TravelBizBuzz

Despite the innovative travel Web sites emerging that aim to help consumers research travel options, the general search engine is still winning the popularity contest by a long shot.

Online competitive intelligence service Hitwise revealed June 19 that search engines “continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories” -- including travel.

Details: Google saw a 10 percent year-over-year market share increase and accounted for 65.13 percent of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending May 26, 2007, Hitwise pointed out. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 20.89, 8.40 and 3.92 percent respectively. The remaining 49 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.66 percent of U.S. searches.

Furthermore, comparing May 2007 to May 2006, travel -- along with news and media, entertainment and business, and finance categories -- “received double digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines,” according to Hitwise.

The travel industry, specifically, saw 31.22 percent of all search engine traffic in May 2007, an increase of 13.04 percent from May 2006. And Google is fast taking a giant share of that traffic.

Takeaway: Search engine optimization should be a top priority to reel in the consumer to your travel Web site.

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

Posted by TDR at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you’re looking to go global with your travel company, try checking out your next-door neighbors first -- there could be a hungry market in your own backyard.

Cheapflights announced April 23 that it has launched a Canada site (www.cheapflights.ca) -- and that so far, no other major travel search provider has set up camp in the country.

So why has the Canadian flight search market been left untapped for so long? Does the country not have a market for the product? The answer is quite the contrary, Cheapflights’ vice chairman and head of international, Hugo Burge told me in an interview. “Agreed—Canada isn’t the biggest market on the planet, but having said that, it is a significant market, and we believe it’s underserved.”

The potential: The original bare-bones Cheapflights holding site in Canada “already receives more than 100,000 visitors every month,” according to a press release. In addition, the U.S. Web site, Cheapflights.com, receives a significant number of Canadian visitors searching for Canadian departures.

With that in mind, Cheapflights hopes to round up the customers looking for Canada-based flights. But the company isn’t going all-out just yet, Burge says, dubbing this move a “light launch” that includes basic features such as a multi booking engine, some hand-picked deals and flight tips. “We have a lot of things to learn about the visitors in the Canadian market, and we want to develop the business relationships.”

But “so far, so good,” Burge says. The company believes a strong demand exists for cheap flights in Canada, as the country has historically seen a “very competitive market with charter flights, low-cost airlines and price discounting.” And Canada’s high penetration in internet (19 million+ users) and broadband (59 percent of the population), according to the press release, is in Cheapflights’ favor as well.

Next step: The company sees its Canada launch as another step toward going global within the next five years, Burge said.

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

Posted by TDR at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Partnering with a non-travel Web site, particularly a news source, is one way travel companies are aiming to reach thousands of potential customers -- and not just in the U.S.

Asia-Pacific travel search engine Bezurk.com announced today that it is partnering with MediaCorp Press’s “flagship newspaper,” TODAY. Bezurk has launched a new hotel search tool on the Singapore-based newspaper’s Web site, www.todayonline.com.

The tool searches, in real-time, pricing and availability of more than 100,000 hotels worldwide, according to Bezurk. Bezurk searches suppliers, hotel aggregators and online travel agents and links travelers directly to its partner Web sites to book.

The potential: “Todayonline.com is one of Singapore's most popular websites and is visited daily by many Singaporeans for their news fix,” points out Bezurk CEO, Martin Symes. “This distribution will greatly increase the exposure in Singapore of our travel partners, extending their reach to the hundreds of thousands of todayonline.com visitors.”

But Bezurk isn’t the first to spearhead this non-travel partnership trend. Travel search engine SideStep has partnered with Amazon.com to power its travel retail store’s search results. Likewise, travel search engine Kayak has partnerships with AOL (PinpointTravel.com) and cable service Comcast’s travel site. For more on these partnerships, see TDR, Vol. 14, No. 19, page 145.

These non-travel company partnerships aren’t limited to the meta searchers. Expedia has a partnership with NYTimes.com and announced last January that it would be powering Sam’s Club’s travel as well.

