Wednesday, March 31, 2004

News - Hoover's Online

News - Hoover's Online: "Expedia, Inc. to Acquire Activity World"
Online travel site Expedia said it would buy Hawaiian tour company
Activity World. The move puts Expedia in position to expand its
services on its Web site. It also allows customers the option of
booking their activities and tours online or through an office at
their vacation destination. The transaction is expected to close next
month.

Trendsetters.com - 31-Mar-04 :: Trip Hop, flash-mob computing, Wi-Fi in the sky

Trendsetters.com - 31-Mar-04 :: Trip Hop, flash-mob computing, Wi-Fi in the sky: "International travel is rebounding. Between October and February, passport applications shot up 13%, compared to a 1% growth rate in 2003, and declines in 2001 and 2002. And because the Euro is strong, travel to the U.S. is also booming. Get that passport app in soon!"

consumers used to take months to plan their vacations.Now its a snap decision. In 2002, 64% of U.S. leisure travelers planned at least one of their vacation trips within two weeks of taking that trip, according to the Travel Industry Association of America (see Travel in Marketrends).

Friday, March 26, 2004

Travelocity unveils redesign of travel Web site

Travelocity unveils redesign of travel Web site: "CHICAGO, March 25 (Reuters) - Travelocity on Thursday will unveil the first full makeover of its travel Web site since its 1996 launch -- the company's latest attempt to build brand as the top online travel firms vie for market share...

The redesigned site, which operates twice as quickly as the old one, will also feature a new logo with hand-drawn stars -- designed to highlight how stars light a traveler's journey, Jeff Glueck, Travelocity's chief marketing officer, told Reuters.

"One of the things consumers told us was that they perceived all the major Web sites in travel looked alike. We heard that loud and clear," Glueck said. "Stripping away a lot of the clutter enables us to highlight what's most important."

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Mission statement Tralliance Corporation

Tralliance Corporation
Tralliance (an acronym for travel alliance) intends to provide the definitive directory – a comprehensive library of information about travel, tourism, or travel-related products or services – to effectively and efficiently match buyers to sellers. The precise indexing and cataloguing of products and services, to such a degree of detail, will relieve travel consumers’ frustration locating the greatest value, or most tailored, travel offering.

The idea of “concept (activity)-based retrieval” (as opposed to text-based or “free word” retrieval) will help users hone in on the specific products, services, or information that they desire. The end result will be a travel industry directory that will allow for searches that expeditiously produce information that is explicitly bound to the query. For example the query—What is the name of the tour operator that offers submarine tours of the Titanic?— will return tour operators that offers this service.

Highly focused responses—as the Internet continues to grow exponentially over the decades to come—will only be possible through the establishment of directories (complete data sets) like the Directory Tralliance is currently developing.

Tralliance Corporation

Tralliance Corporation
The Travel Partnership Corporation (TTPC), a non-profit corporation, has been formed to promote the addition to the Internet of a new sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) to be known as .travel; and, to recommend policies and practices concerning the administration of the registered domain names in the .travel sTLD.

Open to all bona fide travel and tourism associations, TTPC is a consortium of travel industry bodies representing a broad cross-section of the industry. The actual size of the industry, from the perspective of directory subscribers and domain name holders, is estimated to be in excess of 1,000,000 travel providers, purveyors, and associated entities—a constituency comprised of travel agents, tour operators, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines, bus companies, ferries, rail lines, theme parks, convention bureaus, and national tourism offices.

Tourism’s economic impact is four times as large as global steel exports, 50% larger than the export of clothes and textiles, and equal to the global export of automobiles. Underscoring these statistics, travel and tourism accounts for 10% of all international trade, 5% of total global economic output, and leads all online transactions at 28% of the total.

Dot-travel domains TW Crossroads

TW Crossroads: "Dot-travel again is being considered as a Web address suffix akin to dot-com and dot-net. "

...a New York-based, for-profit company called Tralliance would provide the day-to-day management, and also would create a travel-specific search engine based on a dot-travel directory. That's supposed to make it easier for consumers to find what they want, and for the businesses to get new customers.

