Tuesday, March 17, 2009

What is Travelocity's Roaming Gnome Planning?

The Travolution Blog speculates that Travelocity's dropping of air booking fees for consumers could be offset in some way if Travelocity ramps up its media business and launches a metasearch product of its own. Travolution is betting that Travelocity has this metasearch plan ups its sleeves.
It would be a logical move for Travelocity, which could enhance its Ratefinder tool on IgoUgo by integrating a metasearch offering there.
And, it would be a big reversal for Travelocity to go with a metasearch product as the OTA always has argued that travel companies shouldn't put too much focus on price.
Does anyone remember the conference several years ago when then-Travelocity CEO Michelle Peluso mixed it up with Kayak's Steve Hafner over the future of metasearch? As the world turns....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great content - the behind-the-scenes travel industry can be an unending maze - but you make sense of it.

Hudson Crossing said...

Of course I remember! I was the moderator! Michelle's quip calling Steve "Skipper" is now legend!

Agree that the $ will have to come from somewhere - media may be part of the answer for Travelocity but where does it leave OWW?

Dennis Schaal said...

Well Travelocity's own skipper has abandoned ship, and the world has changed, with the media biz going hog-wild:)

For OWW? They have some options, but probably they are very limited.