news digital
■ Ryanair’s decision to charge a 12-year-old an extra £190 for a seat for her violin hit the headlines and social networking websites this week. One particular Facebook group, Musicians against Ryanair, received lots of comments. You can catch up with the latest reactions at
http://tinyurl.com/TTG-violin, which also offers useful tips on booking passengers with musical instruments.
■ Baggage issues will not pose a problem for travel writer Rolf Potts. He has just set off on a six-week round-the-world trip covering 12 countries in five continents — without any luggage. On his “no baggage challenge”, sponsored by travel community BootsnAll and ScotteVest, he will be allowed to carry a toothbrush, an iPod and a few extra items of clothing in his pockets. However, he has had a tricky start that involved his dog jumping out of his car, which was caught on film. You can follow Rolf on his travels at
rtwblog.com
ttglive.com
On Holiday Group takes on Google
Matthew Parsons. ON HOLIDAY Group is bravely taking on the might of Google with new technology called Google Bypass. It has developed the scheme in a bid to cut down on click costs, as it estimates it pays the search-engine giant 75% of its commission costs, which on average is £25 per booking. Rather than paying Google in click fees, it wants to reward the loyalty of anyone that circulates its
holidaynights.co.uk website. Last week, On Holiday Group emailed a unique
referrer ID to each of its existing customers, prompting them to spread the word on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as via email.
It will then pay individuals £25, via PayPal, each time one of their referrals leads to a booking. Steve Endacott, On Holiday Group chief exec-
You’ve come a long way, baby
TRAVELLING WITH a baby is never easy, but agents can help parents going to Florida follow- ing the launch of a series of online videos. Travel City Direct’s new website,
floridababy.co.uk, features six information videos designed to help visitors travelling with very young children. The videos cover packing, flying, car rental, Orlando airport and baby- friendly facilities and rides at Walt Disney World. The films are all hosted on YouTube, so are easy to share or embed into websites. To introduce the videos, the homepage
features a three-minute comedy — directed by award-winning London film-maker Robert Hindle — in the style of 1990 film Look Who’s Talking. Carol Williams, Travel City Direct’s head of mar-
keting, said: “There are lots of questions being asked by parents travelling for the first time with babies, toddlers or older children, so we decided to bring them the information they are looking for in an entertaining, easy-to-share format. “Florida, with its famous theme parks, is the dream holiday destination for families.”
12 03.09.2010 How does Google Bypass work?
■A travel agency sends an email to each person on its database
■The email features a unique tracking identifier embedded into a shortened URL
■The recipient is prompted to circulate that URL — their unique link to the
agency’s website — via a single click to Facebook, Twitter or email
■Each time a booking is made on the unique link, they receive an email notifying them they have earned £25, payable via PayPal
utive, claimed that Google Bypass was the UK’s first “personal affiliate scheme”. “Personal recommendations are powerful — the best advocates for a site are customers who have used it,” he said. “There is no loyalty to Google, and this scheme is so simple to
use — you don’t even need to sign up to get started.
“By using PayPal, we also make it simple for
referrers to get paid,” added Endacott. Rebecca Shipston, head of online development at On Holiday Group, said 25,000 people had been emailed details of the scheme. Of this num- ber, 800 people had circulated their unique URL via a social network or email. This has resulted in 23 holiday bookings , and
there are plans to send further emails to previ- ous customers of
holidaynights.co.uk. The group also aims to offer the technology to other travel companies, following a six-month trial.
Google has strict guidelines on the use of its name and there is speculation that it will not be happy about On Holiday Group’s venture. However, it has not approached On Holiday
Group over its use of the name, and Shipston said the name would remain. “Google probably has bigger fish to fry at the moment,” she added.
■Extended inquiry into Google-ITA deal, p14
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