I have so much to say, but have just been so busy since getting back from Cairns with the brilliant launch of the new Backpacking Queensland site. We even made the news - hopefully, I will post the clip tomorrow.

In the meantime, two websites have come to my attention that you simply have to check out.

The first, is my mates Brett and Brad and their new site for their hostel NJOY. Check out www.njoy.net.au - funky colours and a great look and feel, which I must completely reflects the great place it is. These guys also own and run the famous Calypso hostel, which is probably my favourite hostel in the world (and I was privy to a few others saying this last week). If staying at NJOY is anything like staying at Calypso then I don’t know why anyone would stay anywhere else in Cairns.

The second site is the new HostelWorld site. First there was Boo.com and now this (check out my post earlier this year on Boo.com here). The guys at World Reservations International have really stepped up the game once again. It is amazing hwo they simply provide the service that travellers really want. While other sites have a mass of technical booking functionality or some sort of Web 2.0 economic model that is hard to make sense of, the new Hostel World site is simply awesome. Everything seems to be in the right place, links to the Google map, reviews, a clear booking engine, plus all the community aspects. I was not a big fan of the look and feel of the last site - this one I love!!

So, on my way back from a great time at the Adventure and Backpacking Industry Conference in Sydney. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I gave my best presentation ever - probably aimed the content a bit too technical and never got a grip on everything. Plus my leg was exhausted but that stage and my good leg would not stop shaking with the weight.

You can download the presentation, plus the extra bits here, which hopefully will make sense more.

One thing to make a comment on - in my speech I gave the throw away comment that Chris from Hostel Book had worked for me in Europe - since discovered same name, same relative age, both in Poland - but different people!! Sorry about that.

The actual conference day was great and really good speaking line up. Claire Hatton from Google followed me up and I asked her about duplicate content as per my earlier post this week. She confirmed that she would expect that sites could get devalued if it was perceived that their content was duplicate and that larger more established sites (e.g. Hostel World, STA etc) could be perceived by the Google algorithm and being the originator based on their age, size, ranking algorithm etc. It is essential that travel companies rewrite their content when they are syndicating across numerous travel sites.

Heres’ an issue that everyone faces as more resellers of products appear on the Internet - the issue of duplicate content.

Say you write great content for your website, but then you share that content with all your main affiliates or suppliers, for example, a hostel might give the same content they use on their home page to Hostel World or a tour company might do this for STA Travel, what will Google and other search engines think when they see the same content?

We know that duplicate content is frowned on and we know that those sites that have plagarised content are devalued by Google in the search results rankings even to the point of being banned for sometime. The risk is that by supplying the same copy to your partners you are in fact risking having your content considered as duplicate content and having your own site devalued.

For example, Hostel World, STA, eBookers and so on are always going to be considered more authoritative websites than your own - they have thousands of pages, thousands of links and are good quality sites. They probably have higher page rank than you too. So, when Google reads your content on their site it is highly likely that Google may interpret that content as theirs and penalise you for copying them. Now thats’ not on!

What about if some of these sites even pay for cost-per-click ads on your name. Well it is surely not a bad thing if you are say Base Backpackers and STA Travel are promoting your brand in the search results so as they sell more of your products is it? Perhaps it is. After all the sale always has a cost of commission. If you are coming up in the search engines number one for your brand you are hoping that you will secure the sale yourself - thereby paying back the investment you have made in web marketing and getting that amazing site. You don’t want to be giving away revenue for someone else trading on your name without actually doing anything for themselves.

These are interesting conundrums for the travel (and other industries). Perhaps it is time to turn against the hands that have fed us for so long, the STA Travels, the Hostel Worlds and so on. When it comes to the web you are all on an even footing and perhaps you are right to say no to large commissions and demand that these companies produce their own content about your product or even not trade on your name in the search engines.

So, BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of BBC TV) has bought Lonely Planet, the Guide Book and websites. One of the guys in the office here just said “This is a good move for the BBC, but I liked Lonely Planet!” Ha ha; and hes’ English, he supposed to salute that bastion of English television and all thats good and impartial.

Seriously though is this really a good move? The answer is clearly yes. Many (me definitely being one) knock Lonely Planet books for the fact that by the time the book reaches print it is out of date and that the impartiality of the content is seriously questionable. I have been in the travel industry long enough to have spent time with a number of Lonely Planet writers and are therefore extremely skeptical of their impartiality.

