Laffitte Conseil

Orbitz propose un service d'organisation de voyages de groupes

Le voyagiste en ligne Orbitz propose une nouvelle fonction de planification de voyages de groupes, en partenariat avec TripHub.com, un site spécialisé dans la planification collaborative de déplacements. Cette nouvelle fonctionalité permettra aux clients d'Orbitz d'organiser n'importe quel voyage en groupe, grâce à des services de gestion d'invitations et de réponses, de messagerie dédiée, et de partage d'itinéraires.

Article complet

European Online Travel Helps US Firms

Online travel bookings in Europe grew about 30% in 2006, according to analysts cited in a July 9, 2007 New York Times article. In contrast to European booking growth, US online travel has leveled off.

Jake Fuller of Thomas Weisel Partners said overall bookings at Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline would grow to $33 billion in 2007, up 7% from 2006.

Mr. Fuller also said about 30% of domestic travel is booked online, and that it may grow as high as 50%. Online travel currently accounts for about a fifth of sales in Europe, and 12% in Asia.

Full article

Vacation.com partners with Starwood

Vacation.com and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide signed an agreement to create an alliance that offers incentives, including marketing support and rewards, to agency members that book accommodations  with Starwood’s nine renowned brands.

“Adding Starwood Hotels to our preferred supplier lineup provides our members access to benefits and incentives at nine of the world’s top hotel brands at more than 850 properties around the world,” said Steve Tracas, president & CEO, Vacation.com. “Vacation.com has partnered with Starwood Hotels to create marketing initiatives and incentives for our member agencies to promote and sell more hotel accommodations,” he added.

Starwood hotel brands participating in the program include: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W, Le Meridien and the recently announced ALOFT and ELEMENT Hotels.

“We are pleased to be selected as a preferred hotel partner by Vacation.com, which has demonstrated a proactive marketing approach in selling partner travel products and has a network of savvy travel agents that we believe can have a strong influence on their clients’ hospitality choices,” said Becky Casey, senior director of leisure sales, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. “We believe that this agreement will further enable us to provide travelers to our hotels with the signature products, services and amenities that differentiate Starwood Hotels from the competition.”

According to the agreement, the new preferred hotel partner alliance with Starwood Hotels includes the following benefits for Vacation.com members:

• Exclusive marketing promotions
• Enhanced business building training opportunities
• Targeted market share and growth incentives
• Vacation.com members are encouraged to choose Starwood Hotels and associated brands as their hotel of choice.

Full article

E-tourisme et référencement : les stratégies alternatives à l'honneur

Alors que les premières places en tête des moteurs se monnaient très chèrement, le tourisme en ligne déploie des stratégies innovantes pour contourner les obstacles.

Tour-opérateurs, comités de tourisme, agences de voyages, hôtels, campings... les professionnels du tourisme s'arrachent les positions en tête des moteurs. L'achat de mots-clés, solution alternative efficace, n'en demeure pas moins parfois très onéreuse.

L'heure est donc à l'efficacité et à la localisation. Les mots-clés génériques sont vite abandonnés au profit d'expressions géolocalisées. Le contenu des sites se personnalise et s'adapte aux produits, tandis que les partenariats se multiplient. Le point sur ce secteur en pleine ébullition.

Article complet

Online booking grows in Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe mark an impressive growth in online booking according to EyeforTravel 2007 research. The period 2005/6 saw a 200% increase in online booking growth in the Czech Republic with  figures of up to 50% in Slovenia and Slovakia.

The recently released ‘European Online Travel report 2007’ analyses the key trends European online travel and what lies ahead in 2010. Whilst the largest online markets remain in the UK and Germany, exciting growth trends are becoming apparent in Central and Eastern Europe.

A highly diverse and fragmented region, it is widely misunderstood and bundled together as one, yet figures indicate vast differentials in internet penetration, ICT, payment infrastructure and economic growth. Whereas three quarters of Bulgarians and Romanians have never used the internet, Slovenia sees 55% internet penetration with an 11% uptake of broadband increasing by 45% annually. Internet penetration in the Czech Republic (+50%), and Slovakia (+46%), are far ahead of Poland (+29%), Romania and Bulgaria (both 21%).

Internet use in the Baltic States has grown significantly in the past 5 years. In Estonia, more than 60% of individuals use the internet regularly – at least once a week – and the market grew significantly in the last 3 years by a constant 10.45% rate.

