Travel Innovation Summit as reported by Elliott Ng

As an alumnus still passionate about UpTake and the travel industry, I’m excited to return to blog at UpTake’s Travel Industry Blog!  I’ll be updating this post with a list of all the presenters that are coming, with links to the posts that I write about each of these new companies.  I’ll be trying to take a venture capitalist’s perspective on each of the deals, talking about the factors that make it an attractive investment or not.

What other advice do you have for me in covering this event?  I look forward to your feedback and to attending the PhoCusWright conference in Scottsdale next week.  The theme is “Chaos Calls”…and where there is chaos, you will also find me!

Here’s a good story about how Expedia was missing out on $12 million in profits because of one optional input field on the website, and how they rectified it using SAS Analytics.

In a panel discussion at the SAS Premier Business Leadership Series conference (Oct 27-28, 2010) in Las Vegas, Expedia VP global analytics and optimisation Joe Megibow explained (see video, h/t to Silicon.com) how profits surged overnight after analysts found a design issue that needed to be corrected.

SAS Premier Business Leadership Series conference

Apparently some transactions were being left incomplete after customers took the time to find a hotel, fill in all their travel and billing information and click the ‘Buy Now’ button.

After analysts correlated data from all these failed transactions, one common thread came up. All these customers were confused by the optional ‘Company’ field under ‘Name. ‘ They were putting in the Bank’s name into the company field, which then led them to fill in the bank’s address into the address field below, instead of their own address.

This would cause the address verification to fail during credit card processing and the customer would leave the transaction incomplete. What Expedia did was take out the ‘company’ field, and it immediately boosted profits by $12 million. Megibow said that they had found 50 to 60 of these kinds of things using analytics.

Another sales boost comes from Expedia’s use of ‘to the minute’ analysis to optimize the sort order of results to a customer’s search for hotels. When SAS flags an especially good deal from a hotel, the Expedia web site prominently displays the listing.

SAS predictive analytics has also helped Expedia capture and track preference details after a hotel is given high marks from travelers and regional market managers. Dan Lynn, Expedia’s Director of Strategy and Customer Insights, says “We’ve found they receive a five to 10 percent boost in conversion for the following year.”

Related links:- Expedia Succeeds with SAS

BP has agreed to provide the state of Louisiana another $218 million to help speed up its recovery from the impact of the oilspill.

BP oilspill Louisiana

Louisiana’s tourism industry gets $30 million for tourism marketing and the seafood industry gets $48 million for seafood safety and testing. The balance of $140 million will be used for coastal restoration of barrier islands.

In a statement, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that “I want to invite the entire nation down here to Louisiana to be a part of another great comeback. Book your ticket today. Come fish, come eat and stay a while… America watched as the oil hit our coast month after month, and now we want every American to come here and be a part of another great American comeback.”

Under the agreement with BP, the $30 million provided to the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism will be paid out over three years – $10 million/year – to support the marketing of Louisiana as a tourist destination.

The $30 million will be spent in four parts. $10.5 million is slated for a statewide campaign that includes nature tourism. Coastal tourism and Greater New Orleans tourism each get $6 million, and the balance $7.5 million will be used to fund events.

The $10.5 million for the statewide campaign will add to the reorganization efforts of the Office of Tourism’s Nature-Based Tourism Program. Also, the $6 million for the coastal tourism campaign will aid the Louisiana Tourism Coastal Coalition (www.visitlouisianacoast.com/), which was created with $5 million from the previous BP tourism grant given to Louisiana in May.

New Orleans has already spent $5 million of BP money for tourism marketing. With this new $6 million, the total BP tourism grant to the Big Easy stands at $11 million.

Louisiana’s total tourism grant from BP now stands at $45 million. Florida has only got $32 million todate, so it’s possible that they’ll be demanding more from BP now.

The tourism industry has an $8.3 billion economic impact on Louisiana’s economy, and according to studies conducted by the state Dept. of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, 29% of travelers who had plans to visit Louisiana cancelled or postponed their trips due to the oilspill.

Photo - lagohsep