Occasionally, when you least expect it, you can get a view into a company’s strategy from the most inocuous of places – their job boards. Since I’m updating my book on Multi-Channel Distribution, I have a Google Alert set up for distribution and today, up popped this job description. Senior Manager, Travel Agent Distribution Americas …
Offline Strategy in the Wings for Leading OTA Expedia? Read More »
Today Compete released its June 2011 normalized metrics for unique visitors to the wide range of websites tracked by the organization. Here are the results for the top Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Expedia remains in the number one position with just over 19m unique visitors, up 12.07% from May and up year over year by …
I promised a shorter blog today. So we’ll get right to the point. I am an information hound and have an extremely short memory for numbers (aka prices), so my favorite thing by far with Orbitz is their screen utilization. As I mentioned, they invented the Matrix™ display and while others have copied it, they …
Smarter than a travel agent? OTA Series: Using Orbitz Read More »
In the second of our “Smarter than a travel agent” series, we are going to look at the use of the top Online Travel Agency (OTA), Expedia. We are going to be consistent with yesterday’s blog and use the same itinerary, Tampa to London’s Gatwick airport, outbound on the 8th of July and returning on …
Smarter than a travel agent? OTA Series: Using Expedia Read More »
The Online Travel Agencies (OTA) are an important part of the travel distribution story. Today’s feature is Expedia. Expedia began as a skunk works project within Microsoft, with then 29 year old [dare I say “pup”], Rich Barton at the helm. Unlike its competitors over the years, there were NO airline investors in Expedia. The …
This is the first in a new series, called Travel Industry Pedigree. In this series, we will look at how each of the major players in the travel space got their start. This graphic shows the corporate pedigree of Hotwire.com. Originally the brainchild of founders Eric Grosse, Karl Peterson, Gregg Brockway and Spencer Rascoff, the …
Following our assessment yesterday of the distribution basics for an airline, we thought it would be interesting to look at the metrics that are used to gauge the relative power of companies in the public markets and see how they might relate to the power in the distribution game in travel. Here we use Market …
Distribution Basics: Who has the power? (corrected version) Read More »
Expedia to Spin Off TripAdvisor – Zacks.com TripAdvisor is one of the pioneers of “user generated content”, also known as a review site. The business model is one of advertising and sponsorship and it is totally dependent upon traffic to the site producing clicks to its various advertisers and sponsors, including current parent, Expedia. In …
Sharpening conflict online between OTAs and Airlines renews discussion about the value of the offline distribution channels – namely the mega agencies that focus largely on the corporate traveler and the other, nearly 16,000 brick and mortar agencies still in business in this country. As we listen to the media talk about the Expedia and …
Is it time to “make nice” with the offline travel agency distribution channel? Read More »
I find it interesting that the travel industry, and online travel in particular, believes that it has the birthright to display 100% of all travel supplier content. Conversely, that suppliers should take for granted that all distribution channels should have the obligation to distribute their products on their terms. In any other retail environment, there …
