Airlines, it turns out, are pretty serious about beefing-up their own websites. I say that somewhat facetiously because, of course, airline direct-to-consumer distribution has been a priority for years. But, a new Air France-KLM Group agreement with iSeatz, the New Orleans-based technology company and inventory aggregator, symbolizes a renewed carrier push to, as iSeatz puts it, knock online travel agencies “further out of the food chain.”... Read More

Tnooz Node in Marseille Claude Benard secured an exclusive interview with Phillipe Fabry, ICT executive at tourism development organisation Atout France. Fabry explains how French DMOs and his own organisation are developing etourism strategies and embracing social media, mobile and complex technology to drive visitors to the country... Read More

I may have been caught out in one of my predictions for 2009 and it might be worth me starting with a possible mea culpa. In January 2009 I kick off the year with a post that made five (adjusted to six) predictions for 2009. The most controversial of these was that 2009 would NOT be year for mobile.... Read More

There is a dilemma facing many travel companies when they decide that implementing online user reviews is one of the best ways to improve their content and trigger some user interaction. European tour operating giant Thomas Cook Group’s Direct Holidays division is the latest in a seemingly endless line to have found itself with such a problem – create a review platform from scratch, borrow reviews from a friendly affiliate or white label an existing service? In this case, despite the opportunity to borrow a large number of hotel reviews from the main thomawscook.com site, Direct Holidays has decided to build its own service.... Read More

The just-launched Google Sidewiki is informative and pretty fun to play with even as it tends to disintermediate website publishers and fragments comments about their content. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is correct that the proliferation of review websites and blogs has made website owners much more open to free-flowing, few-holds barred commentary. So, yes, the gamut of publishers may not have the same visceral reaction that they had earlier in this decade. However, I think Arrington seriously underestimates the push-back and tempest which I believe Sidewiki will generate.... Read More

In a short blog post Dopplr has this morning confirmed that their rumoured sale to Nokia has completed successfully. So it's about the data. Interconnected data. One of the challenges with Dopplr is that it relies heavily on the network effect. The network, collectively, becomes more useful the more people join. This is true of most social networks.... Read More

News today from Orange that the Apple iPhone will finally be available in the UK to users its network and not just those than O2 will probably boost the chances of 2009 being the “Year of the Mobile” for travel, as so many have predicted. So while anger over roaming charges remains a problem, pushing the iPhone to yet another of the UK’s large service providers will not only boost sales of Apple handsets but also enhance the general connectivity of consumers on-the-go. This, some say, is an issue which has dogged mobile as a critical channel for travel brands. Nevertheless, interactivity still appears to focus around a key areas – something that examining the iPhone app charts can illustrate.... Read More

We are officially celebrating the one year anniversary of the GFC - Global Financial Crisis meltdown. I think by now much of the stories and speculation have been written. So let's look at some website traffic stats and see if there is anything we can deduce from them.... Read More

Among the Chinese diaspora in the world, we have just bade farewell to the Hungry Ghost month. That’s the period when underworld spirits supposedly come out to roam our world and it’s not considered an auspicious time to travel far, go out at night, let alone launch a new business venture. As a spirit-fearing Chinese – who isn’t these days in a world when real money has proven to have as much value as the paper money we burn at funerals and other religious ceremonies – the launch of TNooz thus comes at an auspicious time.... Read More

British Airways is remaining tight-lipped for the time being but it seems the idea of creating online social networks for business and frequent travellers is catching on at its Waterside HQ in West London. Hot on the heels of its MetroTwin project, linking London and New York, comes a very low-key launch for MetroTwin Mumbai. The site is currenly a blog-type feed of destination content, penned by a range of India and UK-based bloggers.... Read More

Attention airlines, global distribution systems and websites that subscribe to fare updates from the Airline Tariff Publishing Co – you’ll have to wait until mid-2010 for hourly updates of international fares. ATPCO, the global disseminator of air fares, delayed implementation of a plan to increase updates of things like New York to Paris or Beijing to Bangkok fares. Slated to go with a speedier update system about a month from now, in November, ATPCO revealed that the new timetable is May 2010.... Read More

Suddenly, with the credit and stock markets thawing a bit, a slew of travel companies may be talking to investment bankers and testing the IPO waters. Consider that the Boston.com reported that Kayak is talking to investment bankers about going public. And, Reuters disclosed that the private equity and airline owners of Amadeus, the global distribution system and technology company, hired an investment bank to mull taking the company public.... Read More

Bing… incoming press release from HotelsCombined, a Sydney based hotel reservation company. They have launched a new scheme to guarantee 100% up-time to their affiliate partners. Is this for real or just a wacky plan that has been dreamt up in a marketing meeting in order to achieve a quick PR buzz boost?... Read More

A new service which aims to provide super-cheap, bandwidth-wide telephone calls in hotels was unveiled today – though bosses admit they are to some extent at the mercy of mobile network providers. Clasix is an ambitious project run out of Toronto, Canada, but with a focus on European hotel chains to give owners what it says will be a 100MB pipe into properties. The consumer pitch is a competitive 60 minutes of talk time for Euro 5.99, with Clasix (chaired by Adrian Science in Toronto and biz dev handled by Michael Lacy in London) throwing a free installation proposal at prospective chains and hoteliers.... Read More

Google Sidewiki, just introduced in beta and accessible through an updated Google toolbar, enables anyone to publish and share comments about almost any web page. Viewable in a window that opens alongside Web pages, you can also read and rate others’ comments about those web pages.... Read More