The world�s most luxurious first-class seats? - 15-Dec-03.

The world�s most luxurious first-class seats? - 15-Dec-03.

Guest Comment: Dynamic packaging - the route to riches - 19-Dec-03.

Guest Comment: Dynamic packaging - the route to riches - 19-Dec-03.

UK Government gives the go-ahead for airport expansion

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis
The new runways are part of the British government’s 30 year air travel plan.The Stansted runway would be ready by 2011 with Heathrow to get a third runway by 2020 if it meets a range of environmental and noise rules. Work on Stansted's new runway will start "as soon as possible" under the plan, although that is not likely to be until 2011 or 2012. There will be only one runway, not the two or three previously proposed, but that would cater for an extra 46 million passengers a year, says the government. Ministers say noise limits will be enforced but the new runway will not mean the EU pollution limits are broken.

Autumn brings end of a cold spell for UK tourism - 09-Dec-03.

Autumn brings end of a cold spell for UK tourism - 09-Dec-03.: "According to VisitBritain, the total number of visitors to the UK in the three months to the end of October 2003 was nearly 7.2 million, a 5% increase year-on-year. This was supported by an increase in visitor spend of 4% for the same period, to £3.7 million."

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "CHICAGO (Reuters) - When Shira Zigler needs to buy an airline ticket, she hunts for fares at online travel agencies Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz -- in no particular order. "

New York Post Online Edition: business

New York Post Online Edition: business: "Internet booking site Expedia, one of the cornerstones of Diller's InterActiveCorp, is playing a high-stakes game of chicken with airlines over booking fees. It's a battle Expedia could lose - tripping up its market share and its earnings, analysts said. "

Online holiday travel: predictions where right

Online holiday travel: predictions where right:

December 9, 2003 | More than half of online retailers saw sales increases of at least 25% over the weekend following Thanksgiving vs. the same weekend a year ago, the eHoliday Mood Study by Shop.org and BizRate.com reports. Those increases made online merchants more optimistic about the outcome of the holiday shopping season, with 71% saying they are optimistic vs. 67% two weeks ago. "

Spain broadband penetration (hmm)

At nearly 48 percent broadband penetration in 2003, Jupiter predicts that the country's high-speed access households will outnumber dial-up by 2004 when penetration reaches 55 percent. Comparatively, Europe won't experience the shift to broadband dominance until 2008.

Spain's broadband penetration will continue to climb through 2008: 59 percent in 2005; 63 percent in 2006; 65 percent in 2007; and 67 percent in 2008.

Cyberatlas: Geographics --

Cyberatlas: Geographics --

Geographics: High Usage Countries Experience Divide

Geographics: High Usage Countries Experience Divide

Guardian Unlimited | The Northerner

Guardian Unlimited | The Northerner: "After a long campaign to restore a London air link, there was jubilation in Liverpool at the news that the Belgian airline VLM will be basing a plane at Speke airport and offering five flights a day to City airport in the Docklands.
The air link has been widely regarded as crucial to its success as capital of culture in 2008, and it will take less than an hour from Liverpool's John Lennon airport to Docklands when the service begins in the new year"

What now for Heathrow? - 04-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003

What now for Heathrow? - 04-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Are Usability Experts Any Use?

Are Usability Experts Any Use?: "I'm sure you've encountered the usability Nazis... err... 'experts' in our field. "

This is complete bollocks. Design is usability. engagement, branding, entertainment, emotion, and delight all come from having a welldesigned usable site. nothing less.

Travelers turn to Yellow Pages for planning options

Travelers turn to Yellow Pages for planning options

In depth report on the future of a thriving travel market

Winners and losers in the online travel market: "Winners and losers in the online travel market "

Birmingham brings in the visitors - 01-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Birmingham brings in the visitors - 01-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Ferries take on no-frills carriers - 01-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Ferries take on no-frills carriers - 01-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003: "Ferries take on no-frills carriers"

Slashdot | First UK On-Train WiFi Service Launches Monday

September xx 2003 GNER pres release

GNER is set to revolutionise UK travel by becoming Britain’s first train operator to offer passengers broadband internet access on the move.

Slashdot | First UK On-Train WiFi Service Launches Monday: "from the train-travel-rules dept.
dave writes 'UK train company GNER starts trials of the UK's first on-train wireless Internet access service. Currently only available on limited services and in First Class; if the trial is successful the service will be rolled out across the entire fleet in both Standard and First Class.'"

