News

I was thinking that a common subtext in the online travel agencies' discussions about their third-quarter financial results was the pressures on the car rental [or car hire, to some] industry. Major car rental firms, feeling the pinch from the rollback in their bread-and-butter corporate travel, have substantially reduced their fleets and raised car-rental prices. Consumers are wondering why car-rental prices have gone through the sun roof during a recession.... Read More

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending November 7 2009. Data includes Top Ten travel search terms and the Top Ten Agency, Airline and Destination/Accommodation sites.... Read More

Priceline.com recorded another three months of impressive financial results in the third quarter as it stole market share in hotels, with global room nights rising 56.3 percent, fueled by what the company termed "strong performance" in Europe, Asia and the U.S. The international hotel business, where those big margins are, is the grand prize in the online travel agency sweepstakes and Priceline stood out from the pack in the quarter. While Expedia Inc., with its Expedia, hotels.com and Venere brands, saw global room nights jump 27% to 21.7 million room nights in the quarter, Priceline, starting from a lower base, watched its global room nights shoot up 56.3% to 17.9 million nights through Priceline, Booking.com and Agoda.... Read More

News this morning that UK-based online travel agency TravelRepublic did not fall foul of guidelines over the selling of package holidays has the potential to unlock a raft of innovation in the online travel space and finally break the status quo. The case was brought about the Civil Aviation Authority after it argued TravelRepublic should have purchased an ATOL bond - a system for financial protection in the event of a travel company going bust - when customers bought flight+hotel package products on the site. TravelRepublic, a relatively new player on the UK travel scene which has leapfrogged into a strong position in recent years ahead of the likes of Ebookers and Opodo in terms of web traffic, stuck its heels in and told the CAA it would meet them in court.... Read More

Use the data insight: A good ancillary revenue strategy will not only increase customer loyalty and provide revenue. It will also create deeper customer relationships that can offer a wealth of customer insight, particularly on buyer behaviour.... Read More

Most popular travel websites in the UK for the week ending November 7 2009. Data includes Top Ten travel search terms and the Top Ten Agency, Airline and Destination/Accommodation sites.... Read More

A debate here on Tnooz in October 2009 saw all manner of opinions flying in about the merits - or not - of placing content above the imaginary fold-line on a website. But it is probably worth applying the same scrutiny to search engines. Until reasonably recently, firing in the search term "hotel new york" on Google, for example, would see organic results taking up the vast majority of top half of the page, displayed alongside paid-for AdWords in a narrow right-hand navigation bar.... Read More

A new PhoCusWright study portrays a "bleak" short-term picture for the overall U.K. travel market, but projects that online travel bookings will increase 3% in 2009 when the final tallies are in. The report, PhoCusWright's European Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition, notes that amidst a currency devaluation and the recession, U.K. online leisure and unmanaged business travel grew its share of bookings 5 percentage points to 45% of the overall £37.6 billion U.K travel market in 2009. Online channels in the U.K. are benefitting from travelers' penchant to scour the Web for holiday options, according to the study on travel trends in Europe.... Read More

More destinations are arriving at the point where they have to think about changing the way they communicate their message. The entscheidende point is where the user is just one click away from drawing his attention to competitors, other leisure products or back to a search engine. So Destination Management Organisations (DMO’s) tend to replace existing slogans such as boring marketing-text or press release-friendly phrases - usually describing tourist offers in catalogues, brochures or press conferences – because they cannot be used in the internet as users simply ignore them.... Read More

Select the right partners: There are a number of companies that specialise in providing ancillary revenue products and consultancy. Travel brands should look to choose a partner that will provide the right products to suit its customers and can manage the end to end service, journey and marketing support of these products effectively.... Read More

Deals publisher Travelzoo has lined up five partners to become the first in the UK to join its new Travelzoo Network. Simonseeks, AOL Travel, Lonely Planet, VisitBritain and Skyscanner are five of the high profile brands to take the new widget for their site, featuring Travelzoo-sourced travel deals relevant to the existing content. The launch of Travelzoo Network in the UK (and expected around Europe over the coming months) follows a similar project introduced into the US and joins its existing newsletter service and on-site publishing of deal... Read More

Consider the customer journey: Understanding the entire customer journey including all the touch points where value can be added for the customer is the key here and as well as adding that value for the customer, there is the obvious comfort that revenue will be generated – there’ll be a return on the relationship. By understanding the journey a customer goes through, travel brands are better positioned to decide what to offer them and how to ensure it is viewed as worthwhile to the customer, not just pushing a product.... Read More

What you missed on Tnooz this week, Sunday 1 November to Saturday 7 October 2009. Read on to see the most commented articles, every other article this week, and the most commented articles of all time...... Read More

Jeff Clarke, the chairman, president and CEO of Travelport and also the chairman of Orbitz Worldwide, was explaining why Travelport opted to invest $50 million in Orbitz. In a Travelport conference call with investors about the company's third quarter results, Clarke said the investment would help Orbitz, which is Travelport's largest customer, deleverage the business and give it more operational flexibility. Of the $50 million investment, Clarke says: "I think this is a good thing for Orbitz and a very good thing for Travelport."... Read More

The recent PhoCusWright study on online travel agencies in the US market revealed some interesting tidbits of information. However in context with some other sources and developments, we are beginning to see a picture emerge that should have cause for some concern on the part of investors in OTAs. So let’s start with the PhoCusWright study.... Read More