Archives for February 2010
February 26, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Continental to offer paperless boarding passes on flights from U.K. to U.S.
Continental Airlines has announced the expansion of its mobile boarding pass service to London’s Heathrow Airport, becoming the first carrier to offer paperless boarding passes on nonstop flights from the United Kingdom to the U.S.
The service allows customers to receive boarding passes electronically on their mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs) and eliminates the need for paper boarding passes.
Mobile boarding passes display a two-dimensional bar code along with passenger and flight information, which scanners at the security checkpoint and boarding gate validate. The technology prevents manipulation or duplication of the boarding passes and heightens security.
In addition to boarding passes, Continental provides access to enhanced flight information through mobile devices. Customers may view onboard amenities and standby lists, as well as track the status of their flights.
Continental was the first carrier to offer paperless boarding passes in the U.S. in a pilot programme with the Transportation Security Administration that began in December 2007. The airline currently offers mobile boarding passes at 42 airports, including its hubs in New York, Houston and Cleveland. Continental was the first U.S. carrier to offer mobile boarding passes from an international destination when it launched the service at Frankfurt Airport late last year.
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February 26, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Flight Centre almost doubles its first half net profit
Flight Centre Limited’s net profit after tax for the six months to December 31, 2009, jumped 95.8 percent to $51.5 million, from $26.1 million in the prior corresponding period.
Revenue fell 6.9 per cent to $818.5 million.
Flight Centre’s chief financial officer, Andrew Flannery, shared that strong Australian demand has more than offset losses in its US business, and weakness in the UK, Canada and New Zealand.
“Certainly consumer confidence here rebounded much faster than most other markets, there was certainly some pent up demand when people deferred international travel on the last part of the cycle, the strong Australian dollar and certainly the outstanding deals have all contributed to a very strong Australian result,” he said.
Flight Centre recorded pre-tax profit of $73.6 million in the half, which was within the range of $70 million to $74 million managing director Graham Turner forecast in January.
The company has reaffirmed its guidance of full-year pre-tax profit coming in between $160 million and $180 million.
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February 26, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Carnival Cruise Lines witnesses record Wave Season activity
Carnival Cruise Lines is reporting record wave season bookings, with strong reservations activity for 2010 departures.
Wave season typically runs from about mid-January through early spring and is traditionally the busiest, most important booking period in the cruise industry.
The company shared that for the period of January 1 through February 21, 2010, “bookings were at unprecedented levels for the line’s 22 ships which operate three- to 15-day voyages from a variety of convenient North American home ports”.
Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill said, “We’re seeing significantly increased volume as consumers are taking advantage of the incredible value that a Carnival cruise provides. And while pricing hasn’t fully recovered to 2008 levels, we are increasing prices and will implement an across-the-board increase effective March 22.”
As a result of the strong booking volumes, a general price increase will be implemented effective March 22 for all summer sailings in June, July and August.
The price increases will vary by departure date but will be up to 5 percent.
Cahill attributed the record booking activity to a wide range of factors, including strong travel agent partner support, targeted marketing initiatives, itinerary enhancements and the wide variety of close-to-home departure points.
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February 25, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Who will be attending EyeforTravel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel USA conference
Social media has long been a subject of much debate for the industry. Is it a friend or a foe? Is it here to stay or just a passing fad? EyeforTravel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel USA conference sees leading travel brands gather together to discuss this key issue. The 2 day conference will take place in San Francisco, March 24-25 and is the only in-depth social media conference to be dedicated 100% to the travel industry.
The event program will move beyond the ‘should we take social media seriously?’ debates and analyze how social media is radically changing the way that travel brands communicate with their customers.
The impressive speaker line up includes ‘C’ level executives from top airlines, hotels and OTA’s. ‘It’s fascinating to see how rapidly social media is evolving. Its incorporation at a strategic decision-making level just goes to show that it is unlikely to be a passing fad. Innovative travel brands are realizing the vast potential to use social media to engage customers, raise brand awareness and enrich the customer experience’ says Event Director, Gina Baillie.
Program highlights include an opening keynote sessions and panel debate on the theme ‘Analyze the advancing social media landscape’ with presentations from Porter Gale, VP Marketing, Virgin America; Virginia Suliman, VP Websites, Hilton Worldwide; Ted Souder, Head of Travel, Central, Google; Jeremy Jameson, Former Corporate Strategist, Southwest Airlines.
