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Over the last few months we have been working with around a dozen or so attractions, tour operators, travel agents and chain accommodation providers with the overall aim of using in depth analysis to optimise their online performance.
You know, the very stuff we bang on about all the time in this blog. Usability. Conversion. Analytics tied to revenue tracking. Campaign return on investment. All the critical online fundamentals that either save money or generate revenue/visitor satisfaction.
But, what we have found, is that compared to a straight e-commerce business this has been technically far harder to achieve for the tourism businesses.
So hard that it has kept us away from the blog that we love as we have dived deeper into data, code and various site architectures than is healthy before lunch – and for site after site.
And so this post is an exploration (and a plea for your thoughts) on why that may be. Why are tourism and travel businesses often technically and organisationally less able to maximise their performance from what in many cases is, or should be, their primary sales channel than say a straight e-commerce retailer?
And what can travel and tourism businesses do themselves, and through their technical suppliers, to overcome this in a way that drives efficiency in their business and improves the online user experience?
But first things first:
- This is not a blaming exercise. Common with many in the industry, each of the very successful businesses we are working with are fully bought into the idea of generating more revenue from the web and to the idea of improve their online user experience in order to generate more bookings. The type of business I refer to in this post actively wants to get better, yet encounters technical challenges nevertheless.
- Nor is this about specific organisations – each of the clients we have been working with have shared common issues, but that process has highlighted to us just how often those issues are shared by travel and tourism businesses the world over. This is about the many, not the few, and the points made here apply to general businesses in the industry, not specifically to the businesses we are working with.
- This is not just a “nice to fix”, it is a fundamental that matters to the bottom line and to the visitor experience. It is nearly 2 years ago since we reported how customers are more satisfied with submitting their tax return than booking a flight – and as an industry (perhaps with the exception of some leading Online Travel Agents and travel technologists) the online travel shopper experience isn’t getting much better.
Why is this so difficult?
So why isn’t it easier for a small to medium tourism or travel business to seize online opportunities to drive revenue, delight customers and slash operating costs? Why, even when the strong management desire is there, is implementation often so much harder than the “advising” national/regional tourism bodies might have you believe?
I don’t have the answers but I still think the question is worth tackling.
What follows are my personal thoughts and they don’t represent any one specific business (even if you do think I’m talking about you, I promise, I’m not). They may be mis-guided (do let me know) and there may be easy fixes I’m not seeing (in which case I beg you to let me know). But here are my ideas on why I think we are encountering so many technical, structural and strategic challenges now that are impeding the ability of travel and tourism businesses to fully succeed online.
1. Travel and tourism rarely thinks of itself as an e-commerce or even an online business. After pure online retail, travel/tourism is the next biggest e-commerce revenue generator on the web. But unlike the online retailer who created a business purely focussed on the web, many tourism businesses have evolved stealthily into e-commerce businesses – so stealthily they may have barely noticed and do not have a rolling development strategy in place.
And for those for whom the majority of priorities/staff are involved in offline servicing of real-world visitors, it is no surprise that the businesses doesn’t think or behave like an e-commerce business – even when it is. But the danger of not thinking in those terms is that the tourism business puts up with far lower proportions of direct online bookings than it could achieve (significant given this is typically the cheapest sales channel). It may also fail to deliver the customer the level and quality of online self-servicing that the visitor actually desires.
This isn’t unique to travel though – think of the traditional high street retailer like Marks and Spencer, or the cinema like Vue – these too have “evolved” into e-commerce businesses even if the bulk of their staff service customers offline. It is possible to do this with great success.
2. Under-investment, under-valuation and under-delivery of critical technical skills. Compared to straight e-commerce retail, where failure to deliver online means the business as a whole will fail fast (as opposed to potentially fail slowly), I believe tourism and travel has typically under-invested online as it has undervalued the channel’s contribution to the bottom line. Tied to this is then the issue that by choosing what appears to be the cheap option, businesses find themselves either experiencing a massive under-delivery of skills and service levels, or they become tied into highly inflexible systems with hidden costs. Too many times it is both.
3. No room for the online specialist. Another symptom of the undervaluation of the channel, therefore the under-investment & under-performance is that is extremely rare for a travel or tourism business to have an online or development specialist (and I refer here to businesses of a size where this could potentially be achievable). They are at a massive disadvantage compared even to far smaller retail e-commerce businesses, or to pure OTAs, where a developer/online marketer is typically sought in the early rounds of hiring.
