TravelMole Q&A with Travelzoo’s Chris Loughlin

Chris Loughlin is managing director of deals publishing specialist Travelzoo UK

Q: How do you differ from online travel agents and price comparison sites?

A: In the UK there isn’t an online medium where you can go and within a couple of hours generate hundreds or thousands of calls. Every day on search engines you can only get to those people who enter those particular search words. It’s about getting to other people and provoking them to buy travel. We have many advertisers who have got people to travel on dates when they wanted them to travel. This is what I dreamed about when I got involved in the internet 10 years ago – helping people fill capacity when they are not sold out. Travelzoo is a high quality push vehicle.

Q: How do you view the development of the search engines?

A: Search allows consumers to research directly and therefore is a natural replacement to the global distribution systems and newspaper advertising. It will continue to grow and companies like MSN may offer some exciting tools for the consumer in the future. But, search is limited to natural demand. Consumers who know what they want will search but in any natural market demand will not equal supply and vice versa and there will always be a lack of demand for certain products – that is why travel prices fluctuate. Travel companies need to get their basic search plans implemented and running smoothly but they also need to continue to identify ways of reaching customers beyond the natural search demand line.

Q: How difficult has it been to establish a new brand in such a crowded market place?

A: It is certainly challenging. The number one challenge is hiring the talent to help you get there and then training people. We run an information exchange programme where we transfer people to the US offices for training. We already had the business model established there and you have to look at Travelzoo overall. We’re Nasdaq listed so we have visibility and we have been profitable for 31 quarters and we have increased revenue every quarter. 

Q: Are independent travel agents taking advantage of what sites like Travelzoo have to offer?

A: We are seeing lower participation than we expected from independent travel agents. Within their organisations they don’t have anyone who is focused on the internet – someone who knows about the effectiveness of online advertising. They also need to think about their infrastructure if they want to advertise on a website. 85% of all the volume we generate for small tour operators is going over the phone so if you are an entrepreneurial agent with a good call-centre then call us. In the US we work with between 40 and 60 travel agents – out of a total 500 companies. On the other hand we can’t have too many agents on the site selling the same thing – it’s not interesting for the consumer.

Q: Have you got any predictions for online travel going forward?

A: Our traffic levels have been at record levels and there’s a real buzz in the air. Google is expecting record traffic in June for the travel category. I don’t see a huge amount of new development but people will take their websites to the next level and getting things in order. Thomas Cook has done a great job over the past 12 months and now they are rocketing. The last great opportunity for agents is cruise and it’s just beginning. Cruiselines want to work with high quality agents and support them and I don’t see too much of that going online.

Report by Linda Fox