Travel Industry

Holiday travel just got cheaper

It’s all over USA Today this morning: the airlines have waived their advance purchase rules, meaning folks can buy their way home this holiday without paying more than those who booked in advance. As the nation’s newspaper points out, American Airlines everyday no-advance purchase airfares between Dallas and New York City were selling yesterday for $1,858 roundtrip. Today, the route is priced as low as $388 roundtrip. (Atlanta to Seattle fell from $1,198 to $258 on Delta.)

That’s excellent news for consumers, of course. No one should have to finance a visit with family over the holiday for the next 12 months.

But this comes on the heels of the airlines swearing themselves blue in the face that wouldn’t happen this year. Travel agents have been spreading the word that capacity is down, prices are up and the old “buy now, or pay more later” adage was definitely in full force for the holidays. Only now it isn’t, and the travel agency segment looks like used car salesmen. My sincere condolences go out to the poor family that paid nearly $1,200 for a ticket yesterday because you, frankly, were screwed.

And good luck, American Airlines/United/Delta/Northwest/US Airways/Frontier/AirTran/ Midwest getting folks to buy seats a few months out on the 2010 holidays, which would be so helpful to your bottom line. You’ve just trained them to wait until December 21 for the deal.

Merry Christmas, travelers!

I certainly don’t have an MBA degree hanging on my wall; my business knowledge comes from two decades as a business reporter and a few years of being a business owner myself. But that gives me enough common sense to wonder if sticking to your guns wouldn’t be worth trying at some point. The airlines have fallen into the couponing trap, and don’t have the strength of will to pull themselves out. Meanwhile, William Maloney, CEO of ASTA, describes 2009 as “miserable, probably one of the worst for the travel industry. Airlines, hotels, tours, cruise lines — everyone saw a downturn in revenue.”

If the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome, then discounting holiday fares is insanity.

Meanwhile, Arnie Weissman at Travel Weekly is calling this the decade of fear for the travel industry. He points the finger at 9-11 and consumers’ reactions. “For how many years will Americans react to each new perceived danger by canceling travel plans?” Weissmann asks. That goes both ways: how long will suppliers in this niche be afraid to step out and try something new?

Photography: jetalone, uggboy (Flickr)

Skyscanner’s recent poll of things that irk fliers most reveals some predictable but deep-seated hatreds:

A turn-off turn off

1. Don’t lie about flight times, said 30 percent of the participants. “Telling you a flight will be 30 minutes late, then another 30 minutes late, then another – when they know full well that the plane hasn’t even left its departure airport – is extremely annoying and downright dishonest,” Barry Smith, Skyscanner co-founder and director, said in a press release. The last time the company ran this survey, travelers pointed a finger at their fellow passengers with BO and bad breath. Apparently, being lied to is now more disgusting than poor hygiene habits.

2. “The captain has asked that you turn off all electronic devices including cell phones and MP3 players.” Yah, we know. We’re sick of hearing this announcement over the PA system,  griped 20 percent of those surveyed. Not only is the repetitious phrase annoying to the nth degree, it doesn’t make sense.

“It seems strange that airport security will confiscate an innocent bottle of water, yet we are permitted to board with these potentially lethal electronic devices. If an iPod could bring down a plane, would we really be allowed to fly with them?”  Sam Baldwin, Skyscanner’s travel editor, asked at Travel Mole.

3. If the flight attendant wakes a sleeping passenger to ask if they’d like to buy headphones, an alcoholic beverage or duty-free shopping, she will honk off 17 percent of the plane.

4. “Ear piercing trumpet calls and bragging about landing on time” irritates the snot out of 12 percent of the flying public answering this survey. Looks like a byproduct of #1, in my assessment.

Correct use of bins

5. Long security ques bug the other 8 percent of travelers, although to be fair, I don’t know what airlines could do about that specifically. It’s not their fault more than one flight will be using the airport this afternoon, or that the family in front of you can’t figure out how to take off their shoes and put them in a tray on the conveyor belt.

