Posts Tagged innovation in travel
…all getting very silly…
Posted by murray in Latest News on April 13th, 2010
Image: Daniel St.Pierre / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Usually, with the BTC stuff, I have to read it several times before any lightbulbs start to flicker. It is all good stuff, but being a simple-minded sort of chap, it takes a while to understand the thrust of what they are on about.
A typical BTC missive arrived with a thud into my email in box. Another weighty tome, a bit like dropping the Encylopedia Britannica onto the desk and saying “precis this by this afternoon”. This time, I followed through about this bloke from Farelogix, Jim Davidson, but not of the “nick, nick” variety, who seems to have a bit of a bee in his bonnet about, well, about an awful lot really.
I have read some of the Farelogix press releases. They do not make sense. For example, one dated Feb 2010 talks about “…consumers generally make their reservations through a travel agency… where overall cost is a primary requirement” In the next breath we have “…Many travelers would welcome access to a new world of convenience and add-on choices available directly from their mobile device prior to departure.” Erm, Yes. If cost is a major concern, they are hardly likely to want to add stuff on, are they? Another statement runs “..Airlines can offer individual travelers a variety of add-on services, such as seat upgrades, priority boarding…” Wow! Farelogix has found the holy grail – have their mobile service and Hey! Presto! your $9 ticket will get you a seat in first class – and you join the front of the queue.
Mobile technology has it’s place and will become more popular – but I think the prophets of mobile technology need to take a reality check. You see, according to them, we agents should all have disappeared just after Graham Alexander Bell said “Look, these tin cans and this piece of string – could we make communication better?” We have had the telephone – and we are still here. We have had the fax machine – and we are still here, the mobile phone, the internet and the internet on mobile phones – and we are still here. We have had our commission taken away, so clients pay us a fee – and we are still here. Why? Simple – because in the final analysis, man is a social animal – we like to communicate and I mean really communicate. As in: talk a bit about the weather, what the last trip was like, the bloke/ bird that we sat next to (depending on orientation) a bit of banter, a laugh or as the Irish say, for the craick…..
For all Farelogix may go one about how their kit may be the best thing since sliced bread, that social element can never, ever, ever be replaced by any form of technology. And it is that social thing which makes us belong – and why real agents will always have a place.
Bored with Bright Spark “Summits”
Posted by murray in Latest News on April 3rd, 2010
Ho Hum! Travolution have a “stellar” line up of “world class” speakers for their annual travel summit. Great (yawn) I think I have some paint that I need to watch drying.
There
is one exception, that is – Michael Portillo. He would be worth listening to, it’s just a pity he is the moderator. So, why are these types of events, well… rubbish?
Travel needs to move forward, that is, we need to think of new innovations and how the industry as a whole can improve, given the present economic climate, the way things are going in travel etc etc. So, who do we have talking on this occasion? The phoney pharoh sends his top man. Yup, well, given that he runs arguably the worlds top shop, it is not difficult to see why he is there – but that’s just it – he runs the top shop. He didn’t create it – and if profits fall just a tad, someone else will have his job. We have a splattering of people who run big outfits (just at this present time) Orange, Expedia etc – Again, they are not the creators, not the people who had that initial flash of inspiration, they are just the people who happen to be steering the thing pro-tem, not the engineers who did the “original thinking” bit.
The same may be said for people from Disney and the others. It’s easy to sit and pontificate, to hold everyone in awe – but what real credentials do these people have for holding people in such awe? None, I would suggest. They hold people in awe the same way a car, with headlights full on, at night, holds a rabbitt motionless in it’s path. There is the Amadeus bloke – what is he doing there? Master of a reservation system that takes things out so you have to constantly put things back in again. A Director (passing) (again) of TUI travel, yup, another mechanic – where is the engineer? And of all people, someone from the stupidly-named “Bing” (as in “If this doesn’t work we’ll just chuck another few hundred thousand dollars at something else and see if that does”) – travel.
So, where are the big thinkers? Where are tomorrows entrepreneurs, tomorrow’s people? The people who are banging away, at present, trying to find the answer to tomorrow? Where are the people from the trenches?
I want to hear about the future, not about the past – I want to hear from a visionary, from an entrepreneur – not some passing functionary.
Innovation in Travel
Posted by murray in Latest News on April 15th, 2009
We have these great competitions for innovation in travel. Up pops yet another application for some soft fruit named communication device or for a gizmo that is sold complete with a child of 6 to show you how to work it or some really clever add on for a ZX54 website with a section zappo thingymajig that is very popular in the lower regions of Southern India – or something that allows me to call Mars from 32,000 feet. Great. Fantastic. Wake me up when someone works out how to get an ipod to make a real cup of tea.
After the GDS (which, given that it is 1970’s technology is really rather clever) nothing much happened as far as the coal face of travel was concerned until… along comes Google Earth. Many looked at Google Earth and Ooooh-ed! and Ahhhh-ed! a bit but it is only lately that I have realised how clever it is – more importantly, how invaluable a tool it is for the travel agent. Here is something that makes life so much easier for the business travel agent – indeed all travel agents.
It can tell you which airport is closest to an address, which hotel is nearest to such and such an office or conference centre – and even (if you can get in close) how to get from the hotel to the office you want to go to. Is it a short journey? Yes, (you can say to the client) “Out the hotel, turn left, go along two stops of the dual carriageway, sharp right at the lights, 100 yards on the left – can’t miss it, guvn’or.” I am not saying this about somewhere local to Gerrards Cross, I am talking about a small factory, just south of Peking.
Just the other day, I had to get a crew to a private yacht (that’s the sort of client I have) near to Hilton Head – using Google Earth I was able to identify the airport – Ah! Ha! Your wrong, using Google Earth I was able to tell that Savannah was actually closer to the actual yacht mooring – and so was able to advise the client that they had a much shorter journey to pick up the new crew – and was even able to tell them how to get there (actually they did not need the last bit, though it does look good when you are talking to a client – it seems to them that you, the agent, have an incredible depth of knowledge!)
I am only just starting to find out what else it is useful for – perhaps to the extent of having a look at a potential clients house – does it look like the sort of house which indicates that they may be the “right sort of stuff”. You can see the cheaper hotels, bed and breakfasts, caravan parks (eh? For a business agent?) conference centres… You can search using postcodes (very useful!) and if you only know part of a location, slowly, slowly home in to what you are looking for.
You can keep your ipod apps – who wants irritating mobiles at 32,000 feet, anyway? You can keep your ability to look up what time the XYZ flight from Beirut is due – I know what time it’s arriving – anything from the West arrives early and anything from the East arrives late -or how to find a fish and chip shop just off the A23 – my vote goes to Google Earth!
