Game-changer for 2009: Trip planning websites
26. Nov, 2008
7 Comments
Cape Town – They may not take over online travel just yet, but 2009 looks set to be the year that trip planning websites become a meaningful factor in the “search-shop-buy” travel purchase process.
The advent of web 2.0 social networks combined with open standards that allow online systems to share data and functionality is making new models viable in online travel. Web 2.0 has allowed sites like TripAdvisor to prosper, while open standards have made Kayak.com and other meta-search sites real players. But the combination of these models may be more powerful yet. Take the best of “social search” with inputs from thousands of people with similar interests and some expertise and mash it up with mountains of data, mapping and rich content to help travellers make their choices about where to go, what to do, and how much they ought to pay.
Sites to watch:
- TripWolf: worldwide travel guide using professional travel writers, lots of data, Facebook integration and more. Their accommodation product data comes from HotelsCombined.com, which aggregates a huge amount of information from booking websites – over 1300 in South Africa.
- Travel Muse: Spotty coverage, but excellent quality content backed by a team from the Hearst Publishing empire. Good on general information, but weak on non-US, non-European product data at the moment, as they are built on the Travelocity booking platform. Once that diversifies in 2009, they could be a real force.
- Uptake.com: 100% US-focussed at the moment, but don’t let that put you off. They use a search-algorithm approach to generate recommendations and almost anticipate your preferences. Once they get it right, conquering the rest of the world may not take them very long.
- Triporati: Users profile their interests and origination for their trip an the site generates recommendations, linking through to original content, blogs, video, maps, and bookable products. Content is strong, written by professional travel writers. Products are sourced via Kayak.com, Priceline, Orbitz, Expedia, Hotwire.com and Travelocity. They have hooks into Facebook and TripAdvisor too. One to watch.
- Cadabra: A sophisticated itinerary planning tool developed in and for New Zealand, now trying to grow into the rest of the world and bolting on web 2.0 features along with original content. Not sure they aren’t just a software company…time will tell.
- PlanetEye: A mash-up of Travelocity, OpenTable and WaySpa with original content and some slick map-video integration in their “Travel Packs”
As a destination, South Africa isn’t one of the top priorities for these companies to focus on, so travellers coming to our shores are less likely to make use of them in the coming year or so. But if you sit back and wait for SA to reach the top of their agenda, it may well be too late to adapt your own business to these new dynamics without paying a premium.
What makes these sites relevant to us now is that they are actively re-defining customer expectations for how to make a travel decision.
Just as we had to learn how Google’s search algorithms worked and then optimise our web content to be search engine friendly, we will have to learn how the winners from this set of sites will select, filter, display and book products for travellers – and how to get our products, content, and experiences “optimised” accordingly. 2009 has been described as the year of the Perfect Storm for online travel, and trip planning websites look to be a big part of the action.
Thanks to Stephen Joyce of Rezgo for the report back from the PhoCusWright 2008 Travel Innovation Summit.
About Blogger
KURT ACKERMANN writes, researches and consults on strategy, business models and brands for organisations adapting to globalisation and technological change. He is the proprietor of the Afrikatourism blog for responsible travel at afrikatourism.blogspot.com.
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
Good article. I think there is a misconception out there that kayak scans all sites, when in fact i rarely find the best suited flight for me there. I am in the UK and travel a lot, particularly to the states, not as much to SA as much as I would like. But with the world cup coming up I agree the SA travel industry should begin to spike. Another site I use bookingbuddy http://www.bookingbuddy.co.uk as here i can put my requirements in once and search all of these sites you list and find others I don’t know of. thanks
Wow hotelscombined.com seems to be quite amazing. I searched several cities and it seems to be returning more hotels than kayak.com and tripadvisor.com. I wonder how they managed to achieve such great results particularly when compared to such giants as those two. Oh, and the rates that they find are also really cheap $5-$15 bucks cheaper. I think sites such as this will become a target for Google shortly when they decide to more into travel more aggressively.
Thanks for the good article on how travel planning is changing the business. Even though we weren’t at the PhoCusWright event I’d like to add our site here as well as.
TripSay collects information from across different websites and users. With our filtering algorithms we select for each and every user the most interesting content and recommendations based on their interests, friends, past experiences and such. To us travel is not about hotel reviews or cities. It’s about the small things that you love and want to do on your vacation. That’s what we help you find.
In news related to the rise in online travel and hospitality websites, http://www.hospitalityjobsafrica.co.za is an exciting new nationwide job and resource website for the hospitality and travel industry which is launching in February 2009. This niche website was designed by people from the hospitality & travel industry, for the industry and aims to offer something useful and accessible to all players within the South African Hospitality & Travel sector.
Any recruiters who register on the site in the month of February will be offered one month’s free recruitment advertising. Thereafter http: http://www.hospitalityjobsafrica.co.za will bring affordable and flexible recruitment advertising to all recruiters, as well as offering a proactive resource to hospitality professionals. Unlike generalist job sites, applications will be very industry specific and CV applications will be emailed directly to the recruiter for screening.
For job seekers, the site is always free of charge and they will be able to register their CVs online in a matter of minutes, apply directly to hospitality recruiters throughout the country, and be notified by daily emails of any new jobs that meet their job search criteria. The advanced search criteria are so industry specific that they don’t have to waste their time, going through pages of irrelevant job categories to find the perfect job. There is also a section offering job seekers career and interview advise and recommendations.
The site also offers the most up-to-date industry news and events, and an interactive hospitality blog to which users can subscribe. News information includes new hotel / restaurant openings, celebrity chef news, the latest international and local events, as well as trends affecting our industry. Hospitality Jobs Africa welcomes anyone wishing to have their own news stories posted on the site to contact them.
In addition to being a job site, http://www.hospitalityjobsafrica.co.za will offer E-ssential hospitality information in order to try to raise the standards within the industry, especially ahead of 2010. Free training materials and downloadable job descriptions for all job categories are available online. The Chef’s section includes the latest articles on HACCP, kitchen safety, menu planning, kitchen standards & profitability and food costings for chefs.
Other resources available on the site include sections containing articles on: food & beverage management from cocktail making to monitoring bar costs; business hospitality from marketing your menu to making your spa profitable; customer service; safety & hygiene and last but not least, labour relations regulations governing the hospitality and tourism sectors.
Hi,
Have you all seen this site, I found a great job on here. I have copied what they say about the site on the homepage.
“HotelJobs.co.za is an industry specific job website for the Hotel, Catering and Hospitality Industry. Our jobs incorporate all sectors of the industry including: Conference/Business Centres, Contract Catering, Cruise Ships, Hotels, Leisure/Spas, Bars/Nightclubs, Restaurants/Franchises, Self Catering/B&B’s/Guest Houses, Game Lodges.”
It really is a great site, take a look!
Peter
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