We see that Jasons had its AGM on Wednesday and has revealed the details of its future direction. Not surprisingly most innovation will occur in the online domain.
Jasons 12-month financial results to 31 March 2010 have already been announced with headlines proclaiming that Jasons took a profit hit with net profit falling by 31% to $553,000. However, revenue increased 4.2% to $14.6 million in a relatively competitive and tough market. The decrease in profitability has been blamed on reduced advertising by customers in the 2009/10 local guides and continued losses in Australia.
So what is Jasons future?
At their AGM, it was announced that print will still be strong, however future investment will be mainly web based. There seems to be little debate that the internet space is where travel media companies will need to offer more innovative solutions and clip the ticket if they are to survive.
In time for the AGM, Jason's Chief Executive Matthew Mayne was able to show-off their new freshly revamped website at www.jasons.com that is supported by mainstream social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
The website now has a clean contemporary look and the user experience has been made more intuitive.
From our point of view, the biggest change to the website has been the long awaited introduction of the "Stayed, Paid and Raved" feedback platform that will enable guests that stay at accommodation listed on the Jasons website to upload reviews. Guests that book through the Jasons booking engine will be sent an email after their accommodation stay inviting them to complete an online review of their experience. This "authenticated" feedback will be for public display and will be differentiated from feedback received from unsolicited sources.
In a soft travel market, online reservations stand out by continuing a rapid growth. New Zealand closely follows the Australian market which is growing at 15% year on year and is expected to be worth $6.7bn by 2015.
The future for Jasons appears to be focused on increasing their market share in the online accommodation booking market. They have been able to succeed as major player in print distribution, however the on-line game has many existing successful platforms and many other travel companies are vying for a piece of the action.
The challenge for Jasons is to lure a loyal following of travellers that will regally use their services in a crowded market while maintaining their accommodation subscribers that appear to have more options than ever to spend their advertising budget.
Jasons investors will be looking at, Lonely Planet as inspiration for future more profitable returns. The UK based travel media company was able to turn a UK£3.2 million loss in 08/09 into a £1.9 million profit for the year ending March 31 2010 on the back of growing digital revenues and increasing web traffic.
