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July 25, 2006
PRESS RELEASE
Travelocity, Royal Caribbean and Expedia Sail Ahead Online, Reports Keynote
- Travelocity, Royal Caribbean and Expedia Deliver the Cruise Industry’s Best Web Sites
- 31% of Prospective Customers are Seeking Greater Cruise Activity Information Online
- Celebrity Offers the Most Reliable and Responsive Web Site; But Many Cruise Web Sites Face Mounting Technical Service Issues
SAN MATEO, Calif., — July 25, 2006 — The latest competitive intelligence study
from Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), The Internet Performance Authority®, examines the online cruise industry
landscape and reports that many cruise sites are not taking complete advantage of their opportunity to please and
satisfy prospective cruise customers. In fact, about one third (31%) of visitors to cruise sites express a desire
for more online information about on board cruise activities or easier access to that information; while research
shows that exposure to this information could significantly increase their likelihood to book a cruise.
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Cruise Web Sites examined the online experience of
prospective travelers by measuring 250+ metrics at leading cruise Web sites as 2,000 consumers interacted
with those sites during May 2006. The Keynote Service Level Rankings for Cruise Web Sites examined the
technical performance on cruise sites including, overall site responsiveness and reliability by running 6,500
simulated interactions with each site, also during May 2006.
The Carnival (NYSE: CCL), Celebrity (NYSE: RCL), Cheap Tickets (NYSE: CD), Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE), Holland
America (NYSE: CCL), Norwegian, Orbitz (NYSE: CD), Princess (NYSE: CCL), Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) and
Travelocity (NYSE: TSG) sites were evaluated for the studies.
Keynote Customer Experience Rankings
(Overall Customer Satisfaction and Experience) |
1 |
Travelocity |
2 |
Royal Caribbean |
3 |
Expedia |
|
Ease of Online Booking
(Overall Ease of Use of the Online Booking Process) |
1 |
Royal Caribbean |
2 |
Travelocity |
3 |
Expedia |
|
Keynote Service Level Rankings
Site Reliability
(Indicator of Site Being Highly Available,
Low Downtime) |
1 |
Celebrity |
2 |
Cheap Tickets |
3 |
Royal Caribbean |
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Keynote Service Level Rankings
Site Responsiveness
(Indicator of How Quickly Site Pages Load, Ability to Handle Load and Consistency)
|
1 |
Celebrity |
2 |
Travelocity |
3 |
Expedia |
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Keynote Customer Experience and Customer Acquisition Rankings
Travelocity, Royal Caribbean and Expedia topped the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings, an
overall ranking based on performance across all 250+ metrics measured in the study. The Keynote
Customer Experience Rankings for Cruise Web Sites also determined the top performers in terms of
customer satisfaction, brand appeal and customer acquisition success, as well as the leaders in more than
a dozen different categories including ease of online booking, cruise activity research, and accompanying
flight and lodging research. Travelocity, Royal Caribbean and Expedia also led in the rankings for some
of these key categories, including for the online booking process, customer support and the cruise
research categories. Success in these core areas also translated into success in customer acquisition
indicators as well.
Keynote noted that the Princess cruise Web site showed significant improvement across the board and
specifically in the brand and customer acquisition rankings, based on the addition of a section of their
site which allows visitors to compare cruise options.
As was the case in past Keynote studies of the cruise industry, the online travel agency sites, such as
Travelocity and Expedia, tend to perform better in terms of customer experience and customer satisfaction as
compared to the cruise company sites. However, the cruise sites, such as Royal Caribbean and Princess, tend
to perform better in terms of cruise activity research. Keynote analysts note that this is a competitive
advantage that cruise companies should leverage.
Consumers Clamor for More Online Information on Cruise Activities
“There is a significant opportunity for cruise companies to improve their effectiveness in driving
customer acquisition using their Web Sites,” said Lance Jones, associate director of Internet research
for Keynote Systems. “Consumers are clamoring for more and easier access to information from cruise and
online travel sites – and we see clear evidence that success in providing that information equals success in
driving purchase intent.”
Almost a third (31%) of all visitors to cruise sites expressed a desire for more – and easier access to
– information about cruise activities. And a Keynote analysis showed a strong correlation between a
customer’s satisfaction with a site’s cruise activity research and its success in influencing
customers to book a cruise in the future, whether online or offline. The Royal Caribbean, Princess and Carnival
sites were the best in the industry in terms of cruise activity research.
