Q&A with Thomas Cook Group’s new director of eCommerce, Russell Gould

Russell Gould has landed himself the role of director of eCommerce for the enlarged, Thomas Cook Group. He gives his view on current trends.

Q. Dynamic packaging has stepped up a gear in recently with the launch of easyjet holidays, low-cost airlines introducing seat promotions during peak season and traditional package operators turning to accommodation-only. How do you see all of this playing out?

A. What the travel industry has come to term dynamic packaging is essentially just flexibility – people want to be able to buy holidays in a flexible format; either as a package or in components. The web has made it easy for travellers to shop around and find the holiday that best meets their specific requirements. At Thomas Cook we ensure our customers have plenty of options.

These include traditional charter holidays or flight-only deals; with charter, scheduled and low cost airlines available, as well as accommodation-only breaks for both beach and city destinations.

The Group also offers a full ‘dynamic packaging’ solution via flexible trips as well as Cresta Holidays and Tradewinds brands which offer tailor-made holidays.”

Q. There are figures/predictions showing online booking is slowing – what is your view? Is there a limit to what will be booked online?

A. Our current growth trend does not really reflect these predictions. Booking online has become an important part of the business and this growth is set to continue. Harnessing the online expertise and experience across the new merged business will help propel this growth even further.

It’s important that we are providing customers with the right experience, tools and information through the research and booking process. We have undertaken extensive research on how customers progress through the online journey and will continue to enhance our websites and tools accordingly. Our on-demand TV has proved very popular and is having a very positive effect on conversion.

Q. Since introducing the new video channels, what have you seen?

A. We see on demand TV and video in particular as a great consumer tool in the decision-making process and have invested in expanding this area. Thomas Cook TV has in excess of 17,000 hours of footage that we have already started to utilise across all our sites with positive results. All our footage has been produced for TV, making the quality and content exceptional.

Consumers who view video footage through the research process are more likely to convert into bookers so we will continue to develop our on-demand offering.

Q. Hayes & Jarvis recently introduced Tripadvisor onto its site, Thomas Cook has a deal with WAYN.com. What stage is Thomas Cook Group, including the MyTravel sites, at with developments in social networking?

A. Social networking is a big part of current online culture, which goes hand in hand with travel. Many of us make decisions on our next holiday based on our peers’ recommendations and experiences, and the potential of this arena is only just beginning to be recognized within the industry.

There is huge scope for development here but it has to be relevant and focused on both enhancing customer experience and driving conversion or additional sales. We have plans to introduce relevant areas of social networking content into more of our sites, including consumer hotel reviews, blogs and video submitting.

Consumers want simple categorisation, straightforward navigation, relevancy, accuracy, reliability and most importantly, trust and that’s what we hope to deliver.
Social networking can also be fun – we recently launched ‘www.youtube.com/pimpmytravel which has been incredibly successful at both a response and acquisition level.