Wish list to improve the travel industry
By Darren Cronian on Monday, August 11th, 2008

I don’t expect to change the world writing this blog but I’d like to think that some corners of the travel industry are sitting up and listening to what I have to say as a consumer. I sat down at the weekend and wrote my wish list to improve the travel industry.

My wish list to improve the travel industry

Here is my wish list:

Travel associations

» Plain English advice on protection for consumers.
» Create a focus group to help promote environmentally friendly travel.
» Educating consumers on travel health, i.e. malaria advice.
» Increase awareness of ecotourism holidays.

Travel companies / Agencies

» Improved customer service online.
» An understanding of what blogs and social media bring to the industry.
» Friendlier travel agencies that consumers can socialise in and ‘chill-out’.
» Improved resort information in brochures and online.
» Clearer and plain English booking terms and conditions.

Airlines / Airports

» No charges for payment by debit card.
» Reduce fuel surcharges accordingly with the price of oil.
» Improved airport facilitates for travellers with disabilities.
» Airplane seats for 21st century travellers.

Hotels / Accommodation

» Less hotels and accommodation providers with premium telephone numbers.
» Hotel classification ratings consistent within the EU.
» More accessible hotels for customers with disabilities.

Travel Media / PR agencies

» The media have an opinion rather than always reporting news.
» Journalists and bloggers learning off each other.
» PR agencies learn to send on-topic press releases.

It’ll be interesting to see in five years time how many of my wishes come true. If you would like me to expand on any of the points in my wish-list then let me know in the comments and I’m looking forward to reading your wish list to improve the travel industry.


Related Posts:





Subscribe to RSS Submit to StumbleUpon Bookmark page

20 responses to “Wish list to improve the travel industry”

Kelsey | 11 August, 2008 at 10:58 pm

Haha…amen. I agree. I hate how they never explain things in terms you and I can understand.

Sam | 11 August, 2008 at 11:18 pm

Free wifi in airports and hotels would be very high up on my list!

Nice iPhone template by the way Darren!

Darren Cronian | 11 August, 2008 at 11:25 pm

@ Kelsey

Yes, I think plain English goes out of the window especially in booking terms and conditions, no wonder so many consumers make mistakes when booking and then pay for it later.

@ Sam

I initially had a list of over 70 wish list points - I had to narrow them down to the ones I posted but free / more widely available WiFi in airports and hotels was on that list. You’d think everywhere would offer it for free considering how cheap it is nowadays.

Kelsey | 12 August, 2008 at 2:40 am

So do we get to see the entire list? Or are you gonna keep us in suspense? lol

Darren Cronian | 12 August, 2008 at 9:07 am

Kelsey.. I want to see your wish list first ;)

Barrie 501 | 12 August, 2008 at 11:48 am

Fabulous list Darren. I would add plain English not complicated English when being explained terms of contract etc. Like Kelsey, I would like to see the full list.

Darren Cronian | 12 August, 2008 at 12:36 pm

@ Barrie

Thanks. I’ll publish the full list this weekend. I have them written down, so need to type it up.

Kris Hoet | 12 August, 2008 at 1:36 pm

Great list, but I think the one thing I would like to see changed first is how airlines deal with airmiles. A lot of the current frequent flyer programs are close to a scam to be frank… much work to do on these.

pam | 12 August, 2008 at 3:29 pm

How ’bout simplified fare rules? Used to be you could transfer a ticket if you weren’t using it, used to be you didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg to change a flight. If there’s a seat, why can’t you be rebooked into it?

An adjustment of the farce that passes for security at airports would be most welcome too, though I supposed that’s government rather than industry controlled.

Darren Cronian | 12 August, 2008 at 4:49 pm

@ Kris

Out of interest what changes would you like to see the airlines introduce?

@ Pam

Simplified fare rules sounds good. As for security, I had that on my original list, but didn’t think security was that bad in the UK for it to deserve a mention on this list. From what I have read about US airports I can understand where your coming from though.

Kris Hoet | 12 August, 2008 at 7:32 pm

Darren… where to start? In short I think the current miles programs (at least from the ones I have enough miles on to use them) have only little to do with loyalty.

A lot of the benefits are linked to current travel with an airline instead of past travel for instance. As a gold member of Eurobonus I get access to their lounges, but only when I’m flying with Star Alliance. Wrong. It should be a reward for past travel, so when occasionally I have to fly someone else, I can still get into the lounges.

