Technology corner

Step into the future with Web 2.0!

In 2006, something called Web 2.0 arrived with a bang and left no part of the world untouched. Web 2.0 encouraged and enabled the creation of global virtual communities, and at three high-profile travel-industry conferences held in the last half of 2006 - PhoCusWright, FVW, and Travolution - travel's key players, innovators and leaders debated
almost nothing else.

And if there was one single consensus it was this: there is a revolution going on in the travel industry, and Web 2.0 is the catalyst.

The revolution is the ability to share information instantly - working together on a scale never seen before - because Web 2.0 is essentially built around and 'activating' people, not pages of information passively received. Web 2.0 brings together the contributions of millions of people, in theory everyone who is connected to the Internet.

YouTube and similar video-sharing sites spread ideas and images instantly (and cheaply), and the result could be compared to a kind of global telepathy. When you think about it creatively, you see the incredible opportunity for promotional campaigns! Just imagine the positive effect a customer-filmed perfect holiday could have on thousands or millions of users.

Esteban Walther, Google's head of Travel Europe, suggested that user-generated content sites like TripAdvisor would soon be able to run video reviews as well as text-based ones (travelistic.com and turnhere.com are the YouTube of the travel industry). If the current pay per click model is extended to video advertisements, promotional material will be able to stay on air as long as it generates sufficient booking revenue. The success of online campaigns is easier to track, and this change is likely to result in increasingly differentiated and targeted campaigns.

Simply put, Web 2.0 is for the people. You no longer have to be an IT specialist to incorporate new interactive features that you see on leading web pages all over the internet. And they are easily embedded. Options such as downloading templates and outsourcing for small fees mean that this technology is available to anyone.

At the moment, Web 2.0 is a big social experiment which could fail - it faces many challenges, including copyright and information overload problems. If Web 1.0 was characterised by too little information, Web 2.0 could be accused of the reverse.

Nevertheless, so far Web 2.0 seems to be taking giant strides forward, and the travel industry is making sure that it's not being left behind. Many of our customers are already incorporating the features that Web 2.0 offers and, as your technology partner, we make sure that our products allow you to make use of this new medium to its fullest advantage. We are certain that, over the next year, we can look forward to the birth of a more innovative, differentiated and personalised travel industry. Welcome Travel 2.0!

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