Friday, January 13, 2006

Flight's fees model 'outdated' [13jan06]

The Courier-Mail: Flight's fees model 'outdated' [13jan06]: "AILING travel agency group Flight Centre has been dealt another blow, with its former e-commerce chief labelling the commission model its business relies on as outdated.

Paul Fisher, who now works with totaltravel.com, said travel and tourism suppliers were increasingly looking to go directly to the Internet to do business with their customers and the old commission model was therefore unlikely to survive....

"You are already seeing commissions being slashed across the tourism industry, and in turn agents were adding service fees to supplement decreasing margins," Mr Fisher said.

"With accommodation, providers are looking for ways to take back control of their inventory and identity after losing yield and brand equity due to the whole 'last minute' or standby rates discounting phenomenon.

"And at the smaller end of town, individual properties and B&Bs, particularly in regional areas, can't afford to give away their margins to wholesalers and agents with commissions."

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Totaltravel.com achieves record results-20-Dec-05.

Totaltravel.com achieves record results-20-Dec-05.: "Totaltravel.com, the number one site for Australian's seeking information about destinations, has achieved record results with the highest ever figures for email enquiries and phone number requests and 223,000 click-throughs directly to supplier websites last month"