Who Needs a Travel Agent?
by Liz Tascio
From booking airfares to finding hotels, if you’re part of a social network, you’re good to go
Liz Tascio reports
When it comes to travel, perhaps more so than any other industry, word-of-mouth is king. Travelers make decisions on where to stay, where to eat, and what to do based on recommendations from friends.
No surprise, then, that many of today’s niche social networking sites are built around travel: WAYN, TravelPod, TripAdvisor, IGoUGo, SideStep (thanks to the recent acquisition of TripUp), FlyerTalk — the list is tremendous.
“It’s built off the fact that travel research and travel bookings are growing online,” says Rohit Bhargava, the writer behind Influential Marketing Blog. “People like to share their expertise and experiences when it comes to travel, whether that’s finding the best deal or telling people where not to go.”
Travel marketers have responded by advertising on general and niche networks, building their own networks, and collecting feedback consumers leave on other sites.
Travelocity, for example, maintains a MySpace page for its Roaming Gnome; friends get e-mail alerts about travel deals, and the company tracks hits and bookings generated from the page.
The online travel agent first opened its pages to user reviews in 2000. “I think when the hotel reviews first came on, there was a certain amount of skepticism,” says Joel Frey, a Travelocity spokesman. “Whenever there are negative things being said about a particular hotel, it’s going to cause people to bristle a little bit.”
There may be no hotel more famous for this than Starwood’s Aloft, which debuted on Second Life in October 2006, well before its scheduled May 2008 unveiling. The company invited Second Lifers to events at the virtual hotel, solicited feedback and made changes in the real-life prototype based on hundreds of suggestions, including color scheme and bathroom accessories.
Starwood now plans to give its Second Life real estate to a good cause and return in a new space after the first hotels actually open.
“I think when we get back into Second Life, we’ll have a good fan base,” who will be eager to give the real thing a try, says Brian McGuinness, Starwood’s vice president of Aloft hotels. “I believe we’ll get them as lifelong customers.”
Travel 2.0
In a survey this year, Yahoo Travel found that 61 percent of people now go online for vacation recommendations, says Fiona Lake Waslander, the company’s director of product management. “Travel 1.0, when travel planning moved online, was really all about prices,” Waslander says. “No longer are you looking for a hotel just based on a price, but you’re looking at user reviews and user ratings and photos.”
In addition to its primary social media product, Trip Planner, Yahoo recently added Yahoo Messenger Flight Planner, which allows users to research and book flights collaboratively.
Those services are just a few examples of how travel marketers are responding to consumers’ desire for new social applications. SideStep’s Trips was one of the original applications to launch on Facebook Platform in May. The application lets users invite friends on a trip, search friends’ travel plans, and see trips friends are taking as they happen in real time.
SideStep jumped at the chance to work with Facebook. A social network devoted to travel is certainly finely targeted, but not as active — people don’t update their travel plans every day of the year, says Sam Shank, vice president of SideStep.
“If you can layer [your application] on top of a social graph that is existing and you’re updating for a variety of reasons, that is powerful,” Shank says. “What we end up with is an application that really mirrors how people plan trips.”
Aligning a niche network with a general one can make both more appealing for brands, since travel networks make room for input of detailed, well-organized information that a general network may not.
That extreme targeting of travel social networks benefits marketers, says Peter Germonpre, founder of CityTherapy, a niche social networking site for people who like to explore European cities. The site launched in June; Germonpre hopes to have 150,000 members by the end of the year.
For example, he says the Eurostar train service might be interested in knowing which members plan to travel from London to Paris.
“These guys are looking for a whole bunch of partnerships to get their message across to take the train rather than the flight,” Germonpre says. “We go to them and say we know which people are traveling from this point to that point, and we know that they’re still looking into how they arrange transport.”
Airlines haven’t been as successful as other travel marketers in the social networking space, perhaps because they haven’t prioritized it amid financial pressures, Bhargava says.