Without any access to a trusted online specialist, there is often then an organisational lack of confidence in its technical knowledge. Negotiations with technical partners are frequently started at the outset with the admission that “I’m not technical” or “we’re not interested in how it works.” For the unscrupulous supplier this is easy pickings. For the merely incompetent it means that the lack of skills are likely to go undetected long after the damage is done (and why would the supplier both improving their skills at their own expense, if the customer doesn’t know/care either way). And for the competent supplier it is demotivating and not likely to produce their very best work.
4. The booking system barrier & ad hoc bolt ons
For many tourism and travel businesses, the website started as a fixed brochure-type site and it evolved into an e-commerce site through the addition of third party e-commerce provisions and off the shelf booking engines. There is nothing wrong with this in theory, for a site should never be viewed as finished and should be able to adapt. And there are a number of good third party party booking systems out there, including our friends at ezRez and Rezgo who are occupying very different niches in the market.
But coming back to point 2, that integration of ad hoc elements, sometimes across multiple domains and microsites, has often been clumsier and less skilful than is desirable. It has also often been reactive rather than strategic development, undertaken in isolation from overall operational planning. User experience, search engine visibility, the ability to optimise the site and general business flexibility are impacted. Businesses may find themselves paying for expensive amends to inflexible systems and set-ups, for example when they want to add web analytics tracking to transactions or want achieve bookings in fewer clicks.
Few existing providers (as opposed to new market entrants) seem to have embraced the rolling technology model, ie “we’re going to build an agile integrated, fit-for purpose system now, knowing that our needs, our customer needs and technology will be continuously evolving”. Instead, where public bodies and businesses have built their own systems, these have frequently been costly, delayed and if ever fully fit for purpose, they have become quickly outmoded.
I think part of the reason for this is educational, as outlined in the next 2 points.
5. The educational/best practice examples shown by public tourism bodies
I think that due to their political remit, it can happen that public bodies focus their technical education and training/support on the smallest operators with the simplest online challenges, at the cost of those with more complex technical needs. For example, by focusing on the small accommodation provider at the cost of the tour operator. This can create the illusion that for all organisation types “adding e-commerce” is something one-off, quick, cheap and simple – rather than something strategic, ongoing and central to business operations.
At the same time, those same public bodies issuing the advice can be amongst the worst offenders at creating the costly, giant of an outmoded site that becomes almost too expensive to walk away from (more about the sunk costs fallacy here). For the small/medium business that is looking round for an example to follow, they do not necessarily represent the best role model. So, by looking only to the existing tourism sector and its associated public/support bodies alone, it may not be possible to find the best practices and understand where the benchmark for success really should be.
6. Sectoral isolation
So, final point. I accept that travel and tourism has its unique features and challenges as a sector. But, the customer/website visitor spends more of their time on sites from other sectors – they have a holistic view. I think that when it comes to e-commerce and online best practice – and to seeking third party suppliers with good skills/reputations - the travel and tourism industry needs to look wider to fully be inspired, to understand what investment levels/supplier performance standards are required and to see where the market is moving.
Other businesses from all sorts of sectors have tackled how to get the best online results from the smallest necessary investments. They have made all the mistakes and learned valuable lessons in the process. From pizza delivery, web dvd rental and gaming, to straight retail e-commerce – businesses are proving that small teams can deliver profits and great customer service from their online investments. I think tourism needs to look at other sectors more often, not just to understand how to to fix problems, but to visualise what really good actually looks like online.
Any thoughts on how to fix this?
To conclude, yes I appreciate that only many, many levels retail e-commerce and travel/tourism e-commerce are very different beasts. For the e-commerce retailer (as for the specialist online travel firm) failure to invest and failure to get the web technology right means they fail fast. But I think that for the tourism business that doesn’t invest and doesn’t get the technology right, there is still a significant risk to the business, it is just less immediately apparent and failure plays out more slowly. Ad hoc fixes become more embedded and costly, as opposed to forming strategic rolling investments, yet feel ever harder to walk away from.
