18 June 2009

Travelsupermarket founder launches new travel website

Moneysupermarket.com and travelsupermarket.com founder Simon Nixon is today launching a travel website called Simonseeks.

Nixon is aiming to establish SimonSeeks as one of the top 10 travel websites in the UK within its first year by achieving a target of over one million unique users a month.

The website will pay travellers to write about their favourite places in the world and share their travel experiences as travel guides.

It claims to be the first to offer such an incentive for user-generated content by introducing a 50:50 revenue share model.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœSimonseeks could present a useful way for travel agents to earn money from their travels by writing guides and sharing travel tips with our community,Ã¢â¬~ suggested Nixon.

Commercial deals have already been signed with Lastminute, Laterooms, Opodo, Octopus, Hostelworld, Ebookers and other travel companies.

Packages available to partners include cost per click and cost per application.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe are offering travel partners an exciting new way of promote themselves online through monetising quality editorial content,Ã¢â¬~ said Nixon.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœMany online businesses are struggling to come up with effective ways of raising revenue from content with some considering micro-payments to users.

"We donÃ¢â¬â¢t believe this is the way to go and see greater potential for the travel industry to cross sell links embedded within quality and relevant editorial.Ã¢â¬~

The launch comes almost 10 years after Nixon founded moneysupermarket.com and travelsupermarket.com, which were floated on the stock exchange in 2007 for Ã&#pound;850 million. Nixon retains a 53% shareholding in the businesses.

Simon is joined by Chris Nixon, former managing director of travelsupermarket.com, who will head up the commercial activities of the site.

Nick Trend has been appointed the website's editorial director. He has written for several travel titles including Holiday Which, Daily Telegraph and Conde Nast Traveller.

The site will start with booking links through recommended hotels mentioned in guides and will move into cross selling ancillary products, such as car rental, restaurants, flights, attractions and self-catering accommodation.

All revenue from commissions and advertising will be shared on an equal basis between Simonseeks and the individual authors.

The community of authors is open to anyone, from media professionals to travel enthusiasts and travel professionals.

By Bev Fearis