Online Travel

Travel Planning, Digital in Travel, Essential Principles for Travel Websites

Kamil Mehmet ZKAN www.kamilmehmetozkan.com @kamilozkan

Wednesday, December 28, 11

Travel Planning
Top ten factors - What mostly prompted your decision to choose this destination? (Provisional 2011 data - 15,000+ international tourists from 30+
markets and visiting a destination for the rst time):

1. Friends or relatives recommendation: 38%

2. World renowned must-see destination: 32%
3. Information on the web: 22%
4. Cheap deal / special offer: 15%
5. Geographically close destination: 14% 6. Travel agency recommendation: 8% 7. Article in a magazine / newspaper: 6% 8. Movie realized in the country: 5% 9. Appealing advertising on it: 5% 10. Heard about in the TV news: 2%

Wednesday, December 28, 11

Travel Planning
60% of travel industry marketing gurus still rank search as the number 1 way to drive
A massive trafc, according to stats from EyeForTravel's "Travel Distribution & Marketing Barometer" report. Globally, organic search is the most inuential marketing channel for online travel marketing followed by paid search, then good old email marketing, social

media, meta search and lastly mobile marketing

Wednesday, December 28, 11

Travel Planning
Nate Bucholz of Google told that 69%

of

businesses (compared to 63% of

consumers) plan travel by searching the internet, visiting an average of 22 sites before
deciding on a destination.Meanwhile, mobile bookings accounted for 15%

in 2010, up 69% from 2009, when around nine

of all reservations

travel

percent used the medium, according to Corporate & Incentive Travel. (Travelmole, February 2011)

Wednesday, December 28, 11

Destination Marketing Organizations

Many recent studies told us destination marketing organizations (DMOs)
are facing intriguing challenges to provide

quality information online in an era of information overload. Insufcient

knowledge of tourist's online information preferences and search behaviour has hindered them from effective information management. A local or regional DMO website should help to promote not only the destination as a whole, but also

hotels, tourist attractions, restaurants, theatre, sports, activities in the destination itself. Following
the latest developments on the eld,it's hard to ignore the fact that DMOs need to go where the consumer is, instead of convincing the consumer to come to them. (About Tourism)

Wednesday, December 28, 11

5 Basic Principles for TravelWebsites

1. Look Good (=Nice & Simple)
A visually appealing website is a site that is easy to read, easy to navigate, follow some basic design standards, and think about the usability and accessibility of the design.

Wednesday, December 28, 11

5 Basic Principles for TravelWebsites

2. Content (was) is (and will be) the King!:
The content on your site is your vehicle to present your message and portray your brand. Qualitative & diverse information, trip planning tools, attractive visual material including video & photo sharing applications, multilingual content, B2B & Press sections and efcient SEO saturation/meta-tags are all "must" elements of a successful DMO website.

Wednesday, December 28, 11

5 Basic Principles for TravelWebsites

3. Engage Your Audience!
Identify your visitors social activities & build destinations competitive advantage & USPs. - 57% of DMO website users

an on-line

community to spread the word about your read travel written reviews

- 32% of DMO site users

post ratings and reviews - 43% of users visit travel-related forums

Wednesday, December 28, 11

5 Basic Principles for TravelWebsites

4. Don't Forget SEO:
In search engine marketing, travel business is a well known category which is vast

with a big competition in online marketing. From bookings of ights to hotel reservations, it is estimated that 70% of all ights are
booked online through websites.

Wednesday, December 28, 11

5 Basic Principles for TravelWebsites

5. Convert!:
Conversion strategies are the plans needed to convert

looker into a buyer!

Without one, the typical

Use of Social Media and your SEO strategy should all be part of your overall on-line marketing strategy.

conversion rate for a website is about 2% of visitors. This is not only

about selling hotels, tickets to cultural events, tourist attractions, museums, sport activities etc but to sell your own products as well (city pass, walking tours, souvenirs etc).
Wednesday, December 28, 11

Travel Planning
Type of website used by online business and leisure travellers worldwide to research their last trip, 2010: Travelport report "The
Well Connected Traveller - the changing face of today's travel consumers"
BUSINESS TREVELLERS

LEISURE TRAVELLERS

Search engine Airline website Hotel website Websites of the destination visitingwebsites Travel Online travel agency Website of a high street travel agent Car rental website Social networking website
Wednesday, December 28, 11

%59 %40 %36 %32 %29 %26 %16 %14 %11

%66 %40 %36 %40 %31 %25 %15 %11 %10

Digital in Travel
Asurvey conducted by travel social network WAYN for the World Travel & Tourism Council shows an interesting picture of use of digital in travel. The study, carried outin conjunction with Frommer's Budget Travel magazine, asked nearly 3,580 people (780 US, 2800 non-US) a range of questions about how they plan, book and use technology with travel.

Which of the following do you use most frequently when travelling?

- Mobile maps: 56% (US) and 63% (non-US) - Social networks: 38% (US) and 64% (non-US) - Virtual/3D tourism: 30% (US) and 27% (non-US) - Blogs: 32% (US) and 22% (non-US) - Podcasts: 9% (US) and 7% (non-US) - Virtual worlds: 0% (US) and 10% (non-US) - RSS feeds:7% (US) and 11% (non-US)

Wednesday, December 28, 11

Digital in Travel
When planning a trip, how many websites do you usually visit?
- 1: 1% (US) and 5% (non-US) - 2-5: 34% (US) and 48% (non-US) - 6-10: 35% (US) and 27% (non-US) - 11-15: 10% (US) and 7% (non-US) - 16-20: 4% (US) and 3% (non-US) - 20+: 16% (US) and 10% (non-US)

Which of these services would you try with a trusted provider?

- Booking via mobile: 53% (US) and 76% (non-US) - Paying for in-ight web: 37% (US) and 43% (non-US) - Barcode check-in: 66% (US) and 43% (non-US)

Wednesday, December 28, 11

Digital in Travel
Which of the following do you use when travelling overseas?
- Onboard wi:11% (US) and 31% (non-US) - Twitter: 3% (US) and 17% (non-US) - Facebook: 21% (US) and 63% (non-US) - Phone booking: 3% (US) and 16% (non-US) - Metasearch engines: 41% (US) and 8% (non-US) - Digital guides:12% (US) and 24% (non-US) - Location GPS apps: 12% (US) and 25% (non-US) - Read/update blogs: 28% (US) and 22% (non-US)

One of the interesting elements of the survey is that the US respondents came from the Budget Travel audience, whereas the non-US were all WAYN members, perhaps signifying the differences in adoption on the social-type questions. (tnooz.com, August 2010)

Wednesday, December 28, 11

Sources
www.tnooz.com aboutourism.wordpress.com www.travelport.com www.newmediatrendwatch.com www.eyefortravel.com
Wednesday, December 28, 11

Thanks.
Kamil Mehmet ZKAN www.kamilmehmetozkan.com @kamilozkan
Wednesday, December 28, 11