However, the value is not to be found in the books outrightly but in the very strong website and TV presence. The Lonely Planet website is simply awesome. The Thorn Tree (the traveller forum section) has been very active since at least 2000/2001 when I can remember we were reading it for feedback on Kiwi Experience and Stray Travel, in fact we were quoting it on Stray Travel brochures by as early as 2001. The forum is not the only community based functionality on the site; travellers can submit their travel stories, review products, submit photos and so on. If you put forward the argument that the Internet has moved people away from the guidebook to getting peer to peer travel information and the like then the Lonely Planet website would certainly be one of the first stops on Web.

Late last year Lonely Planet also replaced their Hostel World booking engine with their own product, called Haystack. I have been meaning to write about this for some time, ever since in fact I was asked at the ATEC Forum if it would be successful. “Of course”, I said, “Lonely Planet was already one of Hostel Worlds’ largest affiliates so they already have the traffic.” The BBC announcement of the purchase confirms this - apparently they receive a staggering 4.3 million visitors per month. I hazard a guess that the Haystack booking site generates significant earnings to Lonely Planet.

I have only one critism of the Lonely Planet website (if you are listening Mr BBC) - why not make the book content available online? I understand that you are first and foremost in the business of selling books - but recognise that the value is in the data and even more traffic will be generated to the websites if it was possible not only to get peer information on the destination, but also so called professional information. Better still, why not put your guide book content on the web and turn it into a wiki. Let us contribute to the next publication!

Nonetheless Lonely Planet is in a envious position, while guide book sales may be dropping off, they have capitalised on the Internet and in particular the Web 2.0 generation with open arms and remain at the forefront of travel information both online and offline. Combined with their TV information, which I am sure will only be strengthened now with their new BBC ownership, the brand is surely destined to continue to dominate.

Finally, of course, as pointed out by our English mate, the web is all very well in places like Australia and New Zealand where an Internet terminal is never more than a stones throw away - but in places like South America and Africa the Lonely Planet will remain indispensable.

This just came across my desk:

The proportion of young travellers who book online has surged from 10% to 50% in five years.

And 80% use the internet to search for information before departing on their trip.

The figures are to be released as part of a global study of young independent travellers published by the World Youth & Student Educational Travel Confederation to be released next month.

The survey of more than 8,500 young independent travellers found that the average spend per trip has increased by 40% since 2002 to 1,915 euros, of which around 1,140 euros is put aside to cover costs once in the destination.

The most popular destinations for young travellers are Australia, the US and France, while backpackers head for Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

Almost three quarters travel to explore, learn a language, volunteering or studying abroad and 80% say they return more appreciate and tolerant of other cultures as a result.

The full findings of the survey are to be released on October 3 at the World Youth & Student Travel Conference in Istanbul.

When we developed the functionality to take Hostel World reviews and ratings and display them on the Base website I believed we were working with Hostel World (rather than against them) - after all Base hostels used the Hostel World property management system - and as I said earlier today, we were in effect announcing the importance of Hostel World content.

Ironically, it was over a year ago that I first saw the aggregating functionality that the Charts property management system was promoting for populating the Hostel World inbox with availability from Charts and subsequently retrieving bookings into the property management system. It was obvious to me at the time that this would be unacceptable to Hostel World. Firstly, there is the case of controlling the hits on their server. But secondly, it is the case of controlling the data.

Hostel World are happy to share their technology (you can insert their booking engine into your website very easily) and their moves to RSS feed the reviews and ratings is evidence of their Web 2.0 attitude to sharing data within the realms of sensibility. But their wish to restrict the access to availability (their main asset) is understandably essential.

Firstly, they are in the business of providing property management systems (Backpack for Windows) and to allow other property management systems access to their online availability database is in effect cutting their own market. But the second and more understandable reason was made clear to me by Tom Kennedy in a brief discussion outside the Sheraton Hotel in Toronto in 2005. When I asked Tom what the chance of accessing the Hostel World database both for populating and getting availability for the TravelFAT system he said slim. He explained that the risk for Hostel World if everyone had access to availability would be an erosion of prices - sites cutting commissions or hostels putting lower prices on certain sites. The net effect a lower yield for everyone - obvious.

The screen scraping method that Charts was using for populating the Hostel World inbox with availability and retrieving bookings was only a short step for someone to develop a booking engine using the Hostel World availability but not their payments engine - in effect side stepping Hostel World and keeping the money for themselves.

