TravelBizBuzz

This week, as the press releases flowed into my inbox as usual, I noticed an unusual slew of announcements on new mobile technology. Granted, the corporate travel world has already been using a fair number of mobile applications, but to the unmanaged business and leisure travel world, this is news. (The only mobile application I was aware of was Sprint’s April 2006 announcement of enabling mobile ticketing for Las Vegas Monorail passengers.)

Here’s a sampling of what I believe to be just the tip of the mobile tech iceberg:

1) May 21: Acxiom and Acuity Mobile announced a new mobile marketing solution that combines Acxiom’s data and analytical capabilities with Acuity Mobile’s location-based technology and “Spot Relevance” offering. The innovation allows companies to deliver mobile content to the right user based on time, context, location and user preferences.

2) May 22: TripSync (a free application developed by Portaga that links bookings and itineraries into Microsoft Outlook for the unmanaged business traveler) unveiled TripSync Mobile — which allows a traveler to book air, hotel and car rental reservations on the go.

3) May 22: iMAN Inc. and NewYork.com introduced a mobile hotel reservation site. Textechnologie Inc. subsidiary iMAN has developed technology that allows NewYork.com’s visitors to search, view, reserve and pay securely for hotel rooms on their mobile wireless devices — without a downloaded application.

4) May 22: Pegasus inked an agreement with Mobile Travel Technologies (MTT) to launch a new distribution channel allowing hotels to offer guests booking and customer service via their mobile devices.

5) May 23: Northwest Airlines has put booking power in mobile devices. The airline announced that customers can now purchase tickets, check in and complete any transaction on nwa.com via handheld devices and wireless browsers. Northwest claims to be the first airline to provide its complete Web site in this format for mobile users.

Will the consumer jump on the boat? Forrester Research VP and principal analyst Henry Harteveldt pegged mobile applications as a budding traveler trend in his TravelCom 2007 keynote presentation. “Mobile phone ownership among U.S. travelers is nearly ubiquitous” and “38 percent of U.S. online travelers who own mobile phones use mobile data services,” he pointed out.

So travel companies with mobile in mind are smart to stay ahead of the curve. But that doesn’t necessarily mean pulling resources away from traditional channels. “It’s not about how you want to sell, but how the customer wants to buy,” Harteveldt noted in a January 2007 Forrester report on e-commerce trends. And while a handful of techy travelers might book on their mobile device, the majority is still quite comfortable with a call center or their desktop computer.

Note: Check out the next issue of TDR for more on the mobile mayhem.

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

Posted by TDR at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a periodic YouTube junkie, I can admit to spending my fair share of time watching videos ranging from Mentos-Diet Coke fountains to dogs on skateboards and child prodigies on the piano. We’re all tuned-in to our society’s desire to watch each other’s amateur creations, from the extravagant to the simple -- but can this rampantly successful trend translate into a revenue generator for the travel industry?

Companies have been hesitant to tinker with the mystique of consumer-generated content, lest they tarnish it with a commercial feel. But some pioneers have found a way to bring that mystic to their own Web sites:

Travelistic: This site is like a YouTube for travel, where travelers share videos of their trip experiences. The kicker: In its February report on travel site traffic, Hitwise dubbed Travelistic a “Fast Mover,” or, a site that’s “witnessed substantial increases in rank in the ‘Travel’ online industry.”

TripAdvisor: This online travel community announced March 6 that it now allows travelers to post their vacation videos. “Thousands of TripAdvisor travelers already uploaded their videos and hundreds of thousands more viewed them,” revealing a strong demand for more descriptive ways to tell a story or research a trip, the company points out.

Southwest Airlines: Southwest launched several months ago a contest for a consumer-generated advertising campaign, Greg Saks of Compete, told me in an interview. The best commercial for the carrier’s Wanna Get Away sweepstakes will be aired during the NBA Finals.

Now it’s time to sit back and see if different uses of consumer videos are indeed a moneymaker for travel. Drop me a line if you know of other sites experimenting with user-generated videos -- and are seeing resulting success.

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

Posted by TDR at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (550)

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)