The passion for travel and travel deals is growing strong and is driving the popularity of various online travel sites making the Online Travel Industry one of the most competitive industries online today. Users are beckoned and lured onto various sites by the latest low fares of the month, great packages, and exclusive deals.
Consumers are quick to resort to the "big 3 Online Travel Agents" - Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity to find these great deals.
And the major airlines out there today are taking notice - and will not be left behind. Recognizing that online consumers may be task oriented and are still highly price conscious, they too are taking advantage of the online travel industry and the effect it has to their bottom line.
A perfect example is Qantas - the largest airline in Australia - They have taken steps to measure online visitor behavior in order to ensure a positive customer experience and increase online profitability.
We will be on the look-out to see the impact and direct correlation between this effort and Qantas' market share and revenue growth. Stay tuned...
Happy Thanksgiving All!
While the effort that Qantas is putting in, in this worthwhile project, what impact will it have, since a bid has been put up to buy them? As you know, when companies merge or get bought out, the new company usually ends up implementing their own systems.
The reason why Qantas cannot be like Orbitz, etc, is that an airline cannot offer, say for example, a competitive price to a destination, other than it's own best price to meet the cost and competitive demands. However, Orbitz and the others are able to compare several airlines and a wide range of prices, to suit the online searcher. They even offer a choice of airports, in contrast to an airline that would only leave from a particular airport. In order to put up a competition, the airlines have to form partnerships and create a single website for searchers to have a "one shop stop" making it worthwhile to visit the site for better prices. the key for online serchers is price, price and price. Therefore, I think that no matter how airlines try to compete with these sites, they will not be able to be on the same level. Thus, the only businesses at risk are the airline agents.
Posted by: Daniel Indetie | November 22, 2006 at 02:45 PM