TravelBizBuzz

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed a lot of buzz these past few months on eco-friendly and humanitarian travel programs.

Companies like CheapCaribbean and Travelocity are either building or offering volunteer vacations and online travel agencies and airlines have launched carbon offsets programs, to name a few.

With that in mind, I wasn’t surprised to see a Travelocity press release today announcing a significant increase of interest in volunteer vacations along with an announcement that it would be awarding three $5,000 grants per quarter for volunteer travel.

The facts: Travelocity’s annual forecast poll of its active members found that 11 percent of respondents plan to volunteer during their vacations in 2007. That may not be a lot, considering the respondents were a mere 1,280; however, the interest was up from 6 percent in 2006. That’s almost double -- so there’s a good chance the growing interest is just beginning and will continue to flourish over the next few years.

Traditional travel agents are participating in the trend as well. “ASTA, too, is taking advantage of the interest in volunteer travel and has partnered with a US company, Global Volunteers, to introduce US travel agents to the concept of volunteer tourism and how they can best market this to their clients,” said American Society of Travel Agents VP William A. Maloney, CTC in a speech last November.

Takeaway: If your travel company isn’t somehow catering to the eco or do-gooder enthusiast, you could be missing out.

And I’m not just talking about catering to the end-consumer. Although a huge chunk of the market is there, other suppliers and intermediaries in the distribution chain are finding ways to make a difference.

For example, TRX Inc. announced Feb. 12 its new Carbon Emissions Model for the corporate travel market. The tool gives corporations empirical data on the environmental impact of employee travel by matching a corporation’s detailed travel data (such as arrival/departure cities, carriers, etc.) with worldwide flight schedules and aircraft and engine information to calculate CO2 emissions the company produces through travel, according to a press release.

And don’t think for a second that corporations could care less about their environmental impact. “Corporations asked us to help them understand their travel program’s carbon emissions and whether or how that might impact their airline negotiations and supplier decisions,” said Scott Gillespie, VP & general manager for TRX Travel Analytics. Gillespie even suggests that corporate travel managers could use the tool as “the tie-breaker between two competitive airlines.”

--Lindsey Rushmore, Editor-In-Chief, Travel Distribution Report--

Posted by TDR at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I tuned into Donald Trump’s The Apprentice last night when I heard Priceline would be responsible for the contestants’ newest challenge.

What happened: The contestants, who were divided into two teams, had to promote priceline.com’s Name Your Own Price hotel service in a Los Angeles mall by convincing as many passer-bys as possible to sign up for a free vacation. I was expecting the competition to be about marketing methods, but it was simpler than that, and a point I think many travel companies should consider more: the language barrier -- that’s right here in our own country.

Bottom line: The losing team suffered from inability to market the product to a mall population that was at least 50 percent Latino, many of whom did not speak English.

Many travel companies are right on top of the language issue, as the very essence of travel suggests language flexibility, but after some quick online searches, I found that the nation’ most popular travel sites aren’t as tuned-in as you would think. The most popular online travel agencies do not have a prominent “in español” button on their main pages. Even Priceline’s own U.S. Web site does not have a link for Spanish-speaking customers. Ironically, though, most of the major OTAs do have links for site in other languages directed to other markets such as Germany, France or Denmark.

It’s no secret that the U.S. is continuing to experience huge a growth in the Spanish-speaking population. In fact, the buying power of this group is expected to jump 60 percent from 2002 to 2007 (according to the Census Bureau). So why wouldn’t our own country’s travel major travel sites want to do more to tap that market?

One bright spot: Southwest Airlines did hop on this key point about American demographics and does have an easily accessible Spanish-language version of its site. The airline also has a dedicated Spanish-language reservations telephone line.

If your travel company caters to the Latino population in the U.S., on your Web site or in your call center, whether you’re a supplier or an intermediary, let me know!

--Lindsey Rushmore, Editor-In-Chief, Travel Distribution Report--

Posted by TDR at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (182)

“Nothing frustrates customers more than having to ‘start all over again’ with a customer service representative when they transition from the Web to the phone,” said John Federman, CEO of conversions solution company eStara in a press release today.

I couldn’t agree more. Last week I was booking a flight through a travel company I’ll leave un-named, and at the end of my booking process, an error appeared. I didn’t want to click “buy” until I understood the problem, so I grudgingly picked up the phone and dialed the call center, bracing myself for the fact that I’d have to start from scratch -- or even worse, lose the great low airfare I found after painstaking research. Long story short, I was on hold for 15 minutes and eventually prompted to leave a message, so I hung up the phone and booked on another site for a higher price.

A Better way: I was relieved to see today that European carrier Spanair is linking the phone and the Web to catch those confused customers before they leave to book elsewhere -- and it’s working too.

Spanair implemented a “Click to Call” feature from eStara. The button appears near the end of the online booking process and allows Web browsers to directly connect to customer service agents over the telephone one of two ways: Either the customer connects directly to an agent via the Web and speaks using the computer microphone; or the customer requests a telephone call from an agent immediately, in 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc., by entering her phone number and waiting for the phone to ring, Mike Kaplan, a spokesperson for eStara, explained to me in an interview.

Lucky for Spanair, “Click to Call” is proving its worth. The program delivers more than 5,000 calls per month and has delivered an 80-percent sales conversion rate for the airline, according to a press release. And a survey of Spanair customers found that 18 percent of customers booked because they were offered “Click to Call.”

A handful of other travel companies have also given eStara’s “Click to Call” solutions a try, including Continental and Hotels.com, Kaplan said. All I can say is, thank goodness!

--Lindsey Rushmore, Editor-In-Chief, Travel Distribution Report--

Posted by TDR at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (320)

Avis Europe knows its direct online distribution strategy will only work if the customer feels just as comfortable on its own Web site as she would on a retailer’s site.

The car hire company has been involved in some major Web site improvements as part of its plan to differentiate the customer experience, stated John Phipps, director of Web development for Avis Europe, in an announcement last December. He emphasized that “the car rental reservation process could benefit from using traditional online retailing principles.”

Initial improvements focused on making car rental reservations “both faster and more straightforward” by featuring user-friendly language, improved navigation and the ability to see vehicle availabilityby size and vehicle type “within just 3 clicks,” the company reported in December.

New partnership: Since then, Avis Europe has hooked up with InQuira to make further technological upgrades. The new Web site will feature InQuira-powered intelligent search capabilities to help visitors “find rental locations from searching on cities, airport codes and even landmarks,” according to a Jan. 31 InQuira press release.

In addition, the InQuira Self-Service module will present customers with options to purchase or rent additional items during the rental process, such as travel guidebooks, car seats and ski racks.

Will other car rental sites dig into more Web improvements as well? For now, Avis Europe believes its new site, www.avis.co.uk, “will set a new standard for online car rentals,” Phipps said, so it’s up to other car rental companies to prove him right or wrong.

--Lindsey Rushmore, Editor-In-Chief, Travel Distribution Report--

Posted by TDR at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)