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July Special

Poll results agree with us:
Agents are still important

A recent poll of business and leisure travelers by Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown (YP&B) confirmed something we’ve been saying all along: Travel agents are still important to a significant percentage of travelers, particularly older, more affluent ones. The YP&B report, published April 30, said that 53% of leisure travelers use the Internet to seek out fare and rate information, and that 32% of leisure travelers used the Internet to book travel within the previous 12 months. But, it continued, 33% of all travelers still use agents to book their travel, especially trips of any complexity, such as vacations. What’s at work here is that leisure travelers – not travel industry gurus – are deciding for themselves just how far they’ll trust the Internet. Yes, they’ll use it to book fares for simple itineraries, but the more experienced and wealthy among them know to turn to savvy humans for the best degree of service.

A radical new way to fly --- it could change our industry forever 

Travelers, travel agents and even the airline themselves know that the current system of loading passengers onto uncomfortable, overloaded jumbo-jet pig boats and flying them through hubs has got to go.. The problem is, what will replace them? For an answer, go read two excellent articles on the topic at the URLs listed below. The future lies in the manufacture of small jets (six-to-eight seats) that can ply the 5,000 private airports around the U.S. Travelers will pay about what they pay commercial airlines now to have one of these jets fly them from a small regional airstrip straight to another field near their final destination. No pre-flight security hassles, no waiting for luggage, no boorish flight attendants or rushing to make connections at a hub. Check it out:

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/06/fallows.htm 
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20020601/24256.html 

Is it time to think about Mandarin and Español?

Even though English speakers dominate the Internet, that state of affairs will soon pass. Spanish is rapidly closing in on English as the world’s third most-spoken language (322 million vs. 366 million; Mandarin Chinese is number-one at 876 million and Hindi is second at 366 million.) True, English is now the world’s lingua franca. But as other nations, such as India, Brazil, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, develop first-world economies, their own languages will come to dominate their markets. That’s why smart tour operators and travel agents are beginning to develop foreign-language versions of their web sites to attract both immigrant and overseas business. The Canadians have been doing English/French for years, and operators in the U.S.’s big cities are also learning to set up web sites in Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog and Chinese.

Hey, do like Travelzoo do!

Travelzoo’s “fastclick” feature (http://top20.travelzoo.com/fastclick/), where visitors can find this week’s “top 20 travel deals on the Internet,” is a great idea because it plants package ideas in travelers’ minds. Admittedly, most of what’s offered is standard resort (Orlando, Puerta Vallarta, Bahamas, etc.) or low-cost air ticket stuff, but at least people get a chance to spot a bargain or consider a trip they might not have before. That’s why we keep encouraging tour operators to list their latest trips and packages for free with us. People often don’t know what they want until somebody presents them with an attractive idea. Go to www.culturalTravels.net/Services for details on how to list with us.

How will people make bucks on the Internet?

After having 70% of respondents in one of their surveys say there’s no content on the Internet they’d pay for, the folks at Jupiter Media Matrix (JMXI: news) think it’s safe to say that nobody besides online retailers is destined to make any money from the Internet.  For now, we think they’re right. As long as people can get information for free, they’ll insist on getting it for free. The problem is that somebody’s gotta pay for all those content-rich web sites, the same way people have to pay for newspapers or magazines. Look for three money-making techniques: 1.) Continue the current “controlled circulation” approach where advertisers foot the bill for a guaranteed number of readers. 2.) Watch for Internet surfers to use “electronic wallets” (cyber bank accounts using wireless technology to stay current in real time) to gain entrance to information-rich sites, paying perhaps a penny or nickel to come in. 3.) Watch Internet information providers understand that the Internet is a loss-leader designed to drive people to the “real things:” books, printed newsletters, commissioned services and data for sale. 

Aug. newsletter ranges from Paris to Crocodile Dundee’s Digs

The August issue of our online newsletter, The Cultured Traveler, will cover sites from Paris’ Centre Pompidou art museum to Kakadu National Park, the enormous Northern Australian wilderness where the man upon whom Paul Hogan based his Crocodile Dundee character first achieved fame. Our theme, “The World’s Greatest Museums,” will survey why the top museums reached membership in their elite category. We’ll also cover “up-and-coming” museums that by dint of endowment, architecture or specialty are worthy of travelers’ looks. Our August festival takes place Santa Catalina Island in Southern California, and our World Heritage site will tell readers about a northern European city in the Caribbean. Then, toss in a few articles by our growing number of contributing writers. We think you’ll enjoy our version of late summer reading. It’ll be online at the end of July.