Del Ross, VP Sales & Marketing, IHG and Flo Lugli, EVP Marketing, Wyndham Worldwide will address the important issue of setting the right vision, KPIs and strategy for social media initiatives. Facebook will present their views on the much questioned issue of how to achieve the highest return on investment for social media initiatives. The full program can be viewed at http://events.eyefortravel.com/social-media/agenda.asp
Throughout the 2 days, delegates will have the chance to hear tried and tested case studies, to ask questions and network with the top innovators in social media in the industry today.
The ever-growing attendee list includes many leading travel brands and can be viewed here
For full event information, contact:
Gina Baillie
VP Marketing & Events
EyeforTravel
+44(0)207 375 7197
gina@eyefortravel.com
February 25, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Flight Centre Gets Customers Talking
Flight Centre will shortly be enabling customers to upload their travel experience on a new interactive section of their website, assisting others to make more informed choices for their holiday plans.
With a new social media solution soon to launch on www.flightcentre.co.uk and www.roundtheworldexperts.co.uk, Flight Centre is following a growing trend of adopting user-generated content integrated in to their own website to interact with existing customers, while reaching out to more.
Teaming up with tourism marketing experts Digital Visitor, Flight Centre is offering an interactive forum - powered by Digital Visitor’s Visitor Review application – enabling their customers to share and exchange their travel experience by posting photos, videos and review destinations, tours and hotels online.
Flight Centre’s Robyn Simper, Specialist Marketing Manager, said: “Social media and user-generated content are playing an increasingly important part in customers’ decision-making process. By integrating reviews and social media into our website, we are creating a content-driven site that gives the information that customers demand. As their experience on our website becomes more convenient and engaging, customers will also be more willing to spend more time researching and explore within the Flight Centre brand.”
Anthony Rawlins, Managing Director of Digital Visitor, added: “Every photo, video or text comment that is uploaded will increase the level of activity of the website. This will boost the ranking of the client’s website on popular search engines as they capture information posted on via the Visitor Review solution. Our clients, like Flight Centre, can also further boost their exposure on the search engines by identifying important or popular search terms so that internet users can be directed to add valuable content to each of these important areas.”
Flight Centre and Round the World Experts will be launching this application on their website in April and the company may also adopt this solution for its other UK brands.
For more information on Digital Visitor or Visitor Review go to www.digitalvisitor.co.uk or contact info@digitalvisitor.co.uk
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February 25, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Taking travel planning and booking to new heights with technology convergence
IN-DEPTH: Abacus’ Brett Henry on issues limiting mobile technology
A mobile phone knows so much more about a user’s current location than a PC.
This gives mobile a huge advantage over PC search in servicing an immediate requirement.
Certainly, the opportunity for mobile technology is tremendous but it is hampered by two key issues, says Abacus International, VP - marketing, Brett Henry.
Firstly, the infrastructure required is fragmented as it is owned by various local telco providers, which makes it difficult to provide consistency to users. Secondly, new entrants are seeking their stake of market share, which makes it difficult to ensure the same standard of technology is applied across the board.
“So while there are a number of very interesting local projects that demonstrate just how effective mobile technology can be, for example augmented reality, it is a difficult task at this point in time to pull this off on a regional or global scale,” said Henry, scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2010 (to be held in Singapore, April 28-29).
Henry also spoke about several other issues in an interview with EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta. Excerpts:
Do you think the biggest obstacle today is international roaming charges, which make mobile use overseas prohibitive in the short term except for business use?
Brett Henry: International roaming charges are currently an obstacle, however these prices will come down once telecommunications realise they need to price reasonably in order to push usage of their invested infrastructure. On the other hand, increasing use of smartphones, which is spurred by the success of Apple’s iPhone, will also drive demand and therefore a middle ground will be created where demand meets supply. Yet the complexity of roaming charges will be a hurdle in the midterm.
Travel companies have realised that in addition to maps, travel directions, and local information can make a travel site a valuable destination resource especially considering the fact that travel planning is destination-sensitive. How friendly do you think is geo-content on mobile phones today?
Brett Henry: Indeed, geographic content is very useful but the problem is still that of payment, for example who will be paying whom for those services. International roaming charges are confusing enough today, so the challenges moving forward will be to implement a clear service structure so that consumers understand what they are paying for.
