ADV ERTISING

Much of the friction between traditional operators in the travel industry and these ‘new school’ companies comes from the way that many deals are promoted to consumers. In some quarters these so-called disruptors are seen as maintaining Australia’s print newspaper industry, filling weekend pages with full page ads and cover wraps.

But Tripadeal’s Black just sees this as another example of doing things differently. “If you want to build brand, you need to look at alternative methods as to how you get your name out there,” Black says. “When we started in newspapers, no-one wanted to touch them. We made a website where our phone number was bigger than everything else on the home page, which is the opposite of what everyone else was doing; at what point did we decide the customer wasn’t human?

“Besides, I’ve got a few questions if I’m going to hand over $5,000 for my holiday.” The advertising practices of some of these newcomers is where we begin to see the cracks in what is an otherwise healthy battle for the soul of the travel industry. Dennis Bunnik, Council of Australian

Tour Operators (CATO) Chairman, recently