I think for those working in the field of support, education and development of tourism and travel online there are skills gaps, confidence gaps and value perceptions that need to be addressed. I’d argue that looking primarily to the simplest model of the micro-accommodation provider when delivering education/advice does no favours to the sector as a whole. There are typically far more complex e-commerce business models and configurations to be planned and invested in, demanding a higher level of technical awareness from management and a more sophisticated educational infrastructure to support them.
For the ambitious business owner determined to maximise online success, there is distinct value in talking to e-commerce retailers, as well as your tourism sector peers, when it comes to making critical decisions about suppliers, investment and online strategy. If you don’t have confidence in your own technical skills, can you find a way buy them in, share them or borrow them, so that the online channel and associated expenditure doesn’t flail around outside the control of your main operations?
But I am aware that all I have done here is highlight my take on the questions and associated problems – where do you see the solutions?
Posted by Vicky
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on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Opinion.
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20th July, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I could not agree more. A complete overhaul is needed for tourism boards and associations to work better.
Unfortunately budgets are low or badly spent.
I wrote an article a little while ago on 20 Best Practices for DMO websites…
http://www.xotels.com/en/marketing/destination-internet-marketing
I hope it helps opening some more eyes.
Thanks!
Patrick
20th July, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Great post Patrick and thanks for sharing the link. Yes budgets are low, but I believe that is why the retail e-commerce example is so valid – small budgets don’t have to be badly spent. I’ve seen e-commerce retail start ups of two people achieve in a few months precisely what larger tourism businesses should be able to achieve as standard.
I think the challenge is in delivering technical advice that is actually quite sophisticated in it nature. And maybe the associations/public bodies need specific help in that.
21st July, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hi Vicky, thanks for an excellent post, I share your immense frustration on this topic. Having been personally responsible for the promotion of a certain tourism body’s booking engine tool for small accommodation businesses, I have taken a lot of direct feedback on this topic in the past 5 years.
I would see the three key reasons are
1. Time
2. Education
3. Price
The reason that comes through strongest in resistance to adopting a meaningful online strategy is one of time. The many micro tourism businesses (and some larger ones) out there just don’t think they have enough time to dedicate to a holistic online strategy.
They would rather waste hours every day responding to numerous emails from frustrated visitors who cannot find answers on their website, than spend an hour or so updating availability or managing e-newsletters / blogs etc etc.
This is also not helped by the prevailing “membership mentality” among these businesses, who have unrealistic expectations that the tourism body should be doing this online thing for them. Yet hypocritically those with this view are only too prepared to criticise the tourism body’s attempts to modernise.
So this brings me to the next key barrier which is undoubtedly education, there is not enough of a concerted effort by the public bodies to educate tourism providers on how to make the most out of the web.
There could be more joined up effort between tourism bodies, enterprise companies and the private sector on the skills investment required and the expected returns. There is a logjam now and no-one seems to be doing much proactively to break it.
Finally, as a provider of technology solutions for the tourism industry there is a real disconnect between the necessary financial investment required and the budget expectations of small tourism businesses. We are constantly having to justify our costs (which we can because of good analytics integration and interpretation) yet these businesses are happy to throw money at newspaper campaigns or tourist bodies promotions where there is limited or none ROI information available.
Keep the faith though, if enough of us make noise about this, then we can make the breakthrough.
James
21st July, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Hi James, many thanks for your extensive comments and adding another dimension to the discussion – especially highlighting the time factor. (Perhaps another angle to the not thinking/investing like an e-commerce business?)
I am about to fly out of the door, but will respond with further thoughts on the interesting points you raise as a result of your many years taking “direct feedback” 
on the subject.
Back shortly with a more intelligible (I hope) response!
21st July, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Hi James,
Thinking about your comments some more, even beyond the specific body to which you refer, your 3 points do hit the fundamentals and advice/education is presumably by far the most potent tool to help address this.
A tourism business manager can be very good at what they do and can quite rightly argue that IT/technology isn’t high on their skills priorities in order to deliver the service fundamentals of their company. And it is easy to see how technology as it relates to marketing is probbably the easiest and most interesting/entertaining to grasp. But, managers do still bear the investment responsibility and have to pick up the pieces/costs when suppliers or specific technologies fail to perform.
