In the News - Taking the online route

In the News

Taking the online route

By: TTG Asia
Nov 19 - Nov 25, 2004

Mr Meraj Huda is founder and principal consultant of forumline Consulting. The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) has just endorsed Travel e-Solutions provider forumline and its marketing partner Global Interactive Learning to provide emarketing solutions to travel agents in Malaysia.

Email: meraj_huda@forumline.com, website: www.forumline.com.
PREDICTIONS that ecommerce is the future means of doing business have been realised by airlines, hotels and car rental companies.

These suppliers have driven the development of the online customer relationship via their well-developed websites and sound strategies. However, only a handful of travel agents have embraced the Internet as part of their business.

Most of today's few true online agents operate on significantly different business models. AsiaTravelMart.com, AsiaTravel.com, Priceline.com, Zuji.com and the like function without a shopfront system. All of their promotion and selling process is conducted online, with offline customer support. While their operational integrity is yet to be fully stress-tested (the potential number of consumers online is yet to reach critical mass), they are on the whole, successful in aspects of product segmentation, emarketing and developing erelationships with their customer.

But the online status of the "bricks and mortar" agencies is nothing to write home about, investigations with the GDSs on number of agents using GDS Internet Booking Engines (IBE) show.

The real-time IBEs were first released in Asia-Pacific in the late 1990s.

They were provided as a tool for travel agents to begin to shift part of their business to the Internet. Yet, the vast majority of agents have shied away from using IBEs, probably due to their untested implementation value. In addition, the relatively high cost of IBEs for a potentially small online return was another factor.

While traditional agents have taken the wait-and-see approach, the dotcom players have gained the upperhand by getting to the market first and beginning to nurture the online relationships.

Click and mortar agents who are using fully integrated IBEs include eztravel.com.tw, ysticket.com.tw (both in Taiwan), TQ3.com (Asia-wide), and Australia's Flight Centre.com.au. The common factor is that they are all in countries which have a mature Internet consumer density. The extent of their website customisation is reflected in their fully-integrated IBEs in local language versions.

While the Flight Centre website promises much, it does not quite deliver any real-time features beyond the initial fare search. TQ3, however, is altogether a more sophisticated B2B website, which caters for a range of real-time features for its corporate accounts. But the fact they are already up and running puts them ahead of their competition.

Flight Center Being online is not all about sophisticated IBEs. A few traditional agents have taken the more sensible approach of establishing a web presence which provides more than the standard brochure type of information. Singapore-based ChanBrothers.com is a good example of how to use the website for basic features such as online fare searches. Simple database search functionality is used for uploading their promotional air fares, which are displayed according to price rank. This site also provides the means for regular emailing of offers and promotions. While its enewsletter could be vastly improved, the website is still a good benchmark for those agents who are contemplating going online.

Misa Travel (airfares.com.sg) in Singapore has an abundant choice of air, hotel and tour packages. While it does not use an IBE, it does provide sufficient brochure information to at least engage in the look-online-book-offline process.

One drawback of this approach in not having real-time fares data is that the viewer must wait for the agent to reply to the form-based email enquiry, and that the displayed prices may not be available by the time a reply is sent back. Needless to add, all payment is made offline. Hence, this does not bode well for customer confidence to return to the website for future searches.

Singapore-based Transtar (transtar.com.sg) smartly demonstrates that being online is not just about selling air and hotel segments. It has a well-designed website for online bookings of its extensive coach services.

The site is also certified by TrustSg and Thawte seals, which guarantee secure online payments via a shopping basket.

Transtar's innovations in its coach services are ably reflected in its website, which also ensures that its superior brand image is maintained. In addition, Transtar operates a frequent traveller programme which encourages regular customers to return.

Travel agents are probably in the best position to initiate ecommerce. This is because they already have that most crucial aspect of a successful online business - an established relationship with their existing customer base. New players such as the airlines and online portals have had to buy their online customers, and have shown moderate profits as such so far.

A recent survey by MarketShare has predicted that online bookings in Asia will increase over the next few years. Hence, it is just a matter of time before a segment of the travelling population conduct their travel purchase online on a regular basis. And ultimately it is only those who adapt proactively that will survive.