Whether analyzing fare prices on a transcontinental route or changing car rental fees based on specific market conditions, having access to the latest market intelligence, exactly when you need it, is both trickier than ever and one of the most important factors in staying competitive.

In the past, pricing and revenue managers used expensive and time-consuming methods for gathering market intelligence: purchasing syndicated market research, commissioning custom studies, or conducting manual price checks. In recent years, two things simultaneously occurred to render traditional market intelligence methods obsolete. First, the number of suppliers skyrocketed — regional airlines, niche car rental agencies, boutique hotels, etc. Second, a plethora of travel data has come online as the industry has built out its websites and e-commerce capabilities. Today, if gathered and analyzed appropriately, real-time data from the web provides an unparalleled market-intelligence resource; however, it changes rapidly and can be cumbersome to acquire.

This transparency of travel-related market intelligence makes it even more imperative to have access to data that is continuously updated. It’s important to understand what and how your competitors are really selling across all distribution channels. And knowing, for example, precisely when your competitor is out of seats or rental inventory provides an opportunity to further optimize revenue.

Here are some real-world examples of the rewards of real-time market intelligence:

• Carriers A and B go head-to-head in the competitive New York-to-Los Angeles route. Carrier B files a deeply discounted fare. Before matching, Carrier A uses market intelligence tools to “shop” the web and discovers that Carrier B is only offering the sale fare on a late night flight on Tuesdays. Carrier B then decides the sale fare is not significant enough to match and minimizes revenue dilution.

• Car Rental Company A and B compete in various cities. Obtaining and quickly analyzing online data, Company A notices that Company B does not have anymore Economy size cars (ECAR) and Standard size cars (SCAR) available for rent over the next few days. Company A seizes the opportunity by raising rental rates for ECAR and SCAR at same location.

• Hotel A and B compete in a specific location. Hotel A’s automated daily analysis of online pricing and availability information reveals that Hotel B is offering lower room rates for check-in dates 21 days out. Hotel A adjusts to remain competitive and thereby prevents Hotel B from increasing its market share.

Bottom line: All of these examples illustrate the tremendous benefit market intelligence access can have on a company’s revenue stream. These days, having the best and most up-to-date information can often mean the difference between staying ahead of the game — or falling way behind.

In what is a sign of the new low-cost carrier presence among OTAs, JetBlue has announced partnerships with Priceline.com, Orbitz Worldwide and Travelocity. All three sites will have full access to the airline's published fares, schedules and inventory.

Friends with benefits: In addition, JetBlue will be added to the OTAs' travel-package options. Orbitz will distribute JetBlue fares through its new Orbitz for Business site as well as its CheapTickets brand, while Travelocity reported that JetBlue will soon become part of available Travelocity vacation packages.

JetBlue's emphasis on passenger extras -- satellite television and radio and name-brand snack selection among them -- may have helped the LCC appear more attractive to the sites. "JetBlue offers great in-flight amenities and additional options for our customers," said Travelocity's VP of flights Simon Bramley.

The terms of the agreements remain undisclosed, although Priceline revealed its deal with JetBlue is a multi-year one. JetBlue bookings will be available on all three sites effective immediately.

-- Scott Walker, Editor in Chief, TDR

Of course, merger rumors have been rampant for quite a while. “Most pundits have been saying that we have a capacity problem: too many seats,” Eric Smith, co-chair of the aviation practice group at Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis in Pittsburgh, tells TDR. Continental Airlines has been the focus of merger rumors for over a year, Smith points out.

But the United-Delta chatter has been the loudest. So what’s it all mean?

For the LCCs, there's potential for pricing flexibility, if not much new market share. Meanwhile, the GDSs had best prepare to face a negotiation batter, and travel agencies should get ready for some puzzled customers. Want more details on these coming industry changes? Read the cover story in TDR Vol.15 No.25. Not a subscriber? Sign up here.

-- Scott Walker, Editor in Chief, TDR

"We know that our true road warriors want to make traveling on Southwest Airlines as quick and easy as possible, and providing the choice to be among the first to board is key," said Kevin Krone, Southwest's VP of of marketing, sales and distribution.