One airline, KLM Royal Dutch, has launched its own social networks — Club Africa, Club China, and the Flying Blue Golf Club — for business travelers. The networks cater to a lucrative sector of the airlines’ base, and offer extra value to business travelers, who want to connect and network (in the traditional sense of the word) while traveling.
Bhargava applauds the move, but he wants to see even more improvement in travel social networking sites. “A big thing that’s missing in the travel industry world online is the community sites that we’re talking about are very separate from the booking sites, and if someone was smart, they would try to put those closer together.”
When it comes to ensuring a great travel experience, consumers will continue to seek advice from each other, both from sites like TripAdvisor, which boasts 10 million traveler reviews, and in more intimate ways, like SideStep’s collaboration with Facebook. Those are the recommendations which may ultimately wield the most power.
“At the end of the day, you don’t need to read 100 reviews,” says SideStep’s Shank. “You need to read one review from your best friend.”
Monday, August 6, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
GetThere2go seamlessly replicates a corporation‘s travel site on any Web-enabled mobile device, allowing road warriors to book flights, add an extra hotel night, or rent a car – all within corporate policy guidelines.
GetThere, Sabre’s online corporate travel reservation technology, announced that corporations using GetThere can soon offer business travelers the capability to book and manage trips anywhere around the globe via their hand-held devices. GetThere2go seamlessly replicates a corporation‘s travel site on any Web-enabled mobile device, allowing road warriors to book flights, add an extra hotel night, or rent a car – all within corporate policy guidelines.
GetThere, which recorded more than 10 million online corporate bookings in 2006, unveiled the new functionality at the annual National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Convention & Exposition in Boston, Mass.
To facilitate this new service for its global client base, GetThere entered into a unique relationship with Usablenet, Inc. New York-based Usablenet first offered mobile services to travelers in 2006, and in only 18 months, Usablenet’s scale and speed has driven the company to a leadership position in the mobile travel arena. Three of the top six U.S. airlines use Usablenet, as well as three of the world’s top hotel brands and Amtrak. On an average day, 20,000 to 30,000 travelers connect via Usablenet to manage their trip via their mobile devices.
From a corporate policy standpoint, GetThere2go eases concerns travel managers may have when it comes to mobile-generated bookings. Options for air, car and hotel are provided in the same manner as if the traveler was shopping on a computer. Preferred airlines and hotels, complete with logos and photos, are highlighted on the small screen. If a company has a GetThere feature such as Online Ticket Exchange active, the traveler can access that functionality as well. Fulfillment and quality control are facilitated through the standard agency process.
GetThere2go’s arrival coincides with the rapid growth of the number of travelers across the globe boarding planes and trains with a mobile device – and they are using those devices to perform many tasks. Mobile technology providers estimate that as many as 97 percent of business travelers carry a phone or PDA, and a May report by Forrester Research noted that “45 percent of business travelers use mobile data services such as text messaging and the mobile Internet. Mobile data services form the foundation for the next generation of travel distribution.”
The initiative to launch GetThere2go marks Usablenet’s first foray into managed travel. “GetThere’s roster of Fortune 500 clients and agency resellers that already have harnessed online managed travel is a critical component of our decision to work with GetThere and enter the business travel sector,” said Nick Taylor, vice president of business development for Usablenet.
“The introduction of GetThere2go is a natural extension of our services at time when business travelers are increasingly asking for tools that give them more control over their journeys,” said Ray Pazerekas, vice president of business development for GetThere. “The ability to manage trip options without needing a computer or an agent gives travelers the freedom and flexibility to make the in-policy choice that best suits their needs. GetThere2go makes it easy for road warriors to stay focused on business and spend less time dealing with travel arrangements.”
GetThere2go will be available to an initial group of GetThere customers in August, with plans to roll it out to the wider universe of GetThere clients and resellers later this year. Representatives from GetThere and Usablenet will demonstrate GetThere2go in GetThere’s booth (# 1433) at the NBTA event.
Mobile Search in the US
JULY 24, 2007Still waiting for a market leader.
Competition for the US mobile search market promises to be fierce, thanks to the large US online ad market and strong pushes by portals.
