This week innovation seems to be the buzzword.

Over in Hollywood, USA there is the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit - while over here in the UK (where we are getting real work done!) I am looking at an entry form to the annual Innovation award in Travel (for the UK travel industry)

The award criteria are:

The innovations nominated could be technology related or commercial and are eligible for submission in the form of new ideas, products, services, processes or financial and business structures.

Entries are welcome from any travel business operating in, or from, the UK. You can enter your own company or recommend a business partner or associate. Nominees could be technology related or commercial but they need to be successful. The innovation may have solved a problem or met the needs of a customer group, business or business partner. It could be even be something that has been in the marketplace for two to three years and is only now gaining recognition.

The panel of judges will assess the individuals, organisations and companies that have realised high performance through innovation.

This definition of innovation in travel interests me.

There seems to be confusion as to whether we are talking about the act of innovation (coming up with the idea) or the act of converting that idea into a business. The phrase have realised high performance through innovation would suggest that the idea must have been converted into something tangible and successful. To me this makes it a business award, not an innovation one, but never mind.

At the other end of the world, in the US, the innovation summit appears to be less about innovation and more about startups. Yes they have highlighted many new and interesting companies - but are they really innovative? By the time you have 10 companies doing the same thing (like itinerary sharing) you could only call the first few innovative - the others have taken the original idea and produced products with slightly different perspectives. They may well turn out to be successful - but not sure they all deserve the innovative badge.

William Bakker, on his blog, had gone as far as to call a number of the PhoCusWright companies JABS (Just Another Booking System). He would therefore, it would appear, agree with the concept that they are not all innovative.

Sometimes individuals will call a company innovative because they are not aware of what the rest of the sector are doing hence to them it does seem innovative. That is wrong too.

What are we doing with TourCMS? Are we innovative?

This is where I need your help. I held back from entering for the PhoCusWright Innovation summit (to show off TourCMS) because I felt we were not innovative. If I had to use a word to describe what we do I would say we commoditise.

We commoditise tour operator reservation systems just like EasyJet / Ryanair and all the low cost airlines commoditised what was previously expensive air flight…. These new low cost airlines didn’t innovate flight - they just created a business model that would help them sell their flights at a significant discount to traditional airlines.

[For those unfamiliar with TourCMS - we produce a web based reservation system for long tail tour operators. No booking fees, no commission - just Software as a Service (SaaS). We have a growing, global, client base including niche tour operators, destination marketing organisations, travel agents, inbound tour operators, ticketing companies etc. Pretty much everything]

Our commoditisation strategy includes:

• Using Software as a Service as our pricing and technology strategy (multi-tenant single codebase). No capital costs.
• No pre-sales - just sign up for a free trial account online
• Running customer support partially via a web based forum
• Requiring “zero professional services” - most customers go live without having to pay us any project fees 
• Customers pay us via credit card (although we do have a few exceptions). 25% of our trading customers are free, as it happens! (for full functionality, not cut down like for competitors!)
• etc.

We have made very many little innovations along the way to delivering our commoditisation strategy. But it is still commoditisation.

Perhaps the act of commoditisation is innovation?

What do you think?

So should I enter the Innovation award for the UK travel industry? Are we innovative enough - or are we - as William Bakker would say - Just Another Booking System.

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Virgin Atlantic (airline) are looking for help forming their social media strategy. They have turned to potential users and are organising a barcamp (V-Jam) in central London on the 28th of Nov 08 (during the day).

50-60 attendees are to be invited.

Via TravellerWithATale

If you’re interested in going to the event you should fill our their short questionnaire which asks about your experience and background, and they will let you know if you’ve been selected to attend. The day will take an unstructured, almost barcamp style form with attendees creating the schedule as they go, and promises to be quite interesting. Oh, and I head rumour of some drinks afterward…

You have to apply…..  so probably no one from British Airways should go!

Apply online

What is weird is that there are plenty of travel ecommerce / travel social media bloggers (like me) who would be delighted to attend - and this is one occasion when a press release in our direction would have been appreciated! I love the concept of the day and have applied - lets see what happens.

Kudos to TravellerWithATale who have scooped everyone with the news. Not a single other mention elsewhere on the web - which - with 2 weeks to go - is probably not a great start. We got 70-80 this week at the latest travel blogging / travel social media barcamp in London (where I spoke)….. and if we had known about it then - it would have been a great place to make other travel social media types aware.

More from Nesta about the event - or read this PDF (which has lots of detail)

I wrote earlier (published on the Travolution blog) about CPC bid inflation on Google. Previously Google have stated that in Q1 2008 there was 20% CPC bid price inflation.

