移动旅游是否会破坏现状？

　　正如以往，只有当你实际尝试做一些事的时候，你才会意识到它实际上有多难。有一天，我为自己设置了一个挑战：思考基于位置/移动的旅游服务。这些观念会在未来几年进入人们的视野。

　　困难是令人惊讶的。

　　我已经在网站工作过相当长时间了（第一个网站在1994年，那时你还在Windows记事本上手写HTML），这可能正是问题所在。我现在的思维完全是基于网站的，我能想出网站理念“就像那样”，但是，整个移动旅游行业形势更为严峻。

　　为什么会更难？

　　首先，基于移动和位置的服务对旅游技术和一般新媒体部门的技术有更高要求，因此，与不可避免的技术短缺形成矛盾。就像今天，大公司在某个项目上动用数百万之前，都希望有一个在旅游领域有至少五年经验的项目领导人。这些人在移动服务方面，仅在数量上就达不到旅游业所需。

　　事实上，找到在旅游网站或旅游技术（更不用说移动）方面有5年以上经验的人都是非常困难的，就算你找到合适的人，也是非常昂贵的。

　　移动服务的商品化是否能解决问题？

　　我相信，致力于解决这个问题的公司终会出现。也许是通过生产商品化的软件和工具。这些工具可以在旅游公司的名称中，作为他们自己的东西介绍给客户。如果你想，可称之为私人标签。

　　我不确定这是否会成为普及路线。不论公司规模如何，所有企业主都想差异化他们的服务。只要看看旅游网站就知道了，尽管很多风格相同，用相同的后台技术，但网页设计/HTML层变化的结果是，他们能够与竞争对手显著区分。

　　我不确定，在移动旅行情况下，表面的顶层的（译者注：指用户所看到的界面）差异化是否会那么容易。与网站相比，（移动旅行的）基本技术/功能对终端用户更为暴露。因此，如果又有一家公司从技术支持商那里获得了相同的服务，就没什么差异性了。

　　如果商品化无法普及，预订过于昂贵，会怎么样？

　　向基于移动/位置的服务转移可能会成为网上旅游的下一个引爆点。作为某些迹象我所关注的一方面是旅游业的“亚马逊化”。即只有一个龙头网站作为主导，而不是所有供应商的网站各自成为各自的孤岛。

　　试想如果一个旅游大公司真的购进移动旅游的想法，并开始疯狂创新……。这一转向移动的举动可能仅仅足够激发足够的动力将竞争对手（B2C领域）排除在外，因为一旦消费者采用了一项服务，他们去寻找一个替代的服务可能需要一点时间。

　　再想一想，如果Google是那间公司会怎么样？

　　原文出处：Musings on travel ecommerce  作者：Alex Bainbridge

　　相关文章：位置，位置，旅游供应商网站需要位置

　　原文：

Will mobile travel upset the status quo?

As usual, it is only when you try to actually do something that you realise quite how hard it actually is. The other day I set myself a challenge to come up with some ideas for location / mobile based travel services that could be what is coming over the horizon in the next few years.

It is surprisingly hard.

I have been working with the web for a long time (first website in 1994 when you hand wrote HTML in Windows Notepad) - and this maybe the cause of the problem. My mindset is now fully web based - I can come up with web ideas “just like that” - but this whole mobile game is going to be tougher.

Why will it be harder?

Firstly mobile and location based services are going to be pushing up against the inevitable skills shortage in travel technology and the new media sector in general. Like today, the big companies, before spending millions on a project, want a project leader who has at least 5 years experience in the travel domain. These people are just not going to exist in mobile services at the quantity that will be required by the travel industry.

Indeed, finding someone with over 5 years experience in travel websites / travel technology (let alone mobile) is both difficult - and once you find the right person - expensive.

Is commoditisation of mobile services the answer?

I am sure that companies are going to crop up that will aim to address this issue. This maybe through the production of commoditised software and tools. These tools could be rebranded in a travel companies name - and presented - as their own - to their customers. Call it private labelling if you wish.

I am not convinced that this is going to be a popular route. Regardless of company size all business owners want to differentiate their service. Just look at travel websites - yes many share the same style - and share the same back end technology - but as a result of web design / HTML layer changes - they are able to differentiate significantly from their competitors.

I am not sure that with mobile that this superficial top layer differentiation will be as easy - the underlying technology / functionality will be more exposed to the end customer than with websites - hence if another company has the same service from a technology supplier - there is little differentiation.

So if commoditisation won’t be popular and bespoke will be too expensive - what will happen?

This move to mobile / location based services may be the next tipping point for travel on the web. One aspect that I am looking out for signs of is the “Amazon.comification” of the travel industry - where just one leading website becomes dominant - rather than supplier websites each being their own island.

Imagine if a big travel company really buys into the mobile idea….. and starts innovating wildly. This move to mobile may just be enough to create enough momentum to lock out competitors (in the B2C space) because once consumers adopt a service it may take them a while to look for an alternative.

Think for a second - what would happen if Google was that one company?