Frankly, the survey misses a pet peeve common among the folks I travel with. Or maybe it’s just me and my companions nod to shut me up. Airlines should get better control of the boarding process. The overhead bins are for wheeled luggage of the proper size. Briefcases, purses, diaper bags, coats, go under the seat in front of you. I realize the attendants make this announcement every time (see #2 on the iPod ban) but their failure to enforce it gums up the entire procedure. You have folks trying to store luggage 17 rows away because some pig in their row loaded stashed a kid’s backpack or wadded a suit jacket in the the only space the next passenger can use. And the flight attendant is aiding and abetting this behavior by helping the poor soul find an inconvenient place for his bag.

I’d pay good money to see a courageous flight attendant reach up there and start yanking that stuff down, yelling, “Which idiot left his courtesy and common sense at home?” If you haul on two items, then it’s at the sacrifice of your foot space … it’s not like there’s any there even without the luggage.

Now it’s your turn: Spill your biggest traveling peeves — and extra bonus points if you have a solution.

Photography: Brianfit (Flickr), jetalone (Flickr)

Elliott Ng will represent UpTake during  the PhocusWright 2009 Conference, Blogger Summit Town Hall on Wednesday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Ten topics were suggested by the panelists for discussion during a planning meeting a few weeks ago. We decided to collect the best posts and  examples about each subject and showcase them. We hope this series lends itself to more insightful discussion during the Town Hall presentation.–Patricia Jenkins, Editor

Why do people blog, or read blogs? If you restrict the discussion to travel blogs, it gets rather interesting. Here’s a breakup and some examples of the different types of travel blogs, which should offer some answers as to their utility for both consumers and the industry.

Bootsnall

UGC Blog Networks – Where every traveler and blogger is also the consumer. Examples include TravBuddy, Bootsnall and Real Travel. Members publish travelogues, and others read it. Provides authentic destination and attraction reviews for consumers, and this aggregated UGC database is what travel content providers are looking at as a source for travel guides.

Gadling

Company Owned Blogs – These blogs aim simply to inform and interact with visitors, and engage the community. Examples include Worldhum, Gadling and Jaunted. As far as consumers are concerned, they get the latest travel news, reviews and trends.

Worldhum belongs to the Travel Channel which Scripps is buying from Cox Communications, Gadling is part of the Weblogs Inc. Network which belongs to AOL, and Jaunted is part of SFO Media which in turn is a part of Conde Nast. Inspite of the tangled corporate web, these blogs are stand-alone, in the sense that the business model is based on revenue from ads, and not as part of a larger strategy to promote the parent company.

UpTake

Travel Company Blogs – Where the blog is part of an overall corporate strategy for brand promotion and marketing. Examples include UpTake’s blog network (more details here), and the Oyster Hotel Reviews blog.

 Of special note is the photo fake-out section on the Oyster blog, where they show side-by-side pictures of promotional images put out by a hotel, and the real ones taken by Oyster’s own reviewers. This section on their blog has gained Oyster lots of free publicity and media references.

Travel Rants

Consumer Travel Blogs – Focused on issues important to real travelers – complaints, problems with service, solutions to make travel easier, etc. Examples include Christopher Elliott’s Elliott.org and Darren Cronian’s Travel Rants.

These blogs form a bridge between consumers and the industry, and offer an outlet for consumers to voice their complaints and get some response from an errant company. 

Marriott on the Move

Corporate Blogs – Blogs run by corporate executives of a travel company as part of a marketing strategy to improve brand visibility, put forward a human face as a representative of the company, and aid traffic acquisition.

Best example is the Marriott on the Move blog authored by Bill Marriott, which has accounted for $5 million in sales for Marriott International.

More examples include  Arthur Frommer Online, which is providing a whole new level of visibility to Frommer’s Travel Guides; and Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein’s Why Not blog, which aims to take visitors into a behind-the-scenes look at Royal Caribbean’s ships. 

Goldstein has been providing running commentary on the progress of ‘Oasis of the Seas’ – the world’s biggest cruise ship which set sail from Finland on its maiden voyage, and is expected to berth in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Nov 13.

These corporate blogs also provide an excellent platform for the company to convey its vision to, and communicate with, the company’s own employees.

Visit Florida blog network

DMO Blogs – For blogs run by Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), the main objective is to introduce the destination to prospective visitors.

