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The Travel Marketing Digest
12th November 2012 - Volume 1, issue 8 |
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IN THIS ISSUE.....
Dear Industry Colleagues and Friends,
Since our last Digest there have been many significant happenings. President Obama has been re-elected and hurricane Sandy has caused devastation. Obama's re-election could be seen by some as a good thing for our sector in that a more cautious approach may be taken to the larger geopolitical issues of the day such as Israel & Palestine, Iran's nuclear program, China-US trade relations, Syria and the "Arab Spring". Globally the travel sector is enjoying a small upswing in business. Fuel prices still hurt airlines but at least most of the world is travelling.
Part of the world did indeed stop travelling when hurricane Sandy hit the Eastern Seaboard. Our sympathy goes out to all those people and families affected.
Within the travel sector The World Travel Market in London has come and gone and with it a flurry of news releases. We again highlight some of the most significant stories over the last couple of weeks which include:
- Travel search and fulfillment is facing consolidation with the announced tie up between Priceline and Kayak, a deal valued at $1.8bn
- China is again highlighted as a huge growth opportunity for the travel industry
- Skytrax have been pulled up by an industry watchdog for potentially misleading statements
- Vayant technologies announce a new contextual fare search product
- A genius social media campaign by Air New Zealand
We are also pleased to announce the creation of our Twitter and Facebook accounts. In these we will draw your attention and ask for your reaction to the top travel marketing stories as we see them. We will use these platforms to engage with our readers and customers. We would therefore be delighted if you like, follow and join us and ask a colleague or two to do the same!
We have also changed our delivery e-mail address to TheDigest@thetravelmarketingstore.com (my inbox was filling up!). Please add this to your contacts and safe sender status so that you receive our mails. We have also increased the level of verification that we hold with various ISPs. If you wish to contact me directly I remain at duncan@thetravelmarketingstore.com
Best regards,
Duncan Alexander
Director
The Travel Marketing Store
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Priceline.com bid for Kayak valued at $1.8bn 
TTMS
The Boards of Directors of the Priceline Group and KAYAK have unanimously approved a transaction, valued at $1.8bn, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including a vote of KAYAK's shareholders and regulatory approvals, which is expected to close by late 1st quarter 2013. KAYAK's current management team will continue to manage KAYAK's operations independently as part of the Priceline Group of companies.
KAYAK is a leading travel research site that allows people to easily compare hundreds of travel sites at once when searching for flights, hotels, and rental cars, and gives travellers choices on where to book. The company processes over 100 million user queries each month through its global websites and mobile applications. "KAYAK has built a strong brand in online travel research and their track record of profitable growth is demonstrative of their popularity with consumers and value to advertisers," said Priceline Group President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffery H. Boyd. "KAYAK also has world class technology and a tradition of innovation in building great user interfaces across multiple platforms and devices. We believe we can be helpful with KAYAK's plans to build a global online travel brand."
"Paul English and I started KAYAK eight years ago to create the best place to plan and book travel," said Steve Hafner, KAYAK Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder. "We're excited to join the world's premier online travel company. The Priceline Group's global reach and expertise will accelerate our growth and help us further develop as a company."
This is an extremely interesting development in the highly competitive area of online travel. The major US companies of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia will clearly be threatened by this development. Priceline already have a strong asset in booking.com, a popular European hotel reservation Internet portal. Adding an airline referral capability with Priceline is a smart move against its natural competitors and also an good defensive tactic versus any increased activity from Google into the travel search and fulfillment arena.
For travel marketing teams the sites will operate independently for now. It will remain to be seen if "across the group" deals will emerge. |
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China travel a great positive force for change says ICTP President 
TTMS - ICTP
At the World Travel Market the President of the International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP) reflected on the positive contribution of the growing Chinese tourism market. He pointed to the systematic build-up as a "great force for change".
This positive view of growth was highlighted for a number of reasons:
- First, the immense size and potential demand for the China travel experience. Within five years it will be the largest domestic, inbound and outbound market in the world.
- The Chinese government has declared the travel sector a strategic pillar of economic growth.
