Travel & Tourism Technology Trends

Travelmuse.com has been in development for just over a year (May 2007) but they quite cleverly disguised what they were doing by leading users (and industry insiders) to believe that they were just another content provider.  In fact, what they were doing (so it would appear) is working on their Travelmuse Plan-It Widget which allows other content providers to add Travelmuse’s trip planning and itinerary functionality without any additional cost.  The benefit to the content provider is that there is more opportunity for the traveler to share the content they have found with their friends and fellow travellers.  The benefit to Travelmuse is that it increases the scope of the content supported by Travelmuse and adds a viral nature to their site.

From what I can find, Uptake.com is the first of many larger consumer sites to add the Travelmuse widget (albeit rather subtely).  Given Uptake.com is a content metasearch engine that doesn’t generate revenue from selling any particular provider’s products, the idea of adding a travel itinerary function makes sense.  This may not be such a good idea for vendors or suppliers who have already invested the time and resources to build out their dynamic packaging functionality.  The reason I like the functionality so much is because provides the consumer with the ability to bookmark content from multiple providers and websites.  Most dynamic packaging engines are developed in order to provide access and booking of specific brands or featured suppliers.  Travelmuse works across the Dream, Plan, and Booking phases of the travel lifecycle and,  given the sharing capabilities of the bookmarks, it even overlaps into the Reminisce phase as well.

Question:

1. Is the partnership with Travelocity the primary revenue generator TravelMuse?
2. Many suppliers will hesitate with adding the widget given that TravelMuse is selling travel.  How does TravelMuse plan to address this?
3. PlanetEye, TravelBeen, and TravelBookmarking.com all offer similar trip planning functionality.  How does TravelMuse plan on competing for eyeballs?