A new online flight booking concierge
2008-03-04 04:19:00
I got to take a preview tour of InsideTrip.com, a new travel flight aggregator that launches Tuesday and is bound to inspire other travel search engines to question whether their service is consumer-friendly enough. You can ask yourself now, when you book your flight online
, are price and schedule the only things that matter — or would you also like to compare legroom, the age of the plane, on-time performance and find out about the airline’s lost-luggage track record too? These are just some of the 12 additional types of information that can be screened when you search for your flight on InsideTrip.com. The full list of information you can get is broken down into three categories, comfort (legroom, aircraft type, aircraft age, historical plane passenger loads), speed factors (number o
Travelocity will provide online travel booking
2008-02-28 03:26:00
Online travel provider Travelocity has signed on to work on the United States’ first official tourism Web site, set to launch in March.The firm is partnering with the D.C.-based Travel Industry Association, which has been working on the site since 2006. The project is being co-funded by TIA and the U.S. Department of Commerce, which devoted $3.9 million to the endeavor; TIA is matching about 40 percent, according to Adam Vance, who’s leading the project for TIA.
Read more: online
Huge increase in European online travel sales
2008-02-22 16:44:00
European online
travel bookings in 2007 took a bigger share of an increasing market, according to the latest annual study from a Scandinavian research centre. Denmark's Center For Regional & Tourism Research has found that in 2007, European online travel sales increased by 24% to £37.2 billion, accounting for 19.4% of the market. Last year online was worth £29.9 billion, or 16% of the market. The growth is set to continue, with CRT tipping 2008's total to come in at £44 billion, or 22.5% of the overall market. 2009 could see online take over a quarter of the market with sales of £52.7 billion. CRT has produced the study annually with stats going back to 1998. While the volume of online sales has increased regularly over the past decade, the growth in percentage terms has slowed. 2
Read more: European
Travel Sites Target International Customers
2008-02-18 03:45:00
"The Asia-Pacific market is the biggest market that we're looking at," said Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. China and India are the most tempting geographic targets, he said. Expedia's Asia-Pacific division oversees the company's expansion in Asia. Expedia, the largest OTA, has a majority stake in eLong, which provides online travel services in China. Expedia saw 34 percent of its fourth-quarter bookings from international points of sale.
Read more: Travel
, Sites
, Target
, International
Launch of The World's Largest Online Travel Resource!
2008-02-17 05:28:00
Not owned or operated by any one travel entity or segment, with no online booking engines to distract from the business of providing unbiased information, TripAtlas.com contains almost 7 million pages of relevant travel information and services to entertain and entice would-be travelers from around the world! This popular growing website now attracts over one million visitors - close to 100,000 monthly - who search for global travel information, history, attractions, deals, news articles, photos & videos, guides, and anything travel - all available literally at their fingertips!
Read more: Travel
, Launch
, World
, Largest
, Resource
Launch of Online Travel Summit
2008-03-11 10:49:00
Travelwires, in association with FutureBlue, will be holding the first Online Travel Summit
in Cape Town, 8 April 2008.The summit is aimed at all players in the travel sector and will include sessions on search engine optimisation (SEO), PPC, email marketing and online brand building from leading experts.Enthuses Travelwires founder Muzi Mohale, "This is an exciting step for Travelwires and a great opportunity for the industry to come together and get to grips with the major trends affecting them. We have been able to assemble a great speaker line up and feel that this gives coverage to all the key areas affecting our industry."The event has been put together with strategic web management company FutureBlue, and MD Paul Hobden believes the event will be the first of many to come.
Read more: Launch
, Travel
Online travel companies and time shares lobby for tax shields
2008-03-18 14:36:00
Prodded by lobby
ists for online travel companies and time shares
, state lawmakers are quietly crafting a package that could ultimately shield those industries from millions of dollars in taxes every year.The package taking shape in the state Capitol, yet to be presented in public, could effectively short-circuit a protracted court battle between Orange County and Internet giants Expedia Inc. and Orbitz Worldwide Inc. over whether the companies are skipping out on sales and hotel taxes. A number of other Florida counties have sued on similar grounds.The package would also provide a tax shield for time-share exchanges, such as occur when one time-share owner trades a week at his or her Lake Tahoe resort for a week at an Orlando resort.Expedia and the American Resort Development Association,
Agencies Still Beat Airline, Travel Retail Web Site Prices
2008-03-25 04:05:00
average $56 less than identical itineraries directly booked through airline Web sites or through online travel retailers like Expedia, Orbitz and Travel
ocity, according to Topaz International research released last week.Topaz said travel agency fares were less costly on nearly 95 percent of itineraries compared with the same itinerary available online to the public. However, Topaz said its research shows the savings gap has closed steadily since it initiated the research in 2001, when the chasm between online public fares and agency fares averaged $171. Though the $56 differential recorded in 2007 matches the lowest gap in 2005, corporate travel agencies have grown slightly in lower-fare reliability: Topaz said agency fares in 2001 were cheaper just over 93 percent of the time, a figure th
Read more: Airline
, Retail
, Prices
, Web Site
Vote on our online travel poll
2008-04-07 12:47:00
Last week we asked our readers: Do you support a boycott of the Beijing Summer Olympics because of recent events between Tibet and People's Republic of China? Here are the results:- 44.83 per cent said Yes. I think it's a tragic turn of events.- 44.83 per cent said No. I think it would only punish the athletes- 10.3 per cent: I'm not sureTo vote in our travel poll, log onto Calgaryherald.com and click on the "travel" link on the left-hand side of the page.
Read more: online
Microsoft acquires Farecast
2008-04-18 10:59:00
"Farecast has been a partner of ours on MSN Travel and we look forward to working closely with the Farecast team to incorporate and apply its technology in new and interesting ways," the statement said. In a short blog post, Farecast Chief Executive Hugh Crean said, "This acquisition creates tremendous opportunities for the Farecast team and our customers." He declined further comment, as did Microsoft
. The P-I reported earlier this week that Farecast had been sold for more than $75 million, but the buyer was not known at the time. Microsoft did not confirm the purchase price, but a source familiar with the deal put the price tag at $115 million. On the face of it, the acquisition seems unusual, particularly considering the relatively high reported purchase price, said Matt Rosoff, an anal
EU slams travel websites
2008-05-10 15:47:00
Websites selling airline tickets are ripping off nearly a third of their customers, according to the EU.A report into the online travel industry found that 80 online retailers that had been told to improve their websites back in November had not yet brought their offerings up to scratch.The EU said that many of the sites were still applying hidden charges, pricing tickets unfairly and not translating terms and conditions."It is unacceptable that one in three consumers booking a plane ticket online is being ripped off or misled and confused," EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said.However, there was no prospect of immediate action being taken against the websites, because the EU has given them nearly a year to "get their house in order"."We will need to see credible evidence of improvement to
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