Archive for October, 2007
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
Normally I tend to review larger travel websites as I know they have a solid web design approach and have budgets that enable them, if they applied appropriate skill, to create a great piece of functionality or website. I also tend to review when a company has stated objectives publicly – and then I can muse on [...]
Posted in Interesting websites, Usability & web design | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 29th, 2007
I have been thinking about web based community forming recently – with a focus on communities within the online travel industry itself (rather than forming communities of consumers)
One stumbling block that I have come up with is a core difference between highstreet travel agents and online travel agents.
High street travel agents – helpful
Lets assume that a travel agent in [...]
Posted in Industry analysis, Random thoughts | No Comments »
Monday, October 29th, 2007
An area that is currently underserved by travel websites (and startups) is functionality that enables users to share their post travel experiences with fellow travellers, friends, family and “the public” in a simple way.
Yes there are thousands of forums – and many travel websites let users put up photos, trip blogs etc…. but I wonder [...]
Posted in Interesting websites | 5 Comments »
Friday, October 26th, 2007
OK – I know I rant on a bit about how travel websites are normally pretty boring creatures…… but now I have come across something truly a bit mad.
Welcome to 3dMailbox.
In essence avatars represent your emails. The travel link….. well all the avatars are aeroplanes – represented by 80 national carriers.
View This Video on You Tube
I [...]
Posted in Random thoughts, Usability & web design | No Comments »
Friday, October 26th, 2007
Lets say you run a website on behalf of a tour operator – and this website – much like most tour operator websites – focuses on describing, promoting and selling that operator’s travel products. This is what I call a “product website“.
However one aspect of running a product website is that you are constantly having [...]
Posted in Running a travel business | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
Yesterday I was working away (very busy at the moment) when the phone rang. They said it was Paypal on the phone. My first reaction was – what have we done wrong? Has someone undertaken some fraud that we need to react to on our system? (see how I think!)
No – it turned out that it [...]
Posted in Industry analysis, Usability & web design | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
The other day I wrote a post about a vision of the future of travel distribution and travel ecommerce (2017). One of the comments from that post was from Earl Allen Boek (RobertsResorts) suggesting that companies such as YTBtravel.com – a multi level marketing (MLM) company working within online travel – are the future.
This therefore [...]
Posted in Industry analysis | 49 Comments »
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
One theme that is beginning to become more prevalent is “itinerary saving” and “itinerary sharing”.
Overview
Say for example you are going on a trip to New York – you may want to save information about your hotel, the shops you want to visit, the attractions you want to see, the restaurants you want to eat at etc. [...]
Posted in Interesting websites, Usability & web design | 7 Comments »
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Come on creative directors….. get creative! No more polaroid style photos please. Thank you.
TripHub.com (organise group trips)
TripWiser.com (plan your trips online)
Travelocity Experience Finder
Here is an alternative to a polaroid metaphor from one of my favourite travel websites….. The Yellowstone National park. The yellow border is actually the background colour for the page. It is the “scrapbook” corners [...]
Posted in Usability & web design | 3 Comments »
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, cringe or ignore a “train wreck” of an article that has been published on the TravelMole.com website – and the subsequent comments that people have posted. Instead I have decided to write about it…. what did you expect exactly? (TravelMole is a leading UK travel industry news website)
Lets start [...]
Posted in Random thoughts | 2 Comments »
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