If you haven’t read that yet, read that, then come back to read this additional bit!

The summary is I don’t believe this is sustainable (from Google’s perspective) and they had better come up with some solutions otherwise their marketplace will soon become more expensive than other channels - and Google will lose their currently held dominant position in B2C leisure travel.

Jaime Horwitz from Canada has responded with his thoughts. [Read his article]

I just thought I should outline a few likely outcomes to see if we can get some common understanding as to what the next few years may bring….

Scenario #1

• Advertising inventory supply remains constant with demand (i.e. both grow / fall equally)
• Website conversion gets better (due to increased investment in usability and product optimisation)
• Due to increased conversion, keywords become a lot more expensive - but the overall impact remains neutral

Likely outcome: Tour operators, hoteliers and airlines win (vs agents) as they have a better website conversion than agents, meta-search or travel content sites (for the same paid for traffic). Google wins because they retain the Google marketplace as the key mechanism (in the B2C leisure travel industry) to drive traffic to travel sites.

i.e. as an advertiser, if you can’t run your business at a higher level of website conversion - you lose

Scenario #2

• Advertising inventory supply remains constant with demand (i.e. both grow / fall equally) or demand exceeds supply
• Site conversion remains constant (at current levels)
• Keywords continue to become more and more expensive

Likely outcome: Individual companies with a fixed budget can source fewer and fewer visitors via Google. Google becomes less important to B2C leisure travel than their current status. (Remember most travel products have both a minimum and finite availability). Additional distribution and marketing partners are required for tour operators, airlines and hoteliers…. As in scenario #1, the product suppliers win (vs agents) but this time because only suppliers find it easy to create distribution relationships. Agents can’t afford an additional layer between them and the consumer.

Google loses as they lose their “controlling” position they currently have. Obviously they still have a successful business, but they have lost control - they have lost the initiative. Distribution fragmentation takes place.

Other thoughts
There are probably other scenarios - but I am not writing for an MBA - but writing a blog post. If there is an obvious scenario I have missed, please add in comments below.

The two key themes that come out of this are:

• Product suppliers have a greater chance to benefit from the web than agents. However to achieve this, product suppliers must leverage their potential to have a better website conversion than agents. The balancing factor is that large agents who can afford experienced web teams may still be able to compete with small tour operators with inexperienced web teams. Small agents with inexperienced web teams have no chance.
• For Google to remain in control as long as possible it would benefit them to get conversion up across the board (hence all their free tools they provide to assist with this). The longer Google remain in control, the longer they have to think about what should replace their existing system (and the more demoralised their competitors become hence stop thinking that they may have the new golden solution - leaving the field open to Google)

Perhaps scenario #2 is inevitable at some point (as website conversion can’t continue to increase indefinitely). I guess, at that point, some other company comes along with a slightly different model - and - due to the now fragmented distribution - they can become a powerful meta-search. Whoever it is though has to have their traffic costs lower than Google - which - unless there is a wider change in general search - or something else - then this may be unlikely. If I had to guess what that could be, I would suggest some kind of distributed meta-search - where data flows around the web - rather than users going to specific sites……. I am sure I have heard of this concept before…… !

Back in September I wrote about running a personality led website. This was following a session at the TTI conference [London] where we first discussed it. On that panel was Steve Endacott, CEO of the On Holiday Group.

Anyway, today I came across this Google advert (Search for Steve Endacott)

Not quite sure this is what I had in mind!

This year went to World Travel Market on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday was packed - you could hardly move. Thursday was silent - not much going on at all.

However just because there were less crowds I have no idea why:

• Some stands had no one on for the entire Thursday - lights were off and everything
• Many stands started taking apart at about 3pm (for a 5pm close)
• After about 3pm there was rubbish on stands that no-one was bothering to tidy up
• Far too many people sitting around and not caring about what it looked like

I happened to be chatting to a travel reservation system provider at about 4pm….. Every time anyone walked past the stand, he would look over my shoulder and try to get their attention. They were playing the game how it should be played - right up to the final whistle.

One of my clients (who kindly took me out for dinner in the evening) was still doing business in the afternoon. They were incredibly frustrated because many people they wanted to speak to had simply vanished. It made going to WTM on a Thursday a completely pointless exercise. 

Not only is it bad for 1-to-1 business - but it looks dreadful as well. The point of WTM isn’t just the face to face meetings - but it is a branding exercise. Am I likely to do business with someone who shuts down early? No.

Last year at the travel technology show we were still talking to new people on the stand when others were closing down. Frankly anyone who closes their stand early deserves to go out of business.

