December 2008 Archives

Mike Wilson of Denver, Colorado, seems like a regular kind of guy. Recently he's been doing his shopping in the run up to Christmas, visiting the doctor etc (all played out, inevitably, on his Twitter page).

Two days ago, however, he found himself leaping from a burning Boeing 737-500 in a ravine by the edge of the runway at Denver Airport.

Not only did he manage to take a picture of the crash site, but he Twittered the aftermath of the event in minute detail from almost the second he jumped out of the plane - covering how he felt after the crash to what happened to other passengers and how the airline was treating the survivors (NB: all surivived).

On the spot reporting in the extreme.

Here is an official news report with a terrifying picture. Wilson is a lucky boy.

Buried in our list of predictions for 2009 is a very interesting comment from Kenny Picken, managing director of travel technology firm Traveltek.

"The second most talked about topic has to be the ATOL bonding situation where we have seen at last some action from the CAA.

"I say at last because in my view the CAA have created all the uncertainty due to a complete lack of leadership leading to this terrible lack of clarity in our industry at a time when it really needed it most.

"Sadly however, they have preyed upon a great company in Travel Republic and whilst I applaud Kane Pirie and his team for being strong enough to challenge the CAA, I fear that 2009 will still see no final decision and when it does come, what will be left of this fantastically innovative online award winning business?

"One has to fear for them. Why can't the travel industry just insure its risk like any other industry?"

Given the recent bashing Travel Republic has received from various quarters following the alleged CAA breaches, this seems to be the most public bit of support so far for Furner, Pirie et al.

Could the tide be turning?

NB: Travel Republic is not a client of Traveltek.

Outsource-hungry British Airways emailed today to point us in the direction of their business partner Christmas card.

Erm...

Say no more.

The exit of Alex Zivoder form Expedia is interesting on many levels, not least because no-one seems to want to say who will be in charge of the UK and other European parts of the business (apart from global president Eric Grosse) once Dermot Halpin leaves next week.

Anyway, tucked away on the Viagogo site is a list of 'advisors' to the ticket agency - obviously important people that Zivoder will be turning to in his first few weeks at the company.

Rubbing shoulders with the likes of David Katz (Yahoo entertainment guru) is none other than... lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman.

Yes the silly seson is upon us and at Travolution Towers we're receiving lots of press releases with bizarre surveys and top ten lists.

However, SeaFrance's viral, created by Steel, has cheered us up and put us in the right mood with this video clip on what Christmas is all about....

It seems all those family row stories about dad walking out and mum getting upset on Christmas day have finally been confirmed.

Get your thinking caps on tho as there's £1,000 up for grabs for each of the five 'best, funniest, craziest', Christmas wishes.

Anyway, bah humbug, don't despair just yet, Travolution is carrying out the serious business of collating predictions for 2009 and we've got two bumper newswires still to come.

We are collecting predictions for 2009 from across the industry, ahead of publishing a big piece on the Travolution site next week.

If you want to get involved please send your three predictions for the following year to kevin.may[AT]rbi.co.uk.

Cheers!

That's what some are already saying following today's news that Travelrepublic was hit yesterday with a string of court orders over breaches of civil aviation guidelines.

There will be those who have been buying ATOL bonds for years that will be rubbing their hands in glee at what could turn out to be a "very messy", as one put it, few months ahead for Messrs Pirie and Furner, when the case reaches court in February next year.

The irony is this: if XL hadn't collapsed back in September, the industry would have plodded on and bickered for eternity in the trade press about the merits of bonding.

Indeed, some will say that the XL saga may actually have done some good in the end, if Travelrepublic ends up on the wrong side of the court's decision.

Unfortunately for Pirie and Furner, they have almost become the Ryanair's of online travel (in other words: the company everyone loves to hate) in recent months, such has been their stance over the ATOL issue.

On the other hand it would be difficult to imagine a company headed by executives with a strong track record of success so far and intellectual pedigree to have not considered the XL-bonding scenario it now finds itself in.

Read Travelrepublic's own T&Cs.

The ATOL bond, however, should not be seen as soem kind of Holy Grail of selling travel. Some big retailers have threatened to pull out of the bonding scheme in favour of supplier protection insurance.