Sir Richard Branson's letter to Qantas

Sir Richard Branson's letter to Qantas
If Virgin Atlantic fails to fly to Australia (within 18 months, say) I’d be prepared to suffer the indignity of donning one of your stewardesses brand new designer outfits and will work your flight from London to Australia serving your customers throughout

Take off for EU pet passports - 28-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Take off for EU pet passports - 28-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003: "As from 3 July, owners of pets (specifically cats, dogs and ferrets) will need a suitable passport if they take them abroad, proving that the animals have vaccinated properly, following a decision officially adopted yesterday by the European commission"

Lastminute looks perfect for Diller

Lastminute looks perfect for Diller

IAC chairman Barry Diller has spent almost £3bn this year. He bought the rest of Expedia, the largest internet travel agency, for £1.9bn, online mortgage broker Lending Tree for £425m and holiday company Hotwire for £390m.


British Waterways selects Active Hotels
British Waterways selects Active Hotels: "Inland waterways bring Britain over £1.5 billion in visitor income with over 10 million people visiting the waterways every year. Now visitors can also book hotels directly as British Waterways have signed an exciting deal with Active Hotels to power real-time booking of over 2,500 British hotels on their industry leading website Waterscape.com "

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum: "In 2002, 6.25 million people visited Yorkshire's national Tourist Information Centre to obtain a wealth of local information on accommodation, attractions, events, eateries and public transport"

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum: "1. (5.31 %) Multimap.com http://www.multimap.com
2. (2.94 %) easyJet http://www.easyjet.co.uk
3. (2.66 %) Streetmap.co.uk http://www.streetmap.co.uk
4. (2.50 %) RyanAir.com http://www.ryanair.com
5. (2.26 %) Expedia.co.uk http://www.expedia.co.uk
6. (2.22 %) lastminute.com http://www.lastminute.com
7. (1.72 %) National Rail http://www.nationalrail.co.uk
8. (1.66 %) British Airways http://www.britishairways.com
9. (1.53 %) The Automobile Association UK http://www.theaa.com
10. (1.26 %) Visit London Offers http://www.visitlondonoffers.com"

Brits encouraged to holiday at home - 24-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Brits encouraged to holiday at home - 24-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003: "However a VisitBritain spokeswoman denied this was confusing. She told TravelMole: 'We have clear guidelines and funding ringfenced for promoting England. It was a decision that was made by the Department of Culture Media and Sport and we don't see any confusion. It has allowed us to get campaigns for England up and running very quickly"

Stelios to launch intercity minibus service - 24-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Stelios to launch intercity minibus service - 24-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003

EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou is set to launch his latest brainchild - easyBus - in the UK “in the following months.”

According to the statement on a hastily constructed webpage at WELCOME TO EASYBUS.CO.UK: "the new company will provide “intercity, point to point, medium distance minibus services” that avoid using expensive city centre coach stations.

Figures for Ryanair & easyjet

UK discount airline EasyJet reported full year results for the period ended 30 September. Passenger numbers were up 79%, and revenue was up 69%. Costs per available seat mile flown dropped 7.5%, and the average fare was a mere £43.28 ($73.50). Pre-tax trading profit was up 7% to £96 million.

And its arch-rival, Ryanair, has just finished an offer that is surely hard to beat. They were not only giving away free tickets, but were also contributing £1 towards the cost of the taxes on the free tickets. This makes Ryanair the first airline to ever pay passengers to travel. Ryanair said that they had allocated 40% of their total seats during the period 20 Nov - 20 Dec to be given away on this promotion.

Amazingly, Ryanair is also a profitable airline. Let's hope that the US carriers choose to copy this promotion!

Designing for Decisions

Designing for Decisions: "One of the greatest misconceptions about web sites is that they should be designed for selling."

Online agents will introduce service fees

Online agents will introduce service fees - 12 Nov 2003: " In this low or zero commission environment, it is inevitable that online agents in Europe will start charging service fees,"

US visitors return to Britain - 07 Nov 2003

US visitors return to Britain - 07 Nov 2003: "Visit Britain claims that the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest that US visitors are returning to the UK"

UK online market dominated by 'big hitters' - 07 Nov 2003

UK online market dominated by 'big hitters' - 07 Nov 2003: "Travel websites that dominated the UK market in the first half of this year aren't being pushed out by newer rivals."

Optimize Your Home Page for New Visitors

Optimize Your Home Page for New Visitors: "Optimize Your Home Page for New Visitors" I like the first idea for baby centre, we can adapt it to ask for the readers post code so we can serve them up reletive content.

