The Online Travel business
By :
Bhaskar-Jyoti Baruah
Mathieu Dubé
Laurent Lebard
Ricardo Moretti
The Airline Industry-A Little History
Airlines
The structure - simplified
Intermediaries
Customers
Travel agents
–
–
–
–
The 70s’ an era of deregulations
Airline set prices and schedules as per market demand
Price wars erupt
Airlines differentiate through the use of technology
• Known as the Computer Reservation System (CRS)
• Legacy systems
The Airline Industry-A Little History
Airlines
CRS
Intermediaries
Travel agents
– Airlines equipped travel agents with CRS
• Signed long-term contracts
• Personnel had to be trained to understand display
• Exclusively list CRS Airline’s flights
– This produced favouritism “the halo effect”
• Agencies favoured airlines with whom they had a CRS contract with
The Airline Industry-A Little History
Airlines
CRS
Intermediaries
Travel agents
Government orders
to list other airlines at a fee of course
The Airline Industry-A Little History
– Airline further controlled market through screen bias
“the act of purposely positioning information on-screen to influence specific purchase behaviours
that are beneficial to the vendor, but unfair to other airline suppliers.”
– 50% of all consumers selected the flight shown on the first line
– 90% chose a flight from the first screen
– Airlines must list other airlines but charge a fee
• Fees are determined by airlines
• Premium fee to be place in first pages
The Airline Industry-A Little History
Airlines
CRS
Intermediaries
Travel agents
– CRS become a critical asset
• In 1983, 80% of tickets were sold by a travel agency via a CRS
• In the 1990’s, the airlines expand their CRS globally
– called Global Distribution System (GDS)
» e.g. American Airlines’ GDS
– Government intervenes again
• This forces airlines to divest their GDS – some remain at arms length
– e.g. American Airlines’ GDS into “Sabre”
The Airline Industry-A Little History
The result of CRS, GDS, Halo effect & screen biases
Informational
Asymmetries
Informational
Asymmetries
=
=
expropriation of value
expropriation of value
Airlines
Intermediaries
Customers
Travel agents
Transaction
costs
Transaction
costs
The Airline Industry & The Internet
– 1995, the first travel site by International travel network
– In 1996, www.travelocity.com is launched using Sabre GDS
– More entered the Online Travel Agency (OTA) market
• www.expedia.com / Worldspan GDS (Microsoft)
•
•
www.amadeus.com/European GDS
www.cheaptickets.com/Galileo GDS
– Airlines introduced their portals using their CRS technology
•
•
•
www.delta.com
www.ual.com
www.southwest.com
The OTA – New Developments
– Since 2001, a wave of new entrants using ITA software
• Created by MIT
• The software decreases costs
– Avoids reliance on Legacy systems & their infrastructures
– No more CRS and GDS fees
» Collects fares and schedules direct from the Airline Tariff
Publication Company (www.atpco.net)
» Unbiased search engine - no more screen biases
–
Examples
•
•
www.flytango.com / Air Canada,
www.continental.com , www.americawest.com and
• www.orbitz.com by American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United Airlines
– Tendency towards industry standardization www.opentravel.org
• Members include ITA, Expedia, Sabre, Worldspan
The New Airline Industry & Internet
The new structure
Airlines
Intermediaries
Travel agents
OTA (includes alliances)
Customers
•Reduced Halo effect & reduced Bias effect
•No more informational asymmetries
•No more expropriation of value
•Reduced Transaction cost
EXPEDIA… A Little History ...
– Travel and Airlines industry relies a lot on IT..
– Travel is seen as the Online Business with the fastest
growth in the future !!!
– That ’s why Microsoft entered the Business in 1996
+
=
EXPEDIA... A Little History …
– Expedia is the leader online travel agency worldwide leader
– Located in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Germany and France.
– Its mother company Interactive Corp also owns Hotel.com and
Ticketmaster.
– Interactive Corp travel subsidiaries turnover last trimester 2003 :
667 millions $!!!
