http://www.travolution.co.ukThe latest information from Travolution6012130315http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/02/2601/get-your-head-in-the-clouds.htmlCCPTue, 02 Jun 2009 01:34:00 +01:00 There is a quiet revolution taking place in the technology world. Driving this revolution is something called Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing involves organisations hosting data on the web and offers significant cost and efficiency saving benefits for travel operators. But, while the Cloud can be more convenient, it also presents new opportunities and challenges. So, before you jump head first into the Cloud, below are the top five considerations for travel companies: 1 – Cost reduction Travel companies will find it costs less to pay for Cloud services and storage than it does to maintain their own servers. Migrating services to the Cloud will be easier for start-ups, but there are good reasons for ‘traditional’ organisations to use the Cloud, especially for ‘non mission critical’ applications. 2 – Availability To avoid the risk of downtime, travel operators should consider using a hosting chttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/01/2597/site-seeing-the-innovators.htmlCCPMon, 01 Jun 2009 08:20:00 +01:00 With bookings down and confidence shattered, optimism may seem preposterous at the moment, but I want you to spend a few moments to consider a positive perspective. Perhaps we have been experiencing a Darwinian event? Capitalism’s big kick up the backside could yet bring out the best in us, with transformational new ideas and innovation providing a path to a better future. An optimistic view, certainly, but when times are challenging it often pays to stand back and look at the world through a different lens. Yes, even if you work in the travel industry. Transformation is most definitely required. In this age of the busted business model, we have discovered that our financial system is flawed, banks go bust, car manufacturers go bankrupt and airlines are in trouble. It won’t be long now before we discover who’s backing the wrong business models in other parts of the travel industry. Those with the wrong models, or ineffective websites, are going to fail. http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/01/2590/thoughts-from-the-beach.htmlCCPMon, 01 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +01:00 I have been enjoying a Caribbean break in Antigua, and it never ceases to amaze me how different the Americans’ view of holidays is to the British. You would think the Caribbean to the Americans would be very much like Europe to the British. The British seem obsessed with price-comparison websites, checking 12 to 20 different prices, getting the best deal, moaning if something isn’t right, and generally looking at travel as if trying to flee. The Americans view their holidays more as short breaks, positive experiences in themselves, a chance to meet new people, taste new foods, and see new cultures. I get the sense that the British are escaping from home, work, problems, negative news, credit crunches, and such like! It is hard to remain positive, particularly in the current environment, when the regulatory, banking, credit, margin and competitiveness of our industry can so easily bring you down (as it did for Freedom Travel). We are operating in difficult timehttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/01/2589/free-thinking-leads-the-way.htmlCCPMon, 01 Jun 2009 06:56:00 +01:00 We are all familiar with the adage “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” but is getting tough good enough? Well, one certainly needs to pull upon all available resources in a crisis, but in the corporate world it’s often other qualities or skills that can make the difference. Since the turn of the century, Spain has been innovating its way to the top in rail travel with the goal to link the entire country with the most advanced high-speed rail system by 2010. However, it’s not just the population of Spain that will benefit but also the Spanish companies that consult on engineering, design and build, infrastructure, signalling and ticketing systems and more, that has allowed Spain to take full advantage of the explosive growth in demand for advanced rail transportation in the international markets. It is a great example of how one country pulled its corporate resources together and turned itself in to a world beater through innovation and collahttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/29/2586/less-talk-and-more-action-on-sustainability.htmlCCPFri, 29 May 2009 10:52:00 +01:00 The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) is not a name on most lips in the UK trade. But on the global stage, behind the scenes, the WTTC lobbies and collates statistics on tourism’s contribution to economies. The Council comprises heads of 100 major firms, including British Airways, Hertz, Amadeus, Sabre and Expedia. Its vice-chairmen include heads of TUI and Emirates; its executive committee figures from Carlson, Travelport, American Express and Marriott. The WTTC summit this month made the point that sustainability should be at the core of industry practice. In February, the WTTC published a report – Leading the Challenge on Climate Change – making the business case for action to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. The report‘s signatories agree: “Climate change poses global social, environmental and economic risks and [we] believe this demands a