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July 2005
Supplement to Travel Trade

Pay Per Click Travel Portals:

Here They Come

 

By Tom Ogg

A few months ago, I wrote an article about the coming of content driven travel Web sites that won’t actually sell travel, but simply make travel content searchable for consumers so that they can find everything they are looking for in a matter of seconds. It would work much the same as Google does for information on the Web, only it would be for travel. All airlines, hotels, resorts, car rentals, cruises, vacations, destination information, consumer reviews — basically, everything a consumer could ever want would be right at his or her fingertips.
The big difference between this kind of site and say, Travelocity, Expedia or Orbitz, would be that it would earn revenue from suppliers — airlines, hotels, resorts, car rental companies, cruise lines, tour companies, travel agents or anyone else that would be willing to participate in a PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising campaign.
As an example of how this kind of Web site would work, assume that a consumer wants to fly from point A to point B and wants to know what the best fare and schedule would be. There currently isn’t an online resource that would allow the consumer to really locate all the options. A number of the short haul budget airlines do not participate in many of the online databases used by the major online agencies. Many times promotional fares are not inventoried (especially for international airlines). There really isn’t anywhere a consumer can find the information simply because the airlines and the online agencies owned by the airlines are more interested in selling their (and their partners’) seats. Ditto for hotels, resorts, cruises and other travel-related products.
Recently, I received a telephone call from a guy who was buying my books. He kept probing about selling travel on the Web. I could tell that he had something on his mind. He called back the next day and I decided to explore what he was after. It turned out that he owned software engineering companies in Pakistan and India. His company was employed by a HUGE online company (over 1 billion unique visits per month) to evolve a PPC travel portal. He shared with me that their business model would be like Kayak’s. Huh?
The second I hung up the phone, I went directly to www.kayak.com. I thought I was going to pass out. Look, I don’t care what you are doing, drop it and go immediately to this Web site.
Kayak.com was the brainstorm of a group of software engineers that came from companies like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and American Airlines. With a clear vision, it was their intent to create a new travel distribution model. With a first round funding of $7 million from a venture capitalist, Kayak was built, successfully launched in alpha, then beta tested. Kayak.com opened for business earlier this year.

Welcome to the future.
What does the evolution of PPC Travel Portals mean to home based travel agents? It is really hard to say at this point, but here are some thoughts.
PPC Travel Portals will be very successful as they enable consumers to search all of the information on the Web in a fast and succinct fashion.
Many aspects of the travel industry are empowered by the keyword bid environment of the PPC Travel Portals. Especially empowered are small hotels and resorts, small inns and B&Bs, small and international airlines and small and international cruise lines that can participate on a specific date basis.
It only costs money for these players to use PPC if they cannot limit their click-throughs to dates when their products and services are actually available. PPC travel portals do just this. Online travel agents with unique products and services, small and international car rental companies, package vacation tour companies and travel agencies selling unique groups will also benefit. There are probably a ton more, but these stick out as obvious beneficiaries.
PPC Travel Portals will expedite the trend toward increased consumer direct commodity type transactions for all aspects of travel products and services.
The average consumer will be able to research more accurate information in seconds than a travel agent could one year ago in an hour. Consumers will become even more knowledgeable regarding their travel plans BEFORE they book.
Those agents who can adapt their businesses to take advantage of the PPC Travel Portal’s obvious ability to deliver clients based on specific keywords and travel dates stand to make a ton of money, as the portals obvious growth potential is realized.
Many new opportunities will probably be created as the portals mature. Look for revenue share affiliate programs to evolve and other niche markets to be created.
I have said it before and I will say it again. Get involved in the ebb and flow of E-travel commerce now!

Tom Ogg is editor and publisher of www.CruiseReviews.com and www.PortReviews.com
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