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Travel & Tourism
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Travel & Tourism
Consumer Travel buying habits
Consumer habits are changing and the media reports on it. But consumer habits are also changing because of media reporting on it. In this case Stephanie Nelson, of thecouponmom.com, joined ABC News
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Travel & Tourism
Japanese Tourism Authority: Smart, smart, smart
The Japanese Tourism Authority is going to lend selected Tourist a PDA loaded with travel information and translation services. This is part of a campaign to promote Japan among Tourists who are intimidated by the Japanese language and high prices.
I think this is a very smart thing to do. Planning doesn’t stop when a trip begins and this is a perfect vehicle for cross-sell and up-sell during a consumer
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Travel & Tourism
Guess what’s the #2 online activity for ‘online moms’
Surprise, surprise! Planning and researching trips. Email is #1. Instant messenging wasn’t on the list……
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Travel & Tourism
Links Oct 21, 2005
Detroit Free Press: Things get cozy online at hotel sites
I think she mixed up her numbers but it demonstrates what has become of hotelroom shopping.
Economist: Click to buy and fly
Travel websites are fast catching on with customers and transforming the business of leisure travel. A revolution in business travel may not be far behind.
If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers…
I hope I’m not one these clients… -
Travel & Tourism
Tourism Links Oct. 5, 2004
Hot Air Balloon Safaris
Now here’s a trip I’d like to make.
Swiss cows eating trees for unobstucted views
Our mountains are famous for their trees…
Massive Change
You’ll find me this weekend in the Vancouver Art Gallery
EasyHotel – a central London bed from -
Travel & Tourism
Interesting Article: Travel Agents, With Reservations
The Washington Post has an interesting article about the current mindset of travel planners. The article is written as a guide to travel planning. The Internet is suggested as a useful and cheap tool but when things get complex, it’s probably better to hire some expertise.
Bottom Line: If you want to stay at a chain hotel or someone has recommended a lovely little property or resort, do it yourself. If price is your chief concern and you’re willing to do the legwork to ensure that you’re in the right part of town, skip the agent. If you’re not sure where you want to stay, or have a special request — say a villa in Provence — you might be better off getting the help of a travel agent who’s been there or has heard back from a lot of satisfied clients. -
Travel & Tourism
A Hotel I’d like to stay in
Thinking about going to Berlin? Consider staying in the propeller island hotel, it’s like staying in an artwork. Boy I miss Europe…
My favorite room is the Symbol Room. -
Travel & Tourism
Webby Awards
The only real awards for website where handed out yesterday. In the travel category, IgoUgo won, with Lonely Planet as “people’s voice winner”. PureNZ was nominated (first time for a DMO site I believe).
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Travel & Tourism
Activities and Attractions
TravelCanada launched a redesigned website recently (they didn’t have to announce it in their URL though). I like the new site much better, but that says more about what I thought of the old one. During my analysis I came across something that illustrates the importance of Information Architecture and importance of attention to details.
On the homepage, there is an Activities and an Attractions category.
On the BC Main page there’s only an Attractions category. And the first item is also called Attractions.
When following the Attractions link, you land on a page called Activities(!), followed by a tageline called Attractions in British Columbia.
Seems like there’s a bit of confusion between what an Attraction and an Activity is. Inconsistencies like this can cause a Users mental model to break, resulting in a bad User Experience.
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Travel & Tourism
Travelocity Redesign
Travelocity.com launched it’s redesigned website recently.
A lot I’ve read about the new look & feel, and in particular the logo (dubbed guiding stars), is pretty funny. Jeff Glueck, chief marketing officer for Travelocity states in a News Release:
“Stars are the traveler’s natural compass”Whatever. I agree with The Motley Fool:
…they look to me more like jigsaw puzzle pieces or butterflies in a crayon factory..Jeff Glueck has more to say:
“Each decision was a step toward creating an inspirational and rewarding experience with Travelocity, where customers feel invited in and want to stay.”Dude, you’re in the commodity business of selling cheap flights and Hotels. You’re not Starbucks.
More interesting is this piece of the Press Release:
In researching concepts for the new site, Travelocity conducted a number
of in-person interviews, focus groups and usability tests. Findings indicated
that consumers viewed online travel sites as visually crowded, with too many
offers and features competing for their attention. This caused confusion for
consumers, who were seeking a site they could trust to present them the best
options for their needs.Bingo. And another comment sparked my interest.
Faster download speeds — the new home page loads almost twice as fastThat can only mean Travelocity went table-less. A quick look at the source code reveals that this is the case. This will definitely improve download times but the homepage doesn’t validate and doesn’t follow web standards or accesibility guidelines either. Too bad, it could have been a small step with more bennefits.
The consequence of tableless design and separating structure from content and style is that things will break in older browsers. Travelocity has the correct approach by offering the content unstyled (Sceenhot [pop-up]). It might not look pretty, but at least the content is accessible. This will become more important when the Internet moves away from traditional browsers and onto mobile devices.
The message Travelocity displays to warn users with these browsers is a bit harsh (screenshot [pop-up]), there are better ways (screenshot [pop-up]) the handle this.
I want make it clear that the largest website I manage doens’t even come close to validating, let alone adhere to web standards or accessibility guidelines. This will change when we’ve completed our redesign later this year.
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William Bakker's Destination Marketing blog
William Bakker is Chief Strategist at Destination Think!. These are my personal thoughts.
