Online Travel Guides

1
Online Travel Guides

• Fodors, Lonely Planet, and InfoHub
• (Group 6)

2
Travel Guide Industry

• Retail market - 125 Billion
• E-commerce market - 2 Billion

3
How do they make money?

• Physical and virtual booksellers
• - Lonely Planet
• - Fodors
• - 5 and up
• Intermediary between travel agents and tour
  operators
• InfoHub
• Agents, 99 per year license fee
• Operators, 199 per year license fee

4
How they make (cont.)

• Shift to infomediated markets
• Redeployment of marketing dollars
• From product-centric to customer-centric brands
• Move to collaboration marketing

5
Brand/Product Mix Fodors

• Products
• Travel Guide Books
• Fodors Gold Guides
• Best Bed Breakfasts
• Cityguides
• Citypacks

• Brands
• Compass American Guides
• Exploring Guides
• Flashmaps
• Gay Guides
• Karen Brown Guides
• Languages for Travelers
• Mobil Travel Guides
• Pocket Guides
• Rivages Guides
• UpClose Guides

6
Brand/Product Mix -Lonely Planet-

• Products
• Travel Guide Books
• Travel Atlases
• City Guide
• Pisces Diving and Snorkeling
• Journeys Travel Literature

• Brands
• Phrasebook Language Guides
• Illustrated Pictorials
• Shoestring Guides
• Travel Guides
• TravelTalk Audio Packs
• Travel Videos
• Walking Guides
• Lonely Planet 1999 Calendars

7
Brand/Product Mix InfoHub

• Products
• Intermediary
• Tour Operator Service Program

• Brand
• Tour Agency Advantage Program

8
Alliances--Hagel and Armstrong

• Strong distribution capability, brand awareness
  and off-line sales
• Owners of related published content aids
• Potential competitors to build community

9
Fodors Alliances

• Internet
• Preview Travel
• AOL
• Excite
• Yahoo

• Other
• OnStar
• Rand McNally
• CNN
• Discovery Channel
• Spatial Data Sciences
• American Airlines
• American Society of Travel Agents

10
Alliances (cont.)

• Lonely Planet
• Travelocity
• AOL
• Yahoo
• Virgin Travel
• American Express
• The London Observer
• Swiss Air
• InfoHub
• Amazon

11
Uses of the Internet

• Sales (books, package vacations,)
• Information
• Travel and planning tips
• Travel links
• Language resources
• Traveler bulletin boards
• Health information
• Maps and news letters

12
Management Issues

• Alliances
• Travel Trends
• Advertising

13
Recommendations

• Alliances
• Seek out companies w/ similar target audiences
• Travel Trends
• Recognize motives of target audience
• Advertising
• Don't be greedy!