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eMarketer projects that by 2011, mobile search will account for around $715 million, or almost 15% of a total mobile advertising market worth nearly $4.7 billion.
Granted, a $715 million mobile search market is not a foregone conclusion, but many of the behavioral factors are in place in the US market to push mobile search forward. For one, there is already a strong correlation between mobile Internet use and accessing mobile search services.
In April 2007, iCrossing reported that three-quarters of mobile Internet subscribers access mobile search services. This is in contrast to the little more than 20% of general mobile phone users in the US who access mobile search.
The US mobile search market can be expected to suffer some growing pains over the next two to three years as the tug of war between the major operators, the major portal players, major media and a gaggle of mobile search start-ups compete for the title of mobile search leader.
eMarketer Senior Analyst John du Pre Gauntt said, "Mobile search in the US has all the right parts on the table: a huge online advertising ecosystem, the world's leading content industry, massive portal players, major league mobile operators and a host of VC-backed start-ups.
"In other words, it'll be a bloody mess over the next few years sorting out the center of gravity for mobile search, as each player tries to convince the others to follow its lead. The good news for marketers is that there's enough of a prize for the winner(s) that resolution will come."
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The Search Wars Are Going Mobile
JULY 17, 2007The telecom and Internet industries are colliding head-on in competition for control of the consumer mobile search business.
Telecom carriers, handset manufacturers, publishers, directory and yellow pages companies, Silicon Valley giants and a gaggle of start-ups are squaring off to contend for the title of mobile search champion. Each is trying to convince marketers that it is the natural inheritor of mobile search.
"Mobile search is a battle to define perhaps the most important new interface with the consumer," says John du Pre Gauntt, eMarketer Senior Analyst and the author of the new report, Mobile Search: Clash of the Titans. "Whoever cracks the consumer and commercial code for delivering and monetizing relevant answers for people on the go will secure a license to print money, at least for a time."
Depending on a researcher's particular bias toward telecom, Web or technology factors, the published forecasts for mobile search vary from $1.5 billion by 2011 (from Informa Telecoms & Media) to over $11 billion by 2008 (according to Piper Jaffray).
eMarketer forecasts that the general mobile ad spending market — along with ad spending that supports mobile multimedia — should reach over $13.8 billion worldwide during the same period.
Of that total, mobile search is expected to account for 17%.
Altogether, eMarketer projects that the global market for mobile search will approach $2.4 billion by 2011.
"While in absolute terms that figure is not earth-shattering, compared with the online search market, let alone mobile content categories such as messaging, the fact is that mobile search carries with it the promise of radically changing how users access other, far larger content and commerce categories," says Mr. Gauntt. "In that sense, the impact of mobile search goes far beyond its specific industry opportunity."
Regardless of its relatively small size, mobile will continue to attract investment and talent because it is one the best platforms for connecting marketers to consumers with short-term or immediate purchase intent.
For instance, Informa predicts that global mobile entertainment sales will reach over $38 billion by 2011. Of that market, the top three subcategories are music ($13.6 billion by 2011), mobile video and TV ($8.3 billion) and mobile games ($7.2 billion).
"The days when mobile search need only organize a mobile carrier's content retail store are rapidly drawing to a close," says Mr. Gauntt. "Too much money, talent and technology are moving into the mobile marketing space to expect that users, let alone advertisers, will stay content to search within the walled gardens that predominate today."
Monday, July 16, 2007
Virtual marketers have second thoughts about Second Life; Firms find that avatars created by participants in the online society aren't avid shoppers.
Alana Semuels, Times Staff Writer
SECOND LIFE a three-dimensional online society where publicity is cheap and the demographic is edgy and certainly computer-savvy -- should be a marketer's paradise.
But it turns out that plugging products is as problematic in the virtual world as it is anywhere else.
At www.secondlife.com -- where the cost is $6 a month for premium citizenship -- shopping, at least for real-world products, isn't a main activity. Four years after Second Life debuted, some marketers are second-guessing the money and time they've put into it.