So it came as no surprise recently that Hostel World has added a visual randomly generated code that has to be entered to their login screen to stop such practices. It is a pity for all the hostels that purchased Charts on this premise. Nonetheless, let us hope that at sometime in the near future Hostel World considers publishing their APIs for how other property management systems might send availability to, and retrieve bookings from, the Hostel World database - ignoring of course their business model of distributing their own property management system (sic).

I have written two earlier posts regarding Base Backpackers and their courageous move allowing Hostel World reviews and ratings to appear on their website unedited. But today a thought…

Clearly, the use of this independent user generated content signals a tick of recognition by Base of the dominant position of Hostel World in the online hostel booking space but does it also mean an erosion of the Base brand online? Is this in effect saying to a customer book with Hostel World and not us?

When we originally designed the Base web strategy the majority of Base hostels were using the Hostel World property management system Backpack for Windows which meant that every customer that booked online at both the Hostel World website and the Base website were sent an online survey. Unfortunately, in the last 6 months many of the hostels have switched systems and this is no longer the case. So, I guess the answer will come over the next few months. If Hostel World can maintain the necessary level of content to make this functionality work for Base then Hostel Worlds’ position as the dominant independent source for traveller reviews and ratings will be confirmed - if not, perhaps Base will be forced to look elsewhere.

As an aside, the whole displaying of these reviews and ratings on the Base website developed by Xebidy is pretty flash - well we thought so anyway! We use a variety of products to continually monitor the relevant Hostel World pages, pick up the content, strip it of any presentation and represent it on the Base website in valid HTML. Since making it public I have been advised that Hostel World are going to RSS feed that content in the next 4 to 6 weeks. This is a great move by them, firstly it stops uncontrolled hits on the server by guys like us, and secondly it will make the content widely available for use by everyone - and maybe this is the answer to the dominance of the Hostel World brand online.

Interestingly enough it also means that those wanting to display only good comments could use products such as our Xefeed RSS feed rinse to remove bad comments - not quite what everyone had in mind I am sure!

I came across this website (Hostelmanagement.com) last week and found it thoroughly interesting. It is basically a community website for hostel owners and managers to share advice etc., It is an interesting concept and one that I had talked to Grant Currie at Plus Villages about a number of years ago.

Hostel Management also has a My Space site and it is interesting to see that they have more “friends” on their My Space site than hostel active or featured on the forums and directory. I guess self interested promotion is more important to most than getting the sense of community going - it will be interesting to see if Hostel Management can generate the community traction.

It’s a new community site and it is called Hostel Buddies. I first came across this site when it was in private beta back in March and was impressed with their agenda. But it is ironic that I should be introducing it to you today ( a few days after it went live) on the same day that I have posted information about Boo.com

David Mackenzie and I have hooked up a number of times since he first introduced Hostel Buddies from Vienna to me via Skype and I have to say he has done a great job getting it live. Hostel Buddies only claims to be in Beta Version 1.0 and it seems unfair, but unfortunately impossible not, to compare it to the likes of Boo, Tripwiser or OE.TV. These sites have a greater traction and therefore much greater depth in their user generated content and unfortunately for Hostel Buddies a much slicker interface. Somehow the Hostel Buddies interface seems clumsy and I really struggle to work out how to get around. It is also very buggy (I am using Firefox) and perhaps navigation will become clearer once some of these are ironed out.

Nonetheless, David has been great with me, sending me screenshots well in advance of everyone else and really accommodating my interest. I will watch with enthusiasm as the site grows and hopefully there will be lots of parallel marketing opportunities that I can recommend to everyone. Travel communities (and in particular backpacking/hostels) are a tough space and competition is intense!

I guess I missed the boat on this one - being in little old New Zealand; but better than late than never to announce the awesome new website from Web Reservations International - the guys behind HostelWorld - Boo.com

Love ‘em or hate ‘em the guys have done an amazing job with this one! It’s an all singing, all dancing real Web 2.0 travel site with wicked reviews and ratings, hotel bookings, flight meta-search and community. You can create your own profile and then review all the places your have travelled, stayed etc.

There is not much more I can say about it - the site is simply awesome - it looks great (very Web 2.0) and from my initial play seems to work well. It loads very slow - and that has always been a criticism myself and many others have of HostelWorld - but it is worth the wait. What’s more it already has a raft of user generated content after only 8 weeks or so online.

Don’t know about the name though. For those of you who can’t remember Boo.com was the famous fashion website that managed to burn through 100 million pounds in 18 months during the 90’s Internet boom - somehow I don’t think Ray Nolan, Tom Kennedy and crew will be following that fate with this great site!