Myself & More Thoughts on Travel 3.0

It has been a changing week with Thomson agreeing to buy Reuters for $17 Billion. Now the focus has turned and all eyes are closely watching the battle for the control of Dow Jones by News Corp.

Also to be heard in the technology news section was that Joost had successfully raised more than $45 Million in a recent round of funding for its expansion plans.....

In midst of all the interesting happenings of a typical day - fate had a mega play of its own scripted for its very own hapless creatures, I was the victim this time for the deadly varicella-zoster virus (VZV), also known as human herpes virus 3 (HHV-3), one of the eight herpes viruses known to affect humans.

Guys - yes, I was down with Chickenpox for nearly two weeks. I had to undergo this grueling first hand experience literally a rebirth as an adult, because as a kid I was never exposed to the virus. I had time on hand, but really couldn't do much apart from taking a much deserved full time rest.

I had full blown pocks the size of 25ps coins everywhere imaginable on my body. I, couldn't talk or swallow for a couple of days with body temperatures threatening to get out of control I was like Mt.Vesuvius, ready to erupt in Bangalore. I though that my skull would get unhinged to let go of the steam - Phew!!!

After all that, now relaxing on my soft bed of Neem Leaves, yes you heard me right - Neem is said to be the only panacea!!!! I thought that, at least let me respond to Matt from whom I got an E-Mail, Matt said that he visits my blog on travel technologies regularly and He wanted me to know about a new “Travel 3.0” site – eTripBuilder.com. I personally felt that the "attraction feature" on the site needs some more attention/attraction. I was unable to figure out a single location through this channel :-( I guess it must still be in a beta phase. I do not want to make this as a review column.

eTripBuilder.com presents a solution that satisfies both the needs of the recreational and corporate traveler by transforming the way they schedule, purchase, and manage all their travel related services. I did log onto the site and was impressed with the user-intuitive features and the eye for detail & the best part is that its absolutely Free!!!

Over the couple of days I got time to go through some awesome articles from Sarman Mitra. The one on "Travel & Web 3.0: Overview". His insights into Web 3.0 through this article “Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)”are very articulate and worth a read. I also had a look at another interesting read about Search Engines on the Read/WriteWeb by Nitin discussing the "Top 17 Search Innovations Outside Of Google” which addressed most of the frequently asked questions on Why, How, What and When??

Hopefully by this week-end I would be feeling much better and look forrward to get ot office the coming Monday.

Adios till the next time :-)

Travel 3.0 what is it??

Has been a hectic few weeks and I am proud of Our company and our dedicated collegues for a super achievement. As of March 31st 2007 Iteamic is now SEI CMMi Level 3 Certified. There has been a lot of other things that have kep me busy and away from my blog. I could not restrain myself from writing on Travel 3.0 and what it is going to usher in for the days to come by!!!

There have been numerous articles on how Web 2.0 has changed the face of online businesses globally. The growth has been phenomenal propelled analyst fathom its impact every now and then. It has been a catalyst for the sudden surge in online Travel Portals [OTP's], distribution technologies and products built around them. It is constantly driven by online communities of collaborators who share information online because we trust it more than business-generated information.

In a traditionalistic approach it would be without a doubt that your trusted travel agency should and must get you the best deal. Invariably, unlike every-time there would be hiccups and it would always eat up into your purse, your holiday / business experience and end up leaving a foul taste in your mouth.

For most of the online users today Web 2.0 has done a lot of good with Dynamic Packaging. Just think for a moment - if you would have to do things sitting in a place like -

(a) booking air tickets [Lowest Fares - mind you]
(b) ensure that you have an advance Hotel Reservation/s and
(c) voila a car bookings, pick up and drop included

One-on-one from different sites – it would be chaotic!!!

In comparison - with the advent of Travel 2.0 you are just a step away from planning everything on your own. Its as easy and you can evaluate expert tips from your online community on everything under the sun. What more to say, you can get videos, pictures, food tips validated by the user community - from the community, by the community and for the community.

All you need is to get on to a suggested online travel portal - without even having to physically be there to oversee arrangements. With quality information and rich user interfaces for the user in place you can have the best of both worlds!!!

Hold your breath for here comes the 3rd wave Travel 3.0 - riding high on the success of the Web 2.0 - Its is something more like you can have the cake and eat it too

I would want to quote Mr. Tim Wright, MD at HyperTech Solutions UK, here - “Users could have access to these pre-defined itineraries (created, posted and ranked by individual community users), as well as abundant destination and component content and detail. Powerful vertical search tools will let users comparison-shop amongst a huge variety of travel components and products that best match their individual preferences - and they’ll be able to select, book and pay, all online and on one site.