When the information comes via a blog with an individualistic voice and offers something more than the usual boiler-plate, it makes the DMO – and the destination, seem that much more attractive.

Examples include Visit Florida’s Travel Insiders blog network, GoPhila’s uwishunu.com and San Francisco’s Foodie411 blog.

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Elliott Ng will represent UpTake during the PhocusWright 2009 Conference, Blogger Summit Town Hall on Wednesday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Ten topics were suggested by the panelists for discussion during a planning meeting a few weeks ago. We decided to collect the best posts and examples about each subject and showcase them. We hope this series lends itself to more insightful discussion during the Town Hall presentation.–Patricia Jenkins, Editor

The battle of bloggers vs journalists ended a long time ago. Simply put, journalism got taken to the woodshed. Which is why we’re talking about the blending of blogging and journalism. The MSM (mainstream media magazines) have since taken to blogging with a passion, backed up by massive resources, big brand names and the reporting and writing skills that journalists possess.

On the other hand, individual bloggers who have never seen an AP-stylebook or a grumpy editor in their life are increasingly being considered as respectable sources for breaking news and analysis, aided by the viral nature of social networking which heavily favors the voice, passion and timely news offered by bloggers and citizen journalists.

The two sides are heading towards a convergence which is still a work in progress, the rules for which are being made up along the way. A few examples from the travel industry which throw some light on this ongoing convergence:-

LA Times

Jen Leo (Los Angeles Times) – Jen Leo is the star of the LA Times’ Daily Deal blog, which offers a mix of breaking travel news, deals and special offers, and reviews of hotels and destinations.

For LAT readers and other travel media professionals, Jen Leo is a blogger. But as far as travel companies who are the subject of the news are concerned, Jen Leo is a journalist and a reporter for the LA Times.

NY Times

New York Times – Probably the best example of how the MSM has co-opted blogging and turned it into a cocktail of traditional journalism on a blog platform. When you read a post by Matt Gross – The Frugal Traveler, or on Globespotters, In Transit or The Times Traveler, you wouldn’t be wrong in saying that the Times has some amazing bloggers. But it’s not as simple as that.

This excellent Venturebeat piece explains how a blog post published on an NYT blog is a team affair – “Times bloggers don’t work on their own. They don’t handle every aspect of their blogs. Who does what is divided up to bring specific expertise to bear on different parts of each post.” And the team effort continues even after the blog post is published, with promotional efforts on the site and on social networks being divvied up.

TSA Scanning

Nicole White – Freelance writer who runs a personal blog got embroiled in a massive controversy last month, when she accused the TSA of ‘taking her child.’ The blogosphere piled on the TSA in support of Ms. White, and the story quickly went viral. Then the TSA released video which categorically disproved most of the accusations.

Fact remains that no one checked the facts, and almost every major travel blog picked up the story and hit the TSA hard, accepting Ms. White’s version of events on face value. This wouldn’t have happened back in the days when the MSM didn’t publish anything until it got cross-checked and the sources verified.

Press Trips, Freebies & Junkets – Should a blogger accept freebies & junkets? If not, then it becomes virtually impossible to make an in-person visit to a destination before writing a review. Jeremy Head, Tnooz, laments the fact that he was “recently offered $300 to write a 1,500-word feature about El Salvador by a major UK national newspaper. Not just to write it, but to go there, do the trip, take the notes, come home, write it up. And no expenses either.”

Basically, journalists from major magazines and lowly freelance bloggers are now on an almost equal footing, as far as freebies are concerned. And if it is ok to accept freebies as a necessary evil, should there be a disclosure about it included in the post? As per a recent FTC ruling, “the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement” and needs to be disclosed, or face a $11,000 violation.

Offbeat Guides

Travel Guidebooks based on Blogs – Books and reviews in big magazines published by well-known writers who travel the world are now giving way to travel content sourced from local blogs.

David Sifry’s OffbeatGuides, which allows you to create custom travel guides, sources its information from the internet, and combines it “with information from established authors and thousands of locals who are always updating the information about where they live.”

Tnooz

Blog Networks hiring Journalists – Until recently, popular bloggers were snapped by the MSM and put to work as journalists. But nowadays, with newspapers everywhere shutting down or downsizing, it is the blog networks that are doing the hiring.

