EyeForTravel Special Report: Search giants risk business by selling travel
Search giants such as Yahoo and Google could risk ruining their business models by becoming travel providers according to senior travel executives.
Cheapflights.co.uk chief executive David Soskin said he couldn’t see search engines becoming travel agents.
“Search engines are incredibly successful and travel agencies are key clients of theirs so I can’t see a time when there will be any willingness to get in to the business of some of their biggest clients.”
Soskin added that search engines had to remain neutral or risk losing customers.
“If you are selling a product, as the big online travel agencies are, then you are not necessarily neutral. The reason why people use search in such huge number is because of its neutrality.”
Other delegates described travel as a ‘natural migration and product’ for Google and Yahoo to get into.
Eric Pearson, InterContinental Hotels Group senior vice president of e-commerce and distribution said; “When you look at the US and Yahoo’s acquisition of Farechase it would be a natural progression.”
And one delegate added: “The notion that Google is not going to get into travel I find difficult to accept because they are making more money than any of us from it.”
Google’s head of travel for Europe Esteban Walther again denied Google had any intention to become an online travel provider.
By Linda Fox
Linda Fox
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