The latest news from the GDS world, including new airline agreements, product news and initiatives.

14 March 2010:

• Travel agents in United Arab Emirates handed SMS capability through Amadeus. Travel agents able to alert travellers with details about itineraries, e-tickets and flight information.

12 March 2010:

• Shearings Holidays and Amadeus sign GDS content distribution package. The three-year agreement will give Shearings worldwide access to fares, schedules and inventories across the Amadeus system.

10 March 2010:

• Amadeus launches LinkHotel, a distribution service for small to medium size hotels and groups. LinkHotel also provides reservation tools, marketing services, and commission handling.
• Amadeus division Traveltainment acquires online marketing company Pixell. The Bonn, Germany-based company handles advertising for clients through SEO, SEM, display marketing, direct marketing and affiliate marketing as well as Twitter, social networks or mobile devices.
• Travelport unveils Opinions review system in the UK and Ireland. The service, which had a successful launch in France in mid-2009, allows agents to review hotel properties and ask questions of other experts on the system.

9 March 2010:

• Net Trans and Travelport ink deal to provide hotel commission recovery to Travelport agents around the world. The Net Trans system allows agents to see how much commission has been paid or owed by a supplier as well as managing processes between the two.

8 March 2010:

• Best Western International signs enhanced contract with GTA by Travelport to boost distribution of the chain’s property descriptions
• LOT Polish Airlines and Amadeus agree extension to technology partnership to extend to the Star Alliance Common IT platform inventory system. The new agreement will complete in in the second half of 2010 and also see an upgrade to its customer management system and use of the wider Star Alliance platform.
• Sabre reveals programme with data management firm iWay Software. The Airline Solutions division of Sabre has worked with iWay to audit and analyse the Airport Data Intelligence programme, a system which tracks capacity and other details of every flight in the world.

6 March 2010:

• Bangkok Airways and Amadeus unite for travel agency promotion. Agents booking tickets on the airline through the Amadeus GDS are also entered in a prize draw. Both organisations claim an immediate increase in bookings following the launch – the promotion runs until 31 May 2010.

5 March 2010:

• Agencia Abreu seals multi-year deal with Travelport to use the Galileo GDS system. The Portuguese travel agency, one of the largest in the country and in existence since 1840, has 120 offices around the country and also a sizeable presence in the US and Brazil.

4 March 2010:

• Amadeus signs agreement to evaluate use of the Altea Customer Management System with Asiana Airlines. The Memo of Understanding will explore for future use of the Altea system for reservation, inventory and departure control processes across the Asiana network.

What you missed on Tnooz this week, Sunday March 7 to Saturday 13 March 2010:

Top three most commented articles this week:

• Singapore shifts emphasis to consumer with YourSingapore launch
• All aboard — Amtrak set to rail about this or that on Twitter
• Game-changer? Smartphone manufacturers looking to disrupt travel distribution

Controversial topic of the week:

• Google kaboom — disruption coming from search, video, mobile, cloud

How To Build an iPhone App:

• Day One of Four
• Day Two of Four
• Day Three of Four
• Day Four of Four
• Launch Day

From TLabs:

• TLabs Showcase – TaxiPal
• Fiverr – another wacky web idea or neat for the very end of Long Tail in travel?

And the rest (most recent first):

• OTAs invite hoteliers to tax meet — dialogue or grandstanding?
• Zugu lifts lid on site for Germany
• Interactive Mobile @dvertising gets its first funding round
• Hold on — Carnival mandates online-only for some travel agent requests
• YourSingapore launch triggers another round of soul searching
• GDS Bitesize – service news, agreements, products from Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre
• Marriott International takes on search engines over trademark practices
• The GDS wars, broken models and metasearch issues — JetBlue-style
• Seven minutes with Olaf Gueldner, MD Travelport Europe
• Live Blogging Bloggers’ Summit@ITB
• Hong Kong Travel Site Crunch: Data Week End March 6 2010
• Rand McNally acquires Tripology, maps quest to become online travel company
• Google exec on Buzz, Super Bowl ad, behavioral advertising, tablets
• Not so cryptic from Tripology – map giant Rand McNally is the buyer
• Travelport dumps TravelClick as the GDS world watches
• Priorities for metasearch – Skyscanner and Swoodoo say booking way down the list
• Tripology: The deal is done
• American Airlines has exit clause in HP reservations system contract
• Live Blogging PhoCusWright@ITB
• Making car hire sexy through Microsoft Surface, Europcar driving forward
• Australia Travel Site Crunch: Data Week End March 6 2010
• Poll: Understanding and using social media in travel
• Location-based social network to integrate Travel Channel dining content
• US Travel Site Crunch: Data Week End March 6 2010
• No sweat — SpaFinder unveils iPhone app
• Copy this — Hilton Garden Inn, PrinterOn enable printing from smartphones
• UK Travel Site Crunch: Data Week End March 6 2010

