UK social networking travel info site targets OZ travel suppliers

A British-based travel consultancy company has harnessed the power of social media to link intending British visitors to Australia with Australian travel suppliers. The social-media initiative, called OZ DIRECT, allows Australian suppliers (including tour operators, travel firms, trade suppliers and accommodation properties) to list their product free, where prospective travellers can view it.

Despite the free aspect, take-up has been slow so far, according to director Graeme Archer.
Archer, an Australian, is well known in the Australian industry from a few years ago. He founded Travel Online in 1996, holding senior positions in United Vacations and Sheraton prior to this, and was based in Sydney and then Port Douglas.

He now lives in Kent, just outside London, and is the Managing Director for Travel Match Ltd (UK), trading as the Australian Travel Company (ATC).
The ATC (www. AustralianTravel.co.uk) is behind OZ DIRECT.
Australian travel suppliers can join the OZ DIRECT site for free, post pictures or videos of their product, post adverts in the travel classifieds section, post blogs & messages, or even post a product blog with pictures and video embedded in it. They can also set up special groups for their regions/products (Aboriginal-based travel and tours, for instance) or chat in real time with consumers.
ATC has contacted hundreds of Australian travel suppliers to let them know about the promotion platform. Because the site is dedicated to the UK market – the premier inbound market for Australia – Archer expected Australian firms would move quickly to showcase and promote their product. In theory, the strong Australian dollar should make any free promotional opportunity attractive for the struggling Australian inbound market.
Archer has found that Australian travel suppliers need more prodding than he expected, perhaps because they are unfamiliar with the concept of marketing via social networks.
“The site – or the social media side of it – is about providing an interactive social media platform for Australia where consumers in the UK can access Australian travel and trade suppliers in OZ DIRECT to plan their own bookings,” Archer said. “We are not listing UK-based Australia suppliers – although we will be listing UK-based Australia-specialist agents such as Austravel for consumers that do not want to deal direct and require a UK specialist agent to handle their travel booking. What makes this online destination-specific information model so different from any others out there is the social media interface.”
Archer says Australian tour operators and accommodation suppliers “can avoid the extra pricing layers inherent within the traditional ‘vertical distribution’ inbound market model for selling and marketing to the overseas inbound market to Australia through intermediaries, realising improved margins on their sales.”
OZ DIRECT is developing “serious traction” with over 500 unique users a day logging onto the site in its first week, according to Archer.
Written by: Peter Needham: Travel & Tourism Writer (Australia)
Re-released by Travel Match Ltd (UK)
08 March 2010
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