How do you assess the current innovation especially in location-based services and its utility especially for travellers be it for travel planning and booking? For instance, recently, online travel agency, priceline.com, came up with the latest version of its Hotel Negotiator App which allows travellers to point their phones in a desired direction and the radar sweeps the area looking for hotels. Each time the traveller turns, a new radar search begins. When the radar detects an individual hotel, it displays a price and star level.
Brett Henry: Technology convergence, such as mapping plus GPS plus content plus augmentation, is certainly on the rise. The applications that will see the distance will be the few who truly provide a superior user experience and greater convenience. I believe that the first to drive these applications or ‘apps’ will be Apple’s iPhone, as this is where developers are currently churning out the most apps. That said, Google Android is also a strong contender.
Mapping used to be the gateway to services and now with the advent of free navigation by Nokia worldwide and by Google on a much more limited scale you have handset vendors closing the gaps on user interaction and making location services easier to use, find, and fulfill user’s needs. How do you assess these developments from travel industry’s perspective?
Brett Henry: The two key issues limiting mobile technology is the fragmentation of infrastructure and technology. To overcome this, you need someone with clout (like Nokia or Google) to make local telcos cooperate. Moreover, to make it relevant for the travel industry, you need both geographical coverage (since a traveller usually requires such services outside his usual telco’s coverage) and a business model that make sense for all parties.
There is some progress being made as far as mobile advertising is concerned. For instance, Google has unveiled a mobile feature that allows advertisers to add a clickable local phone number to mobile paid search ads. Recently, mobile network operator Orange launched a new mobile advertising service that enables brands to engage and interact directly with targeted segments of Orange’s customer base in the UK. On the flip side, there are quite a few challenges – for example, mobile advertising linking to sites that are not mobile web compatible. How do you see mobile advertising as of today?
Brett Henry: Mobile technology is following the same evolutionary path as advertising on the Internet and email, meaning it will become easier and cheaper. Although it is not without its disadvantages, for example,e controls are imposed on what is acceptable content and level and consumers are likely to fight back against spam. However the potential target is much bigger and the response practically instantaneous – so it is inevitable that advertising spend will shift to some extent from the web or print to the mobile platform.
Leveraging social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook seems to be at the core of the telecommunication company’s smartphone marketing strategies. What kind of progress do you think has been made in terms of solutions that bring together LBS, navigation, user generated content and communities?
Brett Henry: It is not a case of technology or solution but a matter of having a viable business model. I believe Google probably has the best chance of pulling it off, because of their content, size and reach. Specifically, I think their strategy largely depends on the success of Android. Apple already has the right platform with the iPhone, but it needs to find the right mix of content and partners.
Henry is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2010 (to be held in Singapore, April 28-29)
For more information about the Summit, contact:
Marco Saio
Global Events Organiser
marco@eyefortravel.com
Direct Line: (+44) 020 7375 7219
February 25, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Yahoo partners with Twitter
Yahoo Inc. has formed a global partnership with Twitter to integrate Twitter’s real-time social experiences.
This partnership includes three primary elements:
Yahoo! stated the Twitter partnership, along with the one recently announced with Facebook, will transform “Yahoo! into a highly customisable social experience that lets people bring together and unify their activity from their many social experiences across the web.”
Because of these connections, anyone with a Yahoo! ID can update multiple social networks simultaneously and stay in touch with the people and information that matter most at every moment of the day.
The Twitter integration also provides full access to the complete Twitter public data stream, which Yahoo! will use to improve the relevance and freshness of content across Yahoo! properties.
For its part, Twitter on its blog stated, “Similar to the partnerships we have made with other large Internet companies, Yahoo! will receive what has been dubbed Firehose—a full feed of public tweets sent to Twitter and our partners every second of every day from all around the world.”
“Tweets may be short, but they have proven over and over again to contain valuable information. As the Twitter information network grows and expands, it becomes more valuable for everyone who participates. Our open approach helps us get closer to providing universal connectivity to a global network of immediate information.”
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February 25, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Directly engaging with customers in social media environment
Sentiment Metrics has launched its new social media engagement module, allowing its users to directly engage with individuals and enter the online conversation without needing to leave the application.
Until now, Sentiment Metrics users have been able to monitor online conversations about brands, organisations and issues across all forms of social media including blogs, forums, and Twitter.