Tnooz editor Kevin May, with a 16 year background in journalism, says that Tnooz has “a mixture of professional journalists and a range of industry bloggers and other experts in the sector. And, for me, there is no distinction between them all. They all produce unique content for Tnooz and in turn reach a wider and global audience.”

La Times Building photo by Omar Omar; NY Times building photo by alextorrenegra; TSA photo by hughelectronic; Logos courtesy Offbeat Guides & Tnooz.

Elliott Ng will represent  UpTake during the PhocusWright 2009 Conference, Blogger Summit Town Hall on Wednesday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Ten topics were suggested by the panelists for discussion during a planning meeting a few weeks ago. We decided to collect the best posts and examples about each subject and showcase them. We hope this series lends itself to more insightful discussion during the Town Hall presentation.–Patricia Jenkins, Editor

How does social media marketing fit into your overall marketing plan? How to get corporate execs to buy into social media as part of your strategy? Some of the examples provided below demonstrate how corporate execs are warming up to social media marketing and factoring it into an overall strategy.

Lonelyplanet

Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com/) – The dominant publisher of travel guide books is rapidly shifting from books written by LP writers to digital content partly aggregated from the community.  As a result, Lonely Planet has been ramping up their Thorn Tree Community Forum, factoring it into the future development of their main business, and encouraging their website visitors, guide book readers and purchasers to become contributors.

Lonely Planet CEO Matt Goldberg says the shift in focus towards the community and digital content is part of a plan to provide solutions to consumers’ needs, instead of being only a content provider.

Carnival

Carnival (www.carnival.com) – The Carnival Cruise Line, as mentioned here, is aggregating UGC on Twitter and Flickr published by cruise passengers while on-board Carnival’s ships, and keeping up the engagement via John Heald’s blog, and CarnivalConnect.com - an in-house social media platform for their community, and FunShipIsland.com – an interactive virtual tour. All three sites now routinely bring in over 1 million visitors each, and are being used by Carnival for strategic brand positioning.

But it didn’t start like that. John Heald started blogging to create buzz for the launch of a new ship. CarnivalConnect was launched to encourage guests to send invitations to their friends and family. Carnival saw the potential across these platforms, and merged it all into an overall strategy of showing new visitors what’s happening on board, and allowing new and prospective visitors to engage with loyal customers via social media.

Banff

Banff Lake Louise Tourism (www.banfflakelouise.com/) – BLLT was chugging along like most other tourism organizations in Canada, when the Banff Crasher Squirrel popped into a photo and triggered a viral tsunami wave on social media platforms – over 300 blog-posts, 5,000+ tweets, and 650+ facebook posts.

BLLT understood the potential early, and set up a YouTube video, a twitter account for the squirrel, and a Facebook page, along with a search-engine marketing campaign with keyword “squirrel.” End result – $3 million in ad value, reaching out to 80 million people in North America and Europe via online channels, print and TV. The squirrel is now on billboards marketing Banff, and has established a permanent presence on social media platforms.

Affinia

Affinia Hotels (www.affinia.com/) – For hotels wanting to wade into social media marketing, Affinia offers a valuable lesson – It’s all about listening, and responding on time. They’re all over Twitter, talking to their guests, offering assistance and answering queries.  Their My Affinia program allows guests to customize and pre-select in-room amenities – from pillows to iPods. Items are added on to this list or modified based on the feedback that the Affinia reps get from the social media chatter. 

Another good example of a hotel implementing social media marketing as part of an overall strategy is the Roger Smith hotel – details here. The fact that Chris Brogan gives them high marks for listening to their customers and being social-media savvy is a testament to their success at playing the game.

Southwest

Southwest (www.southwest.com/) – Southwest Airlines looks at social media as an extension of their customer engagement offline. Their ‘Nuts About Southwest’ blog is a lot more popular than any blog owned or run by any other airline. The Blog-o-spondent video contest run on the blog went massively viral last year. The blog is updated constantly by a team of Southwest employees.

Newly uploaded videos can be seen every week on Southwest’s  youtube channel. Thousands of networked Southwest employees form a web that stretches into every corner of Linkedin. Jeremy Jameson, Corporate Strategist,  Strategic Planning for Southwest Airlines, says that the social media success is simply an online extension of their corporate culture of engaging in authentic relations and conversations with customers.