So let's put this into context a little bit more.

A week ago Hoseasons chief executive Richard Carrick said consumer confidence was "shot to pieces" over the economic situation.

The CAA and the Air Travel Trust Fund trustees have decided to pay out so that customers don't lose out. But, their pockets aren't that deep!

We reported that summonses have been issued against Travel Republic and its directors.

Travolution's own sources say the online retailer has retained a top barrister. Travel Republic, unsurprisingly, has declined to make any public statement.

However, there are some key issues very much in play:

* How long will magistrates proceedings drag on for?

* What will the big two and others do in the meantime?

* Why is the whole ATOL protection system still a mess?

* Will consumers continue to support companies in legal proceedings with the CAA?

* Will the banks and credit card companies continue to support these same companies?

These are just some of the issues this whole debacle raises without mention of consumer confidence.

Where does it all leave Joe Public? They get their money back but how much confidence are they going to have in a travel industry that is desperate for its pounds right now?

This could not be happening at a worse time for the industry.

A week late from the December 4 date bosses promised us back in October, but Easyvoyage - the French meta search engine with a difference - is now live with a dedicated UK site.

Looks like they've secured advertising fvrom hotelclub.co.uk, alpharooms.com and hotelconnect.co.uk amongst others for the launch.

Lest we forget, Easyvoyage's founder Jean-Pierre Nadir told us they would spend around two million Euro on PPC keyword buying to support the launch of the UK site.

Question of the Day...

Le Web 2008 in Paris held a start-up competition over the course of the event for European companies.

The overall winner was Viewdle, an intriguing site from the Ukraine which uses old military technology for online video facial recognition. Sounds cool huh!

Anyway, Webnode won the silver medal and user review site Zoover picked up the bronze.

Zoover is an interesting case. It's a classic travel UGC offering and is clearly trying to position itself as an alternative to Tripadvisor.

The About Us says:

"Zoover is the largest independent travel website in Europe which has free access for all visitors and is a orientated website with reviews and opinions of hotels, destinations for travellers by travellers."

Now, of course, not only would Tripadvisor disagree with the opening statement but the likes of Trivago - another start-up, backed by David Soskin and Hugo Burge's Howzat Media investment vehicle - might have something to say, too.

The question, however, is this:

Given that Zoover launched in 2004 in the Netherlands, can it really claim to be a "start-up"? Or, more importantly, when does a start-up cease to be?

When it has secured X number of funding rounds? Number of employees reaches point X?

We have recently had some issues behind the scenes with the commenting system for the blog.

Apologies for those that have waited for a lengthy period of time to see their comments appear against posts. This problem should be rectified shortly.

Over and out...

A bit of Twitter-blogger naval-gazing here, but.....

To his credit, Alex Bainbridge of TourCMS doesn't pass up an opportunity to try something new - and then claim it as an "industry first".

Today he has "issued" a press release via Twitter.

Now some might suggest that having the Twitter limit of 140 characters doesn't lend itself well to context and quotes. [and it's lazy?]

And it would fail completely in its inability, in Bainbridge's words via an email, to provide any 'notes to editors'.

Anyway, this is what the 'press release' had to say:

"+++exclusive+++ TourCMS (07 to 08 year on year) booking numbers up 500% (yeah that was the press release). Will do more numbers in Feb09"

There is actually some context on the TourCMS website.

Not sure if we'll be putting it in our press releases section on the website, but fair play to TourCMS.

But a Twitter first?

Don't you just hate when you get scooped!

Heard from a pretty reliable source very early this morning that Google is about to take its Google Chrome browser out of beta and open it to the wider world.

But then discovered on TechCrunch by the time I got to a connection (I've been cocooned at the Travel Weekly Globes' judging session) that vice president Melissa Mayer announced it at Le Web 2008 in Paris just an hour or so ago.

Anyway, not bitter...

Realistic competitor to IE8 (when it arrives) and Firefox?

No-one will be particularly surprised with the news this morning that British Airways is looking outsource a major part of its flagship website ba.com.

What may have pushed an eyebrow in the upward direction, however, was the revelation that the website currently costs close to £30 million a year to run - a figure confirmed by three independent sources.