Only "verified" travel organizations or businesses would be entitled to register for dot-travel addresses, in an attempt to prevent non-travel businesses from snapping up rights to names to sell to legitimate travel businesses. Travel associations would be involved in authenticating all registrants, and would get "fee revenue" for doing it.

The proposals will be open for public comment from April 1 to April 30, then reviewed by an independent evaluation panel beginning in May. Icann did not specify when it would make its final decision. More information is available on the Web at www.icann.org.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and AnalysisThe capital’s visitor economy enjoyed three months continuous growth to January 2004, according to the first results of Visit London’s new monthly Visitor Index.

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "A new study by teletextholidays.co.uk shows that over a third of UK holidaymakers are opting for home-grown tourist attractions as an alternative to the treasures of international travel."

Iceland Express seals distribution deal with Active Hotels - 23-Mar-04.

Iceland Express seals distribution deal with Active Hotels - 23-Mar-04.
Active Hotels, Europe’s leading online hotel reservations provider has signed a partnership agreement with Iceland Express, the newly established low fare airline, operating twice daily flights between Iceland, Denmark and the UK.

Hotels forced to undercut internet rivals - 23-Mar-04.

Hotels forced to undercut internet rivals - 23-Mar-04.
More hotels are being booked online than ever before, but consumers are not booking direct with hotel websites because they are finding lower rates elsewhere on the web.

When searching for the cheapest room rate in UK hotels, a survey by KPMG found that 58% of the cheapest rates were offered by an online travel agent rather then by the hotel direct. In Western Europe as a whole the figure is about 45%.

In the US, online agents like Expedia and Travelocity offer the cheapest hotel around 10% of the time, because in 45% of cases a corporate travel agent offered the best rates, according to KPMG.

KPMG’s Global Hotel Distribution Survey 2004 researched room rates through multiple online channels and direct channels (including calls to the hotel and hotel call centre) from 310 hotels in 13 countries.

Only 2% of hotels showed consistent pricing across all direct and indirect channels. According to Mr Pattie, 14% of US hotel bookings were generated from the internet in 2003.

Friday, March 19, 2004

Hospitality Net - Industry News - More Upside Than Downside For UK Hotel Sector In 2004, But Changing Booking And Buying Patterns May Challenge Hoteliers -

Hospitality Net - Industry News - More Upside Than Downside For UK Hotel Sector In 2004, But Changing Booking And Buying Patterns May Challenge Hoteliers - PricewaterhouseCoopers reports: "'Forecast Alert' also identifies that there appears to have been an overall shift in business and leisure travel patterns. Corporate travellers are now booking later (like leisure travellers), using the internet more and increasingly shopping for better rates as they become more cost conscious. The implication is that the travellers are returning, but the business model may have changed for good.

Robert Milburn, UK Leader for Hospitality & Leisure at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the name of the game for hoteliers in 2004 is revenue maximisation:

'Forecast Alert' also concludes that although London bore the brunt of the downturn in international travel throughout the past three years, it is expected to lead the recovery in the European hotel sector.

Liz Hal, research manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers added:


"There are already signs of a change in fortunes for the capital. For the first time since 1995, London increased its global market share of tourism.We anticipate RevPAR growth of 1.7% in London this year and a further robust gain of 6.4% in 2005.""

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "WorldRes is to unveil a system at ITB Berlin (12-16 March) that will enable independent hotels to distribute through thousands of websites worldwide.

The extranet solution, due for launch in the fourth quarter of 2004 and code-named 'Project Easy Extranet', will allow hotels to instantly sell through WorldRes, and so enjoy distribution through over 5,000 websites, internet service providers (ISP?Ds), online travel agents, tourist boards and global destination management companies (DMC?Ds) worldwide.Developed in conjunction with PeopleSoft, Inc, the system will be on show as a BETA test version at this year's ITB.

The extranet's inventory management tools will enable hotels to instantly update their rates at any PC, and to track payments and commissions, and will feature statistical analysis tools that will allow hotels to model their marketing strategies to shifts in demand.WorldRes' network creates an online settlement process for hotels, with details of bookings, amendments and final payments available through the internet."