"There's not a compelling reason to stay," said Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. that is closing its Second Life shop and donating its virtual land to the nonprofit social-networking group TakingITGlobal.
Linden Lab, the San Francisco firm that created Second Life, sells companies and people pieces of the landscape where they can build stores, conference halls and gardens. Individuals create avatars, or virtual representations of themselves, that travel around this online society, exploring and schmoozing with other avatars. Land developed by users, rather than real-world companies, is among the most popular places in Second Life.
But the sites of many of the companies remaining in Second Life are empty. During a recent in-world visit, Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad Island was devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed to be online.
The schedule of events on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s site was blank, and the green landscape of Dell Island was deserted. Signs posted on the window of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop.
McGuinness said Starwood's venture into Second Life did accomplish something. Feedback from denizens gave Aloft ideas for its physical hotels.
The suggestions included putting radios in showers and painting the lobbies in earth tones rather than primary colors. But now that the design initiative is over, he said, it's difficult to attract people to the virtual hotel to help build the real-world brand.
For some advertisers, the problem is that Second Life is a fantasyland, and the representations of the people who play in it don't have human needs. Food and drink aren't necessary, teleporting is the easiest way to get around and clothing is optional. In fact, the human form itself is optional.
Avatars can play games, build beach huts, dress up like furry animals, flirt with strangers -- sometimes all at once.
Their interests seem to tend toward the risque. Ian Schafer, chief executive of online marketing firm Deep Focus, which advises clients about entering virtual worlds, said he recently toured Second Life. He started at the Aloft hotel and found it empty. He moved on to casinos, brothels and strip clubs, and they were packed. Schafer said he found in his research that "one of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia."
Another problem for some is that Second Life doesn't have enough active residents.
On its website, Second Life says the number of total residents is more than 8 million. But that counts people who signed in once and never returned, as well as multiple avatars for individual residents. Even at peak times, only about 30,000 to 40,000 users are logged on, said Brian Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research.
"You're talking about a much smaller audience than advertisers are used to reaching," Haven said.
Some in the audience don't want to be reached. After marketers began entering Second Life, an avatar named Urizenus Sklar -- in the real world, University of Toronto philosophy professor Peter Ludlow -- wrote in the public-relations blog Strumpette that the community was "being invaded by an army of old world meat-space corporations."
He and other residents accused companies of lacking creativity by setting up traditional-looking stores that didn't fit in. His column was reproduced in the Second Life Herald.
Nissan Motor Co., a subject of such protests, has since transformed its presence in Second Life from a car vending machine to an "automotive amusement park," where avatars can test gravity-defying vehicles and ride hamster balls. Sun Micro has made its participation more interactive and fanciful, Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos said.
Ludlow isn't impressed. He said most firms were more interested in the publicity they received from their ties with Second Life than in the digital world itself. "It was a way to brand themselves as being leading-edge," he said.
Angry avatars have taken virtual action. Reebok weathered a nuclear bomb attack and customers were shot outside the American Apparel store. Avatars are creating fantasy knockoffs of brand-name products too.
Some buying and selling does go on in Second Life. An avatar can acquire currency -- called Linden dollars -- by earning it or buying it with U.S. dollars. (The exchange rate is 268 Lindens to $1.) With a stack of Linden dollars, an avatar can spice up his or her look or while away the time in a casino.
Only a few other virtual worlds allow avatars to create and sell content as Second Life does. But users are flocking to the other worlds, in part because some don't require people to download software to take up residence.
Others just want to access a larger community than Second Life offers. Between May and June, the population of active avatars declined 2.5%, and the volume of U.S. money exchanged within the world fell from a high of $7.3 million in March to $6.8 million in June.
Companies are following them. IBM Corp., which has an extensive presence in Second Life, is expanding into the other environments, including There, which features a digital version of the popular TV show "Laguna Beach," and Entropia Universe, which pits users against one another in a sci-fi civilization.
Consulting firms that were set up to bring brands into Second Life are busy helping clients explore other worlds.
