Google’s power continues to grow: travel sector starting to worry

Almost everyone I know starts their holidays with Google. They (and me, too) use it to search for destinations and for things to do. Subsequently, they search for operators that can best answer to the needs for travel and accommodation. And maybe, we’ll also check street view to see if that cottage is really that close to the waterfront.

Where would we be without Larry and Sergey? That’s what the travel sector thinks as well. They are even so impressed by the role of Google in planning vacations that they now fear to have to compete with the search giant.

Dutch e-Commerce industry representative Thuiswinkel.org, in which the travel business is strongly represented, sounds the alarms. Wijnand Jongen, spokesperson for Thuiswinkel, acknowledges that the industry benefits greatly from Google, but worries about the negative aspects, too. Google acquires stocks in many kinds of websites, amongst which travel sites, without anyone knowing what they are going to do with them. According to Jongen, Google can hardly claim to be an independent search engine. “If they no longer are, that’s fine. But they need to be transparent about it.”

Furthermore, the prices for Google’s ads rise, which, in the end, will be reflected in the consumer price.

Google itself is of course adamant it means no harm and claims to only be interested in the technologies the sector uses. The company denies to plan to sell vacations too. James van Thiel, of Google Travel: “We remain an independent search engine. We are not a threat, we just want to help.”

Source: nu.nl (in Dutch)