A recent piece of research by eSkills UK (covering all sectors) found that SME owner/managers often determined the nature and extent of ICT investments but in nearly half of cases (72% in Scotland) acknowledge they do not have all the skills necessary to effectively judge the potential of those ICT investments.
So, right now there seems to me to be a void when it comes to consistent, quality education/advice/support. And either a reluctance to tackle or total incomprehension of the types of issues and challenges of online delivery, integration, marketing and strategy that the modern tourism business faces.
The challenges and business/visitor needs are (I think) more complex and of far higher significance than the current public advice allows. I think the advisory bodies need to realise they probably need to look outside the sector for good ICT/technical advice.
I would like to see the following advice areas tackled, either by the public sector, academic sector or indeed by trustworthy private sector suppliers (provided their efforts weren’t undermined by poorer quality free/cheap advice from public sources):
1) Effectively integrating e-commerce and online marketing with overall business strategy
2) Technology 101 + plus costing, briefing, choosing and managing technology partners. How to prioritise technology investments and how to spot good advice/good work from bad.
3) Building and developing in-house technical competencies and how to invest in, manage and evaluate those skills
4) Understanding and measuring site, campaign and conversion effectiveness. Improve the efficiencies of online revenues and self-servicing.
But – is this stuff really sexy enough to attract sign-ups?
Maybe it is actually about fully educating the newly emerging generation – something I was very impressed to see going on in Canada’s leading Hospitality School in Guelph when I was over there earlier this year.
I was teaching hospitality MBAs web analytics in the same time period as they were learning about yield management and operational modelling. Powerful stuff that should lead to joined up e-commerce strategy.
But, there are still really good businesses and managers that need help now. Perhaps that it is up to us as bloggers and writers and trainers to ensure we help fill knowledge gaps where we can?
Cheers,
Vicky
23rd July, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Hi Vicky,
Another great article that I have to agree with on most accounts. I am happy to share one exception to your point number 5.
The Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) is doing some interesting things regarding training and integrated strategy. They have put together a large set of resources for small and medium businesses that cover everything from why businesses should be online, website strategies, online booking engines, to tracking and analyitcs.
It is a refreshing approach that gives choices to each member as opposed to one over arching “plan”. This is a free resource, and you may wish to share it with some of your contacts:
http://www.atdw.com.au/tourism_e_kit.asp
All the best,
Phil
24th July, 2009 at 8:17 am
Many thanks for highlighting these resources from ATDW – very refreshing indeed and certainly more advanced and more relevant than any other e-kit resources that I’ve seen. There’s some really appropriate stuff here!
The link again: http://www.atdw.com.au/tourism_e_kit.asp
1st August, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Dear Vicky
Thanks for taking the time (a scarce resource for an entrepreneur) to pose these questions. Your frustration is heartfelt. I”ve been working on and off trying to help destinations understand the impact of technology since 1989 and have endeavoured to flee the field on many occasions – only to be lured back!!
I think all the reasons you identify are valid but would add the following:
1. Travel and tourism doesn’t think of itself as an e-business.
Yes and No. I don’t think travel and tourism businesses are any more “e-” businesses than any other business that must adapt to new channels of distribution or new modes of management. All business takes place in a context and must adjust to changing market conditions. In the 18th Century the visitor wanted a stable for his horse and sufficient candles to read by night. The inn business gradually changed over time and now we have parking lots, electric lighting and flat panel TVs. But only rarely do we get free wifi!!
But it goes deeper than that. The entire community sees itself as an industry – a false perception. We do not operate as a whole like large multinational, vertically integrated corporations with a relatively static and straightforward supply chain that is harnessed to produce a range of products. The visitor defines the nature, timing and scope of the experience (a.k.a. the product) which is supplied by a host of independent agents that may or may not be aware of one another and do not necessarily belong to any formal arrangement unless they are part of a tour operators’ stable or have formed a consortium.
We consistently describe tourism as an industry when it is actually a dynamic network of independent self-organizing agents unified when they they serve a common customer. In times of misery they may cling together but more often or not spend most of their time competing fiercely with their neighbours. Much of the legacy IT systems were based on a premise of rigidity (either technically or culturally) and could not adjust to the real world of rapid technical evolution, changing customer demands and travel patterns.
