Q&A with Kuoni’s Matt Rooke

Q: Is online booking for long-haul holidays growing – how are the confidence levels?

A: We’re seeing growth both on the agent and the consumer side. Agent growth still outstrips the consumer side but you would expect that because they were coming from a low base. The actual penetration of the internet is reaching saturation but we are still seeing growth so people are feeling more comfortable with it. It is more established and there is more acceptance of it. I would love to say it’s because of the things we’re doing online and they do have some impact. We highlight security, give them price transparency, more information and that all helps to persuade them.

Q: Have agents come into the 21^st century and fully embraced the internet?

A: Agents usage of viewdata is diminishing rapidly and they are embracing the internet at a great rate. The big change for us was the multiples – as soon as they took the step to go online we got this massive surge. The fact that it has taken them this long means they will be behind the customer in the way they embrace further developments. They don’t adopt as quickly as the man in the street. They have to be careful they don’t just see the internet as just a replacement distribution tool to viewdata. It’s about researching, planning and information. It used to be the same with viewdata when you added a new feature. Our Holiday Wizard tool has been covered in the trade press and promoted by our guys on the road and the reaction has been that it is a fantastic tool once you try it. The average booking value with Wizard is £5,000 compared to traditional online is £2,700 which shows the confidence to book online. We had our biggest booking online a few months ago of just under £50,000.

Q: Do things like videos, Google Earth and virtual assistants help sell long-haul holidays?

A: We have been using videos for about a year-and-a-half and currently have them for seven destinations. We are planning to expand the network of videos. The response is very encouraging from consumers. They find them more useful than just static pictures and there is a more intense feeling of being in the destination.

We’re looking at the pros and cons of virtual assistants and the two areas that stand out in the virtual assistant world are F.A.Q sections, which are dynamically driven, and there is also this live chat scenario and they both fulfil similar functions. F.A.Q’s definitely lift the value of knowledge share and experience and from an agent’s point of view are more likely to be a hit. We may decide the two compliment each other.

Q: What about website personalisation?

A: It is an area we’re looking at but we have not plans to create any with the website relaunch. It requires a reasonable amount of investment and has an awful lot of complexity attached to it. Amazon is recognised as being good at it but it is easier in the commodity market than the service sector because many customers want similar things but slightly different. The bulk of our business comes from our Worldwide brochure and the reason we still maintain it, even though we have 20 other brochures, is because we never know what someone is going to want. We’re still very reticent about trying to pigeonhole customers’ needs too closely. I think we would do it more like Amazon and make suggestions in line with what they have done before rather than try and pre-empt what they want.

Q: What do you see happening online in the next six months?

A: We will see a lot more of all of the above implemented. We’re going to see growth in online business in terms of share of total travel business – we are definitely not reaching a plateau. People will jump on the high take up of broadband and start to provide more memory-intensive services such as podcasts, videos and new e-brochure ideas. The brochure is not dead and even online it is not dead. We get a large number of requests for brochures, which is frustrating. People still like to see something in print. We have seen turning page brochures, which have been held up by the loading speed of the pages but now they will become more prevalent. They are instant, even better than an e-mail brochure and you can print them.