Thank you so much for getting back to me, and sorry that I may have come across as spam I know that feeling all too well, I am enjoying your site and have gone back to older post to see if I could get further information from there, I will try not comment all at once and rather visit on a daily basis instead.

Thanks for all the information again like that saying goes you learn something new every day

We get 100s of spam comments a day, plus lots of fake comments that are simply after link-juice from the search engines.

Apologies if genuine comments got caught up in that and glad you find the blog useful!

Thanks

Vicky

I have been here before and commented but I see that I have been moderated I hope that this is not for too long as I am learning a bit here.

Thanks in advance.

This gap needs to be closed, however, if the travel planning and research experience is to become better, and starts to be based on personal preferences by travelers rather than commercial distribution relationships by suppliers.

It just shows, how much still needs to happen until the benefits of the web, based on connected, intelligent data are put to use for the online traveler. It’s going to be interesting to watch the developments in this area in 2009 and beyond.

I suspect when PhoCusWright were talking about the Long Tail in Travel they had something very specific in mind – from carriers and operators to hotel chains and distributors. That’s absolutely right and fair enough, because it fitted the parameters of their conference and the clientele for whom they are delivering industry analysis.

But I agree with you that the reality of the long tail encompasses everything from hospitality, arts and culture, attractions, leisure services – businesses that would perhaps say they are in tourism – but not travel.

Tyson, I suspect that there is possibly room for accommodation (pardon the pun) between the big and small guys – the small guys have the niche destination level product but the big guys have access to the wider transport options.

Alex – nice point and one that made me wonder tangentially whether Eric Schmidt’s observation applied to travel anyway or whether travel displays different characteristics. I’ll assume not but it’s question nevertheless.

Many travel companies in the long tail don’t actually consider themselves travel companies at all…. they could be art gallery guides, activity organisers etc….

Few, if surveyed, would say they are travel companies.

Would be interested to know what the criteria are for being considered a travel company

I don’t think it will be Tripadvisor/Expedia. I think we’ll see more niche providers and aggregators who focus specifically on long tail products. The expedia model is too focused on flight/car/hotel and their interface doesn’t lend itself to long-tail trips.

I’m also anticipating more consolidation among long tail providers. The rise of successful, branded tour operators (e.g. Intrepid Travel, GAP Adventures) makes me think that there are some real economies of scale for tour operators.

The means to tap into pre-existing critical mass, economies of scale etc.

Do you see Tripadvisor/Expedia as the candidate to deliver on that – given the almost Amazon like dominance Tripadvisor has built in its market space – or could you even see someone like Amazon themselves entering into ravel distribution/retail?