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Where we are now: 50% of cell phones are web-enabled and there are 3 billion cell phone contracts across the planet.

Here’s my guess at the new communication landscape in 2014:

• 80% of Cell phones are Web-enabled.
• 50% of audio / video person to person communications take place over a handheld device that is not a landline phone.
• 25% of people will regularly be paying for goods and services with their cell phone – linked to financial services.
• More people will be accessing the Web by phone than by computer.
• People will use computers primarily for work and school, handhelds will be the device of choice for accessing information that matters – when and where it matters most, HERE and NOW.
• Computer banking will be replaced by handheld apps for most people.  (hopefully banks won’t fall into the trap of making the handheld a premium revenue-generating service!)
• Office space will become cheap, cheap, cheap as businesses move away from clustered office cubicles and embrace an open-office standard where business is transacted wherever people are.

What is your best guess at the new communication landscape in 2014?  What do you think the implications are for travel and tourism businesses?

It is natural for entrepreneurs new to the travel industry to focus on solving consumer problems or pain points.

Solving problems is what entrepreneurs are guided to do and consumer-facing issues are easy to spot and often look ripe for addressing.

Hence we end up with a glut of inspiration websites, social media services or product review aggregators.

Whilst there is certainly an opportunity in these sectors (for the ultimate few who capture sufficient traction to become category winners) it is becoming an increasingly obvious that sites such as inspiration websites are really focussed on web traffic arbitrage between Google and travel product suppliers and are not really winning the battle to become the place to start trip planning research.

That is not a plan for long term success.

Instead, I propose three problems that are crying out for help.

Idea #1 – the easy one suitable for bootstrappers: Tour operator/travel agent discovery

I work with specialist tour operators through our reservation system TourCMS as well as via the SmallFishBigOcean forums.

These tour operators tend to have great products not available via any distribution channel and their marketing can be limited to spending a few dollars on Google and other direct approaches.

Historically they have never worked with travel agents but now they are beginning to think about agent distribution or perhaps dipping their toes in affiliate marketing.

However, they struggle to find agents/affiliates interested or sufficiently knowledgeable in what they are promoting.

In just the last couple of weeks I have been asked who might promote a one month residential yoga teacher training course in India, tours of Ethiopia, mainstream tours of South Africa or walking holidays on the Isle of Wight (UK).

The problem exists in reverse. Conventional agents want to find tour operators/activity providers who have commissionable products that are credible, provide date, price and availability information in a nicely consumable format and who might be worth promoting to their consumers in their geographic vicinity.

Their current method to find new suppliers is exhibitions such as London’s World Travel Market, ITB in Berlin, etc.

There is no web based solution for this right now.

Solution: A central website much like a dating website.

Idea #2 – for a company with a bit of money behind them: Tour operator commission/balance payments system

IATA runs a Billing Settlement Plan (BSP) for airlines, which it describes as:

“A BSP is the central point through which data and funds flow between travel agents and airlines. Instead of every agent having an individual relationship with each airline, all of the information is consolidated through the BSP”

Now the industry could do with that for tours operators/activity companies and travel agents.

However it needs to not just handle balance payments but also affiliate commission (i.e. companies working on the media model). Note that affiliate commission flows in the opposite direction to travel agent balance payments.

There is no web-based (or non web-based for that matter) solution for this right now.

Idea #3 – a toughie, but with the right contacts and partnerships you could be onto a winner: Credit card risk data

Credit card companies are happy to be informed when you are travelling abroad in order to incorporate this information within their risk analysis profiles.

Then, when you are based in the US but suddenly start charging payments from Thailand, the card company may permit the payment.

There are all sorts of problems with card company traveller profiles. For example, some card companies can only hold one trip at a time, causing problems to travellers on a multi-country trip.

I am less confident about this idea than the first two (because I have never worked for a credit card company), however, I sense they would pay for a source of traveller data which helps them mitigate payment risk and understand whether to accept a particular payment or not.

Might be worth looking into if you have the right contacts OR it might be left for a TripCase/TripIt type company to work towards.

NB: Thats it! Do you have any more suggestions on problems that could be addressed by travel industry entrepreneurs?

By now, most of us have heard that the Web is social, but are you taking action to encourage social actions on your blog or website? Of course we can socialize with our fans and followers on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and the like, but now even our websites and blogs can become places where social actions can bring big benefits.

Step 1: Create great content, stuff that gets people excited, interested and enthused about the content you create.  Think beyond basic website information, think about providing something that your fans will want to tell others about.

Step 2: Ask for the action you want people to take.  Be straightforward – instead of leaving it up to your website visitor to decide how to share, ask them to Tweet about it or Like it.  I like to call this action “a small yes”  vs a “big yes”, like opening their wallet to get out a credit card!

Step 3: Make it easier to take that step by providing buttons that make it easy! Grab the new Twitter Tweet code http://twitter.com/tweetbutton and make a customized Facebook Like button http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like.  Then just paste the html code into your blog or website.