With the new highly visual social profile graphing tool, users can look up social media user profiles, including their Twitter handle, LinkedIn profile, blog address, and google profile, and then choose to engage via these profiles all with the touch of a button.
For organisations, this means their customers can receive instant feedback, contact information can be identified via Google’s Social graph API and new leads can be funnelled back into the organisation’s sales processes.
The social media engagement module directly integrates with Twitter and Facebook, as well as supporting the creation of comments in blogs and forums from within the application itself. Via the workflow module, CRM functionality is also possible allowing the assignment and tracking of engagement activities, across all team members in an organisation.
Sentiment Metrics says it was the first company to include Facebook fanpage coverage last year and continues to embrace new arenas with Google Buzz.
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February 24, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Orbitz Worldwide posts net loss of $18m in Q4
Online travel company Orbitz Worldwide reported a net loss of $18 million for the fourth quarter 2009, compared with net income of $8 million for the same period last year.
The net loss in the fourth quarter 2009 was largely due to a non-cash increase in the company’s provision for income taxes due to the valuation allowance established against international deferred tax assets.
Net revenue was $175 million for the fourth quarter 2009, down three percent year over year. Domestic net revenue declined 12 percent while international net revenue increased 48 percent. The net revenue decline was due primarily to the removal of most domestic air booking fees. Higher transaction volume partially offset the decline in net revenue per transaction.
2009 results
For the year ended December 31, 2009, net revenue was $738 million, down 15 percent from the same period of 2008. This net revenue decline was due primarily to the removal of most domestic air booking fees and a significant reduction in hotel net revenue due to lower average daily rates, lower hotel booking fees, lower breakage and disappointing results at HotelClub. Higher transaction volume partially offset the decline in net revenue per transaction.
The company reported a net loss of $337 million for the full year 2009, compared with a net loss of $299 million for the full year 2008.
The net loss in both years was due primarily to non-cash goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges.
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February 24, 2010 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Asia leads travel industry’s recovery: Abacus
2010 is off to a good start for Asia’s travel industry as it leads in the global travel market’s recovery, thanks to a strong performance in the last quarter of 2009.
Abacus International’s president and CEO, Robert Bailey, said, “The travel industry had seen some of the most difficult times in the past year but the green shoots we saw in the second half of the year continued to grow and closed the year with better-than-expected results.”
Emerging markets – one of the green shoots seen during the economic crisis – will continue to drive travel bookings up with IndoChina and Central Asia as key growth regions. Several other markets such as Nepal, Bangladesh and South Korea had also contributed to Abacus’ better-than-expected business results.
The importance of the emerging markets was also highlighted in a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the key contributing factor for the region’s better performance in 2009. Asia is expected to enjoy 5.7% GDP growth in 2010, with emerging markets leading the rest of the world out of the downturn.
In the latest Abacus Asia Travel Sentiment Survey of around 200 leading travel agents across the region, 92.3% said that the changes they have adopted during the economic downturn have strengthened their business and put them in better shape for 2010.
“The sale of ancillary products was cited as the number one strategy. We found that almost 60% of the agents indicated that the sale of ancillary products such as hotels, travel insurance and other non-air products had helped sustain their business revenues. This is an additional revenue stream for which we have been providing keen support to our travel agents through relevant solutions and partnerships,” said Bailey.
Meanwhile, around 40% of the agents ranked the launch of promotional deals and packages as the second most important change. Allocating more resources to online channels tied with technology investments as the next most important changes with 30% of the travel agents saying that these investments have brought improvements to their businesses.
Bailey explained that the surge in online travel bookings had helped revive overall booking figures over the past year: “The huge increase in internet penetration in emerging markets as well as aggressive airline promotions have helped boost passenger numbers.” The prospect for the online segment continues to look positive. According to the Abacus Asia Travel Sentiment Survey, 71.3% of the travel agents that have no existing online business component said they are planning to develop one.
Another key contributor that will further stimulate growth in the region’s travel industry this year is the low cost carrier sector. As fuel prices make an upward trend, consolidation efforts as well as network expansion will form key strategies in the year ahead. Moreover, as competition stiffens in the industry, network carriers may well adopt ancillaries as the next revenue strategy whereby fares are unbundled and categorised according to specific airline services and flight requirements.
In the year ahead, nascent trends that the industry is currently showing sporadic interest in are expected to emerge stronger as travel players discover the relevance and benefits that they can bring to their businesses. These trends include the use of online marketing, as well as the adoption of digital applications and mobile technology.
