MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Sunshine
plans Spain
themed sites
Sunshine.co.uk is developing
two further sites, which it
plans to launch within the
next few weeks.
The company has been
sourcing unique content,
such as destination guides
and hotel descriptions from
local experts, for the two
sites: Majorca.co.uk and
Tenerife.co.uk.
Sunshine co-founder and
managing director Chris
Brown said both new sites
would carry similar branding
to the Sunshine site.
The planned launches
follow the development of
Familyholidays.co.uk, which
was unveiled in the summer.
Brown was speaking as
Sunshine unveiled figures for
the past year showing an
increase in passenger
numbers from 55,000 to
61,000 as well as revenue up
from £12 million to £15.4
million. So far in January, the
company has booked 6,200
passengers with turnover of
£1.7 million and Brown said
he hoped to reach between
9,000 and 10,000 passengers
by the end of the month.
Octopus to
expand hotel
deals on eBay
OctopusTravel.com and eBay
have announced an alliance
to expand the online auction
company’s travel category.
The deal will see Octopus
provide 50,000 hotel listings
through the UK online market
via a co-branded “store”.
Auction listings will start
from 99p and there will also
be ‘buy it now’ full price
listings, upgrade deals
and special offers.
The OctopusTravel store
will be promoted through a
combination of paid search
and targeted advertising
14 | Travel Weekly | January 29 2010
A ROUND-UP OF THIS WEEK’S TOP NEWS FOR THOSE DRIVING THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL
across the eBay network.
To mark the partnership,
eBay is launching with an
auction in aid of The Prince’s
Trust youth charity.
Cold weather
sparks ski
web searches
Skiing and snowboarding
websites have experienced a
surge in traffic following the
recent cold spell in the UK,
according to Experian Hitwise.
Visits to snow sports sites
increased 18.5% for the week
ending January 9 compared
with the same period last year.
Robin Goad, research
director of Experian Hitwise,
the online market analyst, said
ski and snowboard-related
searches had also seen an
increase, up 7% year on year.
UK internet searches for
Scottish ski resorts increased
faster than for any other ski
destination, with a fourfold
rise in searches for Glenshee,
which was the most searchedfor
ski resort by Britons in the
week ending January 9.
Morzine in the French Alps
was the third most popular
resort in terms of searches,
as well as the most popular
overseas ski destination
searched for in the same week.
Sol Melia
adds mobile
booking tool
Spanish hotel giant Sol Melia
has teamed up with Mobile
Travel Technologies (MTT) to
offer customers a mobile
booking service.
The service, available in
English and Spanish, uses
MTT’s m2bed technology
enabling customers to book
a hotel, access pictures and
property details, and locate
the hotel on Google maps.
The technology directs
users to the service relevant to
their country and is optimised
for their mobile device.
AD FIRM BRACED
FOR US ARRIVAL
British targeted advertising firm Adgenie expects American
players to move into UK within a year. By LEE HAYHURST
Targeted advertising
technology firm Adgenie
estimates it has 12 months
before US giants move in on
the UK market.
The firm is already
working with some leading
travel brands, and talks with
major household names are
at an advanced stage with
further deals expected to be
announced soon.
Managing director Martin
Connolly said firms were
coming round to the benefits
of targeted advertising which,
he claimed, had been shown
to increase click-throughs by
at least three times.
He added that travel
retail was potentially an
ideal sector for contextual
advertising due to the
product range and multiple
destinations often involved.
“Dynamic targeted
adverts represent 0.5% of ad
spend in the UK,” he said.
“We have been at this for
three-and-a-half years, as
much as anything waiting
for the market to buy into
more targeted advertising.
Fraudulent ‘TripAdvisor’
reviewers pester hoteliers
Hoteliers are being plagued
by firms promising to post
positive reviews on sites such
as TripAdvisor in return for a
monthly fee.
The companies claim to
be able to post reviews from
different places around the
globe to avoid being picked
up by protection put in place
by review sites.
Ray Rock of the
Llandudno-based Headlands
Hotel said the practice risked
bringing the credibility of
“We are a small business
and it’s been difficult but we
are starting to get traction
because some US firms are
starting to do some similar
things and people are
starting to take notice.”
The recent buyout of USbased
Teracent by Google for
$500 million is a clear sign
the technology giants have
serious ambitions in this
area, Connolly said.
“It’s unusual for a
company over here to be
more advanced than in
the US, but I think we have
around 12 months before the
Americans arrive,” he added.
review sites into question.
“I have not bothered with
it because it’s dishonest and
I would rather stand on a just
reputation,” he said.
He claimed one hotel had
even received reviews before
opening to the public.
Alison Copus, TripAdvisor’s
marketing vice-president
for Europe, said the integrity
of its reviews was protected
through a screening process
prior to posting, in-house
technology, and users
More business commentary and market intelligence on www.travolution.co.uk
Adgenie claims contextual
advertising, linked to search
terms or users’ log-on
details, raises the effectiveness
of display advertising,
allowing firms to reduce
their pay-per-click costs.
Its technology means
one template advert can
be created which pulls
in details relating to an
advertisers’ full range
of product.
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reporting suspicious activity.
“We have several of these
companies on our radar
already, and the properties
have been penalised
appropriately,” she said.
“Using these services is
against our rules and will
result in penalties.”
Copus claimed attempts to
post fraudulent information
on TripAdvisor were unlawful
and rare because hoteliers
understood they were risking
their reputation.
www.travelweekly.co.uk
PICTURE: ISTOCK
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