BARCLAYS TRAVEL FORUM 2016: Lee Hayhurst reports from the 11th annual event


Pirie: Google at risk of becoming enemy of free web


Google risks becoming seen as the enemy of the free internet rather than its facilitator, the former boss of Travel Republic Kane Pirie warned.


Pirie, who left the company


following its sale to Dubai-based dnata Travel in January 2012, said paid search marketing (PPC) was no longer working for many firms. He said in the early days at


Travel Republic, paid search on Google was “like putting money into a broken fruit machine”. “You put 50p in, you got £1 out,” he said. Speaking in a panel session on


market trends, he said those days were gone and most businesses were now focused on how to reduce their reliance on Google. “With the costs of PPC, it was


fabulous; now it’s broken the other way, so a lot of people are reducing their spend [on Google] and finding other ways to get the business in,” he said.


“Many are reducing their spend on Google and finding other ways to get the business in”


As well as the Google auction model increasing the cost of its search-term bidding, Pirie said the search giant had also contributed to PPC inflation by reducing advertising opportunities. And he said the search engine


tries to keep users on its own site and products as much as it can instead of passing them on to the sites they are searching for. “Google has to be careful,” said


Pirie. “They are getting to the point where they are positioning themselves more as the enemy of the free internet, rather than facilitator of it.” Kathryn Munro, managing


PIRIE: Claims Google has cut advertising opportunities


director at destination specialist Canadian Affair, said today it was “hundreds of percent” more expensive to advertise on Google. “Just bidding on your own brand


now costs a fortune,” she said. “Google now can just crank up


the dial and charge people more every year.” Panellists agreed higher


Google costs were forcing travel companies to consider traditional media such as TV and radio and to find ways to stand out online.


‘I have a Travel Republic-sized hole in my life’


Kane Pirie is looking to get back into travel and says he is weighing up a number of investment opportunities. The former boss of Travel Republic told the Barclays audience of 300 senior travel executives that he


missed the industry and has a “Travel Republic-sized hole in his life”. Pirie’s time in charge of Travel Republic almost


landed him in jail when the firm was prosecuted by the CAA for breaching Atol rules. However, Travel Republic was found not guilty and the Atol rules were later updated to cover dynamic packages. Pirie said he had had some offers to invest in companies but “it took time to find the right one”. He added he expected long-haul to prosper this year


as holidaymakers’ habits changed. But he claimed there was an opportunity for someone to be really aggressive on price in short-haul and that it was possible to make money in the sector.


SHARMA: ‘Part of our Google spend was not making us money’


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Best At Travel shifts its focus to the profit margin


Luxury tailor-made specialist Best At Travel has reduced its spend on “necessary evil” Google as it switches focus to margin rather than price. Founder Rita Sharma said the


firm had cut its Google budget by 15% this year as it prioritises return on investment and conversion. “We had a lot of wastage and


there was part of the budget we spent on Google not making us money,” said Sharma. “Some of that money should have been on our bottom line. “Our key focus is getting


margins,” she added. Sharma said Best At Travel had chosen its key hotel partners carefully and was focused on driving greater numbers of customers to them. “In the last few years we were


really focused on being offensive – in terms of fighting competition – and found we were stuck selling on price, which is not really a strategy. We came back this year to focus on our key strengths and what our year-end results should look like, which is to be profitable, and to audit our costs.”


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