Laffitte Conseil

UGC Users Outnumber Creators

Even taking into account the power and ease of use of user-generated content tools like digital cameras and affordable audio/video production software, there are more content consumers than creators.

In the US, the number of users of user-generated content will hit 101 million by 2011, up from the 2006 estimate of 69 million.

Globally, the estimated number of user-generated content users will hit 254 million by 2011, up from 128 million in 2006.

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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.

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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.

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Germans are moving online

Germany is home to Europe's largest online population, and it is still growing.

In a new report, Germany: Online Overview, eMarketer estimates that there were nearly 40 million active Internet users in Germany in 2006, and expects that number to climb to nearly 50 million before 2011.

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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".

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Generation Y Multitaskers Boost Media Time

Multitasking is driving up the total amount of time that US teens spend with media, according to a Bridge Ratings study conducted in March to May 2007.

US consumers ages 13 to 17 spend more time with media overall than other age groups do, and their total media time has grown by more than two and a half hours per day since May 2004.

Bridge attributes this change to Generation Y's skill at consuming two or more of types of media simultaneously.

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Veoh lance la web TV sans limites

Une nouvelle web TV pointe son nez. Baptisée VeohTV, elle propose de regarder - légalement et en streaming - des milliers de vidéo en provenance de sites différents.

 

Le site de vidéo en ligne américain Veoh poursuit sur sa lancée et offre désormais VeohTV, un media center encore en version bêta privée permettant de visionner les vidéos sur Internet en provenance de milliers de sites, et ce, sans obtenir forcément leur accord. Ainsi, il sera possible de regarder des contenus en provenance de réseaux de télévision et de plates-formes de partage comme ABC, CBS, YouTube ou encore Google. A la manière d'un flux RSS, les vidéos ne seront disponibles qu'en streaming.

 

En recherche d'une abondance de partenariats

 

"Le lecteur ressemble à un navigateur qui affiche du texte... sauf que celui-ci cherche et affiche des vidéos", détaille Dmitry Shapiro, directeur de la société, à nos confrères de Ratiatum. Pour éviter de subir les mêmes attaques que les plates-formes de partage de vidéos comme YouTube, la société cherche actuellement à signer des partenariats avec des ayants droit. A noter que la plate-forme, qui a levé récemment 26 millions de dollars, bénéficie d'un soutien de choc. Michael Eisner, l'ancien patron de Walt Disney, a en effet injecté plusieurs millions de dollars dans cette société.

 

Une recherche par mots-clefs

 

VeohTV proposera aux internautes de rechercher un programme grâce à un petit guide ou par mots-clés. Le site retiendra également les contenus favoris des utilisateurs pour leur proposer des programmes sélectionnés. Pour le site, ce système pourrait être une alternative à la web TV Joost, qui propose de profiter de nombreuses vidéos via le peer-to-peer. "Au contraire de Joost, qui est un système fermé avec des contenus en provenance d'un nombre limité de sources, VeohTV propose des standards ouverts, et a virtuellement accès à tous les contenus vidéos présents sur Internet", souligne Dmitry Shapiro.

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Saigon boosted by Russian invasion

HCM City (Saigon) drew 1.28 million foreign visitors in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 11.3% and 48% of the year's targets, according to the municipal tourism department.

HCM City Department of Tourism director Dong Thi Kim Vui said that foreign visitors from Russia, not traditionally among the city's top tourism markets, surged by more than 81% over the previous year.

The number of visitors from mainland China also grew 49%, followed by Australia (up 37%), South Korea (33%), Japan (15%), Taiwan (8%), and the US (8%).

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Vietnam’s “chaotic” hotel scene under scrutiny

In TravelMole Asia last week, Exotissimo Travel accused hoteliers in Vietnam of a "grab for cash".

An Exotissimo spokesman said, "With the recent room shortage, almost every premium hotel (from 3-5 stars) is operating at close to full capacity throughout the year, and the low-season has all but disappeared.

"Many of the hotels are now taking advantage of this current situation, and are not honouring their prior commitments, including previously negotiated and contracted room rates."

Jon Hewson, General Factotum, of the online site VirtuallyThere.ca, and a frequent contributor to TravelMole discussions, puts the other side of the story.

He writes:

"The hotel scene in Vietnam is chaotic. Many of the large hotels are joint ventures, 49% foreign owned and 51% government / agency owned and a good number are operated by Western companies.

"The market is still developing and exhibits growing pains with unfettered greed taking advantage of the situation. Capping off this volatile mess is the ability of VNAT, through the government dictat, to artificially control (distort) the market.

"If contracts are not honoured it wouldn't take many telephone calls to round up the players, many of whom would be provincial government agencies.

"Destination management companies also play a part in this as they, too, have sought to exploit weaknesses in the Vietnam market and have signed contracts that are distinctly lop-sided. Furthermore they frequently contravene Vietnamese tourism legislation.

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