C2C the new travel buzz word.

An advance release from the world’s leading travel and tourism exhibition, World Travel Market held every November in London says, “Look over your shoulder travel trade – whether you are a tour operator or a travel agent there is a growing gang of ‘minipreneurs’ chasing your business”.

These minipreneurs don’t own planes or hotels and have a lot of ground to make up but it is thought that their influence can revolutionise the future of travel.

WTM tells us that we should forget dynamic packaging and that the latest trend that is creeping up fast on the rails is customer to customer – C2C holiday planning, which is internet driven via web logs, otherwise known as blogs and is creeping quickly up the popular holiday booking scene.

According to one source, there has been a massive 60% rise in blogs over the past three years, lifting the ‘blogosphere’ capacity to more than 35 million, meaning that a new weblog is set up every second of the day and one company claims that they track 50,000 postings an hour.

So what does that mean for the traveller, the agency community and the industry overall?

The traveller can now can post their weird or wonderful dream break or holiday on a blog and if a minipreneur comes up with a solution or itinerary to satisfy then a “fixing” fee changes hands.

“It’s the newest slant in personalised, tailor-made, for-your-passport-only holiday planning,” reveals Fiona Jeffrey, Managing Director of World Travel Market, the leading business-to-business travel and tourism exhibition for the international industry, held in London every year with 202 countries adding, “From mini-breaks to minipreneurs, the field of travel is forever adapting, improving, experimenting and adjusting its horizons.

She said, “The web is such a gigantic influence in today’s marketplace and this idea has jumped from the United States to Europe, where it has been on the rise for about 18 months”.  “Our market intelligence provider, Euromonitor International, has found that consumers craving more choice and individualism are helping to create their own cottage industries and sideline packages”.

“It is a trend which can completely bypass official distribution channels, travel companies and agencies, meaning that an exchange of views and information on the net could lead to somebody getting a payment.”

Euromonitor International is the world’s leading provider of global business intelligence and strategic market analysis and Caroline Bremner, Euromonitor’s Global Travel and Tourism Research Manager, said: “C2C holiday planning has the potential to be very profitable and I believe that ultimately somebody could hit on an idea and make a living giving advice as a minipreneur”.

“It’s the next step on from dynamic packaging, which at Euromonitor International, we estimate will be worth globally US$19billion in 2006, an astonishing leap of 43 per cent on 2005”.

“While it is too early to put a figure on the value of the minipreneur market, businesses are already moving with the times. They’re aware of the changing on-line purchasing scene, and realise they must ride with the trend for customised holidays”.

“The next step is to be more flexible and by inviting customers to request exactly what they want, businesses can try responding to individual demand”.

“At Euromonitor we believe the ability of major players to offer increased levels of customisation and creativity is questionable as they merge into bigger, global corporations and consumers using the web as a medium have been moving away from the major websites to the highly personalised market”.  

“They tap into blogs and ask fellow customers what they think, because consumers seem to like word of mouth recommendation and minipreneurs are turning these recommendations into sales opportunities, using their knowledge to put together holidays for other consumers”.

“The range of ‘what I’d like to do’ postings on the web is enormous and has no barriers  – from visiting KGB prison cells to sustaining a fragile community industry such as Harris Tweed making in the Outer Hebrides”.

“A minipreneur seeing this could volunteer: ‘Pay me £100 and I’ll set it up and similarly, there are many Americans who might gladly welcome help in re-tracing their family roots and pay a search fee”.

“Looking ahead, Euromonitor International forecasts that C2C communication will influence the future of customisation, translating into the likely emergence of customised packages from independent agents who are best placed to respond and this could just be the breakthrough that many independent agents have been waiting to capitalise on.”

Report by The Mole