Previous Week in Travel Tech:

• February 28-March 7 2010
• February 21-27 2010
• February 14-20 2010
• February 7-13 2010
• January 31-February 6 2010
• January 24-30 2010
• January 17-23 2010
• January 10-16 2010
• January 3-9 2010
• December 27-January 2 2010
• December 20-26 2009
• December 13-19 2009
• December 6-12 2009
• November 29-December 5 2009
• November 22-28 2009
• November 15-21 2009
• November 8-14 2009
• November 1-7 2009
• October 25-31 2009
• October 18-24 2009
• October 11-17 2009
• October 3-10 2009

Notices:

• Tnooz #tcamp4 at OpenTravel Advisory Forum
• Tnooz Nodes – profiles, RSS feeds and Twitter links

Cheapflights has launched its second Zugu metasearch site in less than a month – using the ITB exhibition in Berlin to unveil a local version for the German market.

Chairman Hugo Burge announced the launch of Zugu.de during a panel session at the trade show this week.

Cheapflights finally took the covers off its metasearch project three weeks ago with an official launch in the UK.

The move could trigger a round of quick launches for Zugu in markets the Cheapflights brand is already operating in, perhaps following a similar pattern of country domains.

Cheapflights Media is currently active in Australia, USA, Canada, France, Spain and Italy.

Zugu.com, which is registered to Cheapflights in London, currently redirects to Zugu.co.uk. The other sites are all registered with the same London-based broker, with the exception of Zugu.com.au (already showing ownership by Cheapflights) and Zugu.ca (a private individual).

Olaf Gueldner, manager director and president of Travelport in Europe, answers three key questions about the business and the wider GDS sector.

Most popular travel websites in Hong Kong region for the week ending March 6 2010:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Ctrip.com	www.ctrip.com	12.28%	1
2	China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited	www.chinatravelone.com	9.29%	2
3	ZUJI Hong Kong	www.zuji.com	6.59%	3
4	Cathay Pacific Holidays	www.cxholidays.com	6.28%	4
5	Hong Thai Travel Services	www.hongthai.com	6.27%	5
6	Wing On Travel	www.wingontravel.com	6.01%	6
7	EGL Tours	www.egltours.com	5.58%	7
8	Priceline Hong Kong	www.priceline.com.hk	4.30%	8
9	Expedia	www.expedia.com	2.94%	9
10	SunFlower Travel	www.sunflower.com.hk	2.08%	-

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Yahoo! Travel Hong Kong	hk.travel.yahoo.com	11.07%	1
2	Hong Kong Disneyland	www.hongkongdisneyland.com	5.21%	2
3	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	4.70%	3
4	InterContinental Hotels Group	www.ichotelsgroup.com	3.40%	5
5	Thailandfans.com	www.thailandfans.com	3.19%	6
6	Agoda Hong Kong	www.agoda.com.hk	2.21%	9
7	Discover Hong Kong (Hong Kong Tourism Board)	www.hkta.org	2.17%	4
8	HotelHK.com	www.hotelhk.com	1.83%	10
9	Qunar Hotel	hotel.qunar.com	1.74%	7
10	Marriott International	www.marriott.com	1.69%	-

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Cathay Pacific	www.cathaypacific.com	29.56%	1
2	Qantas Airways	www.qantas.com.au	7.09%	2
3	AirAsia	www.airasia.com	5.87%	3
4	Dragon Air	www.dragonair.com	4.68%	4
5	Cebu Pacific Air	www.cebupacificair.com	4.07%	5
6	Singapore Airlines	www.singaporeair.com	3.48%	6
7	British Airways	www.britishairways.com	2.38%	7
8	Jetstar Airways	www.jetstar.com	2.36%	9
9	Air Canada	www.aircanada.ca	2.25%	10
10	Emirates	www.emirates.com	2.21%	-

NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise

Either Rand McNally is the buyer of Tripology or chief executive John Peters has made a bizarre faux pas.