One such agency, Millions of Us, recently announced that it had formed a partnership with Gaia Online, a site popular with teenagers, and CEO Reuben Steiger said it would be unveiling more soon. Millions of Us had previously worked only with Second Life.
"It's not about whether Second Life is good or bad," Steiger said. "It's just that there are a lot of alternatives."
alana.semuels@latimes.com
Alana Semuels, Times Staff Writer
SECOND LIFE a three-dimensional online society where publicity is cheap and the demographic is edgy and certainly computer-savvy -- should be a marketer's paradise.
But it turns out that plugging products is as problematic in the virtual world as it is anywhere else.
At www.secondlife.com -- where the cost is $6 a month for premium citizenship -- shopping, at least for real-world products, isn't a main activity. Four years after Second Life debuted, some marketers are second-guessing the money and time they've put into it.
"There's not a compelling reason to stay," said Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. that is closing its Second Life shop and donating its virtual land to the nonprofit social-networking group TakingITGlobal.
Linden Lab, the San Francisco firm that created Second Life, sells companies and people pieces of the landscape where they can build stores, conference halls and gardens. Individuals create avatars, or virtual representations of themselves, that travel around this online society, exploring and schmoozing with other avatars. Land developed by users, rather than real-world companies, is among the most popular places in Second Life.
But the sites of many of the companies remaining in Second Life are empty. During a recent in-world visit, Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad Island was devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed to be online.
The schedule of events on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s site was blank, and the green landscape of Dell Island was deserted. Signs posted on the window of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop.
McGuinness said Starwood's venture into Second Life did accomplish something. Feedback from denizens gave Aloft ideas for its physical hotels.
The suggestions included putting radios in showers and painting the lobbies in earth tones rather than primary colors. But now that the design initiative is over, he said, it's difficult to attract people to the virtual hotel to help build the real-world brand.
For some advertisers, the problem is that Second Life is a fantasyland, and the representations of the people who play in it don't have human needs. Food and drink aren't necessary, teleporting is the easiest way to get around and clothing is optional. In fact, the human form itself is optional.
Avatars can play games, build beach huts, dress up like furry animals, flirt with strangers -- sometimes all at once.
Their interests seem to tend toward the risque. Ian Schafer, chief executive of online marketing firm Deep Focus, which advises clients about entering virtual worlds, said he recently toured Second Life. He started at the Aloft hotel and found it empty. He moved on to casinos, brothels and strip clubs, and they were packed. Schafer said he found in his research that "one of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia."
Another problem for some is that Second Life doesn't have enough active residents.
On its website, Second Life says the number of total residents is more than 8 million. But that counts people who signed in once and never returned, as well as multiple avatars for individual residents. Even at peak times, only about 30,000 to 40,000 users are logged on, said Brian Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research.
"You're talking about a much smaller audience than advertisers are used to reaching," Haven said.
Some in the audience don't want to be reached. After marketers began entering Second Life, an avatar named Urizenus Sklar -- in the real world, University of Toronto philosophy professor Peter Ludlow -- wrote in the public-relations blog Strumpette that the community was "being invaded by an army of old world meat-space corporations."
He and other residents accused companies of lacking creativity by setting up traditional-looking stores that didn't fit in. His column was reproduced in the Second Life Herald.
Nissan Motor Co., a subject of such protests, has since transformed its presence in Second Life from a car vending machine to an "automotive amusement park," where avatars can test gravity-defying vehicles and ride hamster balls. Sun Micro has made its participation more interactive and fanciful, Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos said.
Ludlow isn't impressed. He said most firms were more interested in the publicity they received from their ties with Second Life than in the digital world itself. "It was a way to brand themselves as being leading-edge," he said.
Angry avatars have taken virtual action. Reebok weathered a nuclear bomb attack and customers were shot outside the American Apparel store. Avatars are creating fantasy knockoffs of brand-name products too.
Some buying and selling does go on in Second Life. An avatar can acquire currency -- called Linden dollars -- by earning it or buying it with U.S. dollars. (The exchange rate is 268 Lindens to $1.) With a stack of Linden dollars, an avatar can spice up his or her look or while away the time in a casino.
