Take-off for Google Flight Search in UK

Posted on 20 March, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Take-off for Google Flight Search in UK

by Lee Hayhurst

Google has rolled out Flight Search in the UK as part of a first move into international markets.

The product, which is the result of Google’s controversial buyout of software firm ITA, has been live in the US since September 2011.

Its speed and ability to search for flights according to a diverse range of criteria has made it the source of much speculation, although Google has not rolled it out as quickly as expected.

However, today’s launch in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands with local pricing and in eight languages ends speculation that Google has reined in its ambitions for Flight Search.

The main difference between the US and UK product is the absence of a commercial unit that sits at the top of natural search results.

Google said it was assessing this before deciding whether or not to include this in its international version.

Other than that the non-US version is an exact copy, the Google spokesman saying it was aimed at people in the early stages of research when they do not know where they want to go.

Using a map-based interface, Flight Search allows users to filter their results based on how much they want to spend and flight time.

The biggest omission for the European market is the absence of Ryanair and easyJet, although Google said negotiations were ongoing.

In terms of fulfilment partners, Google has struck deals with a number of European intermediaries including Bravo Fly, Budget Air and fly.co.uk.

The Google spokesman said: “These are big markets. The plan with all our products is to go global as quickly as we can.

“With something as complex as flights there are a lot more partners to negotiate with. This is the first market beyond the US, but logic would suggest there are more to come.”

Advertising watchdog rap for Tripadvisor

Posted on 1 February, 2012 by Spacejunkie2

Advertising watchdog rap for Tripadvisor

A complaint about the authenticity of Tripadvisor reviews has been upheld by UK watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority.

The complaint by online reputation specialist KwikChex Ltd centred on the site’s claims of the authenticity and trustworthiness of its reviews.

Tripadvisor had claimed the site featured more than “50 million honest travel reviews and opinions from real travellers around the world”.

But Kwikchex and two other hotels challenged this arguing the site could not guarantee that its reviews were genuine or from real travellers.

Tripadvisor has always maintained that its trustworthiness is demonstrated by the high levels of traffic that the site gets and that its community helps to weedle out fake or spurious reviews.

It also claims to constantly monitor reviews itself and utilise “highly effective fraud detection systems, and dedicated substantial resources to identifying and minimising any non-genuine content”.

The website claimed the small number of fake reviews that do get through its processes meant their impact was negligible because travellers read dozens of reviews before making a decision.

It added that there was a “healthy scepticism” of user reviews in general and that “mitigated the effect of any fraudulent content that might occasionally come to a user’s attention”.

In its submission Tripadvisor said due to the non-transactional nature of its model it was not possible to verify every reviewer by reference to credit card or reservation details.

However the ASA upheld the complaint saying: “We told TripAdvisor not to claim or imply that all the reviews that appeared on the website were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted.”

The ruling stated: “…we understood that reviews could be placed on the site without any form of verification, and that whilst TripAdvisor took steps to monitor and deal with suspicious activity, it was possible that non-genuine content would appear on the site undetected.

“We noted that TripAdvisor allowed hoteliers a ‘right of reply’ to critical or negative reviews posted on the site and that they believed that users of the site had a healthy scepticism as a result of their experience of review sites more generally.

“However, we did not consider that consumers would necessarily be able to detect and separate non-genuine reviews from genuine content, particularly where a hotel or other establishment had not received many reviews, and nor did we consider that a hotelier’s response in itself would go far enough to alert consumers to, and moderate, non-genuine content.”

Kwikchex has issued a second separate complains against Tripadvisor claiming that third party sites that use Tripadvisor reviews to promote their product are breaking existing rules if they are not able to verify the author of those reviews.

Since the UK investigation started Tripadvisor has already stopped using the word “trusted “ to describe itself on its website.

Tourism body hits out at Cameron campaign

Posted on 24 September, 2011 by Spacejunkie2

Tourism body hits out at Cameron campaign

Sep 23, 2011 08:00AM GMT

Prime Minister David Cameron’s ‘GREAT’ tourism marketing campaign has been lambasted for falling “far short” of the efforts needed to encourage inbound tourism into the UK.

Inbound operators gave a lukewarm reception to the initiative and called for more action and less words from politicians.

UKinbound chief executive Mary Rance said: “Once again, the government has come up with a great slogan, but no tangible measures to offset the negative perceptions potential tourists have of the UK.

“One month after the riots, foreign markets still have concerns and it is imperative to restore faith in the UK as a safe and secure destination and even more importantly, to ease the barriers to travel that incoming tourists still face.”

She added: “Our industry would rather see politicians’ take actions to address the barriers tourists face when trying to travel to the UK and come up with workable solutions, rather than spend so much time and effort papering over the cracks with slogans and catchphrases.

“It is vital that the government and industry as a whole work together to address some of the key factors which continue to deter potential visitors from visiting the UK, namely punishing airport departure taxes, crippling rates of VAT on accommodation and other services, and cumbersome visa application processes in key emerging markets.”

Almost half of UKinbound members reported that the riots had an immediate impact within the first few days of the disturbances occurring, albeit to a limited extent in most cases.

Examples cited in a survey included cancellations of confirmed bookings from clients overseas, particularly from the Middle East, China and Germany. The student market was also more concerned than other parties.

But the vast majority of members surveyed feel that riots will have minimal impact on their business long term, provided there is not a reoccurrence.

Instead, more than two thirds of those surveyed think the London 2012 Olympics will have a more detrimental effect on their businesses over the next 12 months, according to the poll conducted by Qa Research