With news that a deal to acquire the agent lead-gen firm is imminent, Peters published a blog post late yesterday, giving away some clues as to the company’s identity.

Winning no prizes no poetry but a gold medal for guile, Peters wrote:

So there you go.

NB: For those still unsure, please note the first letter of each line

The chatter generated by Kayak when it announced it is considering adding a booking element into its model appears not to have inspired others to think the same.

But whereas the topic was rarely mentioned before, such was the determination by metasearch players to keep the model simple, it is now, by virtue of Kayak’s move, getting some air time.

For example, Skyscanner and Swoodoo, both enjoying success in Europe in the metasearch sector, are far more philosophical about setting off such a seismic move to their existing businesses.

Take Skyscanner co-founder and chief executive Gareth Williams. He acknowledges the huge implications such a move by Kayak could have on the marketplace.

Is Skyscanner ruling it out?

Ask any metasearch player just two years ago if booking was an option they would consider and the answer would’ve been dismissed.

Not any more – Kayak appears to have changed many of its rivals’ thinking. Williams now says booking is “on the list” of things to do.

He quickly adds the caveat that the company needs “to get search right first”.

Christian Saller, CEO of Swoodoo, admits that booking is actually “something we discuss now all the time”.

So from fiercely defending the metasearch model for years (almost the reverse of Cheapflights and its proud defence of price comparison  until the launch of Zugu), in a short space of time the market has changed its thinking once again.

The ongoing overhaul of the Europcar online presence has taken an interesting new turn with the launch of a platform for use on Microsoft Surface in airports.

The idea was first mooted in November 2009 but now the first table with fully functioning tools is set to be installed at Munich Airport in Germany shortly.

Europcar, which has developed the system with UK-based digital agency Fortune Cookie, will equip the system at a number of major outlets elsewhere around Europe from the end of the first half of 2010.

The platform allows users to browse images and route options and then plot a trip on a Bing-enabled map. The tool is obviously completely hand-driven on on the horizontal Surface system.

Once a user has created a trip they will be able to print out a personal planning pack from the Europcar outlet.

Europcar says it will also stream hotel offers through the system.

The system is not exclusive to the Microsoft Surface table – users will also be able to use the system on any touch-screen computer.

Europcar’s global marketing director Jehan de Thé says:

“This approach fits with Europcar’s determination to innovate and facilitate journey planning whilst making car rental a constantly more practical and pleasant experience for our customers.”

Most popular travel websites in Australia for the week ending March 6 2010:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Webjet Australia	www.webjet.com.au	14.09%	1
2	Flight Centre	www.flightcentre.com.au	10.65%	2
3	Expedia Australia	www.expedia.com.au	7.11%	3
4	Lastminute.com.au	www.au.lastminute.com	5.92%	4
5	Expedia	www.expedia.com	3.36%	5
6	ZUJI Australia	www.zuji.com	3.20%	6
7	Airfares Flights Australia	www.airfaresflights.com.au	2.94%	7
8	Best Flights	www.bestflights.com.au	2.73%	8
9	Travelzoo Australia	www.travelzoo.com.au	1.97%	9
10	travel.com.au	www.travel.com.au	1.84%	10

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Wotif.com	www.wotif.com	6.61%	1
2	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	4.91%	2
3	Totaltravel.com	www.totaltravel.com	3.00%	4
4	Stayz	www.stayz.com.au	2.79%	3
5	Booking.com	www.booking.com	2.34%	5
6	ExplorOz - 4WD Australia	www.exploroz.com	1.57%	6
7	ninemsn Travel	travel.ninemsn.com.au	1.48%	10
8	HotelClub	www.hotelclub.net	1.39%	7
9	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	1.33%	8
10	Australian Explorer	www.australianexplorer.com	1.30%	9

