Interesting Review of the Travel Industry
- April 25th 2008
- From the Editor
Many people seem to think that the online travel world has ‘arrived,’ and that it’s a very crowded market. However, I read an interesting article over at the UpTake blog today by one of that company’s founders Elliot Ng. His reviews of the new wave in travel sites, those that are moving away from being solely booking platforms and which are now more integrative planning tools. From what I have seen, the best of these act like a virtual guide book that you can dog ear and write in without having to carry the weight around. I’m excited about this development in the industry, however I find myself getting frustrated frequently because many people don’t know about these options or that there are better ways to plan your travel.
For example: My friend was working on booking a hotel for a getaway in July to a nice place in San Diego. I was looking over her shoulder and suggested several of the great booking and review platforms that I know of because of my work in the industry. She insisted instead on spending a large amount of time trying to do everything through Travelocity. Why? Because the travelocity gnome is her friend on MySpace.
Yes, that’s great advertising by Travelocity, but seriously? Seriously? (now I sound like Grey’s Anatomy) but Seriously? Sorry… got into a moment there. Anyone else excited that the new season starts soon?
Back to where I was. So in an effort to encourage others to check out new advances in travel planning, here are some great new startups and services: Nile Guide, TravelMuse, Tripit, Doppler, the Yahoo trip planner read about them and more in Elliot’s article.
Enjoy!
PS- no one’s gotten the age right yet… keep trying!!!
Sorry… just one more… for the new season… SERIOUSLY????!
Really, I’m done now.
Excellent comments and assessment. People spend hours and hours on the internet trying to plan their vacations. Regardless of how much a person earns per hour, we all work 2080 hours (if not self-employed I mean, cause then it is half again more +/-) for that 1 or 2 weeks of vacation. Do you really want to entrust that valuable time to a gnome in a pointy hat who is the figment of a PR person’s imagination? (!?!) He is not real. There is a voice-over and animation! And regardless of what people are led to believe from the commercials, he will not magically show up when something goes wrong. But the travel consultant is a phone call or email away to be your advocate!