Travel planning is currently a red hot segment for online travel startups. Many are presenting innovative solutions to address a complex challenge. Clever third generation sites like Gliider, NileGuide, Traxo, TripIt, Tripware, YourTour, and Zoombu all take very different approaches to creating, organizing and sharing trip itineraries.
photo credit: dionhinchcliffeA nightmare for online travel planning - the dreaded multi-modal, multi-stop, open jaw, tertiary market, group adventure
Ranging from clipping potential travel options or collecting booked trip components from supplier frequent traveler accounts, to starting with a single trip component, or assembling complete end-to-end sequences, these groups have all realized that managing travel itineraries is an excellent method to:
- Engage the traveler,
- Monetize that relationship across multiple suppliers and distribution channels, and
- Avoid the investment, interfacing and operating expense associated with booking reservations, processing payments or managing customer care
In addition to the firms above, a gaggle of small teams around the globe are seeking benevolent angel investors with between $500 thousand and $3.5 million in seed funding so their projects can get an opportunity to grow beyond the proof of concept stage. Some are involved in the drive market, others targeting the train & ferries niche, but all are trying to streamline travel planning – increasing transparency and relevance, while reducing the number of steps and touch points.
At the other end of the spectrum looms Google, controlling 70%+ share of US search traffic. While search engines are used more than 50% of the time under nearly every travel planning scenario, travelers are currently sent off to explore a fragmented myriad of sites and options. The ability to efficiently organize and align relevant airline, hotel, car rental, ground transport and activities for travelers into an optimal itinerary represents the holy grail for travel planning. Google is very well positioned to play an important role and simplify the process.
In this, the fourth installment in a series covering How Google Can Help Revolutionize Online Travel, the focus is travel planning innovation as a holistic process; with travelers and professional travel planners attempting to ensure that all arrangements are made to ensure the highest quality and most trouble-free travel experience. Google can play an important role in resolving challenges confronting the travel planning process by providing tools that can better organize trips for groups or individuals, improve accuracy of travel experience customer expectations and provide highly targeted promotional opportunities for travel sellers throughout a door-to-door itinerary. continue reading →
