We’ll you wont need to imagine for long as we are currently working on a tours aggregator where you can pick and mix tours from your network of friends and sell tours on their behalf.

So selling tours to France from the USA will be quick and easy, likewise selling pan-european tours through Asia wil be a click or two away.

More information on this coming soon!

Within 24 hours of announcing it, both Garmin & Tom Tom share prices slumped.

Thats a BIG drop in 1 day – and there seems to be a reason for it. Not only does the Google Android app look great but its closely connected to the Web and it will be powered by millions of people making the application better by adding information to google maps in real-time. Best bit. Its Free!

At TravelManaer, we know this is the way forward. Business that dont accept the move towards the web will be dead before long.

We’ll be taking a look at this application in the near future in greater detail to see where we can add value to the TravelManager application with it.

Watch this space.

Now that we have some of our users live with Tours on their website and with more to following in the coming weeks it’s a pretty exciting time for Tours. However this is just the starting point over the coming months we want to help more of our existing and new users to get up and running.

If you’re listing your Tours as PDF’s on your website, you’re missing a huge opportunity with the search engines. They love content and by using Tours in TravelManager you get to leverage that content to drive more traffic to your website.

Our goal is bring new and innovative features to TravelManager that will really help sell and promote your Tours. For us this means really listening to your feedback and sharing ideas on how to market your Tours more effectively. Search Engines, Social Networks are potential growth areas for your business, let us help you get the most out of these.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Eamonn

The reality is the Motorcoach is not seen as a viable alternative for a large percentage of the population. In fact the figure of 7-9% is quoted regularly at conferences about the percentage of North Americas that use Motorcoaches. So why is it that the remaining at worst 81% don’t ever use your services?

1)   Lack of Awareness

2)   Unfashionable image of a “Motorcoach” (an old Bus)

3)   Not marketing to new markets / customers (too much focus on older/traditional audience)

4)   Inability to get a fast quote/price

5)   All of the above and more…

I see the Motorcoach Council are trying to coordinate an industry wide campaign with their “Motorcoachified”  message which is a step in the right direction on the awareness front but….

Internet Sales coming soon

It’s not enough the industry needs to change how it sells to the new customers who will what the convenience of real-time booking before they see the Motorcoach as a real alternative to taking a car, train or flight.

It can happen but does the industry what this? – We think at TravelManager that 2010 is the year for it happen

Regards,

Eamonn

**Not convinced of the benefits? Here’s a good article from the LCT (Limousine, Charter & Tour) website: http://www.lctmag.com/features/features-story.cfm?id=1537

Good and Bad Sentiment Online

What does this mean for the Motorcoach industry? Well not a whole lot at the moment, but there’s an opportunity here to get and stay ahead of your competitors by starting to invest in your online reputation.

This is more than optimizing your website for search engines and more about really listening to what’s being said about your company good and bad. In fact as often is the case with dealing with traditional customer complaints, dealing with the negative effectively can often turn into a positive experience for the disgruntled customer.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to share my experiences about Twitter and similar tools you can use to manage your online reputation.

Regards,

Eamonn

*Data mining and connecting with services like Facebook and Twitter will be part of TravelManager in 2010 to help our users connect with new customers and retain existing ones.

Don’t just take my word for it! Recent Article in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/technology/internet/24emotion.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

Arrow Stage Lines Shuttle Service for Kansas City Chiefs

We’re excited to be part of this growing area for private motorcoach companies to cater for fans left out in the cold by cuts in public transit services. The fans are in for a pleasant surprise with the quality of the vehicles they’ll be riding, Arrow Stage Lines have one of the best fleets in the industry.

For more information about the new service we recommend you watch the Kansas City Chiefs press release yesterday:

Kansas City Chiefs - Press Conference

Or better still if you’re a fan why not book your ticket online:

www.arrowstagelines.com/kansas-chiefs

Best of luck to Arrow Stage Lines.

Regards,

Eamonn

They’re are a lot of companies paying too much per click and not enough time tracking the value of the clicks. Remember Google only started Adwords in Oct 2000 with about 350 customers, but by 2007 they had over 1m advertisers. Worse still the benefit of an level playing field Adwords brought to advertising is being eroded with large national brokers massively out spending local operators (often paying too much themselves!!!).

Wasting dollars by not tracking online advertisement conversions?

The industry needs to get back to connecting with their customers and leveraging the Internet as a more than a just a lead generator to a customer service and relationship management tool.

The Internet is maturing and so should our attitude to how we use it to grow revenues.

Regards,

Eamonn

• USA – 18
• France – 7
• UK – 5
• Taiwan – 5
• Japan – 5
• Russia – 4
• Ireland – 3
• Italy – 2
• Canada – 2
• Brazil – 2
• Chech Rep – 2
• Germany – 2
• Poland – 2
• Norway – 2
• Denmark – 2
• Hong Kong – 2

Just goes to show – that operators all over the world have the same issues to overcome and realise that real-time and mobility are the future. Now that we have TravelManager’s online quotation widget in 12 different languages (with more to come) we can expect interesting times ahead

Regards

Dean

Like the smart companies that starting using Google Adwords ahead of their competition it’s time to another step forward by using social media to get in on the conversation with you potential customers.

Social Media Conversations

**It’s no coincidence that Facebook has hit 300m+ users and a profit.

Regards,
Eamonn

**Here’s a great article that while applies to the Hotel industry is quite applicable with the Motor coach and tours industry: Future Trends

Fortunately, its not happening this fast – but it is happening. The world is changing – everything is going from analog to digital. We all “know” that – but did you know that its actually accelerating? Moores Law and The Network affect are ensuring that it is.

What are you doing to make sure your keeping up?