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "Between 1999 and 2003, the percentage of UK adults taking three or more holidays per year rose from around 11% to over 13%. In a new report released today by leading market intelligence provider Key Note, it is revealed that word of mouth prompts nearly half of all holidays taken in the UK, above television advertising and brochures.
However, it is hard for travel companies operating in the industry to stimulate this type of promotion other than using a 'recommend a friend' type scheme".

The findings show that holiday brochures are a much more powerful prompt for holiday decisions than television programmes. 19% of respondents agreed that their last holiday decision was prompted by holiday brochures compared with only 4% prompted by television programmes. Although these numbers look relatively small, brochures influenced around 27million holidays, and television 6 million, out of the 141.6 million holidays taken during 2002. Holiday programmes are extremely popular and Key Note suggests this is less related to inducing people to take holidays and more related to general public interest in different holiday locations.

The Internet is also having a major impact on the travel industry and the survey indicates that more people obtain information on travel from the Internet than they do through travel agents. Some products such as low cost air services offer incentives to book over the Internet, which result in nearly all bookings coming through this channel.

Over 60% of adults took one holiday in the last year and the average number of holidays taken per person in the UK is well over two per year. The UK holiday market is mature with consumers seeking a greater variety of holiday experiences as lifestyles, employment and attitudes change. Increasingly consumers require more choice and greater value for money. This desire for change and variety means that many people are not content with one similar holiday every year, but would prefer to take holidays more frequently."

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "OctopusTravel.com, the innovative travel company that offers an extensive range of accommodation and sightseeing products on the Internet, today announced that it has signed deals with LTUR, Air Luxor and Freeserve and it has hired Soren Langelund, formerly a senior executive at OPODO"

TUI eyes independent sector with direct sell - 16-Mar-04.

TUI eyes independent sector with direct sell - 16-Mar-04.: "TUI has launched an online channel for selling hotel beds directly in a bid to capture the “independent” travel market.

The travel group has launched www.tui-hotels.com, which will sell nights in the hotels featured in its brochures as well as other hotels that sign up to the site. There will be about 5,000 hotels on the site by the end of the year...

TUI interactive managing director, Michael Ohm said: ?DThe Hotel Portal is a market place for customers who wish to book flexibly, and hoteliers who wish to manage flexibly. We provide hoteliers with a dynamic tool with which to manage their products in line with the market situation.?D "

Insurance opportunity

Travel insurers missing �reckless� skiers - 15-Mar-04.: "Irresponsible skiers who travel without insurance represent a �massive� opportunity for insurers. "
Irresponsible skiers who travel without insurance represent a “massive” opportunity for insurers.

The claim comes from First Rate Travel Services, quoting Foreign Office statistics showing that two out of five UK holidaymakers travel with no insurance or inadequate cover...The company says that the average winter sport claim it receives is for more than £3,000, about six times the price of the average ski holiday, while a week’s winter sports cover costs £22."

The end of the package holiday? - 15-Mar-04.

The end of the package holiday? - 15-Mar-04.: "Travellers are turning their backs on traditional beach holidays provided by the leading tour operators, according to a survey from responsibletravel.com. "

The company quotes research from MORI which states that package holidays are declining - it claims that 32% of people are taking "independent holidays" versus 30% on package holidays and 19% going on tailor-made or specialist holidays.

Responsibletravel surveyed more than a thousand adults by phone, and found that 88% of respondents think the big holiday companies have a responsibility to preserve the local environment and culture. The survey also identified a “new breed” of traveller who wants a more authentic and experimental travel experience. The survey found that:

80% disagree with the statement: “I just want to have fun on holiday; I don’t really care about the locals and their environment”;

60% have had enough of crowded beaches on resort-type holidays;

57% say too many holidays only offer chips and Sky football in the sun; and

60% believe big tour companies “just pump out superficial holidays and it is time they changed.

Responsibletravel is encouraging people to sign an online petition saying: “I've had enough of the way mass tourism tramples over local people and cultures, and damages the environment”, and wants people to tell of their “mass tourism holidays and evidence of environmental degradation and of negative impacts on local people and culture”. The petition is at http://www.responsibletravel.com/hadenough.