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Qantas Airways	www.qantas.com.au	22.60%	2
2	Virgin Blue	www.virginblue.com.au	20.24%	1
3	Jetstar Airways	www.jetstar.com	16.97%	3
4	Tiger Airways	www.tigerairways.com	6.62%	4
5	AirAsia	www.airasia.com	5.63%	5
6	Emirates	www.emirates.com	2.80%	6
7	Singapore Airlines	www.singaporeair.com	2.65%	7
8	Vaustralia	www.vaustralia.com.au	1.78%	9
9	Air New Zealand - Australia	www.airnz.com.au	1.78%	8
10	Air New Zealand	www.airnz.co.nz	1.69%	10

Travel search terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentage of Search	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	google maps	1.44%	38.38%	61.62%	1
2	virgin blue	0.91%	44.96%	55.04%	2
3	jetstar	0.88%	1.89%	98.11%	3
4	qantas	0.79%	1.39%	98.61%	4
5	webjet	0.63%	0.30%	99.70%	6
6	flight centre	0.51%	51.83%	48.17%	8
7	maps	0.50%	41.68%	58.32%	7
8	wotif	0.49%	0.00%	100%	10
9	where is	0.48%	0.19%	99.81%	9
10	tiger airways	0.47%	3.83%	96.17%	-

NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise

TLabs focus on startups featuring TaxiPal from Estonia.

Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?

TaxiPal is a spin-off project from T+1 Solutions, an Estonian R&D and technology solution provider founded by Raoul Järvis. In the summer of 2009 three other key people were brought in: Gunnar Läll, Aap Hirvesoo and Priit Penjam. They all have a long-time executive and developer experience in IT from various fields (banking, R&D, fund management, mobile services, web portals, etc.)

In addition to them there are four developers working on the project.

What financial support did you have to launch the business?

Our startup is self-financed. It was the goal from the very beginning to reach launch-readiness and first paying clients with only our own funding. A significant role have also the NAVTEQ map licenses that were received as part of the Grand Prize at NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge that T+1 Solutions won last year.

What problem are you trying to solve?

TaxiPal helps the user to answer one of life’s frequently asked question, such as “Where can I get a taxi?” It’s easy to answer when you are at home, but what if you are travelling and need a taxi in another city? Or even if you happen to know the taxi phone number it might be difficult to tell the dispatcher where you are because of the language barriers.

TaxiPal’s Local Taxis service provides location aware list of local taxi companies, their tariffs, ratings and supported payment methods. And with TaxiPal’s Direct Order feature the user can order a local taxi without making a phone call.

It will also help to avoid illegal taxis and over-charging by dishonest drivers.

Describe the business, core products and services?

TaxiPal is actually a full end-to-end solution for the taxi industry, covering everything from the free end-user mobile application to the cost-effective fleet management solution for the taxi company. TaxiPal can also be integrated with taxi companies’ existing fleet management systems, meaning that their existing investment does not need to be replaced. TaxiPal adds a new sales channel to companies’ existing processes, brings them more customers and provides direct feedback from end-users about service quality. Our fleet management solution provides a cost-effective means for taxi companies to optimize their fleet operations.

Who are your key customers and users at launch?

• B2C: Our end-users are people who at least occasionally use taxi services either at home town or when travelling. For example, business travellers are one of our target end-user groups.
• B2B: Any taxi company, big or small, that would be interested in adding a new sales channel, being more visible and accessible to new customers, mainly travellers. Also companies who would like to use GPS technology to better manage their fleet and optimize their business processes.

Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?

TaxiPal (initially bearing a project name Taxi4me) won the prestigious NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge® 2009 Grand Prize for the Americas region and also the overall global title Global LBS Challenge CHAMPION 2009. Since the winner selection was done by a very distinguished panel of judges comprised of executives from leading wireless and technology companies, the winning gave quite a strong validation of our idea.

• Global LBS Challenge Grand Prize
• NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge CHAMPION
• TaxiPal also won the Mobile Premier Award in Innovation from the MobileMonday community in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress 2010 in February

What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?

The service is free for the end users. There is a fee for taxi companies for being part of our network; the fee depends on the service package (feature-set) they use. We are also able to show location and time specific advertising to our end users.

SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

In-depth analysis and strategy is available to interested investors.

Who advised you your idea isn’t going to be successful and why didn’t you listen to them?

Nobody, even the biggest pessimists about our idea, have disagreed with us after seeing our presentation and explanation of the processes. It’s a truly win-win service for everybody.

