Expedia.ca's Sean Shannon talks 'friend or foe': OTAs vs traditional channels

It's been 15 years since online travel giant Expedia entered the Canadian marketplace, and there's no sign of slowing down as the company continues to make investments in technological developments and most recently, a new rewards program.

At an event in Toronto last evening, Managing Director Sean Shannon formally introduced Expedia+ which will allow customers to earn points for bookings with bonus features such as no blackout periods for redemption plus extra point accumulation for mobile app bookings.

It's a natural evolution for the business as their research shows almost seven in 10 Canadians are members of a travel rewards program, while another 68 per cent say they’d be likely to join a new travel loyalty program. In addition, of those who have experience with travel rewards programs, 87 per cent agree that they are well worthwhile and offer true value; 71 per cent of travel reward members agree they make saving for a vacation easier and 40 per cent say they rely on them to make their vacation plans possible at all.

In an interview with PAX, Shannon discussed Expedia's position in the marketplace, addressing the topic of competition when it comes to relationships with traditional travel agents.

"As we sit here in 2015, 15 years ago, everybody had their guesses and their bets," he said. "I think we all know the news and the outcome - so as much as Canadians have certainly embraced booking things online, there's room for everyone in the industry and no one has gone away; that's pretty clear...There are different market segments and different customers who have different preferences, whether it's based on trip types or certain occasions."

For example, he said, cruise bookings from an Expedia.ca perspective remain relatively low whereas air ticket bookings are high, with everything else falling in between. For him, this is an indication of the complexity of cruise product which travellers may find more comfortable tackling with a seasoned professional. While the same might be true for long-haul destinations (at this time, Expedia's top international bookings from Canada are to European and Mexican destinations), they are now witnessing a surge in queries for destinations such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

According to Shannon, this could be attributed to many factors but ultimately, he sees it as the result of Expedia's ability to build confidence in their consumers to take bookings from a low-level booking to something more multifaceted.

With that in mind, perhaps there is something traditional models can learn from the OTA in regards to gaining repeat business, and aside from the importance of building confidence in a consumer, also how travellers value and appreciate choice. 

"What Expedia has been about since the beginning is trying to give all the options," Shannon said. "Easy to say, hard to do but when you get to a certain point of scale - 365,000 hotels as an example - that gives all the choice I like to think anyone could ever want...Choice is really empowering to people to give confidence."

Referring back to the relationship with the agency community, Shannon pointed to the Expedia Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP), designed to give travel agents tools to provide clients with competitive and comprehensive products and pricing. The TAAP program offers commissions, incentives, promotions, and technology all geared towards facilitating the activities of travel agents, and the executive admits there has been major uptake worldwide.

"So, it doesn't have to be friend or foe - maybe there's a way for us to have an offering that some people in the agency community can say, 'For that economic value, for the options, for the speed, I'm OK with it,'" he said. "For me, that is groundbreaking because it says it's not about, 'It's us or you.' We all know that in any given industry and market, there are different consumers and different segments for everyone. The market will dictate - just do what you do really, really well."