TRAVELtech delegates told to embrace Web/Travel 2.0 now!

TRAVELtech, Australia’s leading online travel marketing and distribution conference held yesterday in Sydney’s Dockside, left no doubt in delegates’ minds that Web 2.0 and its travel associate Travel 2.0 are here to stay and will have a profound influence on the future of travel and the travel industry.

TravelMole, media partner of TRAVELtech joined major event sponsor Mondial Assistance, and other key supporters including Tourism Technology, Hitwise, GoQuo, 24/7 Real Media, Premiere Global, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Google and Micros Fidelio in the conference listening to compelling leading industry speakers and panel participants including top Managers from Jetstar, Virgin Blue, Accor Asia Pacific, Jetset Travelworld, Hitwise, M & C Saatchi, Tourism Australia, Creative Holidays, Lonely Planet, Yahoo!7, Expedia and Webjet, Hothouse Interactive, Accor Asia Pacific, Flairview Travel, Tourism Victoria, Webjet; M&C Saatchi, 24/7 Real Media, Lonely Planet, Expedia Australia, Yahoo!7, eChannel, Remo General Store, Total Travel and westciv.

Well over 200 high-profile delegates attending the event themed Power To The People, were presented with evidence that the amazing rise of web businesses, such as TripAdvisor.com, flickr.com, myspace.com, giving the opportunity to provide user generated content on travel, will continue, providing the traveller community with the ability to interact with each other, swapping everything from pictures to travel tips.

While topics included Web 2.0 and Travel 2.0, the excellent presentations and panel discussions also included, Online Retail, Hotel Distribution, Destination Marketing, Low Cost Carriers, Web Shopping Habits and Digital Marketing.

(Left: Graham Middleton – Manager Digital Programmes Tourism Australia; Martin Kelly – Conference Organiser and Panel Moderator, Don Richter – Director of Marketing, Tourism Victoria and Paul Fisher – Marketing Manager, Total Travel reflect on their panel session) 

Travel 2.0 is described the second wave of travel information and what makes 2.0 different from the first, booking-oriented wave, including Expedia, Travelocity, etc is that Travel 2.0 is fully interactive and expands via user-generated content, allowing users to easily contribute words and images, reviews and travelogues, with those visiting a Travel 2.0 site getting multiple insights about a destination, hotel, or other aspect of travel.

The most serious question or issue raised by delegates at TRAVELtech was one of credibility of information and who do travellers trust to provide them with information for one of their biggest annual or lifetime spends, actually an investment for which the consumer deserves a return on investment. 

The Mole asks the question, would you buy life insurance or take medical advice from the guy next door or someone you have never met, adding that travellers might take their advice and bear it in mind, but the challenge being that many consumers readily believe what they see on websites.

(Right: RACV’s GM Travel and Tourism, Neil James and oplus’ Garry Saunders discuss the impact of Travel 2.0 on their operations.)

Travel 2.0 sites include, Trip Advisor, Tripmates, IgoUgo, Turn Here, Flickr Travel, Gusto, Travel the World Wiki, Hotel Chatter, Realtravel, YouTube Travel and  Where’s Yours?, with these sites claiming to provide “real reviews from real travellers and unbiased travel reviews, giving the real story about hotels, attractions and restaurants around the world”, providing “stories, secrets and special places from people just like you.” 

Recently some hotels, especially those with less-than-glowing reviews, have tried inducing guests with discounts, free nights, gifts and other bribes to post positive reviews that counteract negative statements. Some hotels also encourage staff members to post bogus positive reviews.

Trip Advisor says that it aims to monitor and remove fakes, but admits that there’s no way the service can totally eliminate them, a factor agreed by the TRAVELtech speakers.

The pros of Travel 2.0 are said to include offering a “unique, timely, populist travel resource and they enable a variety of opinions to be voiced”.

The cons include that Travel 2.0 sites feature widely diverse opinions, including “Loved it!” or “Hated it!”, making it very hard to objectively evaluate a place, dissatisfied guests using these sites as a venue to broadcast bad experiences, more people who have bad experiences post their views and experiences rather than the happy ones (human nature?) with many of the trip reviews are poorly written.

What appear to be the many bogus reviews posted along with honest ones must also confuse users and debase the credibility of the sites.

TRAVELtech presenters spoke about the industry hiding behind glossy coloured brochures and while extremely hard and probably unfair to single out individuals from such excellent speakers, one said, “if you ignore Web 2.0 or Travel 2.0 or do not embrace it you do so at your peril”, with the impact being that it is clear that travellers’ holiday decisions could be based on the advice of people they have never met, do not know and against whom they do not have any sort of comeback!

(Left: Damian Cerini, Marketing Manager Creative Holidays; Peter Topping, GM ineedaholiday.com.au; Katherine Harris, Website Production Manager e Commerce Australia, Flight Centre; and Robyn Simper, Online Marketing Manager Flight Centre, reflect on the discussions and what it means to them!)  

Clearly, if travellers do not know the destination or have never been there, they will undertake research, but Travel 2.0 takes it to the next step and while helpful in the decision making process, The Mole suggests that the place to obtain accurate advice is a balance of the internet/Travel 2.0 sites and using professional travel companies to verify research and information, making bookings and providing the security that others cannot.

Cameron Holland, VP e-Commerce for Lonely Planet said travel advice has to be independent and objective, which are clearly both factors not provided by Travel 2.0, reflecting the need for more travel companies to become more involved in Travel 2.0 and providing the opportunity for more open user generated content on their sites.

John Allsop, Director – Technology, westciv said, “Everyone could now become a travel writer and reviewer of travel”, a prospect that raised some concerns with travel professionals present, but Cameron Holland responded by saying, “to create quality content is really hard and should be left to the professionals”, which The Mole believes should be the case with genuine travel advice”. 

Of course, travellers comments can be very helpful, but they are not the holy grail and the sad part is that many people actually believe what they see and read on the web and act on it!

Don Richter, Director of Marketing Tourism Victoria showed that user generated content has a place and  belongs as part of the information mix along with all other information and marketing activity, but credibility and reliability are critical.

(Left: Brent McCunn – Passport Travel; Don Richter; Karen Hunt – Online Project Manager, South Australian Tourism Commission and Melissa Marshall – Campaign Manager Digital Marketing Tourism Australia reflect at the end of the day’s sessions.) 

In the meantime, casting some doubt on the validity of web orientated travel reservations and information, police in the UK have charged a man and a woman with fraud following an investigation into five websites selling non-existent holidays, with around 3,000 people having booked holidays on the sites, which were sunmedresorts.com , unbeatableholidays.com, holidaysforunder200pounds.com, holidayrez.com and holidayez.com.

The scam is thought to have netted hundreds of thousands of pounds and a woman in her thirties and man in his sixties were arrested in London and are being questioned by fraud squad officers.

The Metropolitan Police has asked anyone who has booked a holiday through these sites to complete a form available at met.police.uk/fraudalert/news/holiday_fraud.htm.

TRAVELtech Report by The Mole