While US airlines have bumped prices so sharply that some frequent fliers are turning to the bus, a European airline is getting ready to sell you a ticket to London that costs less than an entree at the Olive Garden.

Low-cost Irish monster Ryanair announced that it plans to begin flying from Europe to the US, with economy tickets starting at 10 euros, or around $13.00. Ryanair expects to make money on the flights by sticking to its wildly successful European business model of charging passengers for almost everything but the air they breathe, and by offering a more traditional business cabin in the front of the plane. 

Ryanair's plan is to offer flights between its base at Stansted, an outlying London airport that is popular with the budget crowd, and New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and cities in Florida. Ryanair doesn't have the planes to get started right away, but the airline's outspoken CEO Michael O'Leary says that with the recession sure to put dents in the order books of Boeing and Airbus, there are deals to be made.

If a $15 flight to Europe sound too good to be true, that's because it is.

In Europe, Ryanair often gives tickets away, with passengers responsible for only taxes and fees. And it's the fees where the airline makes its money, collecting buckets of cash by charging for everything from mandatory travel insurance and credit card processing to the privilege of using a telephone or ticket counter to communicate with the airline. Another profit center for Ryanair is its QVC-in-the-sky approach to in-flight service, with cabin crews hawking everything from sandwiches and sodas to jewelery, perfume, lottery tickets, and cell phone minutes.

It's a model that has worked well in Europe, where Ryanair has spread like a fungus and and now flies 65 million passengers a year to 145 cities. But the airline hasn't been immune to the financial pressure facing the industry -- expansion has slowed and it recently announced a 50 percent drop in profits.

And cheap fares alone won't guarantee success. I'm all about finding a bargain, but I appreciate a plane with seat back pockets, window shades, and reclining seats, especially on a nine hour flight to Europe. If my fellow travelers feel the same way, then Ryanair's transatlantic strategy may not fly.

Photo by Flickr user Jon Gos

The service then highlights coincidence, for example, telling you that three people you know will be in Paris when you will be there too. You can use Dopplr on your personal computer and mobile phone. It links with online calendars and social networks. They’ve also got a weblog.

The service has attracted a following among business travellers around the globe. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia recently named Dopplr his “favorite non-wiki website” in The New York Times Sunday Magazine: “You put in your travel schedule and link to your friends. It allows you to see where everyone is. I love it.”

Dopplr is built by an international team with a passion for design, technology and travel. Dopplr was founded in 2007 by Lisa Sounio, CEO, Matt Biddulph CTO, Matt Jones, Design Director and Dan Gillmor.

Dopplr is backed by a premier international group of investors including Martin Varsavsky, Joichi Ito, Reid Hoffman and Saul Klein. Marko Ahtisaari is a founding investor.

Do you use Dopplr and how do you like it?

Forget about tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Carlsberg beer and tall, fair-haired vikings. Denmark is on the cutting edge of media. It has the world’s highest broadband penetration, ranks number one in terms of national IT use ahead of Singapore and the U.S. and makes movies and TV shows that pull in bigger audiences than Hollywood productions. In short Denmark is a place where people don’t just talk about new media, they make and use them.

Each October more than 800 Scandinavian and international media professionals from all corners of the business converge in Copenhagen to shape the media of tomorrow. We call the event New Media Days and through debates and exciting talks, we aim to inspire media professionals to embrace the opportunities arising from technology development.

In between media innovation and knowledge sharing we encourage our guests to enjoy the city of Copenhagen. Go ahead and take networking to the streets, cafés, restaurants and night clubs and vent some of that creative spirit.

Wir bedanken uns für die Wertschätzung seitens des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Arbeit in Kooperation mit der Wirtschaftskammer Österreich.

>> Hier gehts zur Webcam.

PhoCusWright

Although I didn’t participate in the survey (but would clearly have fit the criteria), I thought I would see how my responses would stack up to the results:

• Seven out of ten (71%) use the Internet to search for travel information, while 41% have taken a virtual tour of a destination, and 38% have built a trip itinerary online; Yes on all counts!

• More than half (58%) cite the “ability to check the best fares/rates” as the most important feature in a travel Web site; Yes again, although I would say that comparing rates (metasearch) is event more important!

• Almost four in ten (37%) report being influenced by personal comments read on social networking or travel advisory Web sites, but they frequent social networking sites such as MySpace.com (56%) and Facebook (30%) more than travel advisory or review sites such as TripAdvisor (14%); Yes again, although MySpace isn’t really my thing.  I get way too much “Be my Friend” spam to bother.  I have to admit that my TripAdvisor use significantly declined after the by out!

• Fully one-third (33%) have authored and posted a travel review online. Yes, definitely!

