By EyeforTravel.com Correspondent in London<br><br>Consumers are starting to expect to be able to build their own trips
Published: 14 Nov 2005
By EyeforTravel.com Correspondent in London
Consumers are starting to expect to be able to build their own trips and holidays dynamically, based on increasingly sophisticated content and
Presenting during the session `Comparison Shopping - Separate the hype from reality' at the Travel Distribution Technology 2005 being held in London, Remedios said, "Travel sites need to provide total component flexibility if they are going to succeed in the future." He also said:
· Recommendations engines will be necessary to simplify complex sales processes for consumers and agents
· Merchandising and sophisticated margin/yield/allocation-management tools will drive supply and profitability
· Travel sites like lastminute.com use general and meta-search engines for customer acquisition
· Retail/pricing focused meta search sites are starting to overlap with stand-alone and/or simpler products (flights in particular).
· lastminute.com continues to innovate, especially around content and relevant/guided search/merchandising of higher margin, complex products like dynamic packages to keep customers coming back
· There is a place for general search engines, meta-search engines and full-service travel destinations in the value-chain today, but that the industry innovators with large communities will dominate, especially when they team up.
On change in consumer buying habits, he said, "Consumers are becoming more independent, demand control, choice, flexibility, value, expect to quickly find clear price/book option in real-time, consumers are increasingly buying online..."
The changes creates more opportunities for the smart retailer to: Increase customer base via access to range of products with choice-value-flexibility; Offer better price options with opaque pricing; Provide suppliers with access to a huge e-customer base and e-process savings; Improve return in stand alone components under margin pressure; Deliver price, value, choice, convenience and service through scale.
Terming dynamic packaging as the future, he referred to: Integrated intelligent up-sell during the booking flow; Flexible support for any product combination; Inclusion of pre-packaged options from 3rd party Tour Operators; Sophisticated merchandising and margin/yield/allocation management tools; Expansion of the number of suppliers with standardised XML; Complex multi-supplier itineraries; Broadband will drive richer content and opportunities; Personalisation and intelligent interrogation and recommendations
During the session, Remedios also referred to EyeforTravel.com's recent interview with Apurva Shah - CIBC World Markets Corp.: "The recent slew of acquisitions makes it evident that Europe is a key expansion area for the online travel players. Tapping into the largest travel market in the world, on top of which has a lower level of online penetration compared to the U.S. is a key growth strategy."
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