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com/) – Richard Branson’s mothership offers a valuable lesson in course correction. After taking flak last year over the firing of 13 employees who posted derogatory remarks about customers on Virgin’s corporate Facebook page, Virgin seems to have retooled their approach.

The airline now has a cross-functional Social Spaces Forum group comprised of personnel from eCommerce, PR, customer relations, product and service, marketing etc. The team works closely to understand the social marketplace, shape the direction for activity in social spaces and develop a framework for the business in this area, according to Allison Wightman, Head of Marketing Systems, Virgin Atlantic Airways.    

United

United (www.united.com/) – Again, a lesson in how to turn around a bad situation on the social media networks. Only, United hasn’t done it yet. I’m sure you’ve heard the viral Dave Carroll video on Youtube, which the Canadian singer created after United broke his guitar and refused to pay for it.

In a similar situation, Electronic Arts was hit with a user-uploaded video of a glitch in their game which showed Tiger Woods walking on water. EA promptly responded to this with a professional ad video featuring  Tiger walking on water, which in turn again went viral and nullified all the negative impact of the first video.

As Julie Sturgeon notes, the right approach for United would have been to co-opt Dave Carroll and turn it into an ad, or put out a video of their own in response. 

AA

American Airlines (www.aa.com) – American isn’t usually counted amongst the savvy kids on the social media block, but they have taken a right step with the creation of BlackAtlas.com – a community site offering travel insights from an African-American perspective. No other airline has a brand community like this, and it should go a long way towards helping AA score some much needed social media creds.

According to Roger Frizell, American’s vice president of corporate communications, they’re planning a site in 2010 which would collect in one place all the social media videos and chatter about AA. American, he says, intends to be a part of the conversation, instead of just letting it happen without them. 

Wyndham

Wyndham (www.wyndham.com/) – Again, Wyndham is probably the only hotel group to offer a community site – Womenontheirway.com – which aims simply to foster a sense of community among female travelers.

This community goes a long way towards humanizing Wyndham and adds a touch of gentleness  to the corporate image.

Elliott Ng will represent UpTake during the PhocusWright 2009 Conference, Blogger Summit Town Hall on Wednesday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. Ten topics were suggested by the panelists for discussion during a planning meeting a few weeks ago. We decided to collect the best posts and  examples about each subject and showcase them. We hope this series lends itself to more insightful discussion during the Town Hall presentation.–Patricia Jenkins, Editor

It’s hard to overstate the importance of being able to game the media and keep your company in the news. But at the end of the day, this is a losing proposition - there’s a limit to the number of press releases, interviews and travel columns you can  squeeze out of the media before they get tired of your PR pitches.

To get past the traditional media barriers, some travel companies are straddling the divide between making the news and breaking it – by becoming a part of the media. The travel companies listed below are the ones who are stealing the media’s mojo and beating them at their own game.

Cheapflights

CheapFlights (www.cheapflights.com/) – CheapFlights has a news section where you’ll find plenty of breaking news. It’s not just about air travel - they write about all things travel – hotels, vacations, legislation, destinations, etc. Even more important – the news really is breaking news, and they consistently publish it before everyone starts weighing in.

Bing

Bing (www.bing.com/) – Microsoft’s Bing Travel hosts a community travel blog with some big-name contributors, including Pauline Frommer, Peter Greenberg, Joel Grus and Rick Steves.

  Entries from this blog are getting a lot of exposure in discussions of hot topics in the news, and it’s quite safe to say that this is one of the things that Bing is doing right. 

Uptake

UpTake (www.uptake.com/) – The sum of it is that the traditional media approach was found lacking, so UpTake took a large part of its PR budget, and launched a blog network with 7 blogs and 50 bloggers, as part of a plan to inflict lethal generosity on the travel industry.

UpTake co-founder Elliott Ng explains it in this Businessweek piece – “Now we’re breaking industry stories… covering other companies’ launches… getting invited to cover conferences as bloggers. We’ve built real relationships with people in the media rather than just pitching stories.”

CarRentals, UK

CarRentals, UK (www.carrentals.co.uk/) – Has a news section, entries from which have started turning up in breaking news alerts of late. The news section features stories from a wide range of subjects, most of which have something to do with either travel or the UK or both.

Rogersmith

Roger Smith Hotel (rogersmith.com/) – Take a look at Roger Smith Life and Roger Smith News and you’ll find that everything – the news, the art and all the people – leads you right back to the hotel in New York. And the connections are a lot deeper than just plain talk.

Earlier this year, they ran an ‘experiment’ where a couple from the UK was put up in a storefront recreation of one of the hotel’s suites. Basically, the couple was living in a see-through glass room on the street in New York City, and it was an art experiment by Roger Smith Life covered by Roger Smith News which brought in huge publicity for the Roger Smith hotel. 

Hilton

Hilton (www1.hilton.com/) - Hilton’s Homewood Suites recently launched a family travel blog and community site named SuiteTrip.com. In their own words, “SuiteTrip.com is your go-to guide for everything family travel-inspired.” 

Another Hilton outreach is into Travelskoot’s Videos (www.travelskoot.com/hilton) - Hilton provides destination videos featuring concierges working at Hilton hotels in these destinations.

Starwood

Starwood (www.starwoodhotels.com/) - Starwood runs a blog for its SPG members, called The Lobby, which is more of a traditional travel blog talking about destinations and attractions from all over the world, rather than just a Starwood blog talking about Starwood hotels and resorts.

Related Posts:- Some Travel Companies Just Get It

2009 storm prediction

Gazing into their crystal ball, weather researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict we’ll see between 9 and 14 named storms in 2009: 4 to  7 of them will become hurricanes and 1 to 3 of those will be considered major with winds to 111 miles per hour. South Florida chances of being that host stand at  32 percent, compared to the 54 percent the entire U.S. coastline bears. NOAA researchers are saying the Caribbean has an “average” probability of a major hurricane strike.

In other words, it’s pretty much par for course this hurricane season. In fact, we’re into week six of the official calendar boundaries (June 1 to November 30) with nary a bad breeze, unless you count the unnamed fish storm that brewed up at the end of May out in the Atlantic Ocean — where cruise ships don’t sail and hotels can’t exist anyhow.

And that’s where the lasting damage takes place, anyhow. As of today, the list of resorts still trying to reopen after last year’s hurricane parade include Courtyard by Marriott and Brac Reef Beach Resort in the  Caymans, along with Four Seasons in Nevis. At least these properties intend to reopen; the jury is still out on whether the Hyatt Regency in Grand Cayman will ever greet tourists again after its encounter with Ivan in 2004. Ditto Derelict Mullet Bay Beach Resort in St. Maartin, beat up way back in 1995.

Face it, storms are rough on the Caribbean.

Travel can weather the storm

But it would be a mistake to confuse destruction odds with lost tourism. Survey after survey reveals that travelers are more than willing to take those chances, provided the price is right and they buy trip insurance. A healthy 65 percent of participants told TripAdvisor they would pack their bags for regions in the hurricane target zone this fall. Cruising fares even better, as CruiseCritic’s call for answers revealed that not only had 70 percent of participants toasted their bon voyage during hurricane season, but that less than 7 percent regretted it. A sampling of the attitudes:

•“I am more worried about a hurricane at my departure port since if I can’t get to the port I can’t cruise. Once I am onboard I don’t care where I go!”

• “The outer bands of Rita hit Miami and delayed our departure by about four hours. Almost immediately the captain announced that we would not be able to dock in Nassau because of the storm, which was obviously disappointing. He stated we were going to out-run the bad weather by heading to the Northern Bahamas area, near Grand Bahama. After quite a rough night at sea, we woke to a beautiful, sunny morning. Everyone awaited the morning announcement by the captain and it was worth the wait! He announced that the port in Nassau had reopened, there was no damage, and best of all, we were 15 miles out and on our way to port! It was quite an emotional change from the night before.”

•“We were on Norwegian Sun while Wilma was out there. Our course and ports kept changing so much we dubbed it ‘The Mystery Cruise.’ It was still a great cruise and we even got to port in a city where few ships visit. It was great.”