A necessary trend? The question is, are travel search engines lucrative enough on their own, or will they have to form new partnerships an important way to reach new customers?

Posted by TDR at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Suppliers wishing to differentiate themselves over more than just price on a travel search engine may now do so.

PriceGrabber.com, an online comparison shopping provider, released Nov. 7 an enhanced travel search engine that includes “an integrated display of amenity information, such as legroom and onboard entertainment,” according to a press release.

This new feature, along with added discussion forums and hotel reviews “will help travelers make the best decision when comparing airfare and hotel rates from PriceGrabber Travel’s more than 50 online partners,” PriceGrabber said.

“There is more to choosing a flight than price and schedule, but people don’t often have easy access to additional information,” said Brett Snyder, business director of PriceGrabber Travel. “For example, people traveling from Philadelphia to Paris in economy class may want to know that of the two airlines flying nonstop, one offers more legroom along with better entertainment selections via audio/video on demand.”

PriceGrabber.com claims to be the first to respond to that need by integrating amenity information into the flight search process directly. The Web site displays the information in an “easy-to-read stoplight format” that shows green for above average, yellow for average and red for below average.

Posted by TDR at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Travel search engine FareCompare is now tracking airfare fluctuations specific to its users’ preferences.

FareCompare today released FareFirst, an airfare tracking tool for the Firefox Web browser that automatically notifies consumers as soon as fares change in markets of interest, according to the company’s press release.

Consumers can track fares for specific airlines or track fares below a certain price. When a new fare emerges that matches the specified airline or price, the extension automatically provides an audio and visual alert in a separate window.

Firefox users see fares in a separate window no matter what application they have running on their computers.

“The real beauty of FareFirst is that it runs automatically,” commented Rick Seaney, FareCompare CEO. “The extension alerts Firefox users three times a day as soon as new fares are published.”

Posted by TDR at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amadeus is getting into the travel search game, promising to relieve suppliers of the screen-scraping burden.

The GDS launched Oct. 23 the Amadeus Meta Pricer, a solution designed to “increase quality, global air content for travel search engines,” according to a press release.

The problem: Travel search engines usually collect travel content from airline and online travel agency Web sites using a technique called “screen-scraping”. This strains airlines’ Web sites and internal systems, both in terms of performance and cost -- and does not always yield accurate results for the travel search engine, Amadeus explained.

As a solution, Amadeus Meta Pricer provides a better connection between airlines and travel search engines. How it works: The airline signals to Meta Pricer the fares it wants to make available to particular travel search engines. In turn, travel search engines use Amadeus Meta Pricer to retrieve the flight information from the registered airlines.

Posted by TDR at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (390)

Another “Web 2.0” travel search engine has popped up, this time for the European market.

Momondo (www.momondo.com) is a Danish initiative that combines searches across hundreds of Web sites and returns relevant flight options using the Kapow Enterprise Mashup Platform, according to an Oct. 11 press release.

The search engine scans everything from low-cost carriers, well-known national airlines, online travel agencies and ticket databases.

This new Web service would not be “technically or economically feasible without Kapow Technologies,” claimed Thorvald Stigsen, Momondo CEO, because “it is the only solution Momondo could find” that would allow their technical team to interact with multiple Web sites in an automated fashion and deliver results to customers within 60 seconds.

Posted by TDR at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FareCompare’s latest innovation is putting more power -- pricing information -- in the hands of consumers.

The airfare search engine’s new alert service will send an email straight to the consumer four hours before fares for his favorite city pair are published on airline and travel agency Web sites, the company said in an Oct 11 press release.

Until now, this information was only accessible to the airlines, the company boasted. “No other subscription service provides this information,” said Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com.

For example, on August 7, the lowest fare from Cleveland to Palm Springs was $360. On August 8, the lowest fare dropped to $109 for three hours and then went back up to $320 that same day. The key: FareCompare subscribers were alerted to the price decrease as soon as it happened.

Consumers can subscribe to low fare alerts from any airport and for a specific market. Alerts indicate the savings and rate it with two to four stars, a four-star rating indicating that the fare is at or near the historical lowest fare for that particular route.