With its rich content, choice and book-ability, and close collaboration between the travel portals, like-minded suppliers and a technology partner with the platform, capabilities, data structures would be envisioning the Travel 3.0 Saga. Read more >

This Phocus Wright Report has more interesting things for us to know about.

More for later!!!

A Win - Win Game!!!

Huh, my first month here at Iteamic has been a eventful one. There have been a lot of things that we are strategizing on currently.

It seems that last week has also been interesting for indian Online travel portals [OTP's] as well. According to the latest buzz - Cleartrip.com claims To have Clocked 480,000 Transactions And $100 Million In Sales In Year One. According to this interview on EyeforTravel.

Not to be left far behind is Yatra.com who claim that they are well positioned and have pushed Travelguru down to position 3 and are currently topping $5 Million a month.Most of the Online Travel Portals [OTP's] are silently whistling their way to the banks.

They are happy and are confident about their respective vertical search capabilities and are consiously looking forward to more improvements through technology.

This made me want to know more on the technologies used by these so called Vertical Search Engines for the travel domains. I explored some of them and have decided that I shall continually track these developments.

With Web2.0 and user-intutive interfaces the mantra of the day each click matters - vertical search engines like Kayak have their technology roots with Ajax served up by Apache, Tomcat, Java 5, with Perl, Groovy and Ruby operational glue, all running on Linux and developed (mostly) on Mac OS X Tiger and Ubuntu Linux. They use MySQL when we need to do databasy things. They also use memcached to keep the database from getting crushed.

Like how I had discussed earlier here - In major verticals like travel, specialized search engines might take a big bite out of the traditional search engines' market share - including Google's advertising pie. This article gives us an insight on how Vertical Searche Engines are gathering their momentum.

I would have to rush into a meeting now - the developments would be keenly followed by me and you can check for further updates in a weeks time :-)

Just round the corner

Thinking about projections. M-travel.com and HotelMarketing.com are reporting on numbers out from Euromonitor stating that India is the fastest growing online travel market in Asia- and by reporting growth numbers of 271.6% between now and 2010, presumably the world also.The online travel retail market in India is expected to boom over the next five years, with Internet-based travel retail transactions increasing by an incredible percentage between 2005 and 2010.

Site59 is no more the name to go with. The Travelocity owned US based last minute travel brand is changing its name to the best last minute travel brand in the Travelocity family - Lastminute.com is what it would be called - click here for detailed coverage.

According to Hotel Interactive - Expedia have told some of their travel suppliers in Spain that they are to launch Expedia.es in April or May this year. New research shows that Spain’s Internet travel market share is growing, in addition to an influx of new online agencies, some of which are successfully promoting online travel in the country. Seeing potential for opportunity, online travel agencies like Expedia and Opodo, have both announced plans to enter the market with local offerings. Currently, Expedia has a small office open in Spain.

The way things are going to be

It has been an amazing last month for one of our very own desi companies having focus in the Travel, Leisure and Hospatility segment.

Mindtree Consulting who have some of the big names in the global travel and leisure industry like Avis Rent-A-Car, Avis Europe, and Cendant’s Vacation Rental Group in Europe went public and has registered a whooping appreciation of nearly 50% in their stocks in a matter of less than a week. Ashok Soota the Chairman and Managing Director claims that 100% of employees are covered by stock options.

Companies like ITC Infotech India Limited, have opened a dedicated development centre for one of its major clients, Finnair, Finland`s biggest airline which has recently started flights to New Delhi.

The Travel& Hospitality industry is a more consumer centric vertical and is managed by a few major players and when it comes to processes that directly produce revenue for the few large global distribution systems (GDS) such as Cendant Travel Distribution Services(TDS) and Sabre Holdings , these firms have been very slow to embrace outsourcing partnerships. The way things are going it should not be too late now - gradually a profound shift in thinking has established a beachhead for potential technology outsourcers. And looking at things how IT/ITES service providers are positioned, big deals might not come as a surprise!!!

Good to Start With...

Off late it has been pretty hectic and I have not found time to get on with my blog. I was down with food poisoning and more-over changes on the professional front. I decided to move on from Valtech into a newer role at Iteamic to pursue better career prospects in a more challenging role.

I also came across an interesting find on Wiki catering to the Travel Technology enthusiasts -hope this article would help in understanding the nuances of how technology in the travel industry is making a difference.