For most small tour operators, the concept of creating a standardized set of XML messages for the distribution of tour and activity data probably sounds like gobbledegook. For data geeks and standards enthusiasts like the team behind Rezgo, this is a huge milestone in the march towards making small businesses a more visible part of [...]
The founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard has a saying that goes something like this, “place one-foot forward and if it feels good take another step.” I have been taking several steps forward for the past three months developing an online travel business called BarHarborDeals.com. My vision was to build an OTA (Online Travel Agency) for [...]
I was writing a post for the The Savvy Operator recently about how to market your on-line booking website, specifically targeting in-destination tours and activities, and it occurred to me that there is of confusion about the benefits of marketing versus distribution of long tail products. What I mean by distribution is the resale of [...]
The OpenTravel Alliance (OpenTravel), the travel industry’s leading distribution specification/standards development organization, announces new projects ranging from functional enhancements to tours and activities to adding electronic miscellaneous document (EMD) information to support merchandising of additional services by airlines. “As the travel industry comes out of the downturn, companies are refining business models to reflect economic [...]
I had a really great conversation with Barbara Vega, founder of I Heart BackPackers, a tour operator who specializes in backpacking tours all over the World. During our talk, Barbara wanted to know if I had any suggestions on how to get started with social media and how to improve what she was already doing. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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