| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 10/07/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 54 |
| Copyright: Other |
Update by Jane Archer
Teletext growth to lift package holiday sales
New technology bolsters strong position
TELETEXT is spreading its reach into all areas of new technology to expand its share of the package-holiday market.The travel pages of the television information service, attached to ITV and Channel 4 on analogue TV and used by agents and operators to advertise holiday and flight-only deals, currently account for one in 10 package-holiday sales and one in 15 flight-only bookings in the UK.
However, that is expected to increase following the launch in February of an Internet site at www.teletext.co.uk/holidays with a search facility and editorial content including weather reports, resort reviews and practical advice for travellers.
Teletext has also just launched on terrestrial digital TV via ONdigital and on digital cable TV via Cable and Wireless. Within weeks, it will also be available on Telewest’s digital cable TV.
In addition, it has signed a deal with mobile-phone operator BT Cellnet’s Genie Internet service which gives WAP mobile phone users access to Teletext’s Web site. A similar deal is in place with Vodaphone and Teletext is in talks with othermobile-phone operators.
The service will also be advertising holidays on the Sky Digital satellite channel by the end of the year.
Head of business development Neil Johnson said: “We want to make sure our agents’ offers are on which ever form of technology people choose to use and they are very keen to have access to all these different platforms.
“More advertisers are coming to us because we are the only on-line marketplace in the UK with access to as many consumers as we have – our holiday pages on ITV alone have a weekly viewing figure of 6.7m.
“Our aim is to increase that 10% share of holiday business we know we have at the moment,” he added.
Apart from the Internet, Johnson admitted that access to the new distribution platforms is limited. For instance, there are only 200,000 WAP phone users in the UK, although this figure is forecast to rise to around 1m by the end of the year, and 500,000 ONdigital viewers.
The new technology platforms are also limited. ONdigital users can only browse through the Teletext pages, just as they can at present on analogue TV and at about the same slow speed although the graphics are much better.
Conversely, digital cable viewers can only search for a specific destination, rather than being able to browse through the pages.
“In a couple of months, digital cable viewers will be able to browse, which is important as that is how a lot of people who use Teletext get ideas of where to go on holiday,” said Johnson.
By the end of the year, ONdigital will be able to offer interactive television whereby consumers can be contacted by a travel agent at the click of a button.
“It is also speeding up,” Johnson added.
To book a holiday on all the distribution platforms, viewers have to either call the phone number given, send an e-mail or check out a Web site. Cable and WAP users can already click a call me button which prompts the agents to ring the client. None of the TV platforms offer on-line booking but Johnson said that was coming.
But technology consultancy Equinus’ partner Mike Cogan warned that on-line booking will not be so easy, pointing out that booking holidays on the Web had created a lot of issues which do not go away when you move to digital TV or WAP.
“Unlike flights or rail tickets, holidays are a complex purchase and booking them on-line is a major technical challenge,” he said.
Cogan is not convinced that WAP mobile phones will take off as a way to make travel arrangements. “It can take hours trying to find a fare when you are on the Internet. Who is going to be bothered to try to do that on a small mobile-phone screen?” he said.
Telly addicts: the expansion into new distribution channels will give consumers more choice
factfile
n Teletext on ITV and Channel 4 has a weekly viewing figure of 23.5m.
n Teletext holiday pages on ITV have a weekly viewing figure of 6.7m.
n Teletext accounts for one in 10 package holidays sold in the UK.
n Teletext accounts for one in 15 flight-only holidays booked in the UK.
n 97% of people who have booked a holiday on Teletext say they would use the service again.
n Teletext’s Web site gets more than 1m monthly site visits.
n Those 1m people look at 7.6m Web pages a month.
n Teletext’s holiday Web pages get more than 409,000 monthly visits.
n Those 409,000 people look at 3.2m Web pages a month.