Posted by TDR at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The proof is in the pudding — or in the case of travel search engines, in the number of unique visitors.

A recent report, generated exclusively for TRB by market research company Compete, Inc., reveals the traffic trends (monthly unique visitor volumes among the U.S. audience) in the travel search (or "meta-search") category. Among players like Mobissimo, Yahoo!’s FareChase and AOL’s PinpointTravel.com (which is powered by Kayak.com), the big news is that “Kayak.com has taken off and left everyone — aside from SideStep — in the dust,” notes Gregory Saks, director of Travel at Compete.

Specifically, Kayak.com, which launched in early 2005, reached the one-million-unique-visitors mark in January 2006, and the two-million mark this summer. The only other site attracting more attention is six-year-old SideStep, which had more than 3.5 million visitors in July.

Plus: Also included in the report is Cheapflights.com, although that site is a bit of a different animal — describing itself as a travel search engine, comparison shopping site, deals publisher and flight aggregator all rolled into one. Nevertheless, “it’s worth noting the large audience they are attracting,” Saks says. This summer, that site racked up a high of 1.4 million unique visitors in a single month.

The report — the details of which can be found in this week's issue of Travel Distribution Report — highlights quarterly trends as well. Remember, “Q4 research activity is generally slow due to seasonal patterns,” notes Saks, which you can see in SideStep’s decline in Q4 2005. However, Kayak.com didn’t demonstrate the same seasonal downturn because “the site was in the middle of a significant surge in activity,” Saks explains.

Meanwhile, FareChase saw a surge in Q4 2005 mainly because Yahoo! was heavily promoting the engine throughout its Travel site, Saks says. “This was not natural/organic traffic, however, and it quickly dried up as soon as Yahoo! pulled back on the promotional activity,” he surmises.

For more news, trends and analysis, subscribe to TDR.

Posted by TDR at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Companies that want to incorporate SideStep’s travel search engine into their own Web sites now have new customization options.

As of today, SideStep has made available a new syndication platform, according to a press release.

The platform is “the first of its kind from a travel search engine,” which provides premier partners with customization options that “go far beyond traditionally limited banner changes,” SideStep boasts. The platform incorporates colors, navigation, page configuration and the ability to customize page elements, such as SmartSort defaults and advertising units.

ForbesTraveler.com, a new site also announced today, is the first partner to deploy SideStep’s syndication platform.

Posted by TDR at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Two tech companies have combined their resources to make travel searches more user friendly for their consumers.

As of Sept. 13, personal start page service Netvibes will feature Mobissimo Inc’s travel search engine -- the first travel search engine for Netvibes, according to a press release.

The Mobissimo Netvibes Module allows travelers to search hundreds of different global travel suppliers directly on their Netvibes personal start pages. In addition, Mobissimo will soon give Netvibes users the ability to create personal real-time fare indices of historical and future prices for travel to their favorite destinations.

“Netvibes and Mobissimo audiences are very complementary. Our global users are looking for an easy way to find information quickly,” commented Beatrice Tarka, Mobissimo’s CEO.

The Mobissimo Netvibes Module is currently accessible directly from the Netvibes ecosystem. A link to Netvibes is also available on all Mobissimo’s global Web sites, and users can easily add the Mobissimo module to their Netvibes page.

Posted by TDR at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What are travelers are most looking for? Travel shoppers continue to demonstrate their price consciousness, points out Matt Tatham, media relations manager at competitive intelligence firm Hitwise. His comment is informed by Hitwise data from this summer which reveals that “cheap” shows up at number 6, 11, 14, 18, 19, 22, 23 and 29 out of consumers’ top 30 Internet search phrases.

To take a look at those facts -- and more -- see the latest issue of Travel Distribution Report, which comes out electronically today. Find out the most popular terms typed into a search engine over a four week period that resulted in traffic to travel-related Web sites.

Here's a sneeak peak: Over the four weeks ending Aug. 12, 2006, the most popular search term was “travelocity,” representing 2.79 percent of all search terms that delivered users to Web sites in the “Travel: Agencies” category.

Not a TDR subscriber? You can be. Just click to read a sample issue and join our growing list of loyal readers.

Posted by TDR at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the first time, travelers have a tool to look up any and all combinations of flights and find flight durations and benchmark ticket prices without having to select dates and times.

That’s the claim of new search engine flightconsultant.com, which is designed to complement online travel agencies and airline sites. “Booking flights is now easier as you know all the routes possible for your flight, how much you should pay in any of four major currencies and how long the journey will take. We have removed the ‘not knowing whether you've chosen the best flight options’ situation,” explained Stuart Kimpton, founder of the site, on its Sept. 5 launch.

Pull-down menus allow users to select their flight itinerary without selecting a specific airport. From the results shown users then narrow down the search by selecting their preferred rewards clubs, airports or airlines.

Site users will first run a search on flightconsultant.com to view all the possible flight combinations and to get an indication of the distance and suggested benchmark ticket cost. They then will follow the links to go to their preferred booking agent or airline to purchase the trip.

Posted by TDR at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Travel Meta Search Pte Ltd (TMS) has received €8 million ($10.2 million) in financing from France’s Sofinnova Partners and Walden International to jumpstart its new site.

TMS is a new generation metasearch engine geared toward the European and Asian populations to help them find price-competitive airline tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals, holiday packages, cruises and vacation rentals on one Web site.

TMS will allow users to search major airlines, online travel agencies, travel wholesalers and low-cost airlines to compare all the market fares in Asia and Europe.

“Vertical search and the immediate move to Asia with a strong technology platform developed both in France and Singapore make this investment in TMS a unique opportunity to establish an exciting, fast-growing venture,” said Olivier Protard, managing partner at Sofinnova Partners, which initiated the financing project. “The addition of Walden International, a strong Asian venture capital fund, to the syndicate reinforces our belief that we can make TMS the world’s leading travel search engine.”

The merger of Singapore’s Fare.net and France’s Coelis spurred the formation of this new search engine.

Posted by TDR at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The more than 400 travel companies that advertise on the Kayak Network now have a better way to get in touch with consumer preferences.

Travel search engine Kayak.com announced today enhancements to its paid search solution Kayak Network . Now search data can be passed directly to advertisers for improved customer conversion, stated the company’s press release.

Kayak Network provides advertisers with contextual search parameters whenever a consumer clicks on one of their ads. Information can include the consumer’s specified dates of travel, origination city, destination city and travel preferences.

Advertisers can use this information to create more relevant search results for their own Web sites, which increases the likelihood of purchase.

In addition, Kayak Network launched two other new features: 1) Hotels can manage their property description, images and amenities for no charge via the extranet; and 2) advertisers can target sponsored links to Kayak’s rental car search results pages.

Posted by TDR at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Knowing when to buy to find the lowest airfares will no longer be such a gamble for travelers, thanks to Farecast.com.

Farecast, Inc. announced today that its “first and only airfare prediction Web site” now offers travelers free airfare predictions in over 55 U.S. cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago and Atlanta.

The site shows travelers whether the lowest fares for their trips are rising or dropping. Farecast.com also reveals expected price movements, confidence levels, historical prices and buying tips when consumers search for flights.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have now visited Farecast.com, and feedback has been positive,” said Hugh Crean, president and CEO of Farecast, Inc. in a press release.

Posted by TDR at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, New Orleans is back on top as a summer destination.

Orlando, Atlanta and Miami also rank high on travelers’ lists, according to searches conducted in June for destinations in the Southeasten U.S. using BookingBuddy.com’s travel search engine. Other southern hot spots include Raleigh and Charlotte, NC; Nashville, TN; Fort Lauderdale, FL; and Savannah, GA.

“Although it is hot in the summer, people looking for a relaxing vacation can definitely find a location to suit their needs in the Southeast,” explained Krista Pappas, senior VP of Smarter Living, Inc., BookingBuddy’s parent company.

Posted by TDR at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)