argument is no, I think you have to do a lot more than advertise on Google to build brand.” Mark Meredith, product and commercial director at
TravelJunction, a new Dubai and UK-based OTA that is currently in beta development, said: “We are a very young business in our lifecycle, so for us it’s about knowing where you can compete and where you can’t. “There’s no point us going head-to-head with the likes of
lastminute.com bidding on New York – we just can’t afford to do it. We need to pick our battles. We might go after secondary cities and develop a buying strategy that suits our budget. “We compete where we know we can but at the same time
we are realistic about where that is.” Meredith said driving repeat business and loyalty online
was a challenge for all retailers. “I don’t think many OTAs have necessarily cracked the whole loyalty thing,” he said. “It’s a very tough thing to crack because everyone has the
same prices and the same product. “Can someone in the OTA space develop something that
differentiates them and so their acquisition costs go down because there’s less reliance on Google? Can we develop our own loyalty programme which facilitates that? It is something we are thinking about.” Although
lastminute.com is arguably one of the
better-known brands in online travel, particularly in the UK, chief commercial officer Matt Klein said enticing customers to return was a constant battle. “The same issue for all of us is
“I DON’T THINK MANY OTAs HAVE CRACKEDTHE LOYALTY THING”
how we figure out how to mix all these different acquisition channels together: where do we spend and what do we invest in? Search engine optimisation is constantly evolving and you can invest in that all the time and still need to do more because everyone else is trying to do more. “For us it’s about getting the right mix and understanding
where we offer great [differentiated] product. We do like to think we have relationships with hoteliers and we do source deals you can’t necessarily get elsewhere. “But when we are not specifically selling uniquely sourced
deals, then we have the same issues as everyone else: how do we effectively and efficiently get customers back.” Leading UK online agent Travel Republic has built its brand
over the last 10 years largely on Google and by having modern in-house technology that has kept it ahead of the pack. Neale Chinery, managing director of operations, said mobile has compounded the problem of which channel to focus on as well as the restriction of real estate for search results. Travel Republic’s most recent advertising campaigns have
TRAVOLUTION.CO.UK — FEBRUARY 2015 — 37
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