Travel 2.0

Travel 2.0 12 th September 2008

Travel 2.0 is Web 2.0 applied to the travel industry “ Travel 1.0 started around 1995; it was characterized by the shift from offline to online reservations and was dominated for a decade by three things: price, price and price .” “ Travel 2.0 is our industry’s collective fulfilment of Web 2.0. New travel researching and planning approaches are empowering consumers in unprecedented ways. Travellers are keen to take control and find/create the perfect trip , not just the cheapest trip.” “ Travel 2.0” coined by Philip C. Wolf of PhoCusWright in 2003 Travel 2.0 is Web 2.0 applied to the travel industry with complete transparency in data that is open to the world, predictive information for personal advisory features, and peer collaboration creating a social community

Travel 2.0 has outpaced Travel 1.0 in terms of growth Relative usage of Travel 2.0 sites versus Travel 1.0 sites Travel 2.0 sites Farecast, Kayak, Simpatigo, Tripfinder, TripWiser, TravNotes, Rrove, etc. Travel 1.0 sites Orbitz, Expedia, Lastminute, Thomas Cook, Thomson, Kuoni, etc. Indexed scale Source: Google Trends, August 2008, based on a basket of sites

The travel value chain

The travel value chain is rife with Web 2.0 competition

John and Emma are planning for a vacation John is 30 year old architect. He enjoys travelling. He is particularly interested in locations with historic architectural significance, or places famed for their artists. He is keen on an tour of Italy, especially cities with a Renaissance history. He is a vegetarian, and a fitness freak. He runs the triathlon every weekend, no matter where he is. Emma is a 28 year old chef. She has not travelled widely, but enjoys her breaks with John. She likes a more relaxed holiday break rather than a heavy sight-seeing vacation. Cooking is her passion. She is comfortable preparing most oriental cuisines, and is moving into Mediterranean cooking. She is very organised, and is the “planner” in the family. Discover

A typical travel site knows little about John and Emma John is 30 year old architect. He enjoys travelling. He is particularly interested in locations with historic architectural significance, or places famed for their artists. He is keen on an tour of Italy , especially cities with a Renaissance history. He is a vegetarian , and a fitness freak. He runs the triathlon every weekend, no matter where he is. Emma is a 28 year old chef. She has not travelled widely, but enjoys her breaks with John. She likes a more relaxed holiday break rather than a heavy sight-seeing vacation. Cooking is her passion. She is comfortable preparing most oriental cuisines, and is moving into Mediterranean cooking. She is very organised, and is the “planner” in the family. Items greyed out are typically hidden to travel sites Discover

You could understand their interests and relationships Mining data from social networks and the semantic web is a reality John’s profile john_wise.livejournal.com/ flickr.com/john_wise Discover Learn interests from blogs, photo sharing sites, public profiles Source: Google Social Graph API Find contacts on the Web (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) You now knows that two independently created profiles are, in fact, friends Name Emma Marr Website emma_marr.livejournal.com Interests … Friends John Wise … Friends Emma Marr Binzac C R Schmidt John Romkey Mirror the social network on the Web to the social network within your site Name John Wise Website john_wise.livejournal.com Interests triathlon exercise travel history architecture vegetarian renaissance Create profile based on interests

… and use it to tailor the welcome screen Milan for £399 Round trip + 4 nights Recommended for you Your friends recommend The Milan Cathedral Milan’s ancient cathedral… read Renaissance architecture Art museums contain… read Politecnico di Milano Architecturally, this … read You should see The home page is personalised. Each person sees a different home page, based on their personal interests and travel preferences. Book now Offer valid from 18 Aug – 1 Sep John is recommended a trip to Milan, based on his interest in history, architecture and Renaissance art. Sights are tailored to John’s interests The site knows John’s friends, and places that they have been to or are planning to go. This are more than “recommendations”: this is travel advice from friends. 3 days at Zurich A relaxed weekend by Zurich’s lakeside £299 Recommended by Emma Week at Marakkech Visit Africa’s fastest growing travel break £449 Recommended by Emma Discover Offer is timed to suit John’s holiday calendar

… and their search results

Filtering of search results is identical for all visitors at the site

Ordering of search results is personalised based on the searcher

Every tag in the user’s profile carries a weight

based on the number of times the tag is used by the user

Each search result matching the tag is assigned the tag’s weight

The ‘heaviest’ results are shown on top

Results that carry more of the user’s tags appear first

John’s search results for ‘Milan’ Emma’s search results for ‘Milan’ Enjoy a 5 day tour of the architectural wonders of Milan. Spend 2 days at the Milan cathedral … read more Book now: £399 Enjoy a 3 day break near Milan’s beautiful lakes, enjoying a Mediterranean cuisine … read more Book now: £249 Discover