Okay, so it would appear that all I have proven is that I’m a sucker for new technology and that I’m a statistic.  I don’t mind because it sure makes it easier to market to an audience when you’re part of it.  It’s kind of like buying a present for a friend who is just like you… just buy them something you would really like and you can’t go wrong.

One of the most interesting remarks in the release about the new survey was this line:

“The implications of this work for marketers of travel services are quite profound,” said Peter C. Yesawich, Chairman and CEO of Ypartnership, and co-author of the survey. “They not only suggest the need for a fresh approach to media strategies that will reach this growing audience, but raise provocative questions about the influence of the user-generated content that is now flourishing online.”

It sure is nice to have some industry heavyweights back you up on the importance and impact of user generated content on consumer decision making.  Any organization who feels they are immune or somehow outside of the influence of UGC needs to get their head out of the sand.  The impact of UGC and social computing on your organization and brand, regardless of size or influence, is very real.  If you are not already dealing with the implications, then you will be very soon.

You can purchase the survey at the PhoCusWright or Ypartnership websites.

Since the Bavarian language isn’t well understood by many of the vistors - not even by many germans - we found a special “Wiesn-Dictionary” on the official Oktoberfest-Website. Translations are available in English, Italian, French, Swedish and Japanese. You’ll find many strange, or lets say unfamiliar words in it - even the translations seem to be odd sometimes

Follow this link and push a flag to enter the dictionary!

Nachdem ich neulich im Videopodcast (iTunes-Link) von Monocle ein Interview (iTunes-Link) von Tyler Brûlé mit dem Autor Alain de Botton über Stadtentwicklung und ähnliche Themen gesehen habe, war ich so angefixt, dass ich mir direkt als erstes Buch The Art of Travel von ihm geholt habe. Schien mir gerade passend.

Pink Tentacle is hitting the skies this week to participate in the 2008 Nokia Open Lab workshop in Helsinki, Finland, where dozens of selected bloggers and social media participants from across the globe will converge to discuss the future of mobile technology. Topics on the agenda include the future of content creation, location aware solutions, entertainment, and the use of emerging technologies in working life. Sounds intriguing.

Give me a shout if you'd like to stay up to date on the happenings. Or if you know Helsinki, what do you recommend for a taste of the town?

Related entries

Everywhere magazine looks like any other travel magazine - glossy photos of beautiful locales, written guides to particular locations.

But how it works behind the scenes is quite different:

1. See the world
2. Document your trip
3. Peer Review (yes, this is the terminology they use)
4. Final selection "Our editors curate each issue from the best of the best."
5. Publication

In other words, you contribute your travel photos and stories to the online community, and if they vote you up high enough, you get published in the print magazine (and get U$100 and a free subscription).  To extend Clay Shirky... here comes everybody, everywhere.

User-created content in a magazine... well I guess that isn't a total revolution, considering it's the model that Nature and other scientific journals have been using since their inception.  Still it's quite unusual to have this bridge between the online and the offline, and the results are far from "amateur".  Are there any lessons we can learn from this effort and apply to our online science services?  (To some extent PLoS ONE is using this model of "publish any good science online and then let people rate", without the offline magazine component.)

Das ist dann wohl doch nicht das Cover des neuen Metallica-Albums geworden, das ja auch ganz anders heißt, nämlich „Death Magnetic“.

Metallica. Mannomann. Die Band, die sich noch vor wenigen Jahren furchtbar übers Internet aufregen konnte, um dann zurückzurudern, die Band, die mit ihrer Dokumentation „Some kind of monster“ den Begriff „Gruppentherapie“ neu definierte, die Band, die es vom Metal in den Mainstream geschafft hat wie sonst nur AC/DC und die – ähnlich wie Motörhead (großartiges Interview mit Lemmy hier) – längst zu einer Institution geworden ist … diese Band also spielt am kommenden Freitag in der „O2 World“ in Berlin und wir haben für zwei von euch je zwei Gästelistenplätze.

Natürlich hat die Sache mal wieder einen Haken: Wer mitmachen möchte, tippt bitte in die Kommentare, wofür „Metallica“ wohl stünde, wenn es eine Abkürzung wäre – wir lassen englische und deutsche Interpretationen zu. Auswählen tun wir völlig subjektiv und wir sind durch andere, die Kommentare kommentierenden, Kommentare beeinflussbar. Wenn es Streit gibt, losen wir.

Ausdenkschluss ist morgen, Mittwoch, 12 Uhr mittags.

Ab sofort startet auf PROOMS eine Sonderaktion. Bis 15. Oktober 2008 können alle Gastgeber provisionsfrei vermieten und somit noch mehr Cash verdienen.

Viel Spaß und volle Geldtaschen beim anstehenden Oktoberfest.
Euer Prooms-Team 

New special offer on PROOMS. All our host can let their rooms/couches free of commission until october15 2008 to earn some extra cash.

Have fun on upcoming Okotberfest.
Your prooms team.