Keynote analysts also noted that the cruise industry could benefit from following the trend in other online
travel industries towards simplifying or eliminating visitor registration. Almost half of all visitors (47%)
to some cruise sites reported frustration with forced or lengthy registration processes.
Keynote Service Level Rankings for Site Reliability and Responsiveness
The Keynote Service Level Rankings for Cruise Web Sites examined the technical performance of
leading cruise and online travel Web sites, including overall site responsiveness and reliability, by simulating
6,500 interactions with each site over a 30 day period. The Celebrity, Cheap Tickets and Royal Caribbean
sites had the industry’s best reliability, indicating those sites had the least errors of all the sites in
their industry. Celebrity, Travelocity and Expedia were the top ranked sites in terms of site responsiveness, an
indication of how fast the sites were in downloading pages and executing transactions.
However, the cruise industry as a whole is not performing to the same standards as other travel industry Web
sites according to Keynote, with a majority of cruise sites and the cruise sections of online travel sites experiencing
availability and load handling issues. A majority of sites examined in the study also recorded site outages, where the
site was unavailable to visitors. These outages ranged anywhere from 6 hours to a maximum of almost 48 hours during the
30 day evaluation period. The majority of sites also experienced temporary availability issues, such as when a page would
not download. On average, 1 out of every 20 visitors to a cruise site had such a site or page availability issue which would
have prevented them from completing the research or booking process.
Keynote noted that other industries, such as the luxury auto industry, that also have sites with extensive visual images,
do not have the same technical problems, so an important opportunity for improvement exists.
“Too many cruise sites perform below the technical standards for travel Web sites both in terms of reliability and
availability. We not only saw this from a technical measurement perspective, but also heard it from consumers interacting
with these sites,” said Ben Rushlo, manager of professional services with Keynote. “There is room for improvement
here, even among some of the best sites in the industry.”
Keynote’s competitive intelligence studies are available for purchase and provide deep insights regarding the competitive
position of each site relative to others in the study from an overall service level perspective (responsiveness and reliability of
the site) and customer satisfaction perspective. They also provide deep insight into improving online customer satisfaction generally
and specific actionable recommendations relevant to each site studied.
For an abstract about Keynote’s competitive intelligence studies of customer experience and service levels at cruise Web sites view:
www.keynote.com/solutions/ci_cruise.html
For more information about Keynote's Competitive Intelligence offerings view:
www.keynote.com/solutions/competitive_intelligence_tpl.html
Customer Experience Management
Keynote’s customer experience management (CEM) services offer both competitive intelligence studies and custom engagement services
examining best practices and consumer attitudes and behavior on the Web. To learn more about Keynote’s CEM solutions, visit:
www.keynote.com/solutions/customer_experience_management.html
Service Level Management
Keynote's service level management (SLM) solutions provide enterprises with the tools to align IT and e-business
goals. To learn more about Keynote’s SLM solutions, visit:
www.keynote.com/solutions/service_level_management.html
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq "KEYN") is the worldwide leader in services that improve online business performance and
communications technologies. Keynote helps approximately 2,300 corporate customers and 11,000 individual subscribers become "the
best of the best" online. The business premise supporting Keynote's mission is: "Online businesses can't manage what
they don't measure." As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with
unbiased benchmarking data, competitive analysis and operational metrics from the customer perspective. This data measures
service levels and customer experience of Web sites, broadband services and mobile communications.
Known as The Internet Performance Authority®, Keynote manages a market-leading infrastructure of 1,600+ measurement computers
and mobile devices in over 114 locations and 66+ metropolitan areas worldwide that assess service levels and a panel of over 160,000
consumers who participate in interactive Web site tests that assess user experience. These online user experience tests capture customer
attitude and behavior to answer the critical "why" behind the "what." Keynote's geographically distributed measurement services, on-site
monitoring appliances, competitive intelligence and custom studies ensure that its customers outpace their competitors in online service levels and overall user experience.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2006 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Editorial Contacts:
Dan Berkowitz, Keynote Systems, (650) 403-3305, dan.berkowitz@keynote.com
Dan Cahill, Roaring Communications, (415) 552-3999, dcahill@roaringcommunications.com
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