<B>TechTalk</B>
By Cheryl Rosen, Technology Editor
<B>iFAO Crosses the Pond</B>
Following a successful IPO in March, European online booking system supplier iFAO is entering the U.S. market, simultaneously talking directly to corporate customers and private-labeling its product for travel agency chains. iFAO CEO Louis Arnitz said the company already has 200 corporate customers in Europe. Since opening a U.S. headquarters last year, it has been "taking some time to get everything up and going, and perfecting our global product for the American market."
<A NAME="2"><B>Galileo Deploys XML Interface</B>
Galileo International has signed up 18 customers as "early adopters" of its new XML Select program, and will add 12 more this month before moving to full rollout by year-end. XML Select offers an interface to the GDS in XML, the open language of the Internet, so travel agencies and other intermediaries more easily can integrate the Galileo engine into their own Web sites. An early adopter, Apple Vacations' CRS interface team leader Bob Bora, said the interface halved the development time on an Apple Vacations application.
<A NAME="3"><B>OTA Invites Corporate Input</B>
The association that is developing Internet data standards for the travel industry, the OpenTravel Alliance, will hold its Spring Advisory Forum and annual meeting on May 17 at the Wyndham Buttes Resort in Tempe, Ariz. The OTA offers a forum for all segments of the industry to agree on data specifications and formats using XML, so travel data can be transmitted easily over the Internet among travel suppliers, intermediaries and buyers. More than 100 companies already have joined up, and travel managers are encouraged to provide input on the data requirements of corporate buyers. For more information, go to www.opentravel.org.
<A NAME="4"><B>T&E For The Mobile Traveler</B>
Software developer CADsoft Inc. of Orlando, Fla., has released TravelXpense 2000, a T&E system that allows travelers to track their expenses as they occur. Using the system, travelers can input expenses on notebook computers, or use Wizards to enter the numbers after their trips. TravelXpense 2000 retails for $49. For more information, see www.TravelXpense.com.
<A NAME="5"><B>1Q Web Sales Double Last Year</B>
Leisure Web sites clocked a total of $6.5 billion in sales in 1999, or about 5 percent of all travel sales, and this year that number will rise to $11 billion--7.2 percent of the total--according to a study released by Jupiter Communications in April. By 2005, $28 billion worth of travel sales, 14 percent of the total sales, will be booked online, the study predicted. Interestingly, more than half (51 percent) of online bookings went to intermediary sites rather than to those of suppliers, as the latter failed to maximize their key assets of loyal customers, brand awareness and large call centers, Jupiter said. But the travel agencies that have "maintained their market share in this space" soon will have to "choose between becoming either broad mass-market players or niche players, or risk being caught in the middle."
Meanwhile, the now-public Sabre Holdings Corp. filed its own report, on its quarterly earnings through March 31. Sabre's public Travelocity.com and Preview Travel sites are off to good starts in 2000, more than doubling their combined sales and revenues for the quarter over 1999 figures. Gross travel sales were up to $504 million on 1.8 million transactions, compared with $205 million on 706,000 transactions in 1Q99. Revenues were $35.7 million, up from $16 million, though the net loss of $5.6 million was up as well, from $3.5 million last year. Still, Travelocity expects to see continued growth in 2Q as two big April deals--with America Online and Priceline.com--make it a travel intermediary for millions of new customers. Also promising is a leap in conversions of lookers to bookers, up to 5 percent in 1Q00, compared with just 2.3 percent in the first quarter of 1999.
<A NAME="6"><B>Moving Online, Literally</B>
Noting that June kicks off a four-month period when two-thirds of all moves (about 30 million in all) take place, VirtualRelocation.com on May 7 will debut a redesigned site and a "unique application developed to ease the overwhelming event of a move." Called Move Activity Planner, the calendar-based system will lay out a three-month time line and will send movers e-mail reminders of tasks they need to take care of along the way, and create an online address list of agents and companies with whom they are talking.