I could not help myself, and much to my wife’s horror I reconnected DSTV for July and August.  The sport available was far too attractive to resist  - the Wimbledon final; the Boks beating the All Blacks for the first time in a decade in New Zealand; not to mention  watching Natalie du Toit, Bolt and Phelps. I think my money has been well spent.

But what has this got to do with the travel industry?  I think it is one of the best ways of showing what is happening in the industry.  I gave up my subscription to DSTV for two reasons; firstly I had 100 channels and nothing to watch; and secondly I do not have a routine schedule that allows me to plan my viewing, so without a PVR I was forever missing my favourite shows.  Continue reading this post…

For years now I have been attending travel and technology conferences.  I have been close to the action and one of the key concepts that always comes up, is personalisation and search wizards.   The holy grail of Marketers and User Experience Experts alike.  But is it realistic?

Continue reading this post…

There is a lot of hype around social networking, user generated content, video content and any number of new initiatives online.  But one question you should be asking yourself monthly is … is my website good enough.

I challenge you to spend a little time on the Internet browsing Southern African travel websites, from tour operators, hotels, B&B’s agents to consolidators.  Across the board for the most part they deliver average experiences, with a large number of below standard ones dished up.

Where do you rank?  When looking at your site try consider the following…. Continue reading this post…

Plan B has caused a stir, with Danny Jordaan going to extra-ordinary lengths to reassure us that only an act of God could stop South Africa from hosting the 2010 world cup. 

Building work is coming along, Stadia are starting to grow and the infrastructure is slowly being improved.  While these are meant to be the lasting legacy of 2010, I think the opportunity for an online marketing legacy is much greater.

Continue reading this post…

Starbucks has announced that it is to close 500 stores, a sure sign of the difficult economic times.  Earlier in the Week the Financial Times printed an interesting interview with the CEO of Proctor and Gamble, in which A.G. Lafley described some of the buying behaviours of customers in tough economic times – for example, switching from branded shampoos to house brands.

At the same time research has indicated that price is now the most important factor in buying a holiday online. Continue reading this post…

I’m currently in Johannesburg, the hub, the capital of African commerce, and surprise, surprise - we have no electricity.  So I have had to leave my B&B and find a coffee shop to write this week’s column.  As tempting as it is to have a good moan about the infrastructure, limitations to internet growth (starting with electricity, moving through connectivity and taking a turn at the postal service), I will not. 

Instead I thought I would give you a run down of my Internet experience whilst trying to book a flight, car hire and accommodation for a short trip to JHB.

Continue reading this post…

This week we had the emergence of one of the silliest and scariest statements from the ANC youth league.  This is now all over the media.  Regardless of the politics, what is of concern to destination and travel marketers is the pace at which this spreads over internet, and more importantly the length of time it remains – forever.

Not so long ago, these statements may have made the front pages of South African national papers, and maybe a few column inches in some international papers, which in  a week would be gone and forgotten.  The internet means that these comments are now internationally available and will be stored for prosperity, never further than the click of a mouse.

Continue reading this post…

I have for many years now been a huge fan of businesses based on user generated content.  Sites that have made a significant impact over the last few years have not been content creators, but rather have been ones connecting users to information or showcasing other people’s content; YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter,  Tripadvisor, Blogger …. shall I go on.

I was reminded of the power of the user last week, when Malcontent received a large and passionate response to his column.  Continue reading this post…

I had lunch today with an international travel company selling holidays throughout the world.  They had firsthand experience of what we all know intuitively - user experience is key to long (and short) term success.

For a given country, the company concerned owns the top 2 positions for a set of high traffic search terms.  The traffic to the two sites is almost identical, both in volume and nature, and the product and pricing are from the same database.  However one site in a given period received 29 enquiries whilst the other only received 1. Continue reading this post…

I have been struck recently by two things.  Firstly, people’s eagerness to proudly and liberally distribute their business cards at the first  possible opportunity. And secondly, businesses complete lack of knowledge when it comes to their marketing numbers.

Strangely these two things are linked. Continue reading this post…