Great article written by Travolution about consolidation in the travel technology sector

See article

There is a strong chance that a major independent travel technology company will emerge during the current economic climate, a senior travel executive has predicted.

Comtec chief executive Simon Powell told Travolution this week that consolidation in the technology sector is needed and inevitable as travel firms look to outsource IT requirements away of the existing axis of GDS-backed suppliers such as Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre.

“Similar to the big tour operators last year, there will be some major consolidation amongst the travel technology firms in the next year,” Powell said.

It is “more than likely” that like-minded providers of IT and software who are strong in different regions and disciplines will come together to form a major supplier of back-end systems for online and offline intermediaries and tour operators, Powell said.

He added: “There is now a real need for a large technology business that is not connected to one of the large GDSs to be created.

Comtec, which Powell admitted is currently focusing on growing its business in the US and improving its travel agency systems in the UK, would “want to be a part of any organisation” should it emerge.

A financial warchest made available following the company’s private equity deal earlier this year could still be used for acquisitions, Powell said.

However I think we need a summary version

• Comtec wants us to believe (and worry that) a number of travel technology companies will go out of business in the next year. Nothing is more destabilising than this for competitor system suppliers looking to take on new customers.
• Comtec want to reassure everyone that they are not going to be one of those companies
• Comtec still have money left in their warchest for acquisitions

I would have thought it should have been suggested by “Jack” not “Simon”

I am still left wondering whether this is elaborate PR to destabilise their competitors - or whether they are serious? Are you serious Comtec?

Alex humour 101 for non-native English speakers: Jack - after I’m all right, Jack

Just spent all yesterday at World Travel Market 2008. Very busy

First day spent wandering around the place and having various meetings - successful ones - so that means more business - which is great. No downturn for us, touch wood.

Saw some things I was a bit unsure about - like a company offering travel website design services - where - on their stand - they had a screenshot of a website for an airline that they work for. Problem was, I know that they didn’t design that particular page - as I project managed that project and it was another agency in a different country who designed it…… oh dear.

Second largest FAIL was Aldi (a low cost supermarket chain) announcing their move into the travel sector. The news about the launch was press embargoed until Monday evening….. however, their press release has been happily sitting in public on the World Travel Market press releases section since October 28th. They also have a stand in the name of - wait for it - Aldi travel…. The embargo was a bit pointless then eh!?

In the evening took part if the first “travel blogging bar camp” thingy. 80 people or so turned up to hear various people (including myself) speak. Good fun I think….. [Darren has written up the BlogCamp on his blog]

Interested to hear about STA travel buzz - who aggregate any discussion that relates to STA travel but without adding any commentary to what is being discussed - i.e. no helping with customer issues etc. The key comment that focussed my attention was that they are “not” the customer service team. I am still a fan of the customer service team “owning” responsibility for an ecommerce website (rather than the marketing or IT teams)….. which I guess is the reverse of the STA strategy.

I am not sure the point about how, as an aggregator, you can control the message through controlling the environment was understood by everyone. If you have a few “negative articles” out there - as the aggregator - you can ensure that the 5 hours someone wants to spend investigating and interacting with your brand are spent in your environment - under your direction. Of course the negative stuff will still be out there (and can be found through different means) but if you can fill up all the time that any sane individual would want to spend with your brand with positive stuff - they will never get around to looking for negative things. This is the web version of filibustering.

Back to WTM for all of Thursday….. where, yes, will be chatting to Google at 11am. [Seminar details]

I am going to be quite pleased when WTM is over!

Note to all those complaining about the train not running from central London direct to Excel….. jump on the Thames Clipper (ferry)… I can get one from Waterloo train station through to Canary Wharf - where they have a coach / bus to Excel. 30 minutes - easy. No need for any trains at all.

BlueNity is a new social travelling tool….

Air France-KLM has created a website that alerts frequent flyers if other subscribers are on the same flight, showing their name and personal profile.

It encourages members to swap travel and restaurant tips and even share taxis to and from the airport.

A spokeswoman said the site was designed to appeal to a “new generation of customers who use social networking technology and expect us to do the same”.

Source: Telegraph

In 2001 I was involved in developing a web based business travel tool. On that system you could see other members of the same company who were on the same flight as you. You could see their name and job title. When joined with a “seat picking” tool you could decide either to sit next to them - or as far away as possible.

BlueNity looks like a consumer version of what we were doing in 2001. Ours never launched so it will be interesting to see if this works now.

However, lets be honest, what airline passengers really want is something that has functionality a bit more like HotorNot. It needs to be used “in flight” (from mobile phones, laptops etc) and based around seat numbers. If airlines don’t, I am sure someone else will!

