What's in a Name?

We have to wonder what’s going on in the world of naming travel companies. It just seems like there must be a master list of names, or that there is simply too many companies so that naming them is really really hard now.

The latest example is the new airlines from British Airlines called “Openskies”. Yes – it seems to be predicated on the “Open Skies Agreement” that frees up competition for international routes, but it also unfortunately shares the same name as the Navitaire Host system. Painful.

But it gets worse.

Even names that we thought were pretty unique have close twins. Check out the names of YAPTA (known for flight tracking) – and its bizarro-world twins called YATRA (online travel portal). And seriously – check out the logos - even those are similar!!

But it gets worse.

One of the original names WAS Bezurk, an Asian based Metasearcher– but they decided to rename themselves WeGo.com. Which is an awful name to switch to because there is already a WeGoLo.com, which is an European LCC meta. Looks like Bezurk just didn’t go low enough.

There is now TripAdvisor, TripConnect, TripIt, InsideTrip, TripDoor, and CTrip. It’s a complete marketing nightmare. Don't get us started on the fare names. Farelogix, FareCast, FareCompare, etc.

Where is the creativity? Now on the other hand, behold the name Fare Market Value. That's a beaut.