Friday, March 12, 2004

Opodo

Opodo: "ght search"
Opodo bumph...
In December, we launched an all-singing-all-dancing new flight search engine. It could find you one way, return, or multistop flights from over 400 airlines, all at competitively low prices. It could also do lots of other clever things like email flight details to your friends.
Now, we've made it even smarter to save you money. Search for any one of a range of holiday destinations, including mainland Spain, Greece, the Balearics and Canaries and it'll also give you the option to look for charter flights from select UK airports. To find your ideal flight

News

News
Lastminute.com quietly picked up UK-based firm Gemstone Travel late last week, following its surprise £55m bid for rival Online Travel Corp on Wednesday.

Travelodge pricing experiment

Weekly Newsletter An interesting experiment on selling hotel rooms is underway in Britain. Travelodge is now pricing all its hotel rooms at rates that start as low as £25/night, year round. Rates start at the lowest possible price, and then gradually move higher and higher, the closer to travel date the booking becomes.

My prediction? This is a stupid idea that won't work. This pricing is exactly the opposite of the level of desperation that the hotel feels to get your business. Six months in advance, the hotel doesn't really worry if you choose its room or not. But six weeks in advance, it starts to get a clear feeling for how many unsold rooms will remain, and six nights (or six hours) in advance, it very definitely is staring at the worry of empty rooms.

Websites like www.lastminute.com have responded by contracting with hotels and offering very inexpensive rates on rooms that hotels think will remain unsold, and which are only offered for sale in the last three weeks until travel.

Of course Travelodge would love you to commit for their rooms as early as possible. But it doubly wants/needs your business when it is staring at the virtual certainty of the rooms otherwise going unsold. Accordingly, I don't expect this new pricing model to last long.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Tourism set to recover in 2004 - 11-Mar-04.

Tourism set to recover in 2004 - 11-Mar-04.: "Global tourism is set for a robust recovery this year according the World Travel and Tourism Council, but it will not get back to pre September 11 levels.
Demand for travel and tourism will grow by 5.9% in 2004 according to the WTTC, generating $5.5 billion of economic activity."

Tourism set to recover in 2004 - 11-Mar-04.

Tourism set to recover in 2004 - 11-Mar-04.: "Global tourism is set for a robust recovery this year according the World Travel and Tourism Council, but it will not get back to pre September 11 levels. "

British holiday parks enjoy �purple patch� - 11-Mar-04.

British holiday parks enjoy ?Dpurple patch?D - 11-Mar-04.: "
British holiday parks enjoyed a ?Dpurple patch?D last year, drawing a record six million people last year, according to a survey.


A report by the research group Mintel found that such organisations as Butlin?Ds, Pontin?Ds and Center Parcs had a very busy year last year, helped, of course, by the record-breaking summer enjoyed in Britain. "

Wi-Fi Eire

TW Crossroads: "NO STRINGS: Irish airports authority Aer Rianta began offering wireless Internet access at Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports. Wireless connectivity, available in departure lounges and other airport 'congregation points,' will be provided free through June 30, to coincide with Ireland's six-month-long European Union presidency. For more, go to Aer Rianta Corporate Website "

Ireland smoking ban

TW Crossroads: "CLEAR THE AIR: Nonsmokers can brave Ireland's once-hazy pubs come March 29, when the country's ban on workplace smoking starts clearing the air in restaurants and bars nationwide."

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Opodo launches charter flights - 08-Mar-04.

Opodo launches charter flights - 08-Mar-04. Opodo has started selling charter flights on its UK website.

Opodo's rivals, Online Travel Corporation already sells charter flights through its ownership of the website, bargainholidays.com. OTC is currently the subject of a £55 million bid by lastminute.com.

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and AnalysisThe official travel website for the UK, TravelBritain, and a group of Regional Tourism Boards have set up a new online platform to connect local and regional destination management systems through the tourism boards.
The focus of the move is to offer SME’s access to broader markets through the distribution system which had previously only been accessible to major travel companies and airlines.

The website will go live before the end of the month, with travellers being able to book holidays in the UK online. Customers will be charged a 10% commission and an initial subscription fee.

Budget bus passengers stranded - 10-Mar-04.

Budget bus passengers stranded - 10-Mar-04. The UK’s newest budget bus company has come under fire after passengers were stranded for hours with no heating or toilets... the Megabus journey from London to Brighton was scheduled to take just to hours and 20 minutes, but the passengers did not reach their destination for some seven hours after being rescued by a National Express coach and then being forced to catch a train that finally arrived at 1.30am.

