How cloud services help expand Amazon's role in travel

This Travel Agency's New Logo Is A Huge Improvement

First Choice logo.

The travel industry has faced huge disruption in the past decade or so. Changing tastes, the rise of online bookings and the Covid-19 pandemic have all had an impact, so it's perhaps not surprising that brands have made big design changes as they seek to weather the storm.

The UK travel agency First Choice doesn't do subtle rebrands. Its latest overhaul is just as radical is the last one back in 2015, but happily its new logo and other assets look a lot more apt for a travel brand this time around (see our pick of the best tourist board logos for more travel inspiration).

First Choice's last rebrand was a strange one. It dropped a cliched cartoonish tourism-board-like logo featuring a sunny beach scene in favour of a design that had no obvious connection to travel and looked more like a logo for a life sciences company. After eight years, it's putting that right with a new logo and other assets that present a warmer, classier identity while leaving little doubt about what the brand does.

With many people now opting to book their holiday activities themselves, Ragged Edge, which led the rebranding strategy, aimed to highlight the benefits of travel agencies, including for younger customers who never dealt with them in the old high street format. As well as communicating the convenience and security, this meant selling the idea that travel agencies also act as curators.

Ragged Edge says it aimed to show First Choice a solution to the modern problem of the 'Fear of Better Options', or FOBO, and the decision paralysis that comes with it. Its new identity for the brand urges people to be "proudly picky" without having to do all the comparison work themselves.

There's a bunch of icons that have a lot of personality: fun, playful but also slightly aspirational. These represent different holiday options like the city, coast, pool or countryside, and when they come together to form a logo lockup they look almost like a heraldic shield.

The typeface for the rebrand is a customised version of Pastiche Grotesque created with Order Type Foundry, which has an organic, uneven feel. That's backed up by a similarly "loose, imperfect" approach to photography. Rather than using images with a particular style from one photographer, Ragged Edge opted to use images from a range of travellers to convey diverse experiences of travel.

"Booking travel has become an increasingly overwhelming experience. Having unlimited and unfiltered choice makes picking the right holiday harder, not easier," Ragged Edge co-founder Max Ottignon says. "First Choice replaces endless options, and the choice paralysis that comes with them, with a single platform built to help you pick the trip you really want. So that became the focus of the brand. A brand that makes it easy to get picky."

We've seen this week the dangers of designing for designers rather than a brand's target audience, but First Choice's target audience is changing. This rebrand feels like it could strike just the right balance in appealing to a younger demographic without alienating customers that know the brand.

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11 Illegal Travel Agents Nabbed With Fake Papers In September

NEW DELHI: At least 11 agents involved in sending ineligible people to foreign countries using forged documents were arrested in September, police said on Friday. One of the arrested agents has been identified as Barinder Singh (30) from Punjab. Singh and other arrested persons allegedly ran a racket that targeted individuals aspiring to travel abroad using illicit means.Singh was arrested when an Indian passenger arrived at IGI Airport after being deported from London. "His emergency certificate and departure details raised suspicion as they did not align with legitimate travel records. It was revealed that he had travelled to the UK using someone else's passport. A case was registered and inquiry initiated," said Devesh Kumar Mahla, DCP ( IGI Airport).The passenger further revealed that his journey was arranged by Singh who had charged him Rs 17 lakhs for the service."Following technical surveillance, a raid was conducted at Singh's residence in south Delhi's Greater Kailash and he was arrested. He confessed to facilitating illegal journeys to foreign countries in exchange of money," the DCP added. The other agents were identified in a similar manner and arrested.Police further informed that this year, around 103 people, including passengers and illegal travel agents, have been convicted. Among those convicted, nine were Sri Lankan passengers and two of their agents who were arrested in May. The conviction happened within a span of five months.

How Travel Advisors Helped Me Grow My European Hostel Business

Photo Credit: A&O Hostels

Oliver Winter is founder and CEO of A&O Hostels, the largest privately owned hostel chain in Europe, with 39 properties in 25 cities in nine countries in Europe. 

When I was young, I discovered the power of travel to change one's perspective.

I wanted to explore the world, but I didn't want to spend all my money on accommodations. So I stayed in youth hostels.

Those hostels were economical but were an inconsistent mix, mostly catering to backpackers and run by nonprofit associations, churches or one-off local establishments. Although they provided a night's sleep, that was about the only thing they had in common with hotels.

And they certainly didn't work with travel advisors.

When I founded the hostel company A&O in 2000, I offered 164 beds. Only one was private, and the rest were shared. Today, we have over 30,000 beds in Europe: 85% are private (double rooms and family rooms), and 15% are dorm rooms.

And we operate economically in some of the most expensive cities on the Continent.

The secret of our success? B2B partners, including travel advisors, tour operators, corporate partners and school groups.

Over the years, travel advisors not only provided bookings, they provide insight. They help us be more professional and consistent in our offerings so we can reliably meet our guests' expectations. They are the experience experts, providing guidance to our guests on where to find a great restaurant, an art district, the best tours and allow us to concentrate on providing a truly affordable, "you know what you're gonna get" experience, with a strong focus on sustainability (we have been on a mission since 2017 to become net-zero by 2025).

Since we started A&O, we've experienced digital revolutions, a global recession, a pandemic and various climate events, all of which have substantially changed our business for the better. While consistency is one of our bedrocks, so is our ability to change. It has been key to our success and growth.

When we began, we accepted reservations by fax, and 90% of our business came through travel agencies. Today, like many travel businesses, the mix is closer to 50% travel professionals and 50% direct bookings. Although the percentage has changed, the sheer number of bookings coming through advisors has nonetheless grown substantially along with our business, and we still consider their guidance invaluable, opening us up to new audiences and reinforcing the importance of understanding guests' needs.

Today, 10% of our corporate team is made up of software engineers, a rarity in hospitality. These engineers are an integral part of our team, but they are not focused only on the direct bookings; they ensure that our booking platforms are fine-tuned to the needs of our travel partners.

With inflation and the rising trend of families wanting to travel together and having parents stay in the same rooms with their kids, hostels provide an ever more prominent role in providing accommodations in cities throughout Europe. Unlike home-sharing options, we offer exclusively family-friendly locations for guests and groups, ones that are close to attractions that cater to all generations.

Some of our family rooms can fit up to eight people -- not something that's easy to find -- and kids stay free. As the hospitality market tightens and flight prices increase, affordability has become all the more important, particularly for international trips. Working with travel advisors has been paramount to our success, and I'm confident that will remain so as we navigate this next travel season.

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