Laffitte Conseil

Social Media & Travel

At last week’s Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International Hotel Sales Strategy Conference, a panel focusing on this emerging trend delved into the radical changes ahead. These industry insