Yahoo steps up its challenge to travel websites....seems to only be for USA....All Headline News - Yahoo Improves Travel Planning Via Search And Maps - April 15, 2006: "Yahoo Inc. is introducing an upgraded travel service Tuesday that blends Yahoo search with handy travel-specific features, stepping up its challenge to dedicated travel sites.
Using Yahoo's central search site, consumers can receive instant airfare and hotel price comparisons, satellite overview maps and user reviews of restaurants and tourist destinations, features that previously existed in different corners of the Yahoo network or elsewhere across the Web."
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
More travellers book on hotel websites
Booking by telephone continues to drop - a death knell for pay per call perhaps - while branded websites share of direct bookings grows...what does this mean for independent hotels that are not part of a large brand? Answer - get on a merchant website...
Travelers Head to Hotel Websites: "More travelers than ever are booking at hotels' own websites.
Last year, according to TravelCLICK, branded hotel websites gained share over third-party sites and opaque websites (such as Priceline and Hotwire). The volume of reservations made at hotels' own websites grew by 33% in 2005 compared with 2004...
TravelCLICK expects GDS to maintain a share of 30% or more of bookings over the next two years, but voice reservations will continue to decline because of consumers' increasing preference for booking electronically.
eTRAK shows that 35% of reservations came through GDS channels in 2005, while Internet sites also contributed 35%. Voice reservations accounted for the remaining 30%.
In total, over 61 million bookings were made last year for the top 30 brands through the GDS and the Internet.
Online bookings through merchant websites, such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, grew by 34% in 2005 compared with 2004, while Priceline, Hotwire and other opaque sites saw bookings fall by 10.2%."
Travelers Head to Hotel Websites: "More travelers than ever are booking at hotels' own websites. Last year, according to TravelCLICK, branded hotel websites gained share over third-party sites and opaque websites (such as Priceline and Hotwire). The volume of reservations made at hotels' own websites grew by 33% in 2005 compared with 2004...
TravelCLICK expects GDS to maintain a share of 30% or more of bookings over the next two years, but voice reservations will continue to decline because of consumers' increasing preference for booking electronically.
eTRAK shows that 35% of reservations came through GDS channels in 2005, while Internet sites also contributed 35%. Voice reservations accounted for the remaining 30%.
In total, over 61 million bookings were made last year for the top 30 brands through the GDS and the Internet.
Online bookings through merchant websites, such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, grew by 34% in 2005 compared with 2004, while Priceline, Hotwire and other opaque sites saw bookings fall by 10.2%."
Web travel bookings cut out middlemen - Breaking News - National - Breaking News
Web travel bookings cut out middlemen - Breaking News - National - Breaking News: "Paul Fisher, a spokesman for travel information website Totaltravel.com, said he believed Australia would follow the trend of the United States because suppliers and consumers were getting smarter and more sophisticated in seeking better rates.
'We are finding that people are going to sites like ours, getting the information they want, and then clicking directly through to the supplier in the hope of saving some money.'
Totaltravel.com had a record month in January, with 885,437 visits to its site, up 33 per cent on the previous month.
Mr Fisher said 46 per cent of visitors to the site took the additional step of clicking through to a featured supplier website, retrieving a phone number or sending an email request directly to a supplier."
'We are finding that people are going to sites like ours, getting the information they want, and then clicking directly through to the supplier in the hope of saving some money.'
Totaltravel.com had a record month in January, with 885,437 visits to its site, up 33 per cent on the previous month.
Mr Fisher said 46 per cent of visitors to the site took the additional step of clicking through to a featured supplier website, retrieving a phone number or sending an email request directly to a supplier."
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
WAP GPS Mapquest
Gear Factor: "MapQuest is showing off a new wireless app that does more than display 2-inch maps on your screen. MapQuest Navigator works with your phone's built-in GPS to give you real-time, turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions to just about any destination. GPS navigation is by no means new to the cellular world, but the launch of a major solution like this by an established mapping service like MapQuest bodes well for mobile users. In addition the the new GPS service, which will launch through major wireless carriers later this year, MapQuest has already launched a new WAP version of its internet mapping service, which you can access immediately from your mobile device at wap.mapquest.com. "
Best Travel Sites - Forbes.com
Best Travel Sites - Forbes.com: "After the dot-com bubble burst five years ago, practically the only Web companies that didn�t vanish were the travel sites....Travelocity had revenue of $830 million on bookings of $7.4 billion in 2005. What bubble?...