What is your success metric 12 months from now?

100 000 end-users and the Direct Order feature being available in all bigger European cities.

TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.

To be featured as a startup in TLabs Showcase or to demonstrate a new product, email Tnooz for more details.

Ahead of the Tnooz-run PhoCusWright Bloggers’ Summit panel sessions at ITB, we would like to gauge opinion from readers to the following questions.

Question One:

Question Two:

Question Three:

Question Four:

NB: This poll will be reproduced on-stage during the Bloggers’ Summit workshops in Berlin on Thursday 11 March 2010.

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending March 6 2010:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Expedia	www.expedia.com	15.23%	1
2	Travelocity	www.travelocity.com	8.52%	3
3	priceline.com	www.priceline.com	8.22%	2
4	Orbitz	www.orbitz.com	6.95%	4
5	Yahoo! Travel	travel.yahoo.com	5.20%	5
6	Hotwire	www.hotwire.com	4.97%	6
7	cheapoair.com	www.cheapoair.com	4.25%	7
8	bookingbuddy	www.bookingbuddy.com	3.55%	8
9	Kayak	www.kayak.com	3.34%	9
10	Cheap Tickets	www.cheaptickets.com	3.21%	-

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	6.16%	1
2	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	2.60%	3
3	Best Western International	www.bestwestern.com	2.55%	2
4	InterContinental Hotels Group	www.ichotelsgroup.com	2.31%	5
5	Marriott International	www.marriott.com	2.25%	4
6	Walt Disney World	disneyworld.disney.go.com	1.59%	7
7	Hilton Hotels Online	www.hilton.com	1.52%	8
8	Carnival Cruise Lines	www.carnival.com	1.44%	6
9	Vacation Rentals by Owner	www.vrbo.com	1.41%	9
10	BookIt.com	www.bookit.com	1.28%	-

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Southwest Airlines	www.southwest.com	20.92%	1
2	Delta Air Lines	www.delta.com	13.45%	2
3	American Airlines	www.aa.com	9.47%	3
4	JetBlue Airways	www.jetblue.com	7.02%	5
5	Continental Airlines	www.continental.com	6.33%	4
6	AirTran Airways	www.airtran.com	5.82%	6
7	United Airlines	www.united.com	5.18%	7
8	US Airways	www.usairways.com	3.96%	8
9	Allegiant Air	www.allegiantair.com	3.39%	9
10	Spirit Airlines	www.spiritair.com	3.00%	-

Travel search terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentage of Clicks	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	mapquest	2.77%	6.71%	93.29%	1
2	mapquest driving directions	1.47%	1.45%	98.55%	2
3	google maps	1.18%	3.81%	96.19%	3
4	maps	0.86%	6.39%	93.11%	4
5	southwest airlines	0.74%	11.10%	88.90%	5
6	google earth	0.53%	6.52%	93.48%	7
7	map quest	0.53%	0.18%	99.82%	6
8	expedia	0.46%	27.63%	72.37%	8
9	travelocity	0.43%	26.28%	73.78%	-
10	cheap flights	0.41%	28.18%		10

NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise

Fiverr is a simple concept, attracting a fair amount of attention in the online tech media mostly for its ease-of-use although its quirkiness has to be a factor.

The site allows users to buy, sell and rate services via the web – but only ever charges the end user $5.

It covers everything from the practical (”I will set up and secure your PC for $5″) to the topical but rather surreal (”I will create an Avatar movie portrait from your picture for $5″).

Interestingly, it also has a sizeable amount of travel-related things for sale as well.

Here are some of those listed on the site:

• I will tell you the best ancient sites to visit if you’re going on holiday to Egypt for $5.
• I will recommend hotels, coffee shops and fun things to do in Amsterdam for $5.
• I will give you a detailed write-up of how we’ve gotten our 5yo and 3yo to travel on airplanes without hassles, tears or tantrums for $5.
• I will give you travel tips about Buenos Aires for $5.

So a travel company or hotel shifting 50,ooo+ travellers a year might not be attracted to spending its time and effort on getting involved in something like Fiverr, but those at the sharper and lengthier end of the Long Tail of tourism might be.

From a commercial perspective (and those wondering how Fiverr makes any money), each seller pays the site $1 as a brokerage fee.