Recent changes to the Rapid Rewards program also cater to travelers looking for special attention. Now members who have flown 32 one-way flights or 16 roundtrips in a year will gain a spot on the airline's "A-List," which offers them automatic check-in in advance of flight departure, thereby giving them a fighting chance to grab an "A" boarding pass. Plus, a new "Freedom Award" promises travelers a chance to book a rewards flight with no blackout date restrictions.

"As promised Southwest has made value added improvements that will differentiate our product without changing our core business," said Gary Kelly, Southwest CEO.

-- Scott Walker, Editor in Chief, TDR

The innovation will allow airlines to send codes directly to passengers' phones (or other handheld devices). The code becomes the boarding pass, and a scanner can read it directly from the mobile device's screen. IATA's standard uses codes that are already used extensively in Europe, North America and Japan.

Next step: IATA plans to create guidelines for implementing the standard. The industry deadline for 100 percent bar coded boarding passes is 2010.

Challenge for mobile marketers: The mobile phone check-in will be a "tough sell" because no one wants (to see or pay for) advertisements on his or her cell phone, Diane Clarkson, a JupiterResearch analyst, tells TDR. This innovation has taken off in some international markets, but it will be slow in the U.S., she predicts.

-- Kimberly R. Gilbert, Managing Editor, TDR

Industry analysts anticipate formidable growth of 20 percent annually for the United States in the online segment. For 2008 the Internet is expected to be the preferred tool for travel planning. A similar trend can be observed worldwide.

But while direct distribution via suppliers’ own websites already accounts for almost 60 percent of the bookings in the leisure segment and is still growing, in business travel the use of online tools still varies greatly from company to company. The expected run towards direct connections has not yet occurred.

Instead, large TMCs operating worldwide emerged as a result of their customers going global and expecting expense reduction and travel management as well as global service. Thus TMCs appeared to be in control, but conflicts of interest are intensifying; suppliers as well as GDS are trying to sell their corporate online booking tools directly to large national corporations and thus exclude the TMCs from the value creation chain. All of the various entities see themselves under threat from each other. And although the players are in intensive negotiations, in the long run, every flexible entity will try to keep its share in a fragmented distribution chain as long as it pays off.

A few things are certain: Airlines will continue to offer flights, hotels will offer accommodations and business travel will remain a part of corporate life. Everything that takes place in between is a form of distribution and therefore part of the value creation chain — and this is where the added value has to be created. All stakeholders — whether GDS operators, technology providers, aggregators, alternative distributors, online or offline agencies — have to reinvent themselves on a continuous basis.

Find out more about how to cope with developments in the U.S. and European travel markets by reading PASS Consulting’s whitepaper entitled “Trends In The Travel Industry: Why It Is Well Worth Taking A Look At The US.”

That’s the directive Spannerworks' business development manager Madeleine Wood delivered at the recent Travel Technology Initiative's conference on the Future of Travel Distribution.

Why? Some 70 percent of Internet content will be created by individuals as opposed to publishers and brands within three years, Wood contended. Statistics show that by combining paid-for and natural search, companies are already getting 98 percent more clicks-through to their websites, with users spending 37 percent more time on the sites, she added.

Industry players are getting hip to those facts. Many have already begun reaching outside the industry -- to masters like Facebook and MySpace -- for consumer networks that can spread brand messages to the masses, by the masses.

Want an inside look at how some of today's top travel companies are thinking outside of the box to build loyalty and brand recognition on sites like Facebook? Read the TDR article "Social Networks Build Travel Brand Connections Among The Masses" (Vol. 15 No. 17). For a free copy, e-mail me and write "Social Networks article" in the subject line.

-- Kimberly Gilbert, Managing Editor, Travel Distribution Report

Case in point: Travel-planning website Viator.com has debuted several new online features the company hopes will help travelers book affordable trip activities and tours.

