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Travel Technology Digest: June
May’s technology and distribution news was mostly about Thomson and its online strategy while June’s news was dominated by online statistics.
June 23: SITA published its first Passenger Self-Service Survey revealing that 560 million of the world’s 2 billion airlines passengers book online. The figure represents a 40% increase on last year.
June 23: MyTravel also reported staggering growth in its online visits with a claim, supported by Hitwise figures, that it is the fastest growing travel agency website. Visits to its sites have increased 64% over the past year. Lastminute.com disputed the figures as misleading however.
June 20: Agents are competing head to head with operators because of the advent of dynamic packaging technology according to a report from consultancy Genesys.
June 15: Research from Opodo shows online ‘stimulates rather than cannibalises’ the offline market.
June 13: Figures from First Choice’s destination service reveal a 37% increase in transaction value. The service, which includes hotelbeds, bedsonline and hotelopia, reported total transaction value of £159 million for the first six months to April 30 compared to the figure of £116m for the same period last year.
June 13: The travel sector’s online activity is criticised for its lack of customer service with 40% of websites unable to answer a single simple question online. In addition, it took travel websites an average of 66 hours to respond to an e-mail enquiry.
June 7: Revenue generated by US travel websites increased 20% to $60 billion last year compared to 2004. The number of visitors was also up 35% to almost 150 million compared to 2004.
June 6: The EyeforTravel conference highlighted several issues for the sector. Search giants Yahoo and Google were told they would risk their business by selling travel. Newer online brands, such as eBay, were also told to build trust and gain consumer confidence to succeed.
Phil Davies
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