This Tourism Week # 83 Thursday 1 May 2008

For the tourism industry, the rising petrol price is a bit like biting into a lemon: your cheeks suck in at first but then you get used to the taste and your face gets its normal shape back.

And this isn’t just me sprouting off - I found a research-based article at hotelmarketing.com that supports what I’m saying.

“Kayak.com,” said the writer, “asked more than 3,800 users how the struggling U.S. economy has influenced their summer travel plans, and found that while the economic downturn has caused an overwhelming 79% of travelers to alter their vacations, users still intend to get away this summer.”

Although I don’t believe that South Africa is the 52nd State of the Union, I do think consumer trends are pretty much the same in all capitalist economies, so I thought this was good news. I immediately phoned one or two of my clients who were wondering whether there’d be a slow-down in domestic tourism in the short term (i.e. would they get business during the coming July holidays?) and shared the idea with them - and they enthusiastically agreed.

And so, patting one another on the back for being so perspicacious (not sure - but I’ve always wanted to use it in a sentence some day), we returned to our daily grind.

But something was worrying me and I went back to the article and Googled ‘kayak.com.”

Pay dirt.

www.kayak.com is the kind of tool you’d be looking for if you were looking to book your holiday on line - so it’s vital to know about if you’re selling travel on line.

According to their blog, “Kayak.com, the world’s largest travel search engine, displays results from 404 travel sites, providing prices and itineraries for hundreds of airlines, more than 158,000 hotels, all leading rental car companies and 17 cruise lines.”

So, being a Proudly Barefoot South African and a fan of Mossel Bay’s The Point Hotel, I decided to give it a test; I wanted, I said, to go to Mossel Bay from Johannesburg this weekend and I wanted to know where I could stay.

And (I LOVE this technology), I was instantly presented with a selection of 5 flights starting at $395 (huh? 395 DOLLARS! Domestic? That’s like, 3,000 ront!). And, although I had to search in another window, I was also shown three hotels, with rates and maps and links - and stuff. And, yes, my choice was there (along with African Oceans Manor on the Beach and the Mossel Bay Protea Hotel).

Now here’s the interesting part - if I wanted to book my accommodation, I could either contact The Point or the Protea Hotels directly - or, if I wanted to stay at African Oceans, I could book on line through orbitz.com. As far as my flights were concerned, I could either book there and then - or I could register to receive fare alerts, and thus stay informed of when the best deals might come my way.

There are a whole bunch of other things you can do at kayak.com - and on other, similar meta search engines like farechase, skyscanner and holidaysupermarket (and hey! my friend and travel marketing guru, Paul Hobden of onlinetravelfocus.com explained the concept to me in these short words: “Meta is data that describes the data. Meta search engines are the ones that scrap the travel sites or take feeds from them and then consolidate their data and allow you to search that data. It’s really a fancy way of describing price comparison and directories.” Then he went on to point me to a Wikipedia article about meta search engines - which I found here).

As Paul said, meta search is the future of on-line shopping - and it’s very exciting. I’d suggest everyone who’s looking for increased business should be learning about meta search engines like, right now.

Which leaves me with just three more points to make: (1) I wonder why I found only three of the many fine properties in Mossel Bay on kayak.com?

(2) Having this kind of tool helps to plan your trip - which means no wasted miles, which = no wasted (and very expensive) fuel; and

(3) What did the readers of kayak.com say was the most painful part of their summer travels? “Forty-two percent … dread receiving the credit card bill the following month, while 23% cite airline delays as the biggest aggravation, followed by weather and traffic woes, each with 15%.”

See? Even Americans are human!

Have a Great Tourism Week

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