Dot travel domain name delayed - 30 Oct 2003

Dot travel domain name delayed - 30 Oct 2003: Industry hopes that a dot-travel domain name could soon be approved have been dashed by the news that the domain oversight body has delayed the process

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum: "A total of 190 new IBM kiosks will be installed at Heathrow Airport and all major British Airways destination airports across Europe. The kiosks are designed to make check-in faster and more convenient while optimising space at airports. (10/30/2003)"

three new travel supersites

Times Online - Sunday Times: "There may well be cheap flights on the internet, but it can take hours to find them. That's all set to change three new travel supersites are promising to bring you the best deals in seconds."

Top 10 Global 'Travel - Transport' sites

1. (10.88 %) easyJet http://www.easyjet.co.uk
2. (8.38 %) RyanAir.com http://www.ryanair.com
3. (6.51 %) British Airways http://www.britishairways.com
4. (5.69 %) National Rail http://www.nationalrail.co.uk
5. (3.62 %) The TrainLine http://www.thetrainline.com
6. (3.14 %) bmibaby http://www.bmibaby.com
7. (3.09 %) Thetrainline Store http://www.thetrainlinestore.com
8. (2.93 %) FlyBE.com http://www.flybe.com
9. (2.23 %) RAC Travel http://www.rac.co.uk
10. (1.61 %) BMI British Midland http://www.flybmi.com
For more information go to www.hitwise.com "

TravelJungle Very good flight booking engine.

TravelJungle - Your fare comparison system for the best rates online: "TravelJungle.co.uk searches instead of you simultaneously 24 different low cost carriers
(like easy jet, ryan air etc) and 7 online travel agents (like expedia; Travelocity, ebookers, opodo etc)
to make sure that you really find the cheapest fare available."

Hotels.com & Europe

News:
"Hotels.com outlines Euro domination plans London, October 17 2003, (netimperative)"
Following its UK launch earlier last week, Hotels.com said it expects international sales to outstrip its US business within the next three to five years, with the bulk of that expansion coming in Europe.

Visit Britain defends domestic tourism - 15 Oct 2003

Visit Britain defends domestic tourism - 15 Oct 2003: "VisitBritain says that although domestic tourism isn't increasing at the rate of overseas tourism, it is on the up. Corporate PR manager, Orla Fallon, told TravelMole that she thought the survey headline - 'Widespread rejection of UK holidays', was slightly misleading."

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum: "Active Hotels Release Q3 Online Booking Survey Results
Active Hotels has released its Q3 Online Booking Survey results, which show that the number of people using the Internet to secure accommodation online has soared by an average of 80% since September 2002. (10/16/2003)"

Economist.com | Face value

Economist.com | B-Bookers interview

Yahoo! News - E-Travel Research Can Be Strange Trip

All about flights

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum

Hitwise United Kingdom List top 10

Active Hotels win award

The finals:
Top Business Award for Active Hotels - 07 Oct 2003: "Dr Andrew Phillipps, CEO of Active Hotels Limited, one of the leading providers of online reservations to the European hotel industry, has won this year�s UK Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award."

Semi-finals:
TOP BUSINESS AWARD FOR ACTIVE HOTELS� ENTREPRENEUR - 23 Jul 2003: "39 finalists, will go through to the national final in October, from which the Overall National Entrepreneur Of The Year will be selected to represent the UK in the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards in 2004."

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum

The E-commerce for the Travel Industry Forum: "Travelsupermarket.com is a free service that uses a revolutionary 'second generation' search engine that 'scrapes' flight prices from more than 27 travel websites.
All results are on one web page, in real time, collated by the cheapest price first.
www.travelsupermarket.com "

NEWS.com.au | Google slays 'em in search market (October 8, 2003)

NEWS.com.au | Google slays 'em in search market (October 8, 2003): "In Australia, according to Roy Morgan Research, the number of people who make purchases on the internet has more than doubled in three years to 2.7 million, with travel tickets and accommodation the main drivers. The internet has taken over from travel agents as the most important source of travel information, next to word of mouth.
While much of the searching and booking is via conventional sites, search engines are becoming more important. If you are running an accommodation unit and haven't realised that the internet is more important than travel agents or brochures, then the odds are you're losing business. "

TravelMole Interview: Dinesh Dhamija, ebookers - 03 Oct 2003

TravelMole Interview: Dinesh Dhamija, ebookers : "Mr Dhamija told TravelMole that the company would not have survived 9/11 had it not been for its India Business Process Outsourcing subsidiary Tecnovate."

Maybe the outsourcing to India isn't for customer service but the practice is commomplace. All the more reason to offer exceptional customer service with knowledgable people. Just makes others look bad and gives us a real advantage.

Guest Comment: Domestic tourism - agents or internet for growth? - 29 Sep 2003

Is 16% of UK domestic breaks booked direct using the internet high?
Could be rephrased when selling to small businesses....
Guest Comment: Domestic tourism - agents or internet for growth? - 29 Sep 2003: "A recent industry paper stated that the internet is used primarily for planning a holiday but only 16% of people used it to book a domestic holiday - well how much product is available because this actually seems a relatively high proportion when 90% of domestic holidays are booked direct?
The figures clearly indicate that the domestic tourism provider should be encouraged to provide bookable product online rather than seeing the travel agent as the untapped potential. They are not, of course, mutually exclusive and the tour operators offer some great product through retail outlets.

In its advice to the industry VisitBritain should clearly be telling the small businesses to develop their online information to provide on-line bookings too. The trend is already clear from the action of many of the big operators -over reliance on the retail agent would be investing in yesterday's technology and for the small business it makes better financial sense. " (with our standalone website product coupled with the booking engine it's worth going to the UKTA saying we'll put every business online).

USATODAY.com - Whatever happened to customer service?

USATODAY.com - Whatever happened to customer service?

The best idea is to produce an easy to understand interface and back-end technology that is usable which would compliment CS by phone. That way the calls to CS are reduced and the User is happy.
We should never have an IVR system for Customer Service unless it is a quick two or three option menu that foes through to a human. It will hardly delight the User as this article illustrates. Our CS staff should also be the best trained and the best quality. They are the human face of tt and should act accordingly. Good customer service = good press and word of mouth marketing.

Australia: Online travel market growing

Australia: Online travel market growing: "The total number of people making purchases online grew from 1.2 million in the June quarter of 2000 to 2.7 million in the June quarter this year, with a third of those in the latest quarter either buying tickets or booking accommodation, the company said. "

Overseas Visitors to the UK: 2001 and 2002

Overseas Visitors to the UK

Travel Industry News

The following should fit our CS policy

Michael Dell, Dell Computers:

Today customers are becoming ever more aware of their choices - so technology and high quality, and good value are just the price of entry. The total customer experience - including an emphasis on service and speed - is the next competitive frontier. Beyond winning and satisfying your customer, the objective must be to delight your customer - and not just once but again and again. This leads to true customer loyalty, which sustains your success.

Scenic Britain by Bus

UK Public Transport - a new site covering some of the UK - not as comprehensive as gb.totaltravel, will check it out as I go to see if they do anything better....Scenic Britain by Bus: "Scenic Britain by Bus is your online guide to bus services in some of the loveliest parts of Britain."

Guest Comment: Domestic tourism - agents or internet for growth? - 29 Sep 2003

Guest Comment: Domestic tourism - agents or internet for growth? - 29 Sep 2003: "In its advice to the industry VisitBritain should clearly be telling the small businesses to develop their online information to provide on-line bookings too. The trend is already clear from the action of many of the big operators -over reliance on the retail agent would be investing in yesterday's technology and for the small business it makes better financial sense"

Lastminute.com : "Lastminute.com is back on the acquisition trail again after boosting its coffers with a placing of unsecured convertible bonds worth �70m."

Hotels lead the way in online travel bookings: "Tema Frank, president of Web Mystery Shoppers International Inc. 'But I was surprised to find that the airline sites are doing a better job of telling people what their plans will cost. Even business travelers do usually have a budget, so they need to know the costs to make a decision.'

Other frustrations for hotel bookers:

- Getting a long list of results with no way to sort it by price.

- Lack of maps or information about where the hotel was located relative to key tourist or business attractions.

- Not being told how much taxes or other fees would add to their total costs before they had to enter their credit card information.

- Lack of photographs of the rooms or hotels under consideration."

InterActive's Last-Minute Travel Trophy: Hotwire: "InterActive's Last-Minute Travel Trophy: Hotwire"
E-Commerce juggernaut InterActiveCorp. (Quote, Chart) continues putting its money where its mouth is on acquisitions, this time with the purchase of online discount travel site Hotwire.com for $665 million in cash

Influencing the Influencers
The link between Influentials and the Internet is obvious:
82% of Influentials have Internet access, compared to 54% of the general population (2003 study by RoperASW)
10% of the American population are Influentials, while 15% of the online population are Influentials.*

Tiscover signs Agreement with East of England Tourist Board

The new web presence will provide potential visitors with up-to-date information on accommodation; attractions; events; mapping and booking tools, coupled with the ability to book directly with accommodation providers.
www.tiscover.com

Hitwise United Kingdom List

Top 10 Global "Travel - Destinations & Accommodation" sites for the week ending 13 September, 2003 based on VISITS (9/18/2003)