Emma finds Jill’s reviews interesting and “follows” her Written by Jill ( 34 reviews ) on 4 th August 2008 View Jill’s Morocco photo album Subscribe to Jill’s reviews Milan is financially the most important city in Italy and the region of Lombardy. It is one of the fashion capitals of the world: a paradise for shopping, opera, and nightlife. The main shopping area is the so-called Fashion Quadrangle, a set of blocks roughly between Duomo Square, Cavour Square and San Babila Square (Piazza San Babila). For an artistic dining experience, try Lacerba, which serves dishes inspired by the early 20th century art movement, Futurism. Discover Reviews for you By Jill 4 Aug 2008 Milan is financially the most important city in Italy and the region of Lombardy. It is one of the fashion capitals of the world: a paradise for shopping, opera, and nightlife. The main shopping area is the so-called Fashion Quadrangle, a set of blocks roughly between Duomo Square, Cavour Square and San Babila Square (Piazza San Babila). For an artistic dining experience, try Lacerba, which serves dishes inspired by the early 20th century art movement, Futurism. Marrakech, also known as the “Red City” or “Al Hamra” is Africa’s fastest growing travel destination. Located in southwestern Morocco,

Emma adds a trip to Milan to her shared wishlist Emma’s search results for ‘Milan’ Enjoy a 3 day break near Milan’s beautiful lakes, enjoying a Mediterranean cuisine … read more Book now: £249 Add to wishlist 3 day break near Milan’s lake area 7 day holiday at Marakkech Emma’s wishlist Book now: £249 Share with others Book now: £249 Share with others 3 day break near Milan’s lake area Emma’s shared wishlist 7 day holiday at Marakkech View details Help Emma View details Help Emma Emma can add trips to her wishlist. She can choose to share them with others (publicly, or with friends, or specific individuals) These people can view Emma’s shared wishlist, comment on it, or even contribute money towards Emma’s travel. Plan

John’s parents contribute towards Emma’s trip 3 day break near Milan’s lake area Emma’s shared wishlist 7 day holiday at Marakkech View details Help Emma View details Help Emma £100 contributed out of 249

Fund Emma’s trip to Milan

More details Itinerary Reviews

Contributions received:

John £50

anonymous £50

Contribute towards Emma’s trip

149 Help Emma Thank you You gifted £149 for Emma’s trip to Milan Emma can now make her booking to Milan at her convenience. John’s parents, who can see Emma’s shared wishlist, can contribute towards her holiday. They can contribute any amount towards her trip. The contributions build up until the cost of the trip is met. At that point, Emma can make her booking. Plan

Emma views attractions on the route she is travelling Plan

John and Emma get a docket tailored to their trip Welcome to Milan Travel docket for John Wise and Emma Marr 23 – 25 October 2008 John, Emma, Congratulations on booking your trip to Milan with us. We would like to help you make the most of your visit. So here is some material that should help you. This folder has copies of all of your travel documents. We have also enclosed local contact numbers of our offices. John, we have included some tourist guides of the famous cathedrals in Milan and other architectural tourism hotspots that we believe you will be interested in. Emma, we have a selection of the finest Mediterranean restaurants our customers have recommended lined up for you. We hope you enjoy your trip. What to pack What to see Food and shopping Your travel documents Plan

They are alerted on their mobile about travel events Subscribe to this data and alerts customers about things tailored to their needs, just when they need it Experience Your ticket Your electronic ticket number is VA8298FJH398. You don’t need a printed ticket. Just present this number at the airline check-in desk. Check in online You can now check in online. Just send a message to 07911 222 333 with your ticket number: VA8298FJH398. That’s it. You will be checked in to the flight! Reminder You should leave in the next hour to be able to catch the 10:30am flight to Milan. Don’t forget to take your passport. You don’t need a ticket: just quote the number VA8298FJH398 Flight delay alert Your flight has been delayed. VA1023 from Heathrow to Milan will now be departing at 11:30am instead of 10:30am. Message sent at 9:15am

John finds nearby attractions and restaurants Recommended for John Restaurants near your location Experience

John learns that his friends are at Milan as well Travellers near you Experience

At Milan, John shares photos from his mobile Share Upload your photo

Most travel sites today have similar features Expedia.co.uk Lastminute.com Thomson.co.uk Thomascook.com Statistics for the United Kingdom only Some illustrative features Thomson Thomas Cook Last-minute Expedia Search suggestions (Search as you type)     Search filtering     Map mashups     Third-party content mashups     User generated photos     User generated reviews     Collective reviews (What’s popular? )     Personalised pages X   

But many key components of Travel 2.0 are missing Personal Knowing who the user is, and showing only what is relevant to the user Social Allowing the users to talk to each other, and build relationships Open Leveraging external content, and enabling access to content Some illustrative features Search suggestions (Search as you type)  Search filtering  Map mashups  Third-party content mashups  User generated photos  User generated reviews  Collective reviews (What’s popular? )  Personalised pages and search X Social recommendations X Widgets in third party sites X Live agent chat X User-editable help pages (Wikis) X Location-specific information (Geo-tracking) X Mobile device support X etc.

Some views on how to bridge that gap

Deliver recommendations based on the user’s preferences

Build an analytics framework to understand behaviour and to suggest based on preferences

Customise pages and searches based on these recommendations

Mine customers’ existing online networks

Identify preferences from their public online behaviour (e.g. Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, etc.)

Identify contacts from their Facebook, Yahoo mail / Gmail / Live mail or other relationship networks

Build a community with users interacting directly with each other

Allow users to map their off-the-site relationships within travel sites

Allow users to discover others with similar preferences, and interact with them (e.g. follow recommendations and activities, discuss holidays and travel tips)