But perhaps the most significant trend is in Russia, which stands with the highest rate of internet adoption of more than 600% since 2000 (according to Internet World Stats). With a population of over 141 million this represents a vast new player in the online market place. Even with such a high adoption rate however, internet penetration is still only represents 15.5% of the population. Russia’s enormous potential will be the subject of discussion at EyeforTravel’s upcoming Emerging Online Travel Markets conference, 26-27 November.

Rapid growth in internet usage and booming tourism to the CEE region has resulted in the advent of numerous e-travel companies in the region. Adriatica.net (Croatia), Travelplanet.pl (Poland) and TravelStoreMaker.com (Bulgaria) are just some of the regions rising stars.

Whilst Poland is an estimated 3-4 years behind the UK, Travelplanet has used innovative techniques to encourage rapid migration online and overcome the current Polish trend to look online and book offline with impressive results.

Full article

Number of Indians holidaying abroad is set to double

The number of tourists travelling from India will more than double by 2011 according to new travel and tourism data issued by  Euromonitor International. Leading tour operators, such as Kuoni Travel and  Thomas Cook, are preparing to take advantage of this boom in the Indian travel market, as the total number of outbound travellers looks set to reach 16.3 million in 2011 alone.

This dramatic rise in the number Indians travelling abroad, 132% over 2006 to 2011 according to Euromonitor International’s latest research, is being driven by rising disposable incomes, more affordable holiday options and the growth of low cost carriers, enabling more Indians to travel abroad.

Full article

Travelzoo ‘doubles UK traffic’

Revamped online holiday search site Travelzoo claims to have doubled users to its UK site during the month of May.

Figures released by the company, based on comScore Media Metrix data, show an increase of more than 600,000 unique users to 1.25 million in the period.

The number of pages viewed per user rose by 66% month on month and Travelzoo rose 22 positions in the list of most visited UK travel websites from April to May, according to the company.

Travelzoo launched a more comprehensive site on May 10 including a dedicated travel search facility and the integration of a regional e-mail alert service.

Full article

UK Online Travel

eMarketer projects that online leisure and unmanaged business travel sales in the UK will total $21 billion this year, a 27% increase over 2006. But the annual sales growth rate will rapidly decelerate over the next four years, dropping below the teens.

So who exactly is using the Web for travel?

Silver surfers had the largest representation of any age group on UK travel Web sites in March 2007, according to Hitwise. Cruise sites in particular were popular with this age group. Hitwise found that in a recent month, cruise sites received 48% of their visitor traffic from Internet users ages 55 and older.

Full article

Travel Hacking: Essential web 2.0 Sites for Summer Travelers

Going on vacation this summer? For control freaks and geeks like us, there are now hundreds of sites to help organize your itinerary, discuss travel plans with people around the world, research the weather and landmarks before you go, share your travel photos and videos on the go, find traveling partners, book accommodation and transport, map out your journey and blog your trip from start to finish.

For your weekend reading, we’ve picked out some of our favorite new sites and services in this category.

Travel Planning & Management:

TripWiser takes travel planning to the next level, by letting you pick any location to travel to, then plan out each individual day. With the planning complete, you can write notes about your trip, upload photos and keep all your friends and family updated. Add to all this the ability to find hotels, activities, destinations, and restaurants, and you’ve got a very handy site indeed. Another cool feature: trip cloning…take the very same trip as another person with one click. (Previous Coverage)

iloho is a Digg-like service for super-organized travelers. It gives you the ability to share and view itineraries, create and manage groups of travelers, read and write travel-related articles, and allows you to get user opinions of major airlines. Although it is simple in what it offers, it still is a great service for travelers to utilize. (Previous Coverage)

Dopplr is a fairly useful site…if you can get access (it’s current in private beta and requires an invite). Once signed up, you can add trips and fellow travelers to your account. Specify the start and finish of a trip, the location, and add notes. Then you can see all your trips marked out on a Google Map. You will be able to keep track of the trips that your friends will be taking as well. A great site if you want to keep things super-simple.

TripHub gives you the option of creating a trip page that shows all the information about your upcoming trips. It allows you to easily share this page friends so they can learn about your future travels and plans. (Previous Coverage)

Social Travel Networks:

WAYN, “Where Are You Now,” is an established site with millions of members. You can write about your past, present, and future trips. Share photos and journals of your travels, and find airfare information thanks to a deal with the search engine Kayak. (Previous Coverage)

Travelistic is the YouTube of travel based videos. The site allows you to post and view videos related to all things travel, including some professional content. Use the site to preview potential travel destinations and share your own experiences.

TripUp (formerly TripMates) allows you to connect with a travel community, based on people traveling to your city and other locations. You can hook up with locals on your journey, and form Trip Buddies as well. You can share maps, videos, photos, blogs, and reviews of travel related information.

Matador is a community for traveling and much much more. Instead of just sharing your travel plans and ideas, you join a site that is all things travel, culture, people, music, art, writing, sports, and global development. (Previous Coverage)

TravelBlog allows you to follow many bloggers around in their travels. It is a massive hub of bloggers which love to discuss traveling. You can also post photographs of your travels, and they have a forum for all things travel-related.

Travel Ideas:

Tripbase helps out by providing ideas for interesting trips. You simply need to sign up for the site, then adjust the sliders to your preferences: night-life, attractions, nature, etc. Tripbase suggests locations based on this info. It also shows you statistics like temperature, rainfall, and traveling popularity, plus things to do, places to eat, and lodging information. It’s a nice site to check out if you are looking for ideas for future trips. (Previous Coverage)

myTripBook(formerly Travelhiker) allows you to get travel inspiration and advice from people who have traveled before you to a destination that you wish to visit. A friendly social experience for travelers. (Previous Coverage)

Travel Services:

Kayak is a free service that allows you to compare airfares from multiple sources. It also offers services like finding hotels, rental cars, cruises, and special deals. I mainly use it for airline tickets though, and it is very good at what it does. Everyone likes finding cheaper airfares!

TripAdvisor provides you with recommendations for vacation spots, transportation, hotels, special deals, and much more. It offers similar services to Kayak, but I still prefer Kayak….both do have their advantages.

Travel Blogs:

World Hum, which was recently acquired by The Travel Channel, is an online travel magazine which offers both help and ideas for places which you might possibly want to travel to. It gives you tips on places of interest, hotels, vacations, and so much more. It covers so many areas of travel that you really must check it out to fully understand. Worth bookmarking if you like to keep up to date on travel information.

HoboTraveler features one man who has been traveling for the past 10 years and has visited over 76 countries. A useful resource for travelers who want to learn about locations he has already traveled to.

Mapping:

Google Earth can be a very useful tool for planning out trips if you don’t mind downloading some software. You can add layers of information, like restaurants and places. Fun to use, whether you’re traveling this summer or not.

Facebook Travel Applications:

Where I’ve Been is a simple little application that allows you to add a map to your Facebook profile - you then can click on any state/country on that map and highlight it. You can mark places you have been to, places you have lived, places you want to go to, and the rest are places you have not been to nor want to visit. It is a fairly simple idea, but it is fun to play around with and keep your friends updated.

A new Facebook application by TripAdvisor, Cities I’ve Visited is an application that utilizes Google Maps. You can mark down individual cities around the globe that you’ve visited.

Finally, Trips is an application that allows you to plan trips and have them displayed on a Google Map. You can add a destination, start time, end time, Facebook friends, other friends, and a description.

Enjoy your trip.

Declining online travel sales growth in Europe predicted

The value of online travel sales in Europe will reach $49 billion this year but growth levels will start to decline from 2008.

The prediction came from US market research firm eMarketer which said sales growth is expected to slow through to 2011 as the three largest online markets – the UK, Germany and France – continue to mature.

The UK is the largest market in Western Europe, capturing 45% of the $36.1 billion of online sales in 2006.

This will drop to 41% in four years as Germany, Spain and Italy are growing at a faster rate and will gain a grater share of online sales, according to eMarketer's European Online Travel report.

Growth levels of 27% this year are forecast to slow to 20% in 2008 to give a value of $59.5 billion, reducing to 17% in 2009 ($70 billion), 13% in 2010 ($74 billion) and 10% in 2011 ($80.7 billion).

The report highlights global trends as affecting the European tourism market over the next five to 10 years. Shifting demographics, macroeconomic trends, technological innovations and climate change are having a "significant impact".

Full article