BUSINESS NEWS travel industry converged in Florida this week. Lee Hayhurst reports from Fort Lauderdale
Expedia eyes growth via group-wide collaboration
Expedia believes it has potential to grow if the brands in its group work more collaboratively. With growth currently stalled at
the global travel giant, chief executive Mark Okerstrom was asked if Expedia is now a “post-growth” company. “I don’t know about growth being
over,” he said. “We certainly take the perspective of our key imperatives, which is being customer-centric and locally relevant on a global basis. “We are pushing ourselves to
be more collaborative across the company and we have made great progress. There continues to be opportunities for us moving forward. “Had we started that a little bit
earlier, would we have been more successful? Yes, absolutely. But what we have done has resulted in better products for our consumers.” Recent earning updates saw
Expedia’s share price tumble sharply, largely due to advances Google has made with its travel shopping platforms hitting organic traffic. Okerstrom said: “We do have a
diverse set of marketing channels. “Is SEO a meaningful channel for
us? Yes, but it’s certainly not our only channel.”
TripAdvisor boss outlines vision for the next 20 years
TripAdvisor boss Steve Kaufer set out his vision for the company in the next 20 years as it prepares to mark two decades since its launch. Getting to know its customers
better and persuading them to share
travelweekly.co.uk
Steve Kaufer, TripAdvisor
Brand marketing and mobile apps
have been picked out as strategically important areas for Expedia as part of its traffic diversification strategy. Okerstrom said that while the
number of bednights booked are up, rates are down due to a shift to secondary and tertiary destinations and alternative accommodation types. Expedia continues to focus on the
large travel markets outside its US home such as Europe and Asia, as well
Mark
Okerstrom, Expedia
as Latin America, Okerstrom added. “We have taken the approach
of saying ‘where do we have a big opportunity and where are we closest to achieving full potential?’, and prioritising markets that way,” he said. As part of Expedia’s international
growth strategy, alternative accommodation brand
Vrbo.com, which is part of its HomeAway division, is set for expansion outside of the US.
more of their preferences in exchange for a more personalised service is at the heart of the strategy. The brand also plans to improve
the way its app provides relevant recommendations both during the trip research phase and when users are in the destination. Kaufer said last year’s revamp of
TripAdvisor to turn it into more of a social travel feed was a “great step forward in how we try to personalise the experience”.
Booking.com aims to offer customers ‘connected trips’
Booking Holdings is confident “the world’s most valuable travel group” will perfect offering consumers what it calls the “connected trip”. The travel giant has recently
switched strategy so that its various brands, that have to date operated independently, work more collaboratively. This is seeing
Booking.com, for accommodation;
Rentalcars.com (Booking Go), for ground transportation; the Kayak group, for flights; and OpenTable, for restaurant bookings, combine to create the full holiday. Glenn Fogel, president and chief
executive of Booking Holdings, said the long-term goal was to create the “fully connected trip”. “We want to be able to use all
the information [we have] about that consumer to personalise and give them what they need. You want to be managing it all together in one payment platform. And when things go wrong, we can fix it.”
Glenn Fogel, Booking Holdings
“You are going to be inspired by
the content and we also want to do more when you are in destination.” Kaufer said TripAdvisor’s app
today is similar in functionality to its desktop site. But he added: “Is it convenient for in-destination use? Our answer is not nearly enough.” Looking to the next 20 years,
Kaufer said: “We have tremendous assets at our disposal. How do we better use that? I’m still here because we’ve not yet solved that problem.”
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