With much emphasis being placed on distribution and cost control at present, the Internet and the travel industry would initially seem ideal partners.
The Internet gives customers access to products and services, day or night, creates incremental revenue, generates a wealth of customer information and reduces the cost of sale. Yet despite this and a growing audience of Internet users, there appears to be a real reluctance to take advantage of the Web.
Because the whole technology behind the Internet and its impending marriage to Wireless Application Protocol (which allows people to access the Internet using their mobile phones) and digital television is still relatively new, it has created some interesting attitudinal clusters within the industry. There’s a small group of people with a real knowledge powerbase who can see the potential, are totally committed and consequently very much in demand.
There’s a large group of people who want to know more and get involved, but aren’t sure how. Then there’s a group of dinosaurs who don’t understand and view the Internet with the same scepticism as our forefathers viewed the advent of television and Teletext.
The middle group is clearly where the greatest potential is but there’s a real question over time and resource. The big companies have the investment money but not the manpower to give it the required focus. Internet distribution is being added to the existing workload of sales and marketing departments which is clearly not a practical solution.
You wouldn’t find initiatives like setting up a new direct-sell division being squeezed onto an already packed departmental agenda, so it seems strange that the Internet is being handled in this way. The net result is rather awkward sites that are little more than a brochure and often have rather clumsy navigation. Small companies, on the other hand, fear the required start-up investment, which can actually be very affordable, and end up doing nothing. The required knowledge can be outsourced from external companies which then doubles up as both a learning curve and an information transfer process. Yet many companies are still adopting the wait and see approach.
While there are clearly some excellent exceptions, there are simply too many badly thought out and poorly executed sites – a site that gives less information than a hard copy brochure, or where e-mails go unanswered for weeks on end.
There’s no doubt that the Internet offers massive potential to the travel industry and presents us with a huge selling opportunity. So, come on everyone. Let’s all get connected and embrace this powerful new technology.