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I picked up the print version of the magazine today in a dr’s waiting area, noting the headline on the cover. In the list itself, there are probably few surprises, with TripAdvisor noted as best traveler review site, and a few better known brands like FareCast, Kayak/Sidestep, Open Table, LuxuryLink and Google Maps.
Mixed in are a few start-ups that are gaining traction, and perhaps more importantly, several niche sites for detailed itinerary booking, trip inspiration, and headache saving sites, among other unique mashups. Mentions of stalwarts like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity are minimized in small blurbs about what’s new in these traditional booking engines.
+4 Online Trends
So even if the list of favorites was a bit ho-hum, or dare I say biased by well intentioned PR meet n’ greets, demos, hosted parties at travel industry conferences, you’ve got to agree with the four key trends they identified. Of course, it’s kind of a year in review synopsis, since they don’t report on trends throughout the year, so they’ve had the benefit of looking at the other chatter in the industry to come up with these four gems.
- Hybrid Booking Models. T+L claims “with so many booking agents to choose from, travelers are turning to a new group of sites that is moving into travel-agent territory” and that people are frustrated, and turning to sites that focus more on inspirational content, destination guides and planning tools. Fully agree with that – there’s been a strong shift to the content model. But to say that the (majority) of travel agents have stayed relevant in terms of being able to give as much first-hand knowledge and experience as UGC sites and traditional travel media has, is flat out wrong.
Go into any travel agency with three very diverse ideas for a trip like a honeymoon, where you’re trying to decide between the Caribbean, South Pacific Islands or a Mediterranean cruise, and you’d be hard pressed to find an agent who has actually been to all three of those general regions, much less have a good handle on the islands / resort options themselves. It’s a rare bird, but they may not have gone extinct just yet. It’s just that the web has long been the resource for informational content to lead the research and decision phases of the travel planning cycle. - WOM/Social Media. The obligatory Facebook/MySpace mentions aside, their example of Sociallight.com is a good diversion to help users find special interests, but also piggybacks with the major playors. Maybe overlooked here, and T+L should have tooted their own horn, or for the sake of traditional travel media in general, that there’s still enormous opportunity (and recent growth) in sharing travel content from the online versions of traditional pubs (Fodors, Frommers, NYT or USAToday Travel, etc) via RSS and voting tools like Yahoo! Buzz, Mixx, Digg, Twitter, among others.
- UGC (User Generated Content). The attempt to further segment by special interests and unique categories is what’s driving this sector forward in travel review sites. It’s not enough just give a star rating anymore, since more sophisticated users will demand very specific details about each property or a piece of the travel experience. I suspect we’re going to continue to see this trend, but it will mostly be a lot of the same thing spun out in a different way. Branding, SEO traffic and social prowess will determine winners.
- Mobile Apps.
From the beginning of Local & Mobile search, travel has been one of the best poised categories to take advantage of the platform. I’ve been using Delta’s mobile site for years now, and mobile map tools had been in existence for awhile. Toss in something like the iPhone app store, plus 3g & 4g network speeds, with other wireless providers catching up with better devices in the US, and we’ll finally be seeing travel marketers pushing more aggressively to mobile.
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