– Net income = 14%
EXPEDIA… A Little History ...
– It belongs no more to Microsoft, as Vivendi Universal
acquired it through its US subsidiary, USA Network.inc
, in 2001. It could become a Star and even a Jewel!!!
– According to Expedia:
Before Transaction
• A pull strategy to offer you the package you want:
Through a selection screen:
In one or two clicks the
package is offered to you.
It’s fast and efficient!!!
Or trough a process that tries to
imitate an agent speech
in a travel agency
The substitution
process is key !!!
Before Transaction
• A push strategy to offer the product they want you to buy:
– On the first screen special offer, packaged or not, are smartly
proposed to you!!!
– When you registered they try to know you in order to be able to
send you travel proposals that fulfill your needs.
Before Transaction
• A push strategy to offer the product they want you to buy:
– They try to enter the virtuous circle: the better they know you, the
better they can propose you the right travel at the right moment
at the right price.
– BUT THEY ONLY TRY!!!
– Companies that want to promote their packages on the first page
have to pay for advertising!!! It does not work so well!
– They have to go through the critical e.marketing: .. From one to
many, to one to few, to one to one (see Amazon).
Before Transaction
– There are two models for setting the price:
• Expedia as Travel Agency: The price is given by the
Hotels, Tour Operators or Airlines.
• Expedia as Tour Operator: It manages and optimizes a block
of resources that Hotels entrust to Expedia’s care!
• Yield and Revenue Management are key!
• As a Tour Operator it could enter auctions and
takes Ebay as a model or partner !!!
During Transaction
– How does Expedia manage the transaction process?
• The transaction must go fast in order to save time:
– for the customer
– for Expedia
=
• Payment is only offered through Credit Card!
Is it enough???
• Expedia has a negative
Working Capital Requirement.
It can sustain its growth and
could even use the cash to make some more!!!
After Transaction
– Delivery is due within 48 hours.
– Trust is managed thanks to:
• Secured payment and information transfer via the net
(security standards of Microsoft Internet Explorer).
• Support online pages where there are a
lot of tips available
• A call center 24/24, 7/7.
After Transaction
– Cancellation and refund policy are the ones of hotels and
companies. You don’t have so much information about it when
booking
– Quality . They can’t check
that all products are high quality!
– Law and refund and/or
compensation if problems arise
during holidays ???
What about complaints?
After Transaction
– There is a support and feedback form that you can fill in
online.
– Expedia does not use a systematic rating of products quality
as Amazon or Ebay do.
Assets
– Customer databases, brand value and IT.
• According to Mediametrix 16 millions of potential customers visited
the site during January 2004! And it grows fast!!!
• Huge potential Brand value
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• IT
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–
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–
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Worldspan GDS provides access to resources
Complex mapping coding enables to propose package
Yield and Revenue Management software optimize the resource network
Data mining should enable to create a true relationship between Expedia
and each customer and among customers!
Future
– Consolidation in the industry.
• Volume is key success factor for both airlines and TO.
• Only the big will remain!
– Consolidation on the net???
– The winner takes it all!
– Will it be Expedia?
• It could, provided it succeeds to :
– improve its data-mining abilities
– create a relationship between Expedia and each customer
– create a true relationship among customers (network
effect).
TRAVELOCITY
Who are they ?
– Travelocity is an wing of travel innovator Sabre, the world’s
largest travel agent.
– They pioneered on line travel space and their service is one
of the most popular travel service in the web.
– A database driven travel, marketing transaction company.
– It is an American company with the corporate office in Dallas,
USA.
What is their business model?
A.CUSTOMERS
• They operate travel business through On-line in order to cater to the fast
paced corporate traveler
• They furnish all information pertaining to travels through their website that
help the prospective customers to make an optimum decision.
• Their online services provide customized services that roll out a wide variety
of options to the travelers. These options can be purchased on line.
B. SUPPLIERS
• Their business model emphasizes partnerships with their suppliers ie hotels,
airlines and offers the best possible packages to the customers. They have
access to the database of the suppliers through internet and this
allows the customers to formulate the best package for themselves
online instantly.
