PayPal Accepted in Travel

Like other blogs and media in travel I also received a press release from PayPal regarding FlyMonarch allowing their customers to pay via PayPal. There has been some coverage in the Travel online space:

Travolution – FlyMonarch.com adopts PayPal system
Musings on Travel eCommerce - eBay travel rumour - Paypal and flyMonarch.com

I enquired further from Neil Gregory representing PayPal and it would seem that PayPal is starting to get a foot hold in the travel industry, especially airlines.

Neil said, "FlyMonarch is the 5th airline globally to accept PayPal. The other websites are…..United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Midwest Airlines and US Airways".

I can see PayPal taking hold across travel. There is a growing number of people that have a PayPal account (15 million in the UK!) and don't see a reason why it isn't going to become a standard a payment option for purchasing travel.

I don’t think it makes much of a difference if PayPal is owned by eBay, PayPal is now accepted as a payment type in many websites and services and is not just restricted to eBay.

UK's Top 50 Powerful in Online Travel by Wealth!

Travolution this month created a list of the UK's top 50 most powerful people in online Travel.

I have put a different spin on the same list.....Wealth!

Not everyone is interested in being wealthy (well that is what they say!), but I most are. I have categorising the published list of people in Travolution by estimating thier wealth potential in thier current roles. Note: I have ignored whether they have already had wealth from previous positions from other companies.

Any alterations please send in a comment!

Already Seriously Weathly
Michael O’Leary, chief executive, Ryanair
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, chairman, EasyGroup

Potential to be Wealthy
Alex Saint, managing director, Dealchecker
Chris Loughlin, executive vice-president Europe, Travelzoo
Chris Nixon, managing director, Travelsupermarket
David Soskin, chief executive, Cheapflights
Greg Turley, co-founder and chief executive, CarTrawler
Hugo Burge, vice-chairman and head of international, Cheapflights
Moshe Rafiah, chief executive, Travelfusion
Paul Evans, chief executive, LowCost Group
Paul Furner, managing director, Travel Republic
Peter Ward/Jerome Touze, co-founders, WAYN.com
Steve Endacott, chief executive, On Holiday Group
Terry Fisher, managing director, Gold Medal Travel Group
Gareth Williams, chief executive, Skyscanner

Potential to Make a Good Deal of Money
Andrew Botterill, chief executive, Global Travel Group
Dermot Halpin, president EMEA, Expedia
Graham Donoghue, new media director, TUI Travel
Marc Charron, European managing director, TripAdvisor
Adrian Currie, corporate development director and chief financial officer, Booking.com

Will Earn a Good Whack
Adrian Watts, sales and distribution director, TheTrainline
Alan Josephs, managing director, Ebookers
Alison Wightman, head of marketing and systems, Virgin Atlantic
Alistair Rowland, director of distribution, Co-Operative Travel
Andrew Laurie, managing director, UK Stella Travel Services Group
Andy Tidy, e-commerce director, Thomas Cook
Carl Burrows, commercial director, Medhotels
Carsten Willert, head of BA.com, British Airways
Celia Pronto, marketing director, STA Travel
Chris Roe, general manager, e-commerce, Virgin Holidays
Daniele Mancini, e-business director, Costa Cruises
David Roche, senior vice-president EMEA, Expedia
Gordon Wilson, chief executive and president, Galileo/Worldspan
Graham Nichols, vice-president and general manager, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa, Worldspan
Guy Parsons, chief operating officer, Travelodge
Ian McCaig, chief executive, Lastminute.com
Ignacio Martos, chief executive, Opodo
Kenny Boyle, director of commercial and marketing services, VisitBritain
Martin Cowley, senior vice-president, EMEA, Sabre Travel Group
Matt Cheevers, managing director, Teletext Holidays
Nick Mercer, commercial director, Eurostar
Richard Firminger, regional sales director, Northern Europe, Yahoo! Search Marketing
Richard Mintern, group chief information officer, The Monarch Travel Group
Robin Frewer, head of travel UK, Google
Russell Gould, director of e-commerce, Thomas Cook UK and Ireland
Stephane Durand, UK and Ireland Managing Director, Amadeus
Stephen Palmer, chief executive, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Lonely Planet
Stuart Nassos, UK and Ireland managing director, Holiday Autos
Tim Davis, senior vice-president for commercial development and information systems, Hilton Corporation
Tim Frankcom, general manager, Europe, Yahoo! Travel

Video Adverts for Travel?

I can’t remember the recent report off the top of my head but it said that richer media on the accommodation or holiday is what the public want as part of their travel buying decision process.

• Google have now launched formally video adverts through their hugely popular AdSense service as reported by Search Engine Land.
• Holidays that feature on most travel companies’ websites today are lucky to have a low-res grainy picture of the accommodation and a handful of the most lucrative .accommodations have some form of rich media, either a 360 degree image or video
• Two large travel companies have a TV channel (Thomas Cook / Thomson) which is full of video clips and footage.
• The large travel companies today advertise on TV – Expedia, Hilton, Thomas Cook, Thomson etc….

So is the travel industry ready to take advantage of the video advert medium that it here today?

Well the cost of broadcasting through AdSense will be significantly cheaper and measurable than an advert on TV. The costs of producing the video advert probably won’t be much cheaper as putting together the footage, the creative and the production of the video will probably have to be the same quality as a TV advert. In saying that however, some types of adverts could be done on a shoe string.

It will be obvious that it will be adopted by the big guys as they are willing to invest in getting this right, just like they do on TV.

The area that I can see a real opportunity is for some of the specialist tour operators, producing really stylish adverts with the same quality and style that they do with their brochures and websites.

Types of companies that should adopt the video adverts are Elegant Resorts and Classic Collection

Watch this space!

Who’s Next to Acquire Distribution?

As predicted there would be more Travel Companies securing online distribution by acquisition. TUI recently acquired Holidays Uncovered.

Travolution September 2007
TUI Travel snaps up Holidays Uncovered

We saw this coming.........

Travolution June 2006
Ed Whiting - How much would you pay for eSP?

Travel Remark September 2007
Travel 2.0 vs Search Engines – Where is your Travel traffic going to come from?
(At the time that I wrote this blog entry I didn’t realise that this deal was underway).

The question that I have now is whose next?

You could say that some have already happened without realising it…..First Choice (before the merger with TUI) acquired Laterooms.com to secure distribution. Travelzest Plc acquired Holiday.co.uk and Flight.co.uk as a portal to all it’s brands.

Here are a few likely candidates to be acquired……

Skyscanner.net
Global Travel Market / Asia Travel Market / Aus Travel Market
Holiday Watchdog
Cheapflights.co.uk
Travelrepublic.co.uk
Travelistic.com
Henoo aka TravelSearchResults
Teletext Holidays....maybe one day?
CarTrawler
Travelsupermarket.com

And here are a few likely acquirers…….

TUI – there will be more
Thomascook PLC – when they have finalised thier merger
Cosmos – will refocus on distribution next year
Lastminite.com/Travelocity – don’t have a social network
Priceline Europe

This list could be quite big!