With the increase in product personalisation what were once products are now services, especially in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry.

This has implications on how review websites operate. If the customer really did ask for salt on their chips they can’t complain about the taste.

If the customer really did only give 30 minutes to cross from one side of the airport to another they can’t complain about missing their connection.

Of course a travel supplier must make an effort to stop a customer buying a combination that really isn’t practical – but ultimately the customer may choose not to take that advice and the supplier is left in a very difficult position of turning away business or accepting a booking that might result in the customer having a poor experience.

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Google is pushing hard to complete its acquisition of online flight information provider ITA Software, but some rivals are warning that the deal could create an unfair playing field.

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For those who thought that TripAdvisor had revolutionized the hospitality industry, be assured that we have so far only seen just the beginning. Travel review readers clearly see that other traveller’s reviews are superior to marketer information and are more likely to be highly influenced by reviews.The outside world can now witness how guests are treated in the real-world daily….

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Family travel is the fastest growing rate of all sectors of leisure travel. Holiday makers are spending more time searching for great deals, such as exploring new travel destinations to find the best bargains and joining Online Travel Agencies (OTA) and to gain good discounts.

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Travelocity’s most recent poll shows more than half of all travellers share vacation information through social media. Nearly 30 percent of travellers have either never thought about precautions or do not take any precautions when posting about vacation on social media websites.

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With Expedia, Orbitz, and other online travel stocks hovering just above the basement, news of Facebook and Google dancing around the travel niche cannot be thrilling. Online travel, in case you’ve been trapped in a dungeon somewhere, is about to take off like a rocket.

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At the end of April we reported that Google were poised to acquire travel software company ITA Software. Google have now come to an agreement with ITA to proceed with the acquisition for the sum of $700m, subject to adjustments. On the acquisition, Google stated, “We think we can make more significant innovations and bigger breakthroughs in online flight search by combining our engineering expertise with ITA Software’s than we would by simply licensing ITA Software’s data service.”

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The State visit by Queen Elizabeth of England to the Republic of Ireland, planned to take place in the Autumn of 2011 could provide a major boost for tourism in the key British market.
A similar visit by Queen Victoriain the 1890s sparked off a  visitor boom in Killarney which was seen as the birth of [...]

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As with most social media platforms it is fairly difficult to achieve the very delicate balance needed to be able to achieve a highly successful Twitter campaign for your hotel. Mashable have come up with a small but rather useful checklist to help you achieve the best results from your Twitter activity.

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