| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 17/07/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 28 |
| Copyright: Other |
Travelocity adds new facility for bookings
TRAVELOCITY has introduced a new on-line facility aimed at persuading customers browsing its Internet site to take the next step and make a booking.Users are now able to save a potential itinerary and send it on to up to 25 people via e-mail.
Recipients can then take a vote on the itinerary, send back a comment or give it the go-ahead.
Travelocity’s vice-president for Europe, Jeff Lavender, said: “It adds some planning opportunities to the whole concept of booking on-line. It also addresses the issue of getting people to commit to buy.
“It gives them the chance to reflect and discuss and make a decision at a convenient time.
“We think it will improve the conversion rate of people who do research on the Internet and then go to another source to buy a product.”
In addition, Travelocity has also negotiated agreements with a number of its suppliers to offer good value, flexible deals to popular destinations such as Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Cape Town. It is also offering users the option of creating multiple personal profiles on the site to cover their business, leisure and family travel needs.
Lavender said that other innovative features are available on the company’s US site, which have not reached the UK yet.
These include an on-line chat facility allowing friends to communicate directly while they are checking out holidays on the site.
Lavender: hopes to improve conversion rates