Unless they experience a fundamental change of perspective (a mindset shift) then their relevance will continue to deteriorate. The focus of my work now is – what is the role of a DMO when everyone is an intermediary?
2. Under investment
You are very right to describe and stress the complexities involved. My good friend and IT mentor Leon Benjamin, who came from supporting the trading of financial derivatives (way beyond me) said tourism was more complex but sadly lacked the deep pockets of the bankers. Now perhaps tourism and banking are less far apart financially!!
I find that few destinations (DMOs) have an understanding of their members as part of a dynamic system nor have been able to craft a strategy that understands how to support a complex adaptive system for the reasons of perception or misperception articulated above.
To make matters worse, the system is constantly changing – destinations find the pattern of consumption changing (eg from packages to FIT; from travel agents to self service; from longer to shorter decision to booking times); from relatively limited channels to infinite channels, many of which cannot be accessed or negotiated with (my personal Facebook page, for example, is off limits)
3. No room for an online specialist
As you know, there are two kinds of IT folks – those that support the running of the parent organization and those whose job it is to support the marketing activity and customer service. Most medium to large organizations have only been able to afford one of these (and have then expected them to perform the two functions) and most micro businesses haven’t been able to afford that.
I feel there is real potential for micro businesses to share access to IT skills but as they still are operating from a mindset that believes the next door motel, inn or B & B is a competitor then that kind of collaboration is unlikely.
4. Bolt ons and legacy
The pace of technological change has completely overtaken the tourism community who managed with brochures for over a hundred years, promotional films emerged in the 50s; video recording and online videos are every recent and now we have an explosion of user generated content.
I am often asked to speak to DMOs and, where technology is concerned, they never ask – what should our strategic approach be but “what is the next big thing?”
Facebook, UGC, Mobility, Twitter….. and next year there’ll be something else.
5. Best practice examples from public bodies
Most public tourism bodies are either government departments or quangos and crown corporations set up and partially funded by governments. They come from a command and control, industrial mindset that is organized into soloed functions. They have rigid procurement processes which preclude them from being agile and experimental. They look to best practice elsewhere because they cannot afford to take a risk and fail. So they can hardly model the necessary agility, experimentation, rapid prototyping approach that smaller, less constrained organizations of the private sector can.
6. Sectoral isolation
Tourism argues that it is a special case and its fragmentation mean that each sub sector looks inward first (eg hotels, motels, bed & breakfasts etc) and then to other tourism-related sectors (eg accommodation considers transport or entertainment) long before it looks at the “outside world”.
Phew! But thanks for the opportunity to think out loud.
3rd August, 2009 at 8:14 am
Many many thanks Anna for such a considered and stimulating response (in fact a post in its own right!)
You make so many valuable points but the following is an incredibly significant one for me:
“We consistently describe tourism as an industry when it is actually a dynamic network of independent self-organizing agents unified when they they serve a common customer”
You’re absolutely right of course and I would love to hear more about your thoughts (research?) on the role of the DMO (and other facilitators) when as you say, everyone is an intermediary.
I also agree wholeheartedly that tourism argues it is a special case and so always looks inwards first, and that this particularly does it no favours when it comes to technology and IC. Your financial services friend is right, tourism technology is both complex and strategically critical – looking inward and backward and for “the next big fad” is not the place where business will evolve.
Oh, and I would gladly trade a spot to stable my horse for free wi-fi any day
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and I hope we will meet again to continue this conversation!
4th August, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Thanks for this great post, as always !
Confirm some key reasons
1. Lack of time
2. Education about Internet and the basic
3. low and poor investiment in IT
4 . people who want result too fast
5 . turnover in tourism
6 . lack of strategy and long term vision
7 . no anticipation
It’s difficult !
6th August, 2009 at 10:27 pm
I realise I went on a little too much but I have been spending this wet August reading, thinking and writing and yes, I’d like to continue the conversation.
Keep up the good work. I’ve included you on my blog roll. cheers\anna
7th August, 2009 at 6:41 am
Hi Anna
I don’t think you went on too much at all! On the contrary, we are always flattered when someone treats our long musings with such a considered response and I think that, for both of us, it really opened up some new ways of looking at this issue.
