With the recent release of the Goby iPhone application and the Tnooz showcase of the Siri.com offering, there is a definite increase in interest in on location mobile services that can benefit travelers in destination. Anecdotal data indicates that about 80% of bookings made by travelers for in-destination services occur when in destination (rather than [...]
In my recent distribution and supply chain collaboration sessions at the Adventure Travel World Summit, I had an opportunity to sit down and discuss aspects of distribution with adventure travel operators and outfitters. I was joined on the panel by a number of key players in the adventure distribution space including James O’Leonard (Founder & [...]
The Adventure Travel World Summit is on October 19-22, 2009 in historic Quebec City. I’ll be attending this year as a speaker focusing on Social media and distribution systems for the adventure segment. I am really excited about being part of the conference this year because it is really well executed and, from what I [...]
During the OpenTravel Alliance half day session at Eye for Travel’s Distribution Summit in Chicago, we had an opportunity to discuss new and emerging distribution channels including, believe it or not, destination marketers. Although many of the comments were not particularly supportive of this model, I think there is a huge opportunity for destinations to [...]
Last week I had an opportunity to talk to Claude Guay, formerly an analyst with PhoCusWright but now the CEO of iPerceptions, an analytics company based out of New York. iPerceptions recently published their Hospitality Index report around the same time that Forrester research came out with their report indicating the customer satisfaction in the [...]
Packaged goods in traditional retail have a very different meaning to packaged goods in the travel space. In retail, a packaged product is a product that is sold in a “package”, ie. a box or a blister pack (literally packaged). In travel, a packaged product is one that is a combination of two separate products [...]
Joe Buhler sent me a link to a New York Times article titled “Worst Part of a Trip May be Booking It“. The article describes how frustrating the on-line booking experience can be for many consumers and how far behind the travel industry seems to be in comparison to other e-commerce sectors. We continued the [...]
Before you can run, you must first learn to walk. You’ve all heard this many times in your lifetime. Although the saying is overused, it is used because it is true. Although the saying can be applied to travel product distribution, in many cases the players are not even crawling yet. The challenge with any [...]
Google released their latest labs project called “City Tours” last week. I was quick to jump on the bandwagon and take a look, but I resisted from posting right away because I wanted to think a little more deeply about the implications of the application. Let’s not forget that Google is a powerhouse and, if [...]
One of the biggest challenges for any on-line business, especially on-line travel businesses is building trust with the on-line consumer. In my Tourism week post titled “Building On-line Credibility” I discussed ways that businesses can build their credibility on-line. In this post, I am going to share with you my five favorite tools for building [...]
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