• They pay their suppliers by credit card and this enable them to secure the
cheapest rate from the suppliers.
Site
• Interactive website offering personalized services.
• Contains information on the five main services provided to the
customers.
• Contains special window on the home page from which travelers
can secure instant prices by mentioning departures, flight no,
destination.
• An special section on customer care that helps the customers to
secure answers to queries.
Who are their customers?
PRIME FOCUS
• Travelocity is basically focusing on the corporate travelers who are
required to travel frequently on their official works.
SECONDARY FOCUS
• Holiday seekers who want a guided tour without any hassles.
How are they marketing their services?
•
POSITIONING : They have positioned themselves as an on line tour operator.
•
PROMOTING OF SERVICES:
– Alliances with leading E- Business sites.
It is the exclusive travel booking provider for American on line services and
for several US and Canadian Yahoo sites.
– Services of specialized marketing firms to aggrandize online and offline
marketing: They have tied up with specialized marketing firms like Range
Online Media to increase their sales.
– Search Engine marketing:
They are boosting their online presence through search engine marketing.
Range online is specially carrying out a campaign by resorting to
advertising in Google.
•
Commercial advertisement in TV:
– Delineating the company as a more than a travel site.
– Commercial Videos.
– Customer service centre.
What are their services?
Travelocity offers five prime services.
•
Reservation of transportation: They enable the customers to have access to the
services of more than 700 airlines, 50 car rental companies.
•
Reservation of accommodation: They have established network with 55000
Hotels worldwide for arranging reservations.
•
Arrangement of pleasure trips for busy corporate travelers: They have 6500
cruise and vacation packages.
•
Helpful information and Travel reservations: flight status, online flight check in,
passport & visa information, destination guides, traveler advice.
•
Last minute deals: Packages offered as deals to people who forget to plan their
holidays (week end) in advance.
Source: Comtex
How are they creating value?
• Personalized online services providing easy access to the information
suitably stored for the corporate travelers.
• Corporate travelers can book their travel with travel policies and
preferred supplier discounts applied automatically
• Full-service expert help is available 24/7 online or offline, by phone or
by email
• Robust reporting and policy management tools to evaluate corporate
travel expenses
• Service in 60 seconds or less. Guaranteed.
• Significant savings in costs for the customer who can make his
selection out of wide variety of customized services .
• The wide number of customized services can provide various options
to a customer to meet his needs.
Benefits in Financial terms
• Savings on Transaction fees upto 82%
Average service fee for Travelocity business is $20/ booking against industry
average of $31/booking
• Saving on Airfare up to 26%
The average price of air ticket for Travelocity business travel was $393 against
industry average of $542.
• Average trip savings up to $100
How are they generating these savings?
• By providing access to web fares and negotiated rates.
Customers can purchase web fares that can be as much as 20% lower
than published rate OR they can negotiate on their own.
• Sophisticated travel policy control.
The customers can find a fit between their requirements and the wide
number of travel policies thrown to them. They can strike the best bargain
easily.
• The integration of technology with the services.
The costs saved by integrating the technology with the service are
passed on to the customers. Their alliances with the suppliers coupled
with the technology enable them to compute the most attractive
packages for customers belonging to any income bracket.
Orbitz… an overview ...
• Founded in November 1999 by some of the world's
leading airlines
•
•
•
•
•
American Airlines
Continental Airlines
Delta Airlines
Northwest Airlines
United Airlines
Orbitz… an overview ...
• Orbitz website officially launched on June 4, 2001
• Giving customers access to 450 airlines, over 39,000
hotels, and 25 car rental companies
• Gross bookings of more than $1 million on its first day
and more than $3.3 million by its third day
• Within 90 days, Orbitz was the 3rd largest travel website
Initial Mission Statement: “Develop
a travel website that
would serve people better.”
Orbitz… an overview ...