So what do we think of BA's decision to outsource?

What are the pitfalls, if any, of handing over control to a third party?

Is it likely that BA would seek to bring such services as ecommerce back in-house once the economy picks up?

RBI's blogmeister Adam Tinworth is in Paris this week for the annual Le Web extravaganza.

Catch up with him via our sister title Computer Weekly's blog, The Social Enterprise.

He is also Twittering like a maniac.

Guillaume Thevenot from Hotel Blogs is also there.

Never let it be said that the Skyscanner team do not miss an opportunity to bring in some SEO around a news event.

Using comment pieces on their blog, the flight search engine did it at the premiere of James Bond's latest incarnation, Quantum of Solace, then following the recent attacks in Mumbai.

And today they took it upon themselves to comment in a very tongue in cheek way about the recent Lapland debacle in the UK.

Recent debates have asked whether companies can use blogs to good effect. These posts by Skyscanner demonstrate that you probably can.

[or: The Ambiguity of User Intent in Searches]

Here at Travolution we don't typically set out to offend anyone, much less entire populations of cities and towns across the globe.

That said, does anyone know where Harvey is?

[Cue frantic searching on Wikipedia]

It seems Harvey is quite a popular place name, in fact. There are four in the US alone, not to mention the one in Australia.

But despite sitting alongside with some very knowledgeable destination hacks at Travel Weekly, we were all forced to brush up on our geography recently after a curious run of events.

After searching for the well known travel firm 'harvey world travel' on Google last week, we came across Kayak recommending itself in sponsored listings as the "Office Harvey Travel Site".

Schurely schome mishtake?

Apparently not. Kayak assures us it is not trying to cause any confusion and it's all to do with "the ambiguity of user intent".

Their man says: "When a consumer searches for Paris Hilton, are they looking for the celebrity or the hotel in Paris?

"The only thing we have to work with is the query the user puts in the search box. For all the power search gives you, it is unclear what the consumer mind is after."

Kayak says it has a database of locations across the world and its keyword campaign picks up terms accordingly.

It just happens that Harvey, in the grand scheme of things, is a travel destination that Kayak UK is in interested in and, by remarkable coincidence, is also the name of a major travel brand.

Has anyone been to Harvey?

For those unlucky to be not going to the Travolution Question Time event tonight in London, here is your opportunity to quiz our panel of travel luminaries:

* Faisal Galaria - European managing director, Kayak
* Dick Porter - co-founder and former-chief executive, STA Travel
* Arjo Ghosh - chief executive, iCrossing
* Richard Carrick - chief executive, Hoseasons
* Daniel Robb - travel industry lead, Google

We have plenty of questions submitted by the attendees, but leave a comment here and we will try our hardest to get it aired.

We blogged about the infamous Holiday Extras parking ad back in September this year and wondered privately how long before the Advertising Standards Association would receive a complaint.





It didn't take long, but today the ASA has thrown out the complaint.

Shame the ASA just didn't crack down on the ad for being rubbish. At the time of writing this post it was played via the Vimeo player 2,600 times and only two people have been moved sufficiently enough to say they like it. Less than a thousand views on the Youtube version.

[Expect that to increase today after the ruling]

An Old School hack friend of mine once said that when you get mentioned in the Daily Mail you know "you've made it".

[A dubious Badge of Honour, some might say]

Fortunately Travolution's high-profile appearance in the Mail recently was actually nothing to do with us and far less attention-grabbing for the paper than a political scandal or immigrant scare story.


It seems the Audi 'Travolution' traffic light system is grabbing the attention of the national media, thus the newspaper's lengthy analysis of the system.

Despite the reams of coverage of the system over the past few months, we are still solus on Page One of Google.

There are always extremely mixed points of view over online brochures in travel - so is this the way to do it?

Lodge Saint Helene.

Hat-tip: WeaverLuke via Twitter

Something has puzzled me for a week or so after the PhoCusWright conference in Los Angeles.

Maybe 'puzzled' is the wrong word: 'intrigued' is probably a better description when pondering how the UK travel industry will react when the growth potential of the holiday home market is realised.

