Archives for March 2010

My Twitter Digest for the Past Week 2010-03-29

Hmm. Only people not receiving votes so far in "Most Trusted Person in Travel" #poll are Sabre, Travelport & Expedia CEO's # By request, Susan Black (@Susantravels) has been added to "Who is Most Trusted in Online Travel?" #poll http://j.mp/aFvk6y # Who is the Most Trusted Authority in Online Travel? Vote now & please Re-Tweet […]

Who is the Most Trusted Authority in Online Travel?

Online travel, technology and social media conferences around the world are all focusing on the need for travel sellers to earn the trust of consumers. But who does the travel industry trust to provide insight and expertise in an industry that is getting increasingly complex? With analysts, leaders of online travel sites and global distribution systems, influential bloggers, twitter personalities, association executives and journalists all providing their opinions, the question for this week’s RockCheetah poll is “Who is the Most Trusted Authority in Online Travel?”

Google Maps Hotel Prices: Fear & Loathing in Online Travel

Google’s announcement that it is testing the addition of the hotel price to Google Maps search results resulted in fear and concern within the travel community. Google appears to be testing the water on the Maps platform in preparation of launching the hotel price integration into the Universal Search results on all Google results pages. The end result is that advertisers will be able to link more directly and deeply to relevant content from a search results page.

My Twitter Digest for the Past Week 2010-03-22

RT @TechCrunch: Google Shuts Down Chinese Search, Redirects To Hong Kong – http://tcrn.ch/9R93sq by @arrington # @Gadling Wow, glad I didn't suggest "Salacious gossip & innuendo culled from the dumpster of the global travel business" 🙂 in reply to Gadling # Recommend @Gadling updates its profile from "I am a travel blog" to "We write […]

Who Will Win the Merchant Hotel Room Occupancy Tax Battle?

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) held its annual Legislative Action Summit following receipt of an open letter drafted by five major travel associations requesting support of proposed legislation that would eliminate room occupancy tax assessments on merchant model hotel room transactions processed by online travel companies. With millions of dollars at stake, the question for this week’s RockCheetah Weekend Poll is “Who Will Win the Merchant Hotel Room Occupancy Tax Battle?”

My Twitter Digest for the Past Week 2010-03-15

Drum roll, please… RT @augieray: Twitter Expected To Take The Wraps Off Advertising Platform Today http://tcrn.ch/bOgC7M # MKE Airport: 13 minutes from wheels down to bag on the conveyor + in the car 4 minutes later. That's pretty quick #airline # .@continental gate agent says they found a Captain for our flight. If it's Leslie […]

Individualization of Travel – ITB Berlin Convention

Text of opening remarks by Robert Cole when moderating the Individualization of Travel panel on March 12, 2010 on Marketing & Distribution Day at the ITB Berlin Convention. Key takeaways included travel is both an intensely personal and highly social experience. It is also a very complex multi-step process. A massive quantity of potential options exist, as well as dramatically different personal decision making processes. Now, social media now enables a transition from mass broadcasting brand messages to establishing relationships with customers and interactively communicating.

High Points from PhoCusWright@ITB 2010

The PhoCusWright@ITB 2010 conference just concluded and, as always, provided a number of interesting points to consider within the travel industry marketing, distribution and technology landscape. My recap of the sub-conference within the massive ITB Berlin exhibition has been published as a guest post on Josiah Mackenzie’s Hotel Marketing Strategies Blog.

My Twitter Digest for the Past Week 2010-03-08

Off to @ITB_Berlin & @PhoCusWright Looking forward to a great week. Flying #CO96 #pcitb #itb # Very Scary RT @ebertchicago: If you thought Trekkers were obsessed, meet the Avatar people of Wisconsin http://j.mp/a38C5z # RT @ebertchicago: Always a letdown at 5 p.m. when they replace the red carpet pros with ABC's clueless "first team" #oscars […]

What a Skull Fracture Can Teach Us About Social Media

The travel industry can create intensely personal and life changing experiences, but travel companies are still working to communicate with travelers in a more personalized and relevant manner. Social networking literally changes the rules of engagement. During times of crisis, social networks gain importance to support for personal relationships while brand relationships may be disregarded. Social media and social networking are constants – engagement is now variable. Travel organizations must now consider the value of a consumer’s social network and level of engagement into their lifetime customer value. With increased interactivity, brand relationships are becoming more like personal relationships. Emotional connections may take time to develop, require significant resources to maintain and turn ugly if mutual trust is violated.