Facebook

I've been a little slow to tag on, but now I am too hooked on facebook. I've been surprised by the number of friends (30+) that have recently invited me to join, but bearing in mind the fact that facebook has grown with 270% since last June, and now has a staggering 52 million unique visitors I shouldn't be surprised. Facebook is growing the fastest (according to research from ComScore), but MySpace is still the most popular social networking site in the world with 144 million users, but 'only' growing at a rate of 72%.
I have been asked by a number of clients about the opportunities for travel companies within these networks. A good example of a travel company that has successfully managed to create a presence in MySpace is Travelocity with their Roaming Gnome.

Companies can create applications that users can load to their profile in Facebook. The most popular application has over 2 million users and is an entry by Craig Ulliott, an independent developer. The application is called 'Where I've Been,' and consist of an interactive map that lets you tag places you have lived, visited, and want to go to, by colour coding the map which you can display on your profile page. The next most popular applications is very similar but from TripAdvisor - 'Cities I've Visited' following SideStep's 'Trips'. This app allows users to plan trips with friends, upload travel photos as well as mark places in Google maps. They launched this app with a holiday competition, which provided them with a lot of users quickly.

The applications are free to upload onto facebook, and most of them are not directly aimed at driving revenue. They are mainly a great opportunity for branding, especially for established brands wanting to reach a new audience, or new and smaller brands that could with the help of quirky ideas potentially reach millions of users.

Saying that some of the newer applications like the new hostel application from HostelBook.com allows users to search and find hostels, rate them, add them as favorites, and thereafter book the hostel without any booking fee.

Google faces legal challenge from American Airlines

Google has seen itself come up against another major lawsuit today as American Airlines accuse the company of selling search words that involved the airline's name. Google is accused of selling search terms, such as the company's title and website address, to other firms for advertising purposes. This is a violation of trademark laws, according to American Airlines. Google, however, has indicated that its trademark policy "strikes a proper balance" between consumer choice and trademark owners' interests.Commenting on the lawsuit, American Airlines spokesman Billy Sanez said: "When done right, search is a great tool, but we have a problem with this part of their business."Another company statement read: "In working through this business dispute, American [Airlines] is hopeful that it will continue professional, friendly and fruitful relationships with Google, while finding an appropriate resolution to the trademark issuesEarlier this year, the US state of Utah passed a law that made it illegal for search engines to display the advertisements of rival companies alongside search results for an electronically trademarked company name.

BA Fined £270m

BA will have to pay out for fines totaling about £270m to the UK Office of Fair Trading and US Department of Justice, after admitting they had colluded with Virgin and other airlines to set fuel surcharges flights. Virgin will escape any penalty, having won leniency by tipping off the authorities about price-fixing. The DoJ said that passengers who flew between the UK and the US in the middle part of the decade "paid more for their tickets as a result of the illegal cartel". But BA chief executive Willie Walsh said that passengers were not overcharged. BA is not out in the clear just yet, as neither the Department of Justice, nor the Office of Fair Trading have ruled out the possibility of criminal proceedings against individuals. British Airways closed down just 11.50p - 2.9% at £3.86 yesterday, as BA had already set aside 350 million the ruling came as no surprise.

BA could potentially face damages claim from millions of passengers and if you search on 'BA' in Google, paid search adverts have popped up, offering services for people wanting to sue BA for cartel compensation.

Surge in last minute travel bookings

The travel industry experienced a successful early bookings phase this year, but an unexpected downturn in April, made the industry fear that the rising interest rates together with the early indications of another warm summer would contribute to even worse figures than last year, which were hit by the World Cup and sunny weather which kept people at home.

But with the recent floods, and June being the wettest since records began, the travel industry has received an unexpected increase in demand, benefiting the UK’s major holiday companies as people are desperate to get to the sun. Bookings for last minute holidays have risen by an average 40% in June and July compared to last year according to ABTA. Destinations proving most popular are those in the Mediterranean such as Spain, Greece and Turkey. The strength of the pound against the US dollar means that many more people are taking advantage by going to the USA. ABTA also reported that some agents had seen increases as high as 124% compared with this time last year.

The latest Zeitgeist data from Google shows that flight, package and hotel related searches have reached the same volume in June as we experienced in January this year, and the growth for all travel related searches are up approximately 50% compared to last year on year.

China's Growing Travel Market

Last year, at least 2.75 million Chinese booked hotel rooms, air tickets and other travel services on the Internet, up 72 percent from the previous year, according to a report recently released by Shanghai-based iResearch Consulting Group.

China's online travel market was worth some 1.54 billion yuan ($204 million) last year, a growth of 82 percent from 2005, the report said. iResearch are predicting that the number of users will more than double to 5.7 million in 2008, and hit 9 million by 2010. The online sector is expected to be worth 6.5 billion yuan by 2010. The growth is due to three main factors - the overall increase of tourism, the soaring amount of money spent on travel, and improved online marketing systems.

The market has been dominated by a few companies: Ctrip.com 54.2% of the market, and eLong.com with 17.8%. Many of China's travel websites, are from traditional travel agencies, which work as information channels, the actual payment is completed offline, mainly due to high bank charges. Many travel companies are eyeing emerging markets, China being no exception, which is becoming increasingly crowded. Qunar.com, the largest travel search engine in China has just launched a new search tool for travel packages called “Travel Deals Search, which claims to be the first of its kind in China.