Sales and Marketing in Travel USA 2007: By EFT Correspondent in MiamiTripHub Inc. is considering better ways to integrate itinerary data post transaction, enabling photo sharing, and making investments to support its platform’s flexibility and sca

Published: 07 May 2007

Sales and Marketing in Travel USA 2007: By EFT Correspondent in Miami

TripHub Inc. is considering better ways to integrate itinerary data post transaction, enabling photo sharing, and making investments to support its platform’s flexibility and sca

The company also intends to onboard new distribution partners. Its first partner Alaska Airlines has been live since last March at www.alaskaair.com/groups.

Recently, TripHub announced dynamic, integrated Trip Maps.

Sharing more info on the same, John Pope, VP Marketing, TripHub told EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta: “We’re very excited about Trip Maps which is indeed a feature rich experience. Our maps show members of a group where their events, activities, and accommodations are relative to each other and relative to other local activities and landmarks. They also seamlessly integrate local search to aid in the discovery of nearby services and attractions like restaurants, museums, theme parks, night clubs, and other points of interest. And integrated driving directions provide step by step instructions between any two locations.”

He added, “Maps extend TripHub’s core value proposition by providing yet another way for groups to view and share information and make smarter planning decisions. In fact, we’ve seen a significant increase in events being added to shared trip schedules since we launched Trip Maps in late March. In 2007, we plan to extend the mapping features and we’ll add other engaging experiences that help customers share more things in more ways. For instance, we’re looking at how we can offer great picture sharing on TripHub.”

On how Triphub.com is gearing to offer group-booking engine services with social networking tools that make it easier for groups to plan and share information, he said, “Our model is to provide great planning tools and to merchandise offers from third parties. TripHub is not a travel agent and we do not offer direct booking. At the end of the day, we’re not trying to solve the group booking challenge. Our focus is helping to eliminate the pain of organising and coordinating groups which is clearly a pre-requisite to, and, in my opinion, more important than providing the ability to buy in blocks.”

He added, “To shed a little more light on this subject, our average group size is about nine. Of the thousands of trips being planned on TripHub, the majority are traveling from multiple origination points. A recent research study reported that the typical group has more than three origination cities. We also know that groups often split across multiple accommodations. So the reality is that, in many cases, group rates and bookings simply don’t apply. When our customers tell us they want this functionality, we’ll deliver it.”

(Pope is one of the speakers for the Sales and Marketing in Travel USA 2007 to be held in Miami on May 9-10. An interview with him will be posted soon)