More important though is that they have to make points useful. I’ve ranted (and will do more) on http://littlebookoftravel.com about this already. There are never enough bonus flights available whenever you look for them, I was unable to find a flight for my wife and I to NYC for instance, period didn’t matter. That’s unacceptable. I was unable to book a flight for my wife to London using miles while I had already booked one via our company’s agency. If you book via VLM using miles, all tickets should be on the miles and they can only be booked by the website.

Etc, etc… you catch my drift. I’m unable to use all the miles I collected while being loyal to certain airlines, for no reason whatsoever it seems today :(

Kelsey | 12 August, 2008 at 8:57 pm

Darren- I asked you first :)

Darren Cronian | 12 August, 2008 at 9:06 pm

@ Kelsey

Okay, you win! ;)

I will get them typed up this weekend and add them to the blog post.

Rohan | 13 August, 2008 at 3:28 am

All great points I found it difficult to think of anything to add.

Nick | 13 August, 2008 at 12:48 pm

Darren

A lot of interesting comments on travel agencies and tour operators.

Interesting point on booking conditions, ABTA members use ABTA booking conditions, which is why they all look at sound similar. These used to have a plain English award… but looking at them now they don’t…maybe contact ABTA for there point of view?

More resort information will only happen with change of law. Or they could link to outside sites. (but then is already starting to happen). Tour Operators are require to have control over the information they provide… so if a tour operator said this resort has a small museum on x and it closed down just before your holiday then they would be in breach of contract. But it is something I can see coming with the right disclaimers of course.

Improve customer service online…. some companies are good… few are ok…. but yes most seem to be poor….so yes please.

Understanding blogs etc… Well you know I use these lots and yet really I do not understand them.

The last and most important comment I make is customers really prepared to pay for these things? After let’s not forget one of the most successful models in the airline industry is to sell it cheap, treat customers poorly and to insult anyone and everyone. This goes to prove price is king for a lot of people.

Gareth | 13 August, 2008 at 4:08 pm

I would like the industry to stop all sur-charges or adding charges once you’ve booked your flight/accomodation/package holiday. Once the deal’s done, it should be done.

Can you believe if you bought a bottle of water and before you drunk it get asked to pay more? Bit of an odd concept really, isn’t it?

Darren Cronian | 13 August, 2008 at 10:02 pm

@ Nick

What don’t you understand about blogging? Maybe you could come to the travel bloggers meetup in London that I am organising during the World Travel Market? I’m looking for a few travel agencies to come and join in. It would be great to meet you.

@ Gareth

I agree with you with regard to holiday surcharges - even so I don’t think that considering the economic climate that we’ve not seen too many consumers being affected by the holiday surcharges.

Darren Cronian | 13 August, 2008 at 10:12 pm

@ Nick

Sorry I forgot to answer your question

The last and most important comment I make is customers really prepared to pay for these things?

Good point. I do think price figures to high in our minds when booking a holiday, and maybe we need to think more about comfort/quality/environment etc when making a decision on who we fly we/book our holiday with.

I think it’s horrendous how the airlines treat passengers, and if we were stood next to someone in the street and they treat us the same way, we would tell them to get stuffed and go and shop elsewhere but money talks.

I feel a rant coming on.

Nick | 14 August, 2008 at 1:07 pm

Darren

Yes would not mind meeting you as well. What I do not understand is how it affects individual companies…. Excluding the big brand names and they should get involved.

As to how airlines treat passengers… rant on

Darren Cronian | 14 August, 2008 at 1:13 pm

@ Nick

I’ll be publishing information about the meet-up early next week. As for blogging, it’s important that travel companies keep an eye out for what is being said about them on blogs, and they are a number of tools you can use to monitor this.

A corporate travel blog is useful because you are engaging with potential customers and consumers, you can show Google and other search engines that you are an authority in your niche, which helps the ranking of the complete site.

Blogs are so much easier to get links to than are websites, so for SEO, they’re very useful for smaller companies who are fighting the big brands. The blog has to be SEO friendly though.

Just to provide this, type in Expedia in Google UK, and you’ll see a post I wrote at 5th on the first page for this big brand search term. Okay I only gets a few dozen hits a day from the listing in Google, but it shows how powerful blogs can be if implemented properly.

I could go on all day about this topic, but if you have any specific questions drop me an email and I’ll try and help.

Please post a comment