| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 21/08/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 40 |
| Copyright: Other |
Virgin.com travel by Isabel choat
Virgin prepares to launch travel site
Site too sell wide range of products and brands
Ian Brooks doesn’t mince his words. “Travel agents don’t have a great image with the public. There is a lot of mistrust among consumers about directional selling. There’s plenty of research to show it.”As managing director of Virgin.com Travel, due to launch next month, one thing Brooks is keen to stress is that the site will be completely impartial.
“We are not a portal for other Virgin companies and we have no direct link with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays or Virgin Sun.
“There will be no point pushing products customers don’t want. We will sell a wide range of products – even British Airways – according to whether they are suitable for the customer,” said Brooks.
Virgin.com Travel has already signed deals with 30 suppliers, excluding airlines, to provide products that will span the entire range from package holidays to car hire and travel insurance to hotels.
“The advantage of being part of Virgin.com group is that we will have access to a huge database that will allow us to target our customers with personalised offers.
“On any of the existing travel sites you are the agent, you have to search for and choose relevant products – what we are doing is looking to provide a personalised service whereby we find out what you want and make suggestions for your holiday. If for example, we discover from Virgin Wines that a customer has a penchant for Australian chardonnay, we could alert them to a special deal for a wine tour of Australia.”
The travel section of the Virgin.com group, will join other established brands in the group including Virgin Cars, Money, Wine and Student, when it launches.
Although the site will be backed up by a 24-hour call centre, customers will be encouraged to talk to customer service staff while on-line so they complete the booking electronically.
The booking and search engines are provided by dreamticket.com.
Try some of this: Virgin.com Travel will be able to target specific customers, for example, wine lovers will be alerted to any special wine tours of Australia