Enter the amateur-expert traveller. Tuesday, 24th November 2009 Source : By Yeoh Siew Hoon

Amadeus tips new travellers emerging as it launches Extreme Search tool which allows 'a different way of shopping'.

At the media briefing in Bangkok last week, John Chapman, vice president, Airlines Group, Amadeus Asia Pacific spoke of the imminent launch of a new search tool. Under the project name of Extreme Search, the new tool has been in development for more than a year.

Chapman said that Extreme Search would give airlines a tool to embrace on their website to give a different kind of shopping option to online consumers. "Rather than just asking what flights are available, it will open it up by activity and budget."

The development of Extreme Search was first talked about last November. At that time, Gillian Gibson, vice president for the Amadeus multinational customer group, told Travolution UK which reported the news: "We think this is a paradigm shift in search and shopping online."

This week (November 19), Amadeus rolled out the new tool on the back of new research which tips the rise of the "Amateur-Expert Traveller" - someone "who is more knowledgeable, more adventurous and more likely to live in an emerging economy than ever before - and whose rise coincides with innovations in the trip experience and the growth of niche travel in the post-recessionary environment".

Based on primary research with 2,719 travel professionals and 30 thought-leaders and senior executives from companies such as Kayak, Forrester and Qatar Airways, the report highlights three significant developments:

• The Amateur-Expert Traveller: the average consumer has been empowered by the internet, and the dynamic of the relationship between travel companies and their customers is changing. 73% of industry professionals welcome the greater knowledge brought by user-generated content, which drives up customer expectations, and creates new opportunities for travel agents to share their expertise with increasingly adventurous travellers.
• The responsive journey: 62% of those surveyed think that the journey experience is ripe for technological innovation. The maturing of the mobile internet will give rise to massive innovation around the trip itself.
• All niches great and small: travel companies' revenue streams are becoming more evenly spread over a wider range of products. The traditional 80/20 sales distribution curve no longer applies to 38% of respondents, for whom 80% of their revenues was contributed by 60% or more of their products. Similarly, niche travel offers present opportunities for travel companies. Those surveyed identified adventure travel (83%), religious travel (55%), and weddings (45%) as key growth areas for specialist holidays.