I will be mischievous though and say that your insight about ‘industry’ reminded me of Margaret Thatcher’s words that ‘there is no such thing as society’! I think she was meaning something very much along your lines that there isn’t this real ‘thing’ out there called society with a head office and corporate notepaper – but rather that society is in reality lots of people and families making decisions and living their lives independently and I think you are making a similar point that to talk of the ‘tourism industry’ is a similar fallacy.
However, I’m not sure I can stretch my analogy too far and use it to help you answer your question about the role of the DMO! I guess the only insight that immediately comes to mind is that Governments have different roles at different times according to circumstances (e.g. less to do in peace time that in war, more to do in time of hardship than in prosperity) and I suspect that the role of the DMO might be the same.
7th August, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Thanks Stephen
I felt a warm glow coming on until you compared me to Maggie Thatcher. Unfortunately I don’t think she ever conceded that “society” existed or if it did that as a collective its needs might take precedence over the individual.
I have become very interested in the notion of collective intelligence and the idea that intelligence in a group is distributed, This applies to tourism communities. The role of DMOs should therefore be to create the conditions in which solutions and intelligence emerge and benefit the whole. That implies far more of an educational, enablement role than they have performed. less on doing and more on letting skilled people do.
Look at the emergence of companies like Spotted Locals who are able to move far faster than the fastest DMO…
I hope to return to Scotland soon. I cut my teeth up there doing the first IT tourism strategy for th cuntry that dared suggest it move off propietary systems to an open source internet, That’s how old I am!!!
27th August, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Hi all,
Excellent exchange here. Just came across it via Anna’s latest tweet. I recognize the commentators and share entirely the opinions expressed, therefore, I can be brief. Let me just add a few thoughts as a former insider working in a national DMO during a period of at times wrenching transformation from a government like bureaucracy to a modern, customer and market focused marketing organization.
I’m well aware of how tough that task of transformation was now nearly twenty years ago for all but the most dynamic of these organizations. It’s only more complicated now. Often with top leadership still appointed by government and changing ever so often preventing a long term vision to be formulated. The result is short term focus – as Anna mentions – on the latest tactics rather than a review of strategic objectives suitable to today’s faster than ever changing landscape. The lack of budget is but a bogeyman as most of these organizations would find more funds available if they were only willing to take a harder look at past and present activities which are too often continued more to please internal stakeholders than future customers.
Another road block is that it seems to me too many DMOs are myopic and “consultant-averse”. The prevailing wisdom is one of either having all the necessary know how available in-house or then the opposite, that with the present staff situation they couldn’t execute and implement new solutions anyhow. As a result they are constantly trying to catch up and play defense rather than hiring an unbiased, independent outsider, form a task force of action oriented insiders from all levels and tackle the issues head on.
It’s not too late, but the changes today on the web are such that in a few years the role DMOs played in the past will be absorbed into the vast conversation taking place among millions of web savvy and enabled travelers and local experts, supported by technology tools developed for the social web that allow the spread of knowledge in an instant with higher credibility than any institutional voice. The consequences for slow moving institutional entities can be rather easily imagined.
27th August, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Hi Vicky,
I’ve worked in the more mature (from an ecommerce standpoint) segments in the travel industry (hotel, car, air) and am now moving into the tour, DMO and activities segments. What I find most striking in my conversations about online distribution with companies in these segments is a paralyzing fear of product commoditization. They don’t like being compared to retailers because they consider their products to be unique, specialized, and customized to the consumer.
These companies are making the basic mistake of not separating the product from the commercial distribution process. The nuts and bolts technology needed to support a viable ecommerce program IS a commodity – bits and bytes, XML, etc. – but it has nothing to do with the product itself. Just because a product is available via a website doesn’t mean it’s mass-produced but many companies believe their customers will somehow devalue the product if it’s available via an electronic channel.
Also, many SME companies put great emphasis on providing personalized service, something they believe sets them apart the big brands in the travel industry. They may extend that argument to say that technology will separate them from their customers, taking away that element of service. They could even take pride in James’ example in a previous comment that they respond to every email, even if the emails are complaints about site usability or unhelpful incomplete product information, to bolster their argument about their personal relationships with their customers.
The combination of these beliefs in some cases manifests itself as a sort of hostility to technology and online distribution, which seems to me to be a tremendous obstacle to commercial success.
This is a fascinating topic, and I look forward to reading more of your insights.
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