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Yahoo revamped site to compete with online travel agents
Yahoo introduced an upgraded travel service that blends searches with travel-specific features.
Consumers using Yahoo’s central search site can receive instant airfare and hotel price comparisons, satellite overview maps and user reviews of restaurants and tourist destinations. These features previously existed in different corners of the Yahoo network.
“Industry-best prices will actually show up in Yahoo search results,” said Jasper Malcolmson, director of Yahoo Travel. “We have created a search engine both for best places and destinations.”
Users of Yahoo can quickly locate flight or hotel information using terms such as “Flights to Las Vegas” or “compare Las Vegas hotels.”
Search results feature a range of information from Yahoo’s FareChase price comparison system. By clicking on a specific hotel, for example, customers then receive maps or images of where the hotel is located.
Yahoo quotes analysts who say the company’s new site could lure customers away from online travel agents where most online shoppers now look for travel deals.
Many of the Yahoo features can be found, though they are scattered across the Web. By putting many features together, Yahoo has gotten more competitive, according to Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt.
“What Yahoo has and the travel agents don’t have is user generated content,” he said.
Forrester Research found that internet media companies such as Yahoo and AOL have only 20% of the US market for online travel.
Three quarters of the market is controlled by travel brands or dedicated online agents such as Expedia or Tavelocity, which usually require users to sign on and provide personal details to allow sites to tailor travel offerings to specific individuals.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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