Summary 4: The great online travel revolution; December 16, 2009

It is now recognized as a fact that the web has revolutionized the way people travel. More and more online services have Emerged in the travel industry thanks to the web: price comparison sites, OTAs, blogs, communities ...

As a result, more and more customers are not avoiding high street travel agencies, newspaper, brochures ... Many high street travel agencies have seen their turnover rates lower down since the development of online travel services.

In my opinion the 4 main reasons for customers to look for a travel online are:

• Customers can look for the best prices
• It is easy to search online: gathering information, getting opinions on hotels for example (Trip Advisor) and to book online (example: Cook / Expedia ...)
• Customers are also saving time: it takes less time to go on the Internet than going to a high street travel agency.
• The last motivation is that the customer is sort of "free", he can search by himself for what he wants.

It is true that with the evolution of Google web search and the development of booking engines, online travel services have found their way in a profitable business. Today, with the financial crisis OTAs still continues to make profits by attracting customers with low cost products. Example, Easy Jet offers low cost plane tickets online that are very attractive in terms of pricing for customers.

So in my point of view, online travel services have a great future in front of them.

However, the competition is becoming very hard, for example more and more OTAs are launched every year on the web. The market is becoming saturated with All Those OTAs Expedia, Opodo, Last Minute Travel SNCF Booking.com, all the tour operators' websites ...

OTAs have to come up with new strategies to keep their customers and to keep their profitability.

Here under are some ideas that I have come up with:

• To better serve its customers online
• Ensure customer's satisfaction
• Innovation: Innovate with new services
• Be aware of the trends on the marketplace.
• Use social media communication
• Drive traffic and increase the linkability
• More transparency
• Allowing communication