Agents must look to independent sector - 10-Mar-04.

Agents must look to independent sector - 10-Mar-04. Agents are being offered a service that will add hundreds of holiday villas to their website, something that should help them appeal to the independent traveller.

Villaclick.com is offering a white label version of its online villa rental product that can be planted into an agency website and used by an agent or by the consumer directly to book a holiday villa.

Villaclick.com previously offered the service for agents to search and book its inventory of 1,600 villas in Southern Europe and the US, but bookings were made only through the villaclick.com website. Agents don’t receive a percentage commission, but instead can add their own mark-up.

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "London, March 4th 2004. Opodo, the pan-European online travel service, today announced it has launched a new charter flight service on its UK site:"

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "Formula One Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart plans to launch OzJet, a third discount carrier in Australia to compete directly with Virgin Blue and Jetstar, in October. (3/9/2004)
Initially, it will connect Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and at a later date, Adelaide. One-way tickets will be going for $149 available via the Internet, phone or at the airport. "

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "Plans by EUjet to develop an underused airport in Kent as its UK hub for European low cost flights are dependent on the raising of additional finance. The Irish carrier was formed by ex-Ryanair chief executive P J McGoldrick last May. "

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

Active Hotels gained particular recognition in the ‘employee well-being’ category which examines stress, pressure and the balance between home and work life. Statistics revealed that 74% are in complete control of their workload, and 88% are able to take all their holidays. These factors combined with a profit related pay of 10% of salary ensured that Active Hotels scored highly on the employee satisfaction scale.

Active Hotels is based in Cambridge and employs 80 people. The company is experiencing rapid growth throughout Europe and predicted to process over €200 million worth of bookings for hotels in 2004.

travel meta search for hotels air & cars (comparison)

TW Crossroads: "SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- SideStep launched a hotel search engine on SideStepHotels.com, where Web shoppers can conduct a search without downloading SideStep's tool.
Vice president of marketing Phil Carpenter explained that SideStep is trying to expand its reach, as there were consumers who 'wouldn't or couldn't' download the search tool (the software is not compatible with Mac computers).
Similar to the downloaded version, when consumers decide to make a purchase on SideStepHotels.com, they are taken to the hotel supplier's Web site to book. Suppliers pay SideStep a referral fee for each completed booking.
In the next three to four months, Carpenter said SideStep plans to launch search engines for air and car that don't require downloading. Today, consumers can conduct searches for air, car and hotel by downloading the software from SideStep.com. "

SideStep Hotels

Monday, March 08, 2004

Expedia retains its lead over Lastminute - 04-Mar-04.: "Expedia.com has held its lead over Lastminute.com for share of UK visits since the beginning of the year, according to Hitwise.

Expedia got a 9.6% share of visits to UK agency websites in the week ending 28 February. Lastminute.com was close behind with a 7.4% share.
Hitwise UK general manager, Simon Chamberlain told TravelMole: 'Expedia.co.uk has consistently been the most visited travel agency site since the beginning of January, according to Hitwise UK data. Their TV campaign, coupled with the instant win promotion they ran during January, certainly seems to have created the desired surge in visitors to the site.

�It will be interesting to see whether they can sustain a lead over Lastminute.com. In the past week the gap between the two has narrowed, although according to Hitwise - Search Terms 'expedia' is currently the most searched company name amongst travel agencies. This indicates that it is one of the brands that is front of mind with consumers doing their holiday planning.'

Lastminute led the UK table for most of 2003, and hit a high point in the week ending 6 December when it had a 12.5% share of UK visits. Lastminute's proportion of UK hits could increase if its bid for OTC, made public on Wednesday, goes ahead. "

'Best Hotels on the Web 2003' just released by TripAdvisor

Leading Travel Research Site Compiles Annual Ranking of Best Hotels Worldwide

29 February 2004
NEEDHAM, Mass. - TripAdvisor, the leading travel research site, announced today the results of a year-long study of the most popular hotels on the web for 2003. Using its Hotel Popularity Index, TripAdvisor's "Best Hotels on the Web - 2003" award ranks the top hotel in major cities worldwide, based on the quantity and quality of information found on the web for more than 100,000 hotels in over 14,000 cities.