In conclusion, Bailey said: “Asia’s huge potential for growth and its relatively younger travel industry mean that travel players in this region are strategically well-placed to capitalise on the new realm of opportunities as the economy steps into a recovery phase.”
Market Highlights
Despite the economic downturn, Abacus’ booking figures revealed that a number of markets had seen their travel bookings rise in 2009. Looking ahead, growth spurts from markets including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam are expected to continue.
In addition, travel agents surveyed in Abacus Asia Travel Sentiment Survey have listed South-east Asia (67%), Europe (63%) and U.S. (42%) as the top three regions that their customers are currently making bookings to.
Key Travel Segments Outlook
Corporate travel
The recession has had a pronounced impact on corporate travel, with many corporations implementing strict cost controls and revised travel policies.
“About 70% of organisations have introduced policies for all aspects of travel, and there has been reductions in trips by 15-20% as well as a reduction in travel spend by 25-40% in the past year,” said Abacus International VP Marketing, Brett Henry. “Less travel, tightening of travel policy and shorter trips have been implemented by companies, but many of them do not necessarily view these adjustments as negative aspects. These travel adjustments can add value to corporate travel strategies and ultimately, to their bottom lines.”
“As businesses resume to the ‘new normal’, we should also see an upward adjustment in travel budgets as business activities improve in a more thriving economic climate. We are expecting to see a gradual 10-15% growth in corporate travel in 2010, especially in traditional corporate travel markets like Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong,” said Henry.
Online travel
The online travel segment was hugely successful in 2009 as it threw an important life line for the travel industry at a time of economic crisis, and it looks set to enjoy wider success in 2010. “Abacus’ overall figures for 2009 showed a much higher-than-expected growth of more than 15% and although it was amidst harsh market conditions, we made further in-roads in the online segment of markets such as Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and China,” commented Bailey.
Certainly regarded by many in the industry as an area where greater growth is to come, Asia alone saw 546% growth in internet users for the period of 2000-09 as compared to 304% growth in the rest of the world. Asia also has to date the world’s largest number of internet users according to the Internet World Stats.
“Higher Internet penetration and rising incomes from the emerging markets will bring forth an increased dependence on this channel for travel consumption,” added Bailey.
He continued: “With the industry stepping into the recovery phase, this can be seen as an even more opportune time to assess how far online distribution can take travel businesses to when normal business cycles take place, discretionary income rises and opportunities in emerging markets further mature.
“Initiating or expanding an online plan has become one of the key pillars in a company’s rebuilding efforts as this channel has proven its strength in the face of challenging economic conditions. Overall, we are forecasting 20% industry growth in 2010 as technology adoption across the region continues to increase.”
Travel agents across Asia have ranked this channel as one of the top items in their wish list for the year according to Abacus Asia Travel Sentiment Survey. Of the travel agencies that have no existing online business component, 71.3% said that they are planning to develop one and more than half said they will have the website ready within the next six months.
In addition, the survey found that online bookings contributed up to 15% of revenue for 42.6% of the agencies last year while another 35.6% said it contributed 15 – 30% of their revenue. These responses from the ground clearly show the gradual shift that market players are taking in embracing the online platform as one of the core revenue streams in the new decade.
Travel Industry Outlook
The overall aviation market
Although yearly visitor rates in Asia Pacific were down, figures released by PATA showed a 5% year-on-year increase in international visitors last year. There is a positive outlook on Asian travel growth for the coming year, especially among low cost carriers, of which most posted a profit in the past year.
Already, there are signs that the low cost players will exert an even stronger strategic impact on the aviation industry. Tiger Airways’ successful initial public offering and the alliance between AirAsia and Jetstar indicate the forthcoming changes that will shift the dynamics of the aviation industry.
According to the Abacus Asia Travel Sentiment survey, travel agents across the region said they have seen signs of customers’ travel habits returning to pre-economic crisis period. Almost 80% of travel agents indicated that they have seen improvements in their customers’ choice of class of air travel and frequency of business travel while 67% has seen a return to a pre-economic crisis mix of international and regional/domestic travel.
Ancillary revenues
A key revenue strategy that is gaining traction in the aviation industry is the increased focus on ancillary revenues. For 2010, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) predicts that airlines worldwide are expecting to generate US$58 billion in ancillaries in 2010.