• “We live in South Florida and felt the full force of Wilma — believe me, I’d rather be safely and comfortably away on a cruise ship than sitting in the dark for a week!”

Photography: Fevi in Cayman, Salvatore Freni

Video created by Elliott Ng.
During the next few months, UpTake will be presenting short takes with travel industry leaders, influencers and innovators. Our first video interview is with Kevin Fliess, CEO of TravelMuse. Kevin’s background is well suited to launching an online travel sites:

“His work and family life have taken him all over the world: from Tahiti to India and Canada to Mexico; Amsterdam to Turkey and the northern California coast to South Carolina islands. Prior to starting TravelMuse, Kevin spent 15 years as a leader in various high tech companies, most recently as VP of product marketing and product management for emerging solutions at SAP. He’s also held strategic positions at Synopsys, Icarian and Siemens. A serial innovator, Kevin co-invented the first composite application at SAP and has one patent granted with seven applications on file.”

We hope you enjoy his positive take on where the opportunities exist for online travel in this turbulent economy:

Travelcom Related Posts:

• Gregg Brockway, TripIt, Video Interview
  
• Sam Shank, Dealbase, Video Interview
• Travelcom 2009: TripAdvisor, “Going Here, There & Everywhere“
• Travelcom Keynote-There’s No Room for Maybe

TravelCom ‘09, the US Travel Association’s annual travel industry conference, will be held March 31-April 2 in Atlanta, GA. This year’s theme is Transform Your Business: How to Adapt and Prosper in the Travel Ecosystem.

Travelcom Atlanta 2009

The list of speakers is a star-studded who’s who list of CEOs and senior executives of the biggest brand names in the travel industry. Senior Executives speaking at Travelcom’09 include:

• Steve Hafner, CEO and Co-Founder, Kayak.com
• Christine Petersen, Chief Marketing Officer, TripAdvisor
• Hugh Crean, General Manager, Live Search Farecast, A Microsoft Company
• Rob Torres, Managing Director, Travel, Google, Inc
• Gregg Brockway, Chief Executive Officer, TripIt
• Kevin Krone, VP, Marketing, Sales and Distribution, Southwest Airlines
• Krista Pappas, Head of Business Development, Live Search Farecast, A Microsoft Company, and TravelCom’09 Co-Chair
• Angela Brav, Senior VP, Franchise Services and Operations Support, InterContinental Hotels Group
• Henry Harteveldt, Vice President and Principal Analyst-Airline/Travel Industry Research, Forrester Research, and TravelCom’09 Co-Chair
• Patrick Lafferty, Chief Marketing Officer, Travel Channel Media
• Michael Thomas, Chairman, Travel Ad Network, BookingWiz.com and Sprice
• Robert Sahadevan, Vice President–Mileage Plus, United Airlines

You can see the full list of speakers, panels and scheduled events at Travelcom’09 here.

Travelcom takes on an added significance this year, in view of the economic meltdown. Companies are heading down to Atlanta not just for the linkups, but also because expert speakers at Travelcom ‘09 are actually expected to outline realistic solutions to the problems and pressures faced by almost every travel company.

It’s a tall order, but that’s why they have people like Google’s Rob Torres explaining how to keep the ball rolling short-term, while not losing sight of the big picture. Freeborders Inc. will share its expertise and experience on how to move beyond cost control and create business value with the use of IT outsourcing.

Other speakers like TripAdvisor’s Christine Peterson and TripIt’s Gregg Brockway will explain how to make best use of the enormous potential of new media and the latest innovations in online travel.

Other topics covered include the latest practices of loyalty programs, metasearch, ancillary revenue opportunities, mobile marketing and reaching travelers through new technologies.

The US Travel Association is probably one of the few organizations who can actually pull off such an all-encompassing travel industry conference. You won’t likely be seeing all these topics being discussed concurrently in the same place at the same again in 2009.

Not to mention the fact that it’ll be virtually impossible to corral all these industry heavyweights again for another conference. The fact that they’re all coming underlines the critical importance of Travelcom’09. So I think it’s safe to say that if you’re a part of the travel industry, then you want to be at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, GA on March 31 2009.

Travelcom’09 – Atlanta, GA (March 31 to April 2, 2009)