Unlike other hotel awards that are based solely on editorial opinions or user surveys, TripAdvisor's award utilizes the wealth of information available on the web, including articles, user reviews, guidebooks and net comments written about a hotel property. The greater the amount of positive information published on the web about a hotel, the higher the hotel's ranking.

Reviews Can Make a Difference

In addition to online newspaper articles and guidebooks, the winners of the Best Hotels on the Web - 2003 award generated dozens of favorable user reviews posted on www.tripadvisor.com. These reviews remarked on a variety of themes, including service, friendliness of staff, overall cleanliness, comfort and size of rooms, convenient locations, beautiful pools and great dining experiences.

Below is a sampling of the top hotel recipient for the following cities worldwide:

United States

Las Vegas, Nevada - JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort, Spa & Golf
New York City, New York - The Carlyle
Orlando, Florida - Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort
Miami, Florida - Mandarin Oriental
San Francisco, California - The Orchard Hotel
Honolulu, Hawaii - Hale Koa Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana - Le Pavillon
Washington, D.C. - Willard InterContinental
Chicago, Illinois - Fitzpatrick Chicago Hotel
San Diego, California - Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter

Canada

Toronto, Ontario - Toronto Marriott Eaton Centre
Vancouver, British Columbia - Barclay House in the West End
Montreal, Quebec - Le Petit Prince Bed & Breakfast

Europe

Paris, France - Four Seasons Hotel George V
Rome, Italy - St. Regis Grand Hotel
London, England - The Bentley
Barcelona, Spain - Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel

Caribbean and Mexico

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic - Club Med Punta Cana
Cancun, Mexico - JW Marriott Cancun Resort and Spa
Playa del Carmen, Mexico - Royal Hideaway Playacar
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic - Iberostar Costa Dorada

South Pacific

Sydney, Australia - The Observatory Hotel
Melbourne, Australia - The Windsor Hotel Melbourne

The full results of the study can be seen at:

www.tripadvisor.com/pages/bhotw.html

Methodology
During 2003, TripAdvisor's search technology continuously scoured the web for articles, reviews and opinions published on various travel topics including hotel properties. Based on the quantity (i.e., number of articles, reviews and opinions published on the web) and quality (i.e., whether the content was favorable or negative towards a hotel) of content found on the web, TripAdvisor assigned a "web popularity" score for over 100,000 hotels worldwide. TripAdvisor then ranked the hotels in that city based on their web popularity score.

More stats

HSMAI Europe: News syndicate:

"In 2003, 45% of online travel buyers purchased all of their travel online, according to The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Sixth Edition, a recently released tracking report that annually documents online shopping and purchasing behavior. In total, 35 million Americans bought travel online in 2003, up 17% from 2002. Yet online travel buyers are divided as to which type of site ultimately gets the sale -- supplier or online travel agency.
Online travel agencies are feeling the heat from the supplier channel. Online travelers are now almost as likely to purchase travel from a supplier (online and offline) as an online agency. In fact, The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Sixth Edition finds that nearly two-thirds of 'online travelers' buy personal travel from either online travel agency or supplier Web sites. And, the majority of online travelers usually check at least one online agency site (88%) and one supplier site (73%) before purchasing airline tickets online.

Price parity between online and offline channels and erratic content availability across Web sites are encouraging online shoppers to use multiple channels for comparison shopping and purchasing. In addition, half of all online travelers continue to shop online but purchase offline. Together, these underscore the slower growth pace of the Internet as an exclusive purchase channel due to the increased complexity of online travel offerings, consumers' use of offline support, and supplier success in nurturing consumer-direct relationships in the leisure segment."
Latest internet business news : News: "Tiscover makes UK push London, March 5 2004, (netimperative) by Susie Harwood.

European online travel portal Tiscover has launched its first dedicated UK portal after winning deals to power websites for several major tourist boards here last year.

The company, which already has a European portal, Tiscover.com, as well as country-specific websites in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, said that it also plans to launch a portal in South Africa in the next several months. Karsten Karcher, director of sales, marketing and finance at Tiscover, said that the group will initially focus on these six markets, but did not rule out moving into other new countries if the company were to sign an important partnership elsewhere.

