Biztravel's Nomination for a Webby Award
Biztravel.com is the only New York based company nominated in the Travel category of the Webby Awards this year. John Williams, the President of Biztravel.com, took the time to answer the following questions about Biztravel's presence on the internet.
How did you first become involved in the Internet and web production? Did you launch any sites before Biztravel?
Prior to my work at Biztravel.com, I served as Senior Vice President Marketing Information Services at American Express, where I was responsible for developing ExpressNet, American Express' online presence on AOL.
What year was Biztravel started?
Biztravel.com was founded in January of 1995 with a mission to be "the Internet company for frequent business travelers (sm)."
How much traffic does your site get in an average month?
We do not disclose this information.
What made you decide to target business travelers specifically?
Executives from small-to-medium sized businesses often lack the administrative support they need in managing their travel arrangements. Biztravel.com was designed for these "self-managed" travelers to achieve a new level of personal power and control over their travel plans.
Biztravel.com sees the self-managed business travel market as highly lucrative with tremendous growth opportunity. In 1996 for example, the last year for which data is available, the self-managed travel market was more than 2 ½ times the size of the managed business travel market ($33.4b vs. $12.7b). Leisure travel was just $25.4b in the same year.
You are being honored with a Webby award nomination. What sets your site apart from other travel related sites? What can you offer customers that other sites can't?
There are several aspects about the service we provide that sets Biztavel.com apart from the competition. Biztravel.com is committed to making every trip booked on its site a success. Our services go "beyond the browser," seamlessly integrating with technologies used by today's frequent business traveler, i.e. pagers, electronic calendars and personal information managers.
In addition, Biztravel.com is the only online travel company to offer an automated upgrade feature that dramatically simplifies the airline upgrade process and increases the opportunity for business travelers to secure first or business class seats on domestic airline flights.
Through Biztravel.com, road warriors are equipped with the best Internet tools for business travel that allow them to achieve superior productivity and success when traveling. Biztravel.com is the only online travel company using a proprietary reservations system to meet the unique needs of frequent business travelers.
Since you launched the site, has your audience changed much? What have you done to adapt to the changing demands of your visitors?
Our core audience has not changed. Biztravel.com has remained committed to helping the self-managed business traveler, but we have grown since our start up to offer more services. Biztravel.com has developed into a one-stop shop for all travel needs and recently introduced two vacation services in order to expand its services. Through these unique offerings, today's busy road warriors can book leisure travel at the same place they handle their business travel transactions.
What do you have planned for the future? Are there more sites related to business travel in the works?
Biztravel.com will continue to seek customer feedback and develop new features based on the needs of our customers. We are currently launching a redesigned Web site, which addresses our members needs for personalization, and faster service - we see this upgrade as an ongoing mission that will grow our customer base and continue to provide us with tremendous brand loyalty.
INFO ON WEBBY AWARDS FROM THEIR WEB SITE (www.webbyawards.com):
Bringing together stars from a spectrum of disciplines from fine artists and sports pundits to psychophysicists. The Webby Awards spring from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS).
Based on The Webby Awards' judging academy of the past two years and founded in 1998, its members are luminaries in their areas of expertise: evangelists, visionaries, journalists and top-notch Web developers dedicated to the creative, technical, and professional progress of new media.
From online galleries and up-to-the-second news sources to interplanetary exploration and cyber-communities, The Webby Awards nominees exemplify the kinds of sites that Internet users should visit every day for information and entertainment. Awards are given in 22 categories: Arts, Commerce, Community, Education, Fashion, Film, Finance, Games, Health, Humor, Living, Music, News, Politics & Law, Print & Zines, Radio, Science, Sports, Technical Achievement, TV, Travel, and Weird.
There are two awards: The Webby Award, selected by the IADAS, and The People's Voice Award, chosen by you. This year they've also added a distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed to one of the few distinct visionaries who took the Web beyond the dawn of its subtle gray interior laced with deep blue and hearty purple links. Maybe they're over 25 now, but it is still an honor for us to honor them.