12 Oct

2015

Video – Can You Go Viral?

The world is inexorably moving away from broadcast television. In days of old, viewers across the country would sit down together in their tens of millions to watch the most popular TV programmes of the time.

03 Sep

2015

Is Your Data Secure?

Did you read the latest Ashley Madison byline? Before the data breach it was “Life is short. Have an affair.” I think it now reads, “Life is going to be shorter when your partner finds out!” Ashley Madison has highlighted just how easily data can be hacked.

04 Aug

2015

Metasearch under Attack

You know you are doing a good job when other players in your marketplace start attacking you. So, for example, the Daily Telegraph headline last month, “Courtney Love attacked by anti-Uber protesters in Paris. Singer and former wife of Kurt Cobain claims she would be "safer in Baghdad" after her car is attacked by angry cabbies in Paris.”

04 May

2015

A Waste of Time?

British Airways - receive information about your flight’s gate status, with notifications sent direct to your wrist when your gate status changes (available at London Heathrow Terminals 3 and 5 only). Marriott - access Marriott’s mobile app for check-in and checkout. Expedia - Check itineraries for upcoming trips.

27 Jan

2015

How many OTAs does the world need?

Expedia has just purchased Travelocity from Sabre for $280 million in cash. This comes after Sabre’s recent sale of lastminute.com to Bravofly Rumbo for $120 million. Following the Travelocity deal, Sabre CEO and president, Tom Klein, said, “Our primary focus at Sabre is to provide mission-critical software solutions to our global airline, hospitality, and travel agency customers – and to help them support their customers every day.”

13 Dec

2014

Metasearch vs. OTAs – Let the battle commence

The major online travel agencies, Expedia and Priceline’s Booking.com, seem to have the travel market sewn up, sucking in customers like celestial black holes. Their large market shares are driven by mega-million dollar digital marketing budgets and superlative technology.

22 Sep

2014

Are blogs the future?

After 10 years plus, I am putting my hobby website, travelfromHere.com, up for sale. Take a look and you will see that it is a very straightforward directory of websites aimed at UK travellers. It is rather like Yahoo! was in its first incarnation.

02 Jun

2014

It’s Personal

I was chairing Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2014 the week before last. Over the two days, we covered a lot of very topical topics such as OTAs vs direct reservations, metasearch, mobile, social media and more. It was a very good conference with a high calibre of speakers from many different sectors of travel. However, it left me thinking that there is one area of travel that technology has yet to tackle well.

10 Mar

2014

I am going to tell you a story

This is a tale about the storyfication of travel. Once upon a time there was an industry called Travel. It sold holidays to People. People were happy. Travel would tell People the facts about their holidays and then they would buy them. The facts were very useful in helping People choose the holiday that suited them best.

02 Dec

2013

Change is the Only Constant

The world economy is projected to be about 80% larger in 2020 than it was in 2000. World total population will increase from 7 to 8.3 billion people in 2030. Asia, Africa, and Latin America will account for virtually all population growth over the next 20 years. The middle class is expected to reach 5 billion people by 2031, up from 2.1 billion people in 2011. The world is changing. At the Summit, Richard Lewis, CEO Best Western Hotels, distinguished between Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives.

Filter

Video – Can You Go Viral?

Is Your Data Secure?

Metasearch under Attack

A Waste of Time?

How many OTAs does the world need?

Metasearch vs. OTAs – Let the battle commence

Are blogs the future?

It’s Personal

I am going to tell you a story

Change is the Only Constant