Scoopon forges ahead with travel expansion

Scoopon continues to make inroads into the travel sector with a new partnership with Getaway’s Catriona Rowntree part of its plan to achieve ambitious growth targets in 2016.

Head of travel Gordon Bayne told Travel Weekly that the decision to sign Rowntree followed a research process that showed that her “well-respected” standing in the travel space making her the ideal ambassador.

“Our focus is on moving the Scoopon brand into an affordable luxury space so it’s vital that we have that compelling Australian talent to take that to Australian consumers,” he said.

Scoopon launched as a group-buying site in Australia in 2008, with the travel category following in 2011.

“But it’s really been in the last 12 months that we’ve evolved our product line-up,” Bayne explained.

Now the site features a much broader range of content including branded hotels, cruises, business class packages, tours in the UK, Europe and even Peru.

“We’ve really cast our net wide around the globe. And it’s not only four or five star product, it’s a whole range of product that we never used to feature.”

And while daily deals remains an important part of the marketing mix, Bayne stressed that Scoopon Travel is increasingly simply an online travel company.

It achieved accreditation under the Australian Federation of Travel Agent’s ATAS scheme last December, and offers customers 18-hours-a-day access to a dedicated reservations team located both in Melbourne and in Manila.

“We are online but we still offer the support of a living, breathing human,” Bayne said. “All cruise bookings are now done through our reservations team.”

Hotel bookings too are increasingly made in person, he added.

Technology is also a massive part of the e-commerce business, with the company committed to delivering a booking system that shows customers real-time availability of the products listed on-site.

“It is at the top of the list and we’re just finalising that now,” Bayne revealed, adding the new system would be unveiled in 2016.

The new developments are all a sign of the growing importance of travel for the company as a whole.

“When I started, travel was number six of six categories but as of July 1, travel is the number one category in the business,” Bayne said.

He reported double digit growth, with targets doubled for this financial year to reflect the anticipated boost from the Getaway partnership, the expanded product portfolio and the revamped team.

“We’ve got a team of amazing people that I’ve handpicked from OTAs, wholesalers and hoteliers,” Baynes said. “We have really got those travel specialists that have a complete understanding of the industry.”

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