Obviously Brian Sharples, CEO of US 'vacation rentals' giant HomeAway, was quite understandably talking a good game when he told me in Los Angeles about the size of the European market - an astonishing $25 billion, based on HomeAway's evaluation following a paid-for report by PhoCusWright into the US market.

A sizeable share of this bounty is still transacted privately through classified listings and affiliate sites.

HomeAway made what appears now to be a good decision in 2005 to buy Holiday-Rentals, the UK holiday home letting website and market leader. It also bought Owners-Direct.

The Austin, Texas-based outfit has recently found itself on the end a mammoth funding round of $250 million.

[As someone pointed out to me the other day, this investment was probably the biggest injection of private capital into an online travel firm since the equity rounds with the big tech firms in the US at the back end of 2006-early 2007]

So while so many on the 'traditional' wings of the travel industry, others are seeing huge growth opportunities.

Sharples admitted HomeAway, which until now has stuck to its owner-subscription business programme, could well follow the path of the start-up holiday home sites in the US, such as VacationRoost.

This would be a major decision to switch disciplines to an online travel agency model but it may well also be necessary.

One of the critical questions in all this is whether the existing European online travel firms will attempt to move in to capture growth opportunities which are now emerging.

The holiday rental market in the UK could be turned on its head if the likes of Expedia or lastminute.com or Thomas Cook and Thomson decide to actively target homeowners and offer them a new distribution channel.

The marketing muscle would be an obvious benefit to homeowners if any of these companies decided to have a serious go at the market and, some might argue, the hotel contracting teams operate in a similar way, meaning the recruitment of homes would be a smoother process (although the volume would be considerably different).

So, should the existing holiday rental sites be concerned about the - as yet unknown - intentions of OTAs and others with regards to this enormous, as yet untapped market?

Would moving into holiday rentals be a step too far or an inspired move for travel firms?

NB: Here is some interesting context about how unrealised the rentals market truly is. At the same event where the tips for targeting bloggers came up last week, the MD of the host agency - which is one of the biggest in the UK - was completely unaware of the size of the market.

"I better get myself one of those rental sites as a client, eh?" the boss said reasonably sheepishly.

I had the opportunity last week to speak and sit on a panel at a private travel seminar for a large digital marketing agency, with delegates from a cross-section of the industry.

A fellow presenter was the PR guru from the agency, who outlined their strategy for communicating and influencing bloggers and prominent people within travel forums.

It made for an interesting session following the recent debates on the Travolution Blog and elsewhere on the web.

Any client who wants to reach and hopefully influence bloggers would typically find themselves part of a lengthy and intense programme of understanding and engagement - a process far more subtle than the smash-and-grab approach favoured by some travel companies.

Indeed it seems for those that have the money there is much more going on to this apparent Dark Art of marketing beyond brand awareness and coverage.

For this particular agency - which is one of the biggest in the country and part of a global network with some seriously clients - a seven-step approach is put in place for the client.

* Research the blogs and forums where relevant conversations take place.
* Identify the key influencers, whether it is the blog host or a regular commenter.
* Observe the posts and conversations that take place.
* Analyse the conversations to establish what approach is needed.
* Engage in the conversation whether it is through influencers or directly.
* Monitor the output to check the input on the brand message.
* Report back to the client, start again, re-engage, and adapt the strategy.

The good thing from a travel client's perspective (but probably not from the holier than thou travel bloggers out there who would probably throw their laptops up in horror) is that PR through social media is now very much seen as part of a three-pronged approach which also includes the traditional digital marketing disciplines of SEO and pay-per-click advertising.

So the question for consumer travel bloggers (if they want to) is how do they police such activity?

It is clear that if an agency of this size is using this approach then they have clearly had some successes (they didn't cite any travel-related activity, which is a shame).

The interesting thing to note is that subtlety is a fantastic Dark Art and it seems like the types of people who have devised some of the most influential marketing of all time are now attempting to work their magic through social media.

Whether blog publishers or participants in social media choose to like this approach or not is actually rather irrelevant. It is happening and is more than likely going to intensify...

So what do we all think? I would be particularly keen to hear from PRs themselves and other consumer travel bloggers?