The nicest thing about using Facebook and Twitter buttons is they are interactive and easy for the users.  It is a very small request to ask a visitor to Like or Tweet about you when all they need to do is click a button on your webpage.  If a visitor likes what they see, engaging with it, brings some sense of personal satisfaction.

A big benefit is that this action is social, letting the website visitors spread word about your offer to all of their friends and followers. Actions produce results that are instantly visible to the clicker.  As the button is pressed, the counter updates, showing number of times the page has been Liked or Tweeted.  It’s a small bit of feedback that encourages users who are social to take action on your page.

Sharing can be viral:  When visitors see others have tweeted or liked your content, it encourages others to share it too! Tweet Button is very well designed

Tweet Buttons Well Designed

The Twitter button is well thought out and features text you can define (default is the page title), a shortened URL and a link to your preferred Twitter account. Users of the code can also recommend a second twitter account to follow once the user confirms their tweet.  Twitter users can also edit the tweet to their desire.

Using the Code

Twitter Tweet Button code is super user friendly, because wherever the code is used, the tweet that is generated automatically creates a shortened URL to the page that was liked.  Once you’ve decided on the design of the button you want for your site, you can use the same code over and over again on any page that you would like tweeted.

The Facebook Like button is highly customizable.  Website editors can even choose to show the Facebook avatar (photo) of the last person who liked your stuff.

Facebook Like button could be better

One of the downfalls of the Facebook Like button code generator, is that the Url to Like must be updated for each page the code is placed on so that when people Like your content, the link in the Facebook status update links directly to the content that was liked.

Think about your site users and fans before determining how social to make your button.  Adding a counter encourages action, but I think most users might be hesitant to see their face show up on the webpage of a tourism business.  My preference is for a simplified counter to save page space.

Get Social on your Webpage or Blog with Facebook Like and Twitter Tweet buttons

If you are in the tourism business, there are big benefits to be had by creating content that engages your audience, just make sure you are making it easy for webpage visitors to share your content with their fans and followers by using Facebook Like buttons and Twitter Tweet buttons.

By now, most of us have heard that the Web is social, but are you taking action to encourage social actions on your blog or website? Of course we can socialize with our fans and followers on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and the like, but now even our websites and blogs can become places where social actions can bring big benefits.

Step 1: Create great content, stuff that gets people excited, interested and enthused about the content you create.  Think beyond basic website information, think about providing something that your fans will want to tell others about.

Step 2: Ask for the action you want people to take.  Be straightforward – instead of leaving it up to your website visitor to decide how to share, ask them to Tweet about it or Like it.  I like to call this action “a small yes”  vs a “big yes”, like opening my wallet to get out my credit card!

Step 3: Make it easier to take that step by providing buttons that make it easy! Grab the new Twitter Tweet code http://twitter.com/tweetbutton and make a customized Facebook Like button http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like.  Then just paste the html code into your blog or website.

Benefits of Buttons

The nicest thing about using Facebook and Twitter buttons is they are interactive and easy for the users.  It is a very small request to ask a visitor to Like or Tweet about you when all they need to do is click a button on your webpage.  If a visitor likes what they see, engaging with it, brings some sense of personal satisfaction.

A big benefit is that this action is social, letting the website visitors spread word about your offer to all of their friends and followers. Actions produce results that are instantly visible to the clicker.  As the button is pressed, the counter updates, showing number of times the page has been Liked or Tweeted.  It’s a small bit of feedback that encourages users who are social to take action on your page.

Sharing can be viral:  When visitors see others have tweeted or liked your content, it encourages others to do it too!

Tweet Button is very well designed

The Twitter button is well thought out and features text you can define (default is the page title), a shortened URL and a link to your preferred Twitter account. Users of the code can also recommend a second twitter account to follow once the user confirms their tweet.  Twitter users can also edit the tweet to their desire.

Using the Code:

The Facebook Like button is highly customizable.  Website editors can even choose to show the Facebook avatar (photo) of the last person who liked your stuff.  One of the downfalls of the Facebook Like button code generator, is that the Url to Like must be updated for each page the code is placed on so that when people Like your content, the link in the Facebook status update links directly to the content that was liked.

Think about your site users and fans before determining how social to make your button.  Adding a counter encourages action, but I think most users might be hesitant to see their face show up on the webpage of a tourism business.  My preference is for a simplified counter to save page space.

Twitter Tweet Button code is super user friendly, because wherever the code is used, the tweet that is generated automatically creates a shortened URL to the page that was liked.  Once you’ve decided on the design of the button you want for your site, you can use the same code over and over again on any page that you would like Tweeted.

If you are in the tourism business, there are big benefits to be had by creating content that engages your audience, just make sure you are making it easy for webpage visitors to share your content with their fans and followers by using Facebook Like buttons and Twitter Tweet this buttons.