Have Lakbay, will travel

Word has it that the late ABS-CBN chairman Eugenio Lopez Jr. wanted to help his friends – some of whom he hadn’t seen in a long time – to book a stay in Boracay. He called Eddie Nuque, a friend and a former tour operator with more than 20 years of experience in the travel industry, to do the job for him.

"Can you help me look for a place and book a stay for them?" Geny Lopez kindly asked.

At that time, however, Boracay was still an innocent jewel off the island of Panay and mobile phones, Internet and e-mail were unheard of on its shores. To get the information that he wanted, Nuque inquired through telex, the only mode of communication available in Boracay back then. It took more than 24 hours for the response to get to him. By the time Nuque collated and relayed the rates and list of lodges to Lopez, the broadcasting bigwig’s friends had already decided to go to Cebu.

It was this incident that inspired Nuque to develop Lakbay.Net, a recent runaway winner at the 4th Philippine Web Awards. A consistent Webby winner since 1999, it bagged the Best Travel Site Award, the People’s Choice Award for Travel, and Ericsson’s Best Mobile Internet Award this year. The United Nations Conference for Trade and Development also chose Lakbay.Net as a Philippine model of development which it will recommend to other developing countries.

"Ed had an idea that the incident could be an opportunity for the Lopez Group, knowing that the Lopezes were into telecommunications and broadcasting," recalls Lakbay.Net’s Chona Borja. "He proposed to develop a service that banked on the strengths of the Lopez Group of Companies, primarily ABS-CBN, to provide travel information."

In March 1999, Lakbay.Net formally started its operations but already then, it was setting its sights beyond the horizon.

"Lakbay.Net is designed to help the Filipino traveler," shares Nuque, Kalakbayan Travel Systems Inc. managing director. "From the start, we wanted to be the Internet travel portal of choice. We wanted to be the leading travel service provider that gives you all the travel information you need at your convenience. The awards that we have won are a validation that we are attaining our goals and doing things right."

Convenience

Indeed, convenience is Lakbay.Net’s main strength. Its information service infrastructure is set up in such a way that it uses not just one medium of communication. From being just a travel portal on the Web, it branched out to television with Lakbay TV; print, thanks to its partnership with The Philippine STAR and philstar.com; and telecommunications with Globe Telecom.

"Our various partnerships make us a truly multi-platform travel service provider – and we’re the only one doing this in the world," says Nuque. "The intention is to make Filipinos appreciate their country and, at the same time, entice them to travel without subjecting them to the usual hassles."

"The four platforms – TV, Internet, print, and mobile – work together to deliver the same message," he adds. "For example, if a destination is featured on The Philippine STAR, we arrange our programming in Lakbay TV so that episodes about the destination will be shown. At the same time, information on that particular destination is available on Lakbay.Net and philstar.com. In case people want to know more about the destination, they can take an interactive tour of these sites or they can make an online booking since Lakbay.Net and philstar.com are e-commerce-enabled. Once they decide to travel, they can use their cell phones to book their transportation, whether sea, land or air."

Accurate, relevant info

Such a set-up, Nuque points out, ensures that the traveler will not only get accurate information but also relevant information in terms of what he or she can see in a particular place, how to get there, where to stay and what to do there. Most travel sites, he says, don’t give the surfer essential information, just a mere description of the place.

"Another reason why we tapped TV and mobile is that we want to reach as many people as we can. The majority of Filipinos don’t have an Internet connection at home or in the office. TV is a common household appliance. On the other hand, almost everyone has a mobile phone," Nuque explains further.

"When we were planning Lakbay.Net, we were already thinking of tapping other media to deliver travel information services," Borja adds. "It goes with the aim of making travel information more accessible to everybody. Before you had to go to a travel agent who could give you limited info on the places you wanted to visit. We wanted to provide as much info in a very convenient manner."

For the months and years ahead, Lakbay.Net is already planning its stages of development. Travelers may soon browse destinations or book accommodations through their cell phones. "The basic infrastructure is already in place and there’s nowhere to go but to improve the service," Borja says. "We want to expand it so that what users see on our site, they can also access on their mobiles."

As for its recent victory in the Web Awards, Lakbay.Net regards it as a further recognition of its excellence despite being in the business for only more than a year. A number of travel sites have tried to copy Lakbay.Net’s strategy, but most of them have either withered or failed. (The grapevine has it that a company in Hong Kong wanted to follow Lakbay.Net’s trail-blazing ways but it folded up even before it began its operations.)

"People say we are community-oriented because we help a lot of people get information," Nuque concludes. "We approached The Philippine STAR because many read it and it is in tune with our goal of bringing travel information closer to the people."