Travel Trade Gazette

Date:- 29th October 2004

Load your deals on web for £25 a year

A NEW website is offering agents the chance to advertise all their deals online for £25 a year. Thepeoplesweb.com site will act as an "items for sale" and "items wanted" notice board. It was launched this week by First Choice Airways pilot Mark Tuppen. Some business experts believe the site's "matching" technology could make it bigger than Friends Reunited. Agents will be able to place holiday offers on the site, which will be matched to requests from consumers. Tuppen said the site would allow agents to extend their reach at very low cost. Because it is updated in real-time, it offers multiples the chance to sell distressed stock at late notice. Tuppen said he is close to signing a deal to place one of the big four operators' inventories on the site. "Every time I fly a plane there are empty seats at the back", he said. "This will provide a way to fill those seats". "It enables companies such as First Choice and Thomas Cook to update their spare availability every day, and know when it has been sold. If they use this, most airlines will be able to fill their seats. "The number of adverts is unlimited", Tuppen added. "We are not taking anything from the transactions. We are just a matching service and people pay us a low, flat fee. This will do to the internet what Ryanaire and easyjet have done for the aviation industry." Thepeoplesweb site has non-travel sections, but travel will make up a large proportion of its content. It has already received 40,000 hits, and Tuppen expects the website to be "a household name in six months". Lingfield Travel in Surrey was the first independent travel agent to place deals, for it Lanzotic Travel operator arm, on the site. Volkswagen is one of the non-travel companies that has signed up. "The systems work OK and it's not a bad bet to try it out for a year for just £25," said managing director Barrie Underhill. Julie Stanford, managing director of The Essential Business Guide, said "This is going to be huge. It's a great business model - low cost, but high volume, which creates a level playing field for smaller businesses. "It means you can be out there in the same market place as the big boys." FINIAN DAVERN

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