on during event so readers can see what we're up to, or not.

It uses the fabulous Ustream.tv system and an old Logitech webcam. Our main Ustream page is here.

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

300 members - and no advertising

We have written in the past about the scepticism surrounding the use of social networking sites for branding.

Ian McCaig of Lastminute.com is a passionate supporter of this point-of-view.

But I have just realised that Travolution has just attracted its 300th member to its Facebook group.

This is with no marketing at all - just a mention on the blog last year!

A free and easy presence.


If you want to join, go to the page and become a member.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Some ITT stuff

Travolution and the rest of the TW Group will be out in force at the ITT conference in Cyprus from 9 to 12 June.

As well as the usual live blogging from Travolution, Travel Weekly and Travolution are combining forces for a dedicated TW Group ITT Blog.

The group, as official media partner, will also heading be down the TV route with interviews and analysis during the event.

Keep an eye out for three special editions of the Travolution Purple Pod podcasts, produced at the conference but available as always by adding this feed to your RSS reader or via iTunes [NB: link opens your iTunes application].

If you are attending and want to feature on the podcast, email me ahead of the event.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Purple Pod #5 - Gapyear, Microsoft, Sky's The Limit, no Facebook!

The latest Purple Pod is now available.

Remember you can subscribe to the Purple Pod by adding this feed to your RSS reader or via iTunes [NB: link opens your iTunes application].

Kevin May, editor, Travolution