• Orbitz Objectives
– Expand customer base through efficient marketing
– Increase the mix of non-air travel products
– Retain customers through superior buying experience and
customer care activities
– Establish and maintain the lowest cost structure in the
industry
– Pursue new business opportunities
Some sucess…
•
PC Magazine
Editors' Choice Award, April 20, 2004
•
Forbes.com
#1 Travel Site, August 2003
•
Customer Respect Group
#1 in online customer experience,
2004 and 2003 Online Customer
Respect Study of Airline, Travel and
Hotel/Resort Casino Companies
•
Forbes
"Best of the Web" for online travel in
2002; "Best Cruise Site" for 2003
•
Business Traveler Magazine
"Best Business Travel Website 2002“
•
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sloan eBusiness Award
2002 Rookie of the Year Award (Web
Site)
•
Time Magazine
One of the top 50 sites of 2002
•
Wired Magazine
Finalist, 2001 Readers RAVE Awards,
Best Service Site
•
PC Magazine
One of the top 100 sites of 2004,
2003, 2002 and 2001
•
Nielsen Net Ratings
Largest e-commerce launch on
record
The site
Functionalities similar to competitors
•Flights, Hotels, Cars, Cruises &
Vacations sections
•Information and bookings
•Travel tips
•Electronic Travel magazine/news
•Fare comparisons
•Currency conversion calculators
•Deal detector
•Major international and travel news
•Driving maps and directions
•Frequent flier reward program
•Personalized account
•Corporate section
•Efficient search engine
•…
The backbone of the website
• Linux-based servers (vs. mainframes)
– 750 computers in data center and still growing…
• Provides :

Flexibility

Capability to bypass the usual
channels to directly link
customers with air schedules via
Internet

Speed and cost savings over
GDS sites
Additional support
• Supplier Link
– Direct reservation system with airlines companies
– Bypasses fee-charging global distribution systems (GDS)
• Pegasus
– Hotel industry's largest third-party marketing and
reservations provider
– Connects more than 45,000 hotels to the Internet and to
the global distribution systems
Marketing
• Promotion
– Pop-under ads (ex: Times online)
– Online storefront
– Partnerships
– Print, TV & radio
– Sweepstakes
– Emails
Marketing
•
Orbitz Target Population
• Their online travel buyer
– Median age = 39
– 60% male
– Median household income =
$60,000
– 32% 18-34 years of age
– 51% have a college or post
college degree
– Average 3 leisure trips per year
– Purchasers of family vacations,
romantic getaways, guided tours,
cruises, etc.
– Over 2.5 years of online
experience
– 23% have incomes over
$100,000
– 33% have children
– 80% use Internet daily
Pioneers in marketing
• First to launch its gay
microsite (2002)
• Gay travel-rewards
programs
• Ads on Bravo's “Queer
Eye for the Straight Guy”
Services
• Offer the widest selection of low airfares
• Efficient search engine that scans more than 455 airlines
• Orbitz Matrix Display: provides an unbiased listing of airfares
and other rates
• Corporate services (ex:
)
• Bonus airline mile awards
• Credit Card Reward Program (Orbitz Platinum MasterCard)
Value creation
• Customers
– Decrease of searching costs through mediation of the
information
– Enables price transparency
– Provides better prices to the consumer
– Empowers consumers in their buying process
– Provides a new purchasing channel
– Reduces power & costs of traditional intermediaries
– Reduces the transaction costs
Value creation
• “Suppliers”
– Allows some savings related to the reservation system
(savings near to $2 million in GDS fees in less than 1 year at Northwest)
– Reduces commission and distribution costs
“When Buying On-line, Does Price Really
Matter?”
Joan Morris MIT & Paul P. Maglio IBM Almaden Research Center (06/12/2000)
• “when a parameter is ranked more important than
price, its value is considered to be a requirement for
purchase.
• “If the parameter is ranked less important than price,
the acceptable ranges can be seen as preferences
rather than requirements.”
OTA – Expenditures
• Online bookers spent $300 more on travel during
2003 than they did in 2002.
