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Online giant targets business travel
GBTA Conference special: Travel management companies face a huge threat to their business from online giant Expedia, which is keen to grab a slice of their market.
Hyatt senior vice-president marketing John Wallis warned Expedia were planning an advertising spend of around $250 million in Europe to convince people to switch to the website.
“Expedia will blast the press with offers as they have in the US,” said Mr Wallis.
He claimed the GBTA needed to convince corporates of the necessity of their role and accused them of being slow to highlight the benefits of using travel management companies.
“You have to win the public relations battle, because you will never outspend Expedia. You need to tell us what your unique selling points are.”
Later in the conference, Guild members admitted they had been slow to promote themselves and, to try to better explain their role, the association is changing its name to the Guild of Travel Management Companies (see separate story).
Mr Wallis’ comments were backed up by fellow speaker, Professor Peter O’Connor from Cornell University in Paris, who said: “Expedia is very quick moving and very rich.
“You can say they don’t have the same expertise as you. But they will simply buy it – they’ll buy people and they’ll buy companies.
“You need to learn from Expedia,” Mr Cornell told delegates. “Obviously you need to be online and you need to deal with individual hoteliers to get the best rates, just as they do.
“The problem for business travel agents is that some of their clients can get better rates online and will moan to you about that.”
Mr Cornell said business travel agents could survive by building a long-term relationship with customers and offering excellent service.
“You have an advantage, because you can be quick on your feet when dealing with clients,” he said. “But you have to stop talking and thinking about it and just do it.
“You also have to deliver bookings, because this is the key to success. Everyone complains about hotels.com (part of Expedia), but they use them because they deliver bookings.”
Report by Jeremy Skidmore from the GBTA Conference, Shanghai
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