I love receiving positive feedback about this blog. For example here is an email I received today:

A lady in my office just got back from vacation and she keeps recommending your site so I decided to check it out for myself.  After spending a half an hour browsing through your site, I’ve got to admit that she was onto something. I have bookmarked it and will check back regularly to keep up with what’s new.

About what I do, I work for Viking River Cruises, which deals with European river cruises among other things.  Since the material on your site and my site are kind of similar, let me know if you would like to work something out with us.

I have a team of writers available that can write articles, web pages, blogs, etc… You name it and I can probably make it happen. 

Good eh? Except, hang on a minute, it doesn’t seem quite right. So I start an email conversation with this person. Here is the next reply (to my question about how we are similar)

We are interested in a text link to the Viking River Cruises website. Both our sites are in related to the travel industry so that is why I thought of yours.

Ah - a link. Why didn’t you just ask in the first place? By now I am confident that I am dealing with an SEO agency rather than someone who works for the actual cruise company. They did try to obfuscate this by communicating via an @vikingrivercruises.com email address rather than their agency domain.

Things that were unusual with this and lead me to this conclusion:

• Looking at the email headers I can see the source - gmail - when - for a large cruise company - I would expect to see email coming from a corporate system
• Although writing on behalf of the company, no job title or telephone contact details are given
• I can see the SEO agency (From Santa Monica, USA) looking at the blog in my web stats…… (after the first email)

The best bit is I have found the person who sent me the communication - in Linkedin. Alongside their profile is the rather relevant statement about their SEO activities:

Currently, I wear a white hat to combat the dark side. The dark side is alluring but ultimately a vortex for bad karma.

So - is this black hat or white hat SEO agency behaviour?
Certainly grey, at least. I don’t really like SEO agencies. I would have been happier if they had just “come clean” to start with. Still wouldn’t have given them a link mind you.

* And of course if I am wrong, I will publish an apology here. But I am not Wong am I?

Two stories hit the press this week involving UK airlines and Facebook.

First we had Virgin Atlantic reportedly sacking 13 air crew who branded passengers “chavs” and mocked the airline’s safety. [Source: The Sun]

Now we have British Airways who have launched an investigation about some of their staff reportedly calling passengers “smelly” [Source: The Daily Mail].

The key questions are

• Now “anyone” can publish - how should large companies handle this?
• If an employee publishes a comment in a forum - or semi-public place - are they communicating on behalf of the company they work for - or themselves?
• Should the reaction be to “sack” an employee - or should they be sent on “PR training” instead? Is the sacking just an excuse to reduce headcount in a difficult period?
• Is the issue whether to permit staff to create forums on the web for open discussion - or was the issue about what was said in the forums? Would this have been a problem if there hadn’t been rude comments about customers?

The many to many relationship
Historically public relations was undertaken (in a cosy way) between journalists and PR teams. This was a one-to-one relationship (using a database analogy for you technical lot!). Now its many to many. Individuals (employees) can communicate with individuals (consumers, subscribers etc).

There has always been a big discussion about corporate blogging….. empowering individuals within a corporate to communicate on behalf of the company. Often these were experienced individuals as writing a blog requires a long term commitment by the blogger. This experience helped individuals understand where the line was (and the main concerns related to leaking of corporate IP or internal project news - rather than being rude about customers!)

However, with forums, there is no commitment on behalf of the employee to learn any skills on how to use the facility….. and the damage can be done with one or two comments that get pulled out as press headlines.

Separating your job from your personal life
I am not on Facebook. I made this decision as a conscious decision to have a separate business and personal life. If I had a Facebook account lots of people I know from business (including you lot who read this blog) would want to link and be upset if I didn’t reciprocate. Likewise I have a couple of personal friends who are on my Linkedin account - but very few - most come from my “business life”. Of course, I have some (now) personal friends who have I come to know through my jobs or through business….. so it is not black and white! 

Handling this better - learning from doctors
One thing for sure is that this scenario will occur many more times in the future until everyone is educated on the difference between a public and a private place on the web. I am not even sure if there is a private place on the web.

Perhaps we can learn from the medical industry where they have plenty of slang [See wikipedia] - e.g. FLK - Funny Looking Kid.

In many countries, facetious or insulting acronyms are now considered unethical and unacceptable, and patients can demand access to their medical records. Medical facilities risk being sued by patients offended by the descriptions.

There the practice of referring to patients using slang was greatly curtailed as a result of patients having access to their medical records (i.e. what was once private is now public).