'The long-term goal is to provide tourist and destination information across a number of European countries,' said Karcher.

In the UK, Tiscover already has partnerships with the East England Tourist Board, Bournemouth City Council and Plymouth Marketing Bureau, and its UK portal will initially focus on these areas, before extending to cover more of the country.As well as providing lots of information on the destinations in these areas, the new Tiscover.co.uk website also enables visitors to book accommodation and services such as restaurants, theatre and local attractions online.

Karcher said the company has already signed deals with over 200 accommodation providers in these regions, which he expects to grow rapidly.
Tiscover takes a small fee for successful bookings, and also gets revenue from providing services and consultancy to destinations such as Bournemouth, where it powers the city-run tourist website, and software licence fees.The company joins an already crowded online travel market in the UK, and will find itself competing against a number of much bigger players, including Lastminute.com, which earlier this week made a £55m bid to acquire rival Online Travel Corp.

Karcher claims the company differentiates itself by focusing much more on destinations, providing a much wider range of information and accommodation in each destination, as opposed to the big travel sites, which tend to just focus on the bigger hotel chains.

Latest internet business news : News

Latest internet business news : News: "TravelBritain offers one-stop travel site London, March 5 2004, (netimperative) by Gareth Vorster

TravelBritain and a chain of Regional Tourism Boards (RTB) have launched, an internet-based platform, EnglandNet that will connect all the local and regional destination management systems (DMS) via the RTBs around the UK.

TravelBritain and a chain of Regional Tourism Boards (RTB) have launched, an internet-based platform, EnglandNet that will connect all the local and regional destination management systems (DMS) via the RTBs around the UK.

Tourists travelling to or within Britain will be able to access information on tourism products and destination and then book their holidays online.
Customers will be charged a subscription fee, in addition to a 10% commission for each booking made via the EnglandNet platform.

The site will go live by the end of the month, with an initial database of about 60,000 to 70,000 products and destinations, a spokesperson for EnglandNet said.The venture will offer SMEs access to wider national and international markets through a global distribution system, previously exclusive to major tour operators and airlines. "

Lastminute and OTC plan £55m trip together

News: "Lastminute.com today made a surprise bid for rival Online Travel Corp, in a deal that will combine two of the biggest and most successful UK internet travel players.

Lastminute said the deal would also provide it with access to a wider, more comprehensive choice of travel options, as well as a potential customer base of more than 15 million online users..

While further consolidation in the fragmented online travel sector is no surprise, many industry analysts had been touting Lastminute and OTC as potential targets for major US firms such as Expedia.com or Travelocity.com, which are looking to expand their businesses over this side of the pond. The move could help fend off approaches from US firms."

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Stena pays £50m for P&O routes and ferries



Stena Line has secured the purchase of one of P&O’s Irish Sea routes after the UK Competition Commission blocked an earlier bid.

Stena has bought the Fleetwood-Larne route and five ferries from P&O for £50 million in cash. These are European Leader, European Pioneer, European Seafarer, and the two P&O ferries currently operating on the Mostyn-Dublin route, European Ambassador and European Envoy. The sale is expected to be completed on 5 April.

Monday, March 01, 2004

Top 10 travel destination sites

Top 10 Global "Travel - Destinations and Accommodation" sites for the week ending 28 February, 2004 based on VISITS (3/1/2004)

1. (5.88 %) lastminute.com http://www.lastminute.com
2. (3.02 %) Trip Advisor http://www.tripadvisor.com
3. (2.03 %) Active Hotels http://www.activehotels.com
4. (1.97 %) SuperBreak http://www.superbreak.com
5. (1.73 %) Travelodge UK http://www.travelodge.co.uk
6. (1.47 %) InterContinental Hotels Group http://www.ichotelsgroup.com
7. (1.42 %) Holidays Uncovered http://www.holidaysuncovered.co.uk
8. (1.15 %) OctopusTravel.com http://www.octopustravel.com
9. (1.00 %) Travel Inn http://www.travelinn.co.uk
10. (0.99 %) Hotels.com - UK http://www.hotels.co.uk