Getting users involved: One of the main themes that emerge from the makeover is user interaction. Viator has been testing such features as "Star Ratings and Customer Reviews," which "actual travelers" post, a la TripAdvisor; a new travel blog that enables user comments; an Amazon.com-style "Shareable Wish Lists" feature; and user-based "suggested itineraries," "first-timer guides," and top 10 lists. Viator boasts that its expanded options have more than doubled bookings over the last year, according to a company statement.

Among the other functions Viator is continuing are simple category searches, price-promotion alerts, airline-miles eligibility finders, and carbon-offset opportunities to reduce travelers' effects on the environment.

Market forces: Viator is increasing its focus on the consumer-direct market as it emerges from its history as a technology and activities provider to many travel companies, including Priceline, Wyndham, British Airways and SideStep, spokesperson Kate Sullivan told TDR.

-- Scott Walker, Editor in Chief, Travel Distribution Report

Listen up: Consumers are demanding online tools that cut out the pen and paper from the travel research process: When they log on, they don’t want to scramble for scraps to jot down notes. And travel companies across the board are catching on.

Web sites, including those operated by suppliers, have added "save" features and other organizational tools. "Some airlines let you store regularly traveled routes, and a number of hotels let you store preferred cities or properties," Henry Harteveldt, VP and principal analyst for travel at Forrester Research, told TDR earlier this year.

The trend has continued to pick up steam more recently, with new breeds of travel organizer sites popping up, including TripIt and Yapta’s tagging software.

Learn more keys to wooing online travelers in the TDR article "4 Steps Put Your Company On Consumers' 'Favorites' List." For your free copy, e-mail me.

-- Kimberly Gilbert, Managing Editor, Travel Distribution Report

New players: That’s where sites like TripUp (formerly TripMates), TravelTogether and even the travel section of popular new seniors’ social networking site, Eons.com, come in.

Emerging trend? The split between companies that cater to existing groups and those that foster new group formation is becoming clearer as the traditional sites get more established and startups creep into the space. The question is: Can group travel sites serve both audiences effectively — or must they specialize?

Get the answers to that question in the TDR article "Group Travel Players Wrestle With The Non-Traditional Group." For your free copy, e-mail me.

-- Kimberly Gilbert, Managing Editor, Travel Distribution Report

Examples: Both Orbitz and Expedia have recently unveiled sites specifically aimed at serving unmanaged business travelers (that’s in addition to their regular corporate travel sites). But this somewhat undefined animal can be hard to serve. Here’s how two companies are doing it:

VIEW #1: Think Leisure, Play The Price-Sensitive Card: Unmanaged business travelers typically come from small companies — which often means small budgets. “People sometimes assume that business spend during travel doesn’t matter because the company is paying for it, but a large percentage of these folks are either managing their own budgets or they’re small business owners, so they do care a lot about the value they’re getting,” says Orbitz Worldwide CMO, Randy Wagner. Orbitz’ strategy is to offer the customer the same types of prices they would see when booking leisure travel. “We’ve heard qualitatively that some people don’t like to self-identify as businesses because they’re concerned somehow that they would get a different set of prices,” Wagner tells TDR.

VIEW #2: Think Corporate, Don’t Rule Out Extra Services: When GetThere seeks out potential managed business travel clients, “we do keep an eye on functionality that would bring an unmanaged traveler more readily into a managed program, and that means bringing corporate functionality with a leisure twist to it,” confirms Bev Heinritz, GM for GetThere and senior VP for Sabre Travel Network. Some companies aren’t as strict about their employees following policy, or they will let a segment of their travelers book on low-cost carriers, Heinritz points out. But that doesn’t mean companies with small travel budgets aren’t interested in having employees follow travel policies, Heinritz says. In fact, more and more companies are concerned about security and risk management, which is often “a trigger point for putting a structured program in place,” she says.

You can read more industry analysis of the opportunity unmanaged biz travel offers in the TDR article “Unmanaged Business Travelers — And Their $15B Revenue Stream — Prove A Hot Pick.” Get your free copy by writing to me.

