There have been a number of recent articles in the mainstream media about the lack of innovation in online travel, at least the perception that there is none by the leading online travel agencies. The customer experience is variously called frustrating, tedious, confusing and overly time consuming. One result of this criticism has been the renewed prediction of a renaissance for travel agents as the providers of a superior experience. What these media reports neglect is the story about the innovation that is actually taking place but remains under their radar as it is provided by new entrants in the increasingly competitive area of trip planning. Many of these companies in various stages of early to late start-up mode are known within the industry, some not even there.

This topic has been addressed in these columns before and also recently by PhoCusWright analyst Norm Rose in this blog post and it has received a number of interesting comments. Norm takes the position that the frustration is more related to fees, often misunderstood by travel shoppers rather than lack of planning tools and that while there is a need for more innovation by the OTAs they are providing an overall buying experience satisfactory to the majority of their site visitors. Those who might not be so happy, he sees as the late comers in the mainstream of travelers less savvy about travel buying online. In his opinion the major players will start addressing the pre-trip buying phase if and when the competition from start-ups in that space will become stronger and that phase of the overall experience can be better monetized. He mentions a few of these niche players Uptake, Triporati, Oyster and LeisureLink. And there are more like Travelmuse, Tripbase, NileGuide, Planeteye, Tripwolf, TripIt and WorldMate. All of these innovators are addressing various phases and elements of the overall travel process as well as the integration of social networking, reviews and other user generated content. Their key differentiation from the OTAs is a strong focus on what surrounds the actual purchase process.

Now, Robert Cole has started a series of posts on his “Views from a Corner Suite” blog that extensively cover the role Google - the 150 million pound gorilla in the room in terms of unique visitors - according to him, can play to, as he calls it, “radically democratize” and  “help revolutionize” online travel. He provides a refreshing perspective on this hot topic of innovation in the travel space and how Google fits into the overall seven step travel process defined as the closed circle of Inspiration - Research - Planning - Validating - Booking - Travel - Sharing. He sees Google, with some of their Google Labs initiatives being in an excellent position to help the industry improve in several phases here.

What all this addresses and describes, is an industry in an important transition phase from the original travel 1.0 stage of transactions focus enabled by the airline distribution systems to today’s travel 2.0 situation with a new web enabled tool kit, a situation which demands a shift in focus to the other elements of the process described above that need to be addressed if the customer experience is to become reflective of the innovations that have taken hold on the web and have helped raise the expectation levels of web users as they relate to travel.

The discussion will no doubt continue. Chime in, provide your opinions, take sides but don’t stay on the sidelines just watching. Innovation results at least in part from active debate, so get involved.