<B> TECH TALK</B>
By Cheryl Rosen, Technology Editor
<B>An Electronic Carrot</B>
Looking for a unique way to incentivize travelers for online bookings? Internet startup company MotivationNet Inc. of Schaumberg, Ill. is offering a new kind of incentive program that combines something old, the "points" frequent travelers know so well, with something new, electronic commerce.
The MyPoints program offers electronic "points" for online purchases, which consumers then can redeem for merchandise or travel. For corporate customers, the company will private-label an online incentive program that includes an Internet home page, or an icon on an existing intranet site, and a customized electronic catalog offering hand-picked prizes.
Travelers booking a trip on a hypothetical BTN Travel Website, for example, would click on an icon to get "BTN Travel Bucks," redeemable in increments as small as $10, for everything from dinner at Red Lobster to a Marriott vacation. Corporations pay 1.6 cents for each point, said Skip Keeter, a 20-year veteran of the Maritz and Carlson incentive companies, who is now MotivationNet Inc.'s director of redemption services.
Since launching the MyPoints program in December, the company has awarded 30 million points to online consumers, Keeter said. By the end of 1998, the plan is to have 1.5 million individual consumers earning points for online purchases, plus what Keeter called a "daunting" number of corporate customers on the incentive side. "If you strip off the veneer, we are creating a universal online currency," Keeter said.
<a name="story2"><B>Lotus Notes, Sabre in Revenue Sharing Deal</B>
In another example of the cooperative efforts on the online frontier, IBM is planning to add a travel folder to its popular Lotus Notes software that will point potential travelers to a customized version of the Sabre Travelocity booking site. Sabre will build and host the page, and Lotus will get a share of the revenue for tickets booked on the site, plus a portion of the advertising it draws.
<a name="story3"><B>TIA Survey Predicts 8 Percent Online Sales By 2002</B>
Online travel purchases tripled between 1996 and 1997, with sales reaching $827 million, according to a new survey conducted by Jupiter Communica-tions for the Travel Industry Association. And sales will continue to soar--to almost $5 billion in 2000 and $9 billion in 2002. In 1996, the survey found that 75 percent of online sales were concentrated at just six "full service mega sites" offering products from many suppliers. While 90 percent of sales were for air, that still made up less than 1 percent of airlines' revenues. But Jupiter predicted 5 percent of tickets will be sold online by 2000, and 8 percent by 2002.
<a name="story4"><B>WorldRes Ventures Abroad</B>
WorldRes, the Internet-based hotel reservation network that allows the online booking of 1,600 properties in 60 countries, last week received an investment infusion of $8 million--$2.5 million from current investors and $5.5 million from five new venture capital funds, including two in Europe and one in Asia. WorldRes president Greg Jones will head U.S. operations as CEO; cofounder Eric Christensen will be chairman and president of WorldRes Europe.