Travel Trends

The next instalment of Travel Massive is happening in Sydney next Wednesday, May 23. Organiser Ian Cumming said: "We've got two web start ups demo'ing but we'll still be keeping the night informal." More …

Google is claiming that "more than half of Australia's (adult) population now owns a smartphone. According to a study Google conducted with Ipsos Media CT, Australia’s smartphone penetration is now 52%, up from 37% last year. More …

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has just relaunched its website after 10 months of development and testing. Features include a new, simpler booking engine, social media integration and a design based around the full-screen use of destination images. There are also mobile versions of Shangri-La.com for iPhone, Android and Blackberry users.

Travelzoo Australia has grown its audience by more than 20% in the past year and has now reached 700,000 subscribers. A major catalyst has been the launch of Local Deals in April 2011, which continues to attract new subscribers. Travelzoo's main product is the weekly Top 20 email newsletter.

The Aussie dollar tonight slipped below parity with the $US for the first time in 2012, falling to 99.80 cents in early evening trade. Analyst predict it could go lower and perhaps impact on the booming outbound Aussie tourism trade. More at SMH.

The explosive power of Facebook almost blew up the reputation of a small Tasmanian eco-lodge  when a deal pushed through Facebook Offers rapidly got out of control, overwhelming the operators and sparking allegations of spamming. But as the dust settles,  it appears the marketing experiment may have been worth it after all for Huon Bush Retreats, which according to Facebook now has 4559 'Likes', while the campaigns reached 3.6m users. More …

Wotif.com founder Graeme Wood's foray into the media has got off to a rocky staff with well-known journalist Monica Attard, launch editor of  The Global Mail, an online magazine Wood is backing, sacked after just 14 weeks. Wood has publicly committed $15m to the 'independent journalism' venture. SMH story.

Further evidence has emerged that Australia’s so-called Group Buying sector peaked last year and is struggling to regain momentum after significant falls in interest and transactions. Hitwise analyst Tim Lovitt told Group Buying Summit delegates in Sydney that visits to the Top 10 GB websites maxed out last September and are now back to April 2010 levels. “This suggests to us that everyone interested in the current group buying/daily deal model has been touched,” he said. The Hitwise findings support transaction based research from Quantium released in March.

SiteMinder will use a $5 million investment by Bailador Investment Management to fuel international growth. Managing Director Mike Ford said: "The additional capital will allow us to quickly build on an already strong European presence, underpinned by the success of our London office which we opened in 2010. More …

It's becoming clear that Jetstar, on many levels, can no longer be strictly considered a budget or low cost carrier on  any other basis than its 'would you like fries with that?' fare structure. More …

Investors were expecting more growth from online accommodation site Wotif.com, which today said it expected profit to increase by 9% to 13% this financial year. Its share price slipped 5% as a result – not the outcome you'd assume management was looking for when it revealed the figures.

Where’s the outrage, the angst, the anger? The self- righteousness that is routinely hurled upon the mainstream media by self-appointed watchdogs when the old guard put so much as a toe out of line? I refer to the potential corruption of social media through the pay for post strategy – either through cash or inducements – increasingly adopted by the travel industry. More …

Cameron Poolman

Australia’s largest online auction house, GraysOnline, has bought the Ubid4rooms.com website and will use it as the platform for a new, branded hotel booking site to be launched in June.

GraysOnline.com is a top 10 Australian retail website, especially strong in wine, which attracts 1.1m unique visitors each month. Ubid4rooms, which has been seeking a buyer for a long time, auctions hotel rooms.

CEO Cameron Poolman said the company "had been interested in expanding into the accommodation market for some time. Ubid’s business model is fully scalable and would suit most tourism product, both domestically and internationally.” More …

Expedia and Booking.com are profiting from new products designed to capture demand generated by an accelerated trend toward ‘just in time’ hotel or car bookings. Priceline CEO Jeffrey Boyd told CNBC that travelers are “starting to defer their decision making, knowing they’ll be able to get a deal at the last minute”. More …

Business has slumped at Jetset Travelworld with the retail group advising shareholders that Total Transaction Value for March and April is below last year."The company has experienced a softening in consumer demand during what is traditionally a strong trading period," an official ASX statement said. It added that QBT (Qantas Business Travel) continues to lose money. A company "review" is under way.

Booking.com has increased its Australian online market share by 70% in just under 12 months and is now challenging Wotif and TripAdvisor for the top spot in the Experian Hitwise web rankings for the Destinations and Accommodation category. Wotif's market share has dropped 12% over the same period. The market share of Booking.com is now 5.81% compared with 3.41% last April. Wotif is at 6.15%, down from 7.01% over the same period. More …

Chinese money is behind the acquisition of Lindeman Island, the former Club Med property. It was bought for a reported $12m by William Han, Chairman of White Horse Holdings (Australia), which has "strong ties" to the White Horse Group, a major Chinese advertising and media company. "We are looking at a range of options to reinvigorate the island," Mr Han said.

Matt Moran

Celebrities such as chef Matt Moran and singer Shannon Noll were paid to endorse Kangaroo Island on Twitter by the South Australian Tourism Commission, MediaWatch has revealed. It published an email from a publicist to clients which read: "They are looking for high profile celebrities with a high twitter following to tweet about Kangaroo Island. They will pay $750 plus gst for one tweet. They don’t want to tweet to appear endorsed, rather an organic mention, injecting your own personality into the tweet." See Mumbrella story.

Stayz.com.au has claimed its experiment with deeply discounted 'Daily Deals' has been successful, providing  "great insights that will be used to support longer term product plans," according to Marketing Director Ali Cassim, who added that the campaign also had a real pay off in terms of building a social media fan base and brand awareness. More …

We're so used to hearing about the hot Indian travel market – especially outbound – it comes as a surprise to hear that India's domestic hotels are struggling with falls in average occupancy (-4.3%), rate (-4.1%) and revenue per available room (-8.2%) in the first quarter of 2012. "This trend started in the middle of last year and reflects  increases in supply and slow absorption rates," said STR Global MD Elizabeth Randall.