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{ 23 JANUARY 2008 }

One click does it all

A second generation of full-service travel sites is focusing on high-margin markets like ski vacations and is building a strong market position without the traditional need for intermediaries – another boost for the e-travel market

E-travel is booming. Four out of ten Europeans have already done it - they have booked a trip online. And so have their contemporaries in the United States. Indeed, the e-travel market is growing fast throughout the entire Western hemisphere: while the market share of Expedia & co. amounted to a scant 1 percent of the overall travel market in the year 2000, it had risen to nearly 20 percent by 2007. This represents a market volume of more than € 50 billion in Europe alone.

Skiing still an unexploited e-market. And yet: 80 percent of all travel is still being booked offline, even though that frequently means a lot of long and tedious research before booking the trip. Ski vacations, a € 20 billion market in Europe with 30 million travelers a year, is a case in point. To assure a perfect winter vacation, skiers need to do much more than just book their accommodations. They also need to buy ski passes, rent skis and boots, book ski lessons, think about where to buy food and beverages (which often enough involves spending a lot of time in line at the only supermarket in town) and perhaps even obtaining reservations for an event in the evening.

Source: Carl H. Marcussen, Centre for
Tourism Research (www.crt.dk/trends)

From its beginning, Online travel service provider TravelHorizon has focused on ski-related holidays for customers across Europe (www.skihorizon.com). With high average spending budgets and frequently returning guests, skiing is one of the most interesting segments of the fast-growing online travel market, yet a very fragmented one.

Founded in 2000, the company has developed a straightforward and secure online reservation system enabling a sophisticated process that offers a full service to its customers from accommodation rentals to ski passes and from food packs to insurances. Following the same principles, the company has developed further websites for high-margin e-travel markets:

www.spahorizon.com

www.travelhorizon.com

"TravelHorizon is aiming for the highest level of choices at the best prices, thereby attracting an ever growing number of highly satisfied guests and so becoming the number one European player in our markets."

Nicolas Mendiharat
CEO, TravelHorizon

To do all this, Europeans not only have to call and write to numerous hotels throughout the Alps in advance, they are also forced to spend the first day of their winter vacation making the rounds of ski schools, ski rental agencies and lift stations in order to get everything they need. Except, that is, if they are now booking their vacations through TravelHorizon at its website, www.skihorizon.com.

The second generation of travel sites. With its modular, custom-tailored travel offerings that build upon innovative technology, TravelHorizon is a perfect example of a second-generation full-service travel site. In most cases, these sites focus on fragmented markets (a third of the beds in traditional ski regions are under-utilized!) and customize all the vacation-goer’s needs by addressing this market directly, without the need for intermediaries. Two things are necessary in order to launch this kind of company: an in-depth knowledge of the market and the ability to execute flawlessly. The founders of TravelHorizon are passionate skiers and have been active in the ski business for over 14 years. 34-year old founder and CEO Nicolas Mendiharat formed his first company, low-cost ski tour operator Totemvoyages, in 1995. And TravelHorizon runs an extensive, highly integrated and automated back-end system, which enables new offerings to be easily integrated. Today, the company is reaping the benefits of its first-mover advantage. It has now become the largest buyer of ski passes and equipment rentals in many French ski resorts, as well as one of the major players in the Alpine chalet and apartment rental market. That, in turn, enables TravelHorizon to offer its increasingly demanding customers unbeatable prices with unrivaled all-inclusive package offers.

New high-margin markets. With this kind of experience and a proprietary technology, other markets, too, are opening up for the company: TravelHorizon has now also begun offering wellness vacations (www.spahorizon.com) and is working on other business ideas. All of them have two things in common: the supply side is fragmented, and the business affords high margins. This kind of focus makes CEO Mendiharat confident that he has the opportunity of becoming the number one European player in his markets. And at the same time, his company will be playing a key role in broadening the market share enjoyed by full-service travel sites.