transformational change in how we manage our businesses.http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/27/2578/what-is-real-innovation.htmlCCPWed, 27 May 2009 01:05:00 +01:00 Innovation is a term the online sector and travel in particular is very fond of using – how many innovations has your company achieved this week? Drilling down into the nitty gritty of innovation proved a worthwhile exercise, if only to make us think the next time we lazily insert the term into a lead paragraph. True innovations are rare – in travel in particular what initially seems innovative is often simply a natural response to an evolving market, or a more rigorous application of something already in the market. Expedia Inc and its media model fall into this category. Trying to generate revenues from traffic as well as transactions was an innovation at the time – no-one else was doing it – but it was also a response to a change in consumer behaviour and market conditions. Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Dara Khosrowshahi realised just how many people were coming to his store, having a good look round and then leaving to spend their money somehttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/27/2577/becoming-more-mobile.htmlCCPWed, 27 May 2009 01:04:00 +01:00 According to Yahoo!, people would rather give up chocolate, alcohol and haircuts than their mobile phone. A little extreme perhaps, but there’s no doubt the ability to keep in touch on the go has almost become a human right. This year was heralded as the year for mobile and travel and although the two seem to go hand in hand it hasn’t happened yet. A show of hands at last month’s Travolution Summit revealed about a fifth of companies had plans for mobile this year. Those companies will be heartened to know that the demographic for UK mobile user is spreading out a little. They won’t have to worry so much about marketing holidays to nine-year-olds. At another recent conference, mobile travel specialist Handy Group said four dynamic forces – connectivity, capability, content and cost – were converging to create the ‘perfect market conditions for mobile internet’. The only one of those that is really missing is content. Some companies, including Coshttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/27/2576/keep-on-top-of-the-game.htmlCCPWed, 27 May 2009 12:58:00 +01:00 Capacity cut by 20%. Some 500,000-600,000 fewer holidays outbound from just one travel firm. The national media is looking for a big story in travel – it not being content with the other strategy of scaring the hell out of consumers in late-April with the threat of a global pandemic with Swine Flu. A newspaper journalist got in touch recently to ask about prices, capacity, popular destinations and the like. Throughout the discussion the reporter was itching to find out if we thought a price war is likely in the summer. “And holidays will probably be, say, a couple of hundred pounds cheaper, then?” he asked hopefully, mentally preparing his headline. It is, despite coming perilously close to the middle of the year and decision time for many travel firms, probably still unclear if prices will drop across the board and consumers will have the enjoyment of a late-booking bonanza – or at least to the level where it warrants a splash in the national media. Nevertheleshttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/27/2575/us-otas-square-up-on-fees-as-d-day-looms.htmlCCPWed, 27 May 2009 12:52:00 +01:00 June 1 is decision day for the major US-based online travel agencies because their temporary promotions, in which they axed booking fees for flights, will end. That is, unless Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz extend their fee-less flight promotions or make them permanent. Here is the background. Priceline eliminated booking fees for flights a year ago and saw its US market share for air soar, while Expedia’s air bookings stagnated. So, Expedia eliminated fees in March as a way to recoup some of the lost share, and to go after Orbitz, which was very dependent on the flight fees. Orbitz and Travelocity eventually matched Priceline and Expedia on the flight fees. Then, in late April, Orbitz decided to lower the consumer fees it collects on hotel bookings, a move that causes Expedia the most pain among the OTAs. Expedia matched Orbitz on the lower hotel fees, and Expedia recently reported the air and hotel-fee trims appear to be costing it about $6 million perhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/27/2574/disruption-keeps-online-agencies-on-their-toes.htmlCCPWed, 27 May 2009 12:47:00 +01:00 Google is said to be considering integrating Twitter-like micro-blogging into Google search. Twitter is the poster child for disruptive technology and the Google behemoth is grappling with how to deal with pesky Twitter, with its social-media game-changing ways and potential for changing the search dynamic, too. Likewise, the leaders of US travel start-ups discussed the state of the industry, and disruption, innovation and inspiration in the travel planning and booking processes, after Expedia referred to itself as a legacy online travel company and aired concerns about the difficulties that OTAs face in differentiating themselves. Gregg Brockway has worked both inside and outside the Expedia tent. He co-founded discount travel site Hotwire, later acquired by Expedia, and now serves as president and chief executive of TripIt, one of a bevy of companies, including TravelMuse, UpTake, DealBase