A business model that may be more familiar for the low cost carriers, the adoption of ancillary revenue strategies are gradually welcomed by the network carriers as they present an attractive source of additional revenue. Within Asia, it is mainly the low-cost carriers that have started exploiting ancillary products as the main source of profits while ticket revenue predominantly is used to cover the airline’s cost base.
“Network carriers in Asia are taking a cautious approach when it comes to unbundling their fares to manage potential impact on their branding. However, if done right, sophisticated technology and proper yield management can categorise fares to allow airlines to compete effectively with the customers’ focus on product features and services rather than the price factor,” explains Bailey.
“In mature markets like the U.S., the top three positions for total ancillary revenue which were once dominated by low cost carriers are now filled by network carriers. This is an industry development that will perhaps take a longer timeline to occur in the region as Asian consumers tend to be more brand-conscious. However, the ability to monetise one’s assets will no doubt lead the airline industry to educate the wider travel market on the benefits they will gain in return.”
Hotels
The hotel industry was badly affected last year with a fall in room rates and occupancy. However, there are positive signs of improvement with recent pick-ups in consumer confidence and travel demand.
Not all markets were affected negatively, however. Seoul, for example, was the only city in Asia Pacific to experience an increase in occupancy and average room rates, with 78.5% occupancy, the highest in the region. This was due to a weakness in the Korean Won, but also through development and diversification of its tourism products, including medical tourism.
The other notable markets with comparatively high occupancy levels in Asia Pacific were Australia and New Zealand.
Hotel occupancy across Asia Pacific is expected to increase this year with the recovering economy. According to STR Gobal, as of January 2010, there are 948 hotels comprising of 239, 918 rooms either in construction, planned or at final planning stage, with China, Thailand and India having the most rooms in the pipeline.
Upcoming Trends
The reality of online marketing in Asia
Moving in tandem with consumers’ preference to use the web as a convenient resource portal and the proliferation of new media tools, travel companies around the world are allocating bigger budgets to their online marketing spend in a bid to capture a bigger slice of this high growth market.
Bailey stated, “Closer to home, although the pick-up for online marketing tools is slow, it is building a momentum of its own. For instance, in the past year, we have seen Zuji and Ctrip proactively using Twitter to engage their customers with attractive promotional deals.”
“While varying adoption rates are being observed at the market level, we are seeing an increased interest to experiment more with the tools of the trade. More consumers are already stepping into the online sphere, competition is getting stiffer in and the game plans of online businesses will have to change to embrace more complex and dynamic marketing tools to get the attention of potential customers.”
Nascent digital trends
Worth noting too are some emerging digital trends that are presently taking place, such as the use of augmented reality applications that take advantage of location-aware devices. For instance, Pin@clip, a recent release in the Apple App store in Japan, allows users to send comments and recommendations, overlaid by real-time videos from i-Phone camera. This could well be adopted by destination marketers to produce a virtual, interactive guide book of sorts where content from Google maps or Facebook could be used to create the ultimate on-the-go travel resource portal.
There is also a quiet emergence of sites that offers Intention Web, a newly coined term for predictive applications where event schedules and forecasts such as Plancast provide an environment for consumers to improve interactions and experiences, and for businesses to provide proactive and contextual services for their customers.
Rising above ambiguity - mobile technology
Mobile is a concept travel agencies are ready to explore seriously; however, growth and uptake in the travel industry has been slow as identifying the right opportunities seems to be the key issue.
In the report, only half of Asian respondents surveyed said they had an average or quite good understanding of the technologies involved – and this was less than the global average. One of the major themes of this survey was that respondents felt that they needed more education and demonstrations of what could be done with the technologies.
“Mobile penetration in Asia may have reached a level that surpassed any other region in the world yet the usage of mobile phones by companies in their communications with customers is still by far under par. Apart from sporadic use of this tool where airlines are increasingly using it for check-ins, there still remains a huge potential to be tapped by the travel industry,” noted Bailey.
Looking ahead
Summarising the outlook for the industry in 2010, Bailey said, “There is certainly a strong sense of renewed energy and vibrancy in the market as the new year starts. Many travel players are perhaps in much better form now than ever as the challenges that the economic storm had brought upon us have transformed our businesses to be more nimble, more innovative, and more relevant to the world as Asia plays a central role in the global travel market.”
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