- Its focusing on supporting that growth by investing in roads, high speed trains and dozens of new and expanded airports.
- Its investment in partnerships is Africa's nations that will create a win-win in traffic flow,, much of it through the Gulf mega hubs. This will be a major factor in the continent's growth.
- Their commitment to sustainable tourism and renewable energy.
We have featured China's growth on a number of occasions in our Digest. It is a market for which every Travel Marketer should have a plan. |
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Skytrax being reviewed rather than reviewing... 
TTMS - Travelmole
Advertising watchdogs have investigated Skytrax's web site www.airlinequality.com and found that is was unable to back up a number if its claims.
Skytrax provides an airline and airport review site that generates a rating system based on customer reviews that are said to be "checked and trusted airline reviews" from over 5m passengers.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stated said there was no evidence that Skytrax had followed the robust procedures it claimed it had in place to check all its reviews were genuine. Although Skytrax argued that every review underwent a four-stage authentication process, it said it was unable to provide proof it had in fact followed its own procedures as customer emails were deleted 24 hours after a review was submitted.
The investigation was launched following concerns raised by online reputation management business KwikChex. The ASA pointed out that Skytrax did not hold sufficient evidence to substantiate the claims "Checked and trusted airline review" and "REAL travellers with REAL opinions!".
The ASA ruled that airlinequality.com's claim that it offered 5m reviews was misleading as the site contained only 400,000. Skytrax claimed it had received 5.4m reviews since 1999, but said the oldest ones had been archived. However, the ASA said readers would be misled into thinking they could read 5m reviews on the site.
Skytrax was also found to have misled the public by claiming to provide an "Official Quality Star Ranking" system as it was unable to prove its claim that it had launched its programme with the backing of the airline and (later) airport industry. The ASA also said there was no evidence that several titles used by the site, including "5 Star Airlines" were trademarked, as claimed by Skytrax.
In its ruling, the ASA said: "We told Skytrax not to imply that the reviews on their site were checked, trusted and genuine unless they could provide substantiation to that effect. We also told them not to make claims regarding the number of reviews on their site and the frequency with which they reviewed airlines' Star Rankings or to state that titles were trademarked, unless they could provide evidence to substantiate those facts, and not to use the term "Official Quality Star Ranking (TM)" unless they could show that this programme had been created in co-operation with the airline industry as a whole."
Like misleading the public on prices for travel products, the issue is one of integrity and trust. To be brought into question by an official body is clearly damaging to Skytrax. Many Airports and Airlines strive to achieve their "5 Star ratings" and celebrate awards that are handed out. If the claims they make are proven to be misleading, this leads to a whole host of follow on questions.... |
Vayant aims to address an issue with airline promotions 
TTMS
VAYANT Travel Technologies have announced the commercial launch of Live Fare Emails.
Current email marketing campaigns give travel providers an effective way to target relevant offers at their customers, however by the time the emails reach the customer any air fare information is often out of date.
Live Fare Emails seeks to address this issue by ensuring fares are automatically updated when the mail is opened. With Live Fare Emails, the customer always receives fresh and fully-priced information: the fares they see are the fares they can book, there and then.
Eric Dumas, Vayant Chief Executive Officer, said:
"Talking to the industry, we know traditional marketing emails often deliver frustration, when the recipient clicks on a great fare and finds they can no longer book it. They can be seen as a necessary evil, more about boosting brand and less about being an effective sales tool. Live Fare Emails totally turn this perception on its head and put sales at the forefront. They are about inspiration: enabling airlines and OTAs to entice their customers with relevant offers that are always up-to-date." |
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An unexpected safety briefing
 Congratulations to Air New Zealand for a genius piece of social marketing. Their flight safety video, "An Unexpected Briefing" has already been viewed by over 8.5 million people.
Air New Zealand partnered with WETA Workshop on a brand new Hobbit Inspired Safety Video featuring Cameo appearances by Sir Peter Jackson and Gollum. If you have not seen it and you're are a Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fan, then you must see this cheeky video...
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The Travel Marketing Store
Nicky Baxter
Editor
The Travel Marketing Digest |
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Images courtesy of Shutterstock
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