and NileGuide, that are labouring to break the OTAs’ grip on the online travelhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/15/2529/battle-for-late-sales-in-eurozone.htmlCCPFri, 15 May 2009 05:35:00 +01:00 The industry is a few weeks into the lates market. As is the case every year, there are already murmurs of a bloodbath as companies battle it out on price to get critical late bookings for this summer. The market has changed, however, with the late booking trend more pronounced than ever. This means companies are relying more heavily on bookings being made in the next eight weeks before the school summer holidays. For many, it is a case of making the best of a bad situation. Booking figures are unlikely to recover to a positive year-on-year position, but there is room for some recovery if they can make deals attractive enough for the couples-dominated late booking market. Until now, the clear trends in the market have been for all-inclusive holidays and non-eurozone destinations. Both are linked to consumer reaction to market conditions: holidaymakers budgeting in the face of financial pressure and looking at where their pound will go further. This trendhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/12/2525/why-there-is-a-european-battlefield-for-the-lates-market.htmlCCPTue, 12 May 2009 11:14:00 +01:00 esterday’s trading update from TUI Travel showed it still has 42% of its capacity to sell in the lates market. It has tried to pitch a positive message, with late recent sales only 11% down compared to a cumulative 17% down. This is not surprising given it is in the lates period for May and June departures and has to sell at any price. So what other key issues did the statement not cover? Supply costs We can expect a swing back to the eurozone in the lates market. Brochure sales have been focused on non eurozone destinations such as Turkey and Egypt, with eurozone destinations having sold badly, for example, Menorca and Majorca. But in the lates market the majority of charter flight seats left to sell will be eurozone destinations at low prices. Supposedly, low cost carriers charge higher prices close to departure and historically have not been a major part of the lates market. However, poor load factorhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/08/2424/uk-government-needs-to-listen-to-the-travel-industry.htmlCCPWed, 08 Apr 2009 09:17:00 +01:00 The aviation industry is not getting a lot of love from the government these days. 2009 is a year in which government support could make a huge difference. It is very clear from recent reports from the CAA, the OAG and IATA that passenger numbers are considerably lower than a year ago, both in the UK and internationally. IATA has just predicted that airlines will lose US$4.7 billion this year compared to the US$8.5 billion lost in 2008. One bright spot currently is the fall in the current jet fuel price which is down 63.2% from a year ago (IATA). This should save airlines about US$52 Billion compared to last year.   However with demand for premium passenger fares well down and with passenger traffic expected to contract overall by 5.7% over the year, the jet fuel price is only  a ray of light in an otherwise challenging time. It is therefore no wonder travel bosses are now demanding a government U-turn on the planned huge hikehttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/03/2414/holidaybreak-ceo-interview-carl-michel.htmlCCPFri, 03 Apr 2009 10:28:00 +01:00 Since Carl Michel began as chief executive of Holidaybreak four years ago, he has overseen an expansion plan that has become the company’s saving grace in the current economic climate and a key plank to its future survival. Instead of remaining a wholly leisure travel company - Holidaybreak’s roots are in camping holidays - it broadened its net to tap into the education sector, providing holidays for UK schoolchildren for the first time. Its acquisition of market leader PGL in May 2007 has since been followed by the acquisition of NST Holdings in October 2007 and the Hertford Travel Group in June 2008. Michel says: "When I came to the business in 2005 there was a sense that the structure of the company - there were three divisions - was not well balanced. It needed an additional leg. We liked what we saw in education. It was travel related but was more a part of people’s expenditure; they would not foresake thttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/03/31/2401/streetview-is-fuelling-the-mapmania-in-travel.htmlCCPTue, 31 Mar 2009 11:45:00 +01:00 The potential for location-based information is becoming increasingly apparent as it infiltrates our everyday lives. It's a logical way of connecting people, and has the potential to drastically simplify how we research, select and book a holiday. Imagine if you were able to do it all from one map. However, the availability of the necessary data and technology has been somewhat prohibitive in allowing such a system to be developed. This looks set to change in 2009 with a viable solution on the way. The acquisition of data has accelerated since Google effectively bought its own satellite in September 2008. Despite this move Google was still beaten by Italian company Seety in providing the data and imagery for map users to view certain UK locations at street level as if actually standing there. But Google is close behind and has already unveiled (and, in some cases, removed elements of) its highly controversial StreetView product. Other advances