Tnooz’s ten-part series Understand and Boosting Ancillary Revenue concluded this week. The articles were written by Janet Titterton of Collinson Latitude. Each day we featured a different approach to getting to grips with ancillary revenue – appropriate for airlines, online travel agencies, tour operators or other suppliers. Here is the full set: Day One of [...]
I get paid, in part, to speculate, so here goes:
First, the facts.
The board of Travelport Ltd. named Gordon Wilson deputy CEO of the company, effective Nov. 5.
Wilson, 43, who’s been with the company for almost half his life, will retain his current position as President and CEO of Travelport GDS, as well as IT Services and Software.
In the days of Web-only fares on airline websites in the U.S., traditional travel agents moaned that airlines were basically screwing themselves with this kind of supplier-direct discounting because the travel agency/global distibution system channel is among the highest-yielding distribution options.
After a period of abstinence, JetBlue re-entered GDSs in 2007, participates in the four major systems today, and views this involvement as a way to enhance its mix of corporate-travel bookings.
JetBlue’s strategy was highlighted with Travelport’s announcement today of a new, multi-year, global full-content agreement with JetBlue.
TripAdvisor’s acquisition of Kuxun.cn, China’s No.2 travel search engine, kicked off its ambitious investment plan of US$50 million in China’s burgeoning tourism market over the next two years.
Kuxun will join many other Expedia-owned online travel companies in challenging China’s number one online travel company, Ctrip, whose market share is five times bigger than that of its nearest rival.
These include eLong (China’s number two online travel agency, acquired by Expedia in 2004), Daodao (the recently launched Chinese travel-review website, owned by TripAdvisor), and Egencia China (the travel management unit).
Tnooz is very excited to be involved a survey produced by pan-European digital marketing agency BigMouthMedia.
The questionnaire is designed to gauge the industry’s use of online media, marketing techniques, innovation in travel and predicted trends for 2010.
Taking just five minutes to complete, each participant will also be sent their own copy of the final report in late-November.
Measure, review, refine:
An ancillary revenue strategy shouldn’t be short term – as with loyalty programmes, it’s a long term commitment.
This will benefit the brand as they can measure the programme over a period of time, making changes and refining the proposition based on review findings.
Google’s move to acquire AdMob, which serves targeted advertising on mobile devices, coupled with a new Sabre survey on mobile services, punctuate the direction of travel advertising.
It’s standard practice these days for online advertisers and their networks to serve consumers with behavioral advertising when people surf from website to website. Your cookie data, with the personally identifiable information deleted, is a material asset.
All of this targeted advertising will soon be coming to a mobile device near you, whether you are picking up your luggage at LAX and walking past a restaurant, or standing by a taxi stand outside the airport and waiting for some transportation to your next business meeting.
Broadcast advertising might not be in the dire straits that the marketing press claim it is if this current trend continues after news that Skyscanner is the latest metasearch engine to launch a TV ad campaign.
The Edinburgh-based firm has followed its US rival Kayak by announcing plans to run its first ever TV ad campaign in early-2010.
Launching initially on Scottish commercial channels and created and bought by Newhaven and Featherbrooksbank respectively, Skycanner eventually hopes to roll out the campaign across the UK.
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.
As the always-connected traveller turns to mobile and other devices to search and book products, travel brands must finally grasp the importance of providing a seamless multi-channel customer experience.
Another year, another 2,500 articles published on Tnooz. But which stories attracted the most traffic or moved readers in their dozens to add their comments?
Tnooz is lucky and privileged to have some of the brightest minds in the industry reporting and contributing to its service almost every single day of the year.
With the rapid advancements in mobile and social media, travel companies often find themselves struggling to separate hype from fact.