Jump back, what's that sound?

Greetings from CASMA at the Intercontinental Playa Bonita Resort in Panama!! (bonus points to any of you readers that understand the Van Halen reference in this entry's title).

Yes - it looks like conference season has started for 2008 and FMV travels far and wide to keep our loyal readers up to date. This year CASMA has picked a great resort to host the conference - and FMV will highly recommend the Intercontinental. The conference has even arranged transportation to the hotel - which is about 45 minutes from the airport. The only problem is that Panama City itself does not seem very inviting to explore, and there is a general consensus that there is not much enthusaism for going into the city and seeing the sites (which doesn't seem much after you get past that big canal thing).

In terms of attendance - seems well attended in terms of numbers, but not as much in terms of companies and organziations. For instance - out of a total of about 200 people, COPA has 18 people attending (ok, that makes kinda sense since it's home turf for them), ARC has 19 (huh??), and each of the GDSs have 9-10 as well (which also makes sense because let's face it - CASMA is a bit of a GDS love-fest after all...).

Buzz words we predict to watch out for today during the gatherings:

1) Some reference to "4 carriers going under in the same week..."
2) Anciliary revenue (with multiple references to Ryan Air)
3) Price of oil

It's enevitable - airline people just can't help themselves. For those of you that can't be here, go ahead and "ease the seat back", we'll post updates as noteworthy things happen and time permits.

Hello from Phocuswright !

Hello from sunny Orlando, where this year’s Phocuswright Executive Conference is being held at the Omni Hotel - which is pretty much in the middle of freaking nowhere, Florida. There are NO restaurants nearby except for a Chili’s, and if you registered late and didn’t get into the Omni – you guaranteed yourself a 17 mile hike to the nearest Marriott or Radisson (read: Dump).

BUT – it is the best travel conference every year, and highlights how badly some of the others really suck. Good lineup for Day 1 so we’ll log some entries a bit later.

The inevitable has happened.

US on-line travel sales now exceed off-line travel sales. PhoCusWright has released their seventh annual on-line travel overview. Per this synopsis, PCW reports that online travel sales hit 51% in 2007, and should continue to grow to 60% in 2009.


We always take this stat with a grain of salt, since it's typically computed in dollars rather than transactions. Either may be appropriate for a given argument, but it totally depends on the case you want to make. Regardless, we'll agree with the conclusion: on-line channels will continue to grow despite their setbacks and possible risks to brandloyalty.


We'll be keeping it real at the PCW executive conference next week, so we'll keep you posted on the latest buzz.

G'Day from CASMA !

We're in sunny Tampa this week for the CASMA conference, and from all appearances, it looks like a record attendance. You can make fun of the cheesiness of the event, we think CASMA members know each other better than other events, are much friendlier, and therefore you can really have some fun getting into the act.

Although – it's a bit disconcerting discussing business two months later with a guy you've seen do the electric slide in a full pirate's costume.

More entries to come…