Web 2.0 - What is in it for Travel and Leisure??

Web 2.0 is becoming the "mantra" which, off-late has been seen as the next alternative to the internet services of today.

There has been much written about it and analyst have been quick to point out on how the "Online Travel and Leisure Industry" can transform itself to showcase and pack a punch into their range of offerings.

I would like to share this interesting article that I found, on Web 2.0 by John Bray of Phocuswright in which he suggests that this could be a close "Next Best Thing" to happen to the industry.

A positive sign for the times to come by to Web 2.0 proponents, where participation is the future.

Searching Hotels on an interactive world map

Hotel World Map has introduced its new search engine offering, enabling business travellers and tourists search for 60000 hotels worldwide on an interactive Google Map.

The Hotel World Map booking engine is powered by the Sabre Travel Network and has been developed by Makayama Interactive, a software and services company from Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

As per the focus group research, conducted by Hotel World Map, travellers find existing travel websites difficult to use and that they require too many steps to find out even the basic information. The majority of the test group users had negative opinions about the cluttered interfaces of existing websites and believed they were pushing customers towards booking certain hotels.

“For example, the participants in the research were asked to find a hotel in Miami within one mile from the airport. It took them on average three minutes using the biggest travel portals, but only 90 seconds using Hotel World Map. In another test, they were asked to find a hotel on the Dutch coast, that was close to the beach. Using the established portals, it took five times longer,” stated the company.

Leveraging focus group feedback, the company says the user experience is a neutral, purely map-based search engine, that doesn’t push people to certain offers or discounts. Hotels are plotted on the map and with one click, users can get a picture preview. The accuracy of the hotel locations is less than 10 metres.

A satellite view gives a bird’s eye picture of the surroundings. A second click will take the visitor to a page with detailed hotel and pricing info. Real-time availability information is also available and travellers may book instantly.

India - Now a Portal for Bus Travel...!!!

These are times when most of the travel portals opt and look more towards Air travelers by competing against each to get their margins.

I found a unique portal redBus, which is currently targetting and caters to the domestic bus traveller. Apparently the website www.redbus.in is a portal, that integrates private bus operators (primarily long distance operators) and travellers. The service has been launched last month and it looks like that they are running their beta trial.

redBus is an innovation from Pilani Soft Labs Pvt. Ltd. The company is setup by BITS-Pilani alumnus with the vision to innovate for everyone's convenience.

They get inventory from fleet operators and put them online for sale. The tickets are for sale till 12 hours before the travel date. Passengers can book tickets using credit card, debit card and bank transfer. For transactions, they have already partnered with a few operators like Jabbar Travels, Rajesh Travels and Diwakar Travels - all South-based at the moment - adding some 60 buses to the system.

The company is part of the Bangalore's TiE-EAP, and is not venture-funded yet. However, in the near future they would be rolling out in other cities too. By mid-September, they are starting a branch office in Hyderabad and in Chennai in early October.

Online Travel Market In India - The New Wave

India with its population of more than one billion people, is an attractive destination for showcasing the Travel and Leisure Industry.

Today the Online Travel Industry is on the verge of becoming one of the most powerful and dynamic parts of the booming Indian economy.A new report by PhoCusWright, "The Emerging Online Travel Marketplace in India," estimates that online leisure/unmanaged business travel gross bookings in India totaled $295 million in 2005 and will grow nearly sevenfold in just three years to go beyond $2.0 billion by 2008.

Rapid growth, technological advancement and increasing affluence are changing the way people buy travel and opening up a dynamic marketplace to the rest of the world despite of the fact that India is quite different from other areas of corporate travel expansion; the cultural and market differences here make expanding a global travel programme in India a unique challenge.

The internet is redefining travel distribution, with customers buying their travel through an ever-increasing number of sources and channels.It is interesting to note that the Indian Travel Online marketplace is already gearing itself to be big.

Already a plethora of online travel portals have mushroomed promising to offer a whole lot of services.According to PhocusWright, already In 2005 and 2006, at least eight startups or subsidiaries of established entities have or will have launched sites in the market, including Makemytrip, Yatra.com,Cleartrip.com and Indiatimes Travel. With an estimated $60 million in venture capital backing online travel agencies in the past 12 months, Travelocity India in the wings and an Expedia entry certainly not far behind, significant investment in the online channel in India is well underway.

Airlines:
With the arrival of a gamut of new low cost carriers, the Indian airline industry is experiencing rapid change and expansion.The continued emergence of new airlines in the low cost market place, and the attempt by traditional airlines to generate more sales via their websites, means that the choice for customers is greater than ever.There are now 8 low-cost airlines in India, and more are planning launches this year already.

As the grapevine suggests there are plans that, A group of 1000-odd travel agents across India reportedly offered to jointly acquire a 30 percent stake for around US$156 million from a private operator [more here]...

Analyst report indicate that, there is no major market in the world in which Low Cost Carriers (LCC's) have grabbed so much share from traditional travel providers in such a short period of time.

Hotels:
A large number of independent operators coupled with a more complex product offering has meant that the Indian hotel industry has been slower to embrace e-commerce. However, as India's major hotel chains develop more robust online marketing and distribution strategies and online intermediaries race to become one-stop shops for hotel deals.

In the US and Europe, the leading online travel intermediaries have taken market share from their offline counterparts. At the same time, an increase in direct sales through travel supplier's own websites has also affected the traditional agency business.

The need to balance direct and indirect channels, demand for lower cost distribution and the growth in popularity of comparison shopping are all factors driving the business model for travel specific search engines globally.

Way to go...!!!