-- Kimberly Gilbert, Managing Editor, Travel Distribution Report

What’s changed: Latin America’s middle class is assuming more discretionary income and can now travel for the first time by plane, says Worldspan’s Mike Parks. “The carriers themselves will tell you that they’re carrying a lot of first-time travelers,” adds Parks, who is senior VP of Latin America. And increasingly, those carriers are LCCs like Mexicana Airlines’ spin-off, Click Mexicana.

Room for a middleman: While more of the population is logging on, the reality is that many Latin Americans don’t have easy access to the Internet. However, they “do have easy access to the travel agency on the corner,” Parks tells TDR. So between the target audience and the LCCs who’d prefer to deal direct, there’s plenty of room for players to get in there and connect the dots. For example, Worldspan recently jumped on a distribution agreement with Mexican LCC Alma de Mexico.

Bottom line: Early moves into the industry by LCCs and GDSs spell opportunity for other players in the distribution chain to smooth out the travel buying and selling process.

Want to more in-depth information about what’s moving and shaking in Latin America? Read the TDR article “Latin American Market Reveals LCC Niche, Distribution Players Jump In.” Get your free copy by writing to me.

-- Kimberly Gilbert, Managing Editor, Travel Distribution Report

So, despite innovative travel sites (and we at TDR know there are lots of you using cool things like fancy filters and search-by-map features), the general search engine is still winning the popularity contest by a long shot.

Recent stats from Hitwise show that over 30 percent of travel industry-related website traffic comes from search engines (data measured in July 2007), an increase of 13.5 percent over the amount of traffic coming from engines in July 2006. What's more, 20 percent of travel industry web traffic comes from Google, specifically. Now that's a BFF worth having!

Looking for more clues to search engine success? Check out TDR article "Take Your SEM Energies Beyond Keywords -- And Win Big In Conversions." Get your free copy by writing to me.

-- Kimberly Gilbert, Managing Editor, Travel Distribution Report

Global travel technology provider Travelport announced today that its newly acquired Worldspan global distribution system (GDS) will join its existing Galileo GDS business, enabling Worldspan users to access Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) hotel inventory.

Key details: Worldspan and GTA, also a Travelport subsidiary, announced a new four-year distribution agreement today that will bring GTA's hotel inventory into the Worldspan GDS. Thus, Worldspan has become the first GDS to intergrate GTA content into the primary agent display, said VP Kathy Fitzpatrick in a statement.

The partnership will add GTA properties, along with its retail rates, to the Worldspan “Hotel Select” global shopping and booking system that travel agencies and corporations use. Worldspan will use its XML data exchange technology to create a real-time interface between GTA's internal reservations system and the Worldspan GDS.

Big plans: Later this year, Worldspan intends to have its “Hotel Source” distribute GTA content to global points of sale, providing travel buyers with real-time property availability, rates, rules and immediate confirmations directly from GTA's internal system.

-- Scott Walker, Editor, Travel Distribution Report

First, CouchSwap speaks loud and clear to the demographic that makes up the majority of Facebook. Now, I’m no research engine, but speaking as a first-generation Facebook member from the days when it was for college students only, I can confidently tell you that most people on Facebook are either in high school, college or their early to mid-twenties.

Insight: Since my college years aren’t that far bygone, I can recall that when this demographic thinks “travel,” they’re thinking “cheap.” Most of these people are trying to figure out how to afford text books for the next semester and pay off student loans. That means road trips replace air travel, and a friend’s couch replaces a hotel. And don’t even think about a car rental — these folks are under 25.

The most amusing part to me is that the CouchSwap application is even trying its hand at user reviews. That is, CouchSwap allows users to rate the “comfort” of each other’s couches, according to the Aug. 1 press release from SideStep. Clever, but I predict that the quirky Facebook community will use this rating system more as a joke, or best-friend-o-meter, than to actually describe a couch’s true comfort.

But congratulations, TripUp and Facebook for uncovering a group of travelers who may never make an appearance in an airport or hotel — unless they’re traveling with their parents, who are conveniently footing the bill. Even though most Facebook users are strapped for cash now, Facebook and TripUp are wooing a demographic that someday will be older, wealthier and still traveling — and looking for a trusted place to spend their cash.

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