Only a few other virtual worlds allow avatars to create and sell content as Second Life does. But users are flocking to the other worlds, in part because some don't require people to download software to take up residence.
Others just want to access a larger community than Second Life offers. Between May and June, the population of active avatars declined 2.5%, and the volume of U.S. money exchanged within the world fell from a high of $7.3 million in March to $6.8 million in June.
Companies are following them. IBM Corp., which has an extensive presence in Second Life, is expanding into the other environments, including There, which features a digital version of the popular TV show "Laguna Beach," and Entropia Universe, which pits users against one another in a sci-fi civilization.
Consulting firms that were set up to bring brands into Second Life are busy helping clients explore other worlds.
One such agency, Millions of Us, recently announced that it had formed a partnership with Gaia Online, a site popular with teenagers, and CEO Reuben Steiger said it would be unveiling more soon. Millions of Us had previously worked only with Second Life.
"It's not about whether Second Life is good or bad," Steiger said. "It's just that there are a lot of alternatives."
alana.semuels@latimes.com
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Online Travelers Bargain-Hunt on the Web
The Internet as a trip starting point.Roughly a quarter of US Internet users traveled on a commercial airline or booked a hotel in both 2005 and 2006, according to PhoCusWright's "Consumer Travel Trends Survey Ninth Edition."
Yet the proportion of people doing these things fell by a percentage point between 2005 and 2006. With the number of Internet-using travelers steady, will competition for their attention increase?
For certain travel products, consumers find the Internet ideal for conducting research but not for booking reservations. Burst Media found that a much higher percentage of survey respondents planned to research online and book offline hotel accommodations (50.1%) than airline flights (39.2%) or car rental reservations (12.2%).
Generally speaking, the more complex the travel product, the more likely it will be researched online but booked offline. Travelers who book offline cite help from live customer service agents as a major incentive.
Still, Web sites remain the biggest influence on airline ticket purchasing for US Internet users, according to a DoubleClick and ROI Research survey conducted in July 2006.
In hard-asset categories such as home products and apparel, stores are the most important consumer influence. But in travel, and airfares particularly, Web sites (33%) influenced far more consumers to buy tickets. Word-of-mouth (9%) played a smaller role in airline ticket purchases than in other verticals, and travel agents (8%) had one-quarter of the influence of Web sites.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Online Travel and Demographics
MAY 16, 2007The 55-and-older crowd isn't about to spend retirement tending the garden.
A February 2007 Hitwise study found that slightly more women than men visit online travel sites, and that nearly a quarter of visitors are ages 55 and older.
The age distribution is worth noting because lifestyle trends are altering the types of trips people take and the way they plan and book travel. Those 55 and older will increase substantially as a percentage of the population during the next 10 years. Yet Web-based resources tailored specifically for that group have been lacking.
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Don Birch of Abacus International said in the June 2006 EyeforTravel newsletter that "we're seeing the emergence of a new generation of older travelers who are healthy, active, street-wise and have unprecedented spending power. This is a lucrative segment but one which has specific needs."
Another online travel study conducted in February 2007 by Nielsen//NetRatings also tracked about a quarter of visits as coming from those ages 55 and older. Nearly half of visitors were ages 45 and older, pointing toward even more growth in the 55-and-older group during the next 10 years.
Youth travelers ages 16 to 24 are another large but underserved market. They now represent more than 20% of all international visitors, according to a study by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Youth & Student Educational Travel Confederation (WYSETC).
The study, cited in March 2007 by TravelMole, stated that "compared with average tourists, adventurous young backpackers stay longer, spend more, seek out alternative destinations and enjoy a wider mix of travel experiences."
Over $700 billion was spent on travel in the US in 2006, according to the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA). Travel spending is expected to rise through 2009, but at decreasing annual rates. The TIA said the slowdown will come from the stabilization of travel prices, softer demand and a general slowdown in consumer spending.
Make sure you're ready for the summer travel season. Read the eMarketer US Online Travel: The Threat of Commoditization report.
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