For today's time-poor consumers, booking a holiday can be a tough process. The age old question always fired at a new band, 'What are your influences?' is just as important when it comes to online travel customers.

RESEARCH ASSISTANCE
Most people begin the holiday research process by searching for destination guides (typically through Google). Often, these in-depth guides either don't exist, or consumers don't realise that they exist, on major travel booking sites. By not offering this extra level of information, travel sites risk people leaving and finding this information elsewhere. Researching and booking a holiday is a very time-consuming process and competes with other work and household activities. People have limited time during lunch break and evenings, meaning they're likely to get frustrated if it takes to long too find the information that they require.

Given today's steadily increasing airfares and hotel rates, using the big "opaque" online travel-buying sites makes more sense than ever. Hotwire and Priceline are called opaque because, for their lowest rates, you have to make a firm nonrefundable commitment to buy before you know the details. With accommodations and rental cars, you don't know the name of the supplier before you buy; with airfares, you don't know either the airline or the flight schedule. Although both sites have been around a long time, they've recently added features and functionality.

In today's economy, airlines and hotels face a double whammy of escalating costs and weakening demand. Opaque sites are an ideal way to sell off some capacity at cut-rate prices that would otherwise go unsold while keeping advertised and published rates high. Both sites also sell at published rates, but as far as I can see, they have about the same offerings as the big conventional sites. The real interest is in the opaque offerings.

The media habits of tech-savvy travelers - those who, by self-report, are active users of the latest computer, gaming and entertainment technology - differ considerably from those who are less wired according to the "NEXTgen Traveler" survey of 2,559 adults conducted in March 2008. Co-authored by Ypartnership and PhoCusWright, this in-depth exploration of the travel habits and preferences of active users of the latest computer, gaming and entertainment technology challenges some prevailing myths about this emerging market segment.

Travel sites are forgetting what is important to consumers and focusing on the latest gadgets and functionality according to new research.

The study conducted by Harris Interactive for Tealeaf said online security, completing the transaction and getting a receipt for it are what are most important to consumers.

Despite the current focus on personalisation by many travel websites, Tealeaf vice president of marketing and product strategy Geoff Galat said personalisation was not that important to online shoppers.

Travel sites are forgetting what is important to consumers and focusing on the latest gadgets and functionality according to new research.

The study conducted by Harris Interactive for Tealeaf said online security, completing the transaction and getting a receipt for it are what are most important to consumers.

Despite the current focus on personalisation by many travel websites, Tealeaf vice president of marketing and product strategy Geoff Galat said personalisation was not that important to online shoppers.

Myth #1: The number of online travel buyers in the U.S. is declining. In fact, that number is on the rise, as documented in the recently published The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Tenth Edition. In 2007, approximately 70% of online travelers (that is, adults who have taken a commercial air trip and stayed at a hotel for leisure in the past year, and used the Internet in the past 30 days) bought travel online, compared to 63% in 2006.

 

PhoCusWright dispelled this piece of misinformation—and debunked five additional online travel myths—at its first-ever Analyst Forum, held September 10 in New York City.

The Face of Global Search competition reveals interesting data

Travel sites take note: there is much more to the international online travel market than Google. The results from Oban and EyeforTravel’s online travel competition show that international internet surfers are expanding their search horizons to sites that give them more international usability, more options, ease of use, and of course, traveller reviews.

The Face of Global Search competition had entrants play a flash game in which they answered questions about their online travel search behaviour before advancing to the next level.

New research shows that international travellers prefer eye-catching design over simplicity in travel websites. Interestingly, two-thirds of these same respondents reported using Google, renowned for its minimalist design, above all other search engines.

These findings, from multilingual search engine optimisation (SEO) company www.obanmultilingual.com, which surveyed international travellers from over 40 countries, may leave some travel website providers wondering: which is better, eye-catching or simple design?

Let's start with some definitions.

Allotz.com has launched the world's first true, two-way fully automated "Set and Forget" global inventory distribution and management system initially .+for the Australasian market, and today announced they have a host of major travel industry partners already signed up.

Martin McConnachie, President of Allotz.com, said the launch of the revolutionary Allotz.com technology platform signalled the next generation of online inventory management and distribution had finally arrived.

"For too long accommodation providers have spent vast amounts of time and money managing room inventory manually across multiple online travel agent sites and managing issues with over-bookings and paying too many commissions, but thanks to Allotz.com these headaches are a thing of the past.

Not long ago, the advent of online travel - allowing travelers to research and book their trips with a few clicks of a mouse - was thought to be a death knell for traditional travel agents. But faced with the increasing cost and unpredictability of travel today, vacationers seem to be returning to the fold.

Twenty-three percent of online leisure travelers in the United States say they would use a good offline agent if they could find one, according to Forrester Research. And spotting an opportunity, a handful of new websites with catchy names like Zicasso and Tripology have emerged in the last year, offering to act as free matchmaking services for vacationers in search of traditional agents.