By EyeforTravel.com Correspondent in MunichA spate of travel websites especially in the travel planning arena or so called Travel 3.0 intelligent agents are getting launched.

Published: 15 Oct 2008

By EyeforTravel.com Correspondent in Munich

A spate of travel websites especially in the travel planning arena or so called Travel 3.0 intelligent agents are getting launched.

The entire industry, including various social media sites, is taking notice, and acknowledges that there is possibility of making natural progression and inducting some of the features from such sites.

Holidaycheck AG's managing director International Friedrich von Scanzoni says, "We'll see what the consumer really appreciates and which features will become standard applications for the established travel sites."

About his company, he said HolidayCheck successfully started web 2.0 in the travel space in Germany.

"We are the most successful UGC travel site in Germany. We are delivering added value to our users and are collecting an enormous amount of structured UCG. This enables us to go the next step towards intelligent web 3.0 applications, by analysing this content," said Scanzoni, a speaker during the Sales and Marketing in Travel Summit Europe 2008, being held in Munich.

It is said that for user-generated content sites to be successful businesses, they need to facilitate a purchase decision making process. For his part, Scanzoni says, "The decision making process is a clearly defined part of the value chain. Earlier, it was mainly influenced by advertising, catalogues, and travel agencies. Nowadays, the UGC-sites as HolidayCheck take this part."

During his presentation, Scanzoni also spoke about reviews as an objective base for purchase decisions and referring to following: Authentic, up to date descriptions; Marks for all categories; Free text within given structures; Information about the evaluator and the booked journey; Direct connection to maps, weather etc.; Manual refinement of the content.

Plus, he also referred to user reviews as a quality management tool for hoteliers.

"Hoteliers are using hotel reviews for quality management. There is an early warning with respect to quality problems. Transparency creates more credibility," he said.

Ritesh Gupta,
EyeforTravel.com