...According to Harteveldt, online leisure travel is the largest e-commerce category (excluding porn), and in the U.S. it is projected to generate $74.4 million in sales in 2006, an increase of almost 17% over the $63.6 billion spent in 2005. By 2009, Forrester Research predicts, online travel spending in the U.S. will rise to $110.5 billion.
Overseas, online travel planning is picking up steam even faster than it is in the U.S. Spending on online travel in the U.K. and Western Europe will rise about 42% to €30.7 billion in 2006, or about $36.8 billion, Harteveldt says. By the end of the decade that number will approach €50 billion, or about $60 billion...
We didn’t include Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity, since the general public is mostly already aware of these sites. Instead, we included unusual sites offering something different to the consumer, like FlyerTalk.com, which allows fliers to figure out the savviest uses for their accumulated frequent flier miles. Of course, some well-known sites did make the list, but for less-than-obvious reasons: We listed Priceline.com not for flights, but because it’s the best site we know of for booking luxury hotels cheaply.
We rated the sites according to three criteria: aesthetic appeal, user friendliness and usefulness. In other words, they had to be easy to look at and easy to navigate, and they had to make life easier for you. We hope they do just that..."
All have a particular angle (niche) for example:
HotelChatter.com.....is an uncensored compendium of hotel reviews from all over the world: The good, the bad and the disgusting get equal weight...
Kayak.com...Unlike many of the major travel Web sites, Kayak.com includes flight listings from budget air carriers like Jet Blue and Spirit Airlines. It also has user-friendly features, like remembering your home airport, letting you search more than one airport simultaneously
MyTripJournal.com...Personal travel blogs have overtaken mass e-mails as the tool of choice for staying in touch with family and friends while on the road..
Site59.com’s niche is the last-minute weekend getaway
TravelZoo.com is more effective at offering cheap fares than any other Web site
Priceline.com revolutionized the way consumers bought travel, allowing them to name their own prices for everything from hotels to flights to rental cars....
...According to Harteveldt, online leisure travel is the largest e-commerce category (excluding porn), and in the U.S. it is projected to generate $74.4 million in sales in 2006, an increase of almost 17% over the $63.6 billion spent in 2005. By 2009, Forrester Research predicts, online travel spending in the U.S. will rise to $110.5 billion.
Overseas, online travel planning is picking up steam even faster than it is in the U.S. Spending on online travel in the U.K. and Western Europe will rise about 42% to €30.7 billion in 2006, or about $36.8 billion, Harteveldt says. By the end of the decade that number will approach €50 billion, or about $60 billion...
We didn’t include Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity, since the general public is mostly already aware of these sites. Instead, we included unusual sites offering something different to the consumer, like FlyerTalk.com, which allows fliers to figure out the savviest uses for their accumulated frequent flier miles. Of course, some well-known sites did make the list, but for less-than-obvious reasons: We listed Priceline.com not for flights, but because it’s the best site we know of for booking luxury hotels cheaply.
We rated the sites according to three criteria: aesthetic appeal, user friendliness and usefulness. In other words, they had to be easy to look at and easy to navigate, and they had to make life easier for you. We hope they do just that..."
All have a particular angle (niche) for example:
HotelChatter.com.....is an uncensored compendium of hotel reviews from all over the world: The good, the bad and the disgusting get equal weight...
Kayak.com...Unlike many of the major travel Web sites, Kayak.com includes flight listings from budget air carriers like Jet Blue and Spirit Airlines. It also has user-friendly features, like remembering your home airport, letting you search more than one airport simultaneously
MyTripJournal.com...Personal travel blogs have overtaken mass e-mails as the tool of choice for staying in touch with family and friends while on the road..
Site59.com’s niche is the last-minute weekend getaway
TravelZoo.com is more effective at offering cheap fares than any other Web site
Priceline.com revolutionized the way consumers bought travel, allowing them to name their own prices for everything from hotels to flights to rental cars....
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