• 2003 average expenditures = $2,600 each
– 75% buying airline tickets
– 71% buying accommodations (up 57% from 2002)
– 42% for car rentals
Source: www.clickz.comstats/markets/travel/print.php/3304691
OTA – Size
• 2/3 of 96 million people who traveled in 2002 used the internet to
plan & research
– Same results for 2004
• In 2001, NA online travel sales approached US 1.2 billion
representing nearly 1/3 of all e-commerce transactions (Nielsen
NetRatings)
• In 2002, OTA sales was US16.8 billion or 23% of total airline
passenger sales
• For every online dollar sold, OTAs generated 60 cent for ticket
purchased via phone, fax, or in person.
• Airline portals accounted for 21% of online air travel revenues in
1996 and, through the development of more services, the airlines
increased this to 60% of the OTA market by 2001.
Source: www.clickz.com/stats/markets/travel/print.php/3304691
OTA – Travel Site Surfing
Reach = % of surfers visiting travel sites
Unique audience from home grew by 27% to 60.4 million in
November 2003 over 2002
Source: www.clickz.com/stats/markets/travel/print.php/3304691
OTA – Travel Site Loyalty
• On average, household that browse a category initially visit only…2 to 3
travel sites per month
• 42% of travel shoppers were observed as being loyal to just one as
opposed to 70% of shoppers for book and cd sites
Source: How do people Evaluate a Web Site’s Credibility? Fogg et al, Stanford university, updated Nov. 11, 2002
OTA –Loyalty
• 65% of online travel shoppers are not brand loyal
– 46% of Expedia visitors also went to Travelocity and 44% went to
Orbitz
– 50% of Travelocity visitors went to Orbitz and 59% went to Expedia
– 56% of Orbitz visitors went to Expedia and 50% went to Travelocity
Source: www.clickz.com/stats/markets/travel/print.php/3304691 & 149551
• Travel sites are most evaluated by customer services
they offer
– followed by brand name recognition & reputation then by
information structure
– Least commented on information bias
Source: On the Depth and Dynamics of Online Search Behaviour, Johnson, Moe,, Fader et al, Columbia Business School, Aug. 2001
ONLINE TRAVEL ADVERTISING…
ACCORDING TO NIELSEN//NETRATINGS, November 19, 2002
Top 10 Travel Advertisers
Nielsen//NetRatings’ Week in Review (04/11/04)
Company
Impressions
(000)
InterActiveCorp (Expedia)
239,876
Sabre Holdings Inc. (Travelocity)
186,032
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc.
107,437
Cendant Corporation (private)
101,833
Viacom Inc
71,910
Hyatt Hotels Corporation
57,636
Orbitz
50,158
UAL Corporation
32,217
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
26,196
Elite Island Resorts
24,110
Top 10 Online Travel Destinations
Nielsen//NetRatings’ Week in Review (04/11/04)
Property
Unique Audience
(000)
Active Reach
(%)
Time Per Person
(hh:mm:ss)
MapQuest
5,774
5.13
0:06:15
Expedia
3,027
2.69
0:09:58
Orbitz.com
1,956
1.74
0:07:56
Travelocity
1,952
1.74
0:08:22
Southwest Airlines
1,242
1.10
0:09:11
Hotels.com
1,180
1.05
0:06:35
Priceline
948
0.84
0:07:03
AOL Travel
936
0.83
0:11:13
American Airlines
935
0.83
0:16:14
Yahoo! Travel
898
0.80
0:02:41
Conclusion
•
Internet travel market size to increase
•
Power shift towards the consumer away from airlines and intermediaries
•
Value is created through dissemination of information and lower
transaction costs.
•
Value is captured with added services and cheaper fares
•
Standardization of industry – OpenTravel
– Further reduction of costs
– Increased cooperation
• e.g. new packages
• Smaller players will be able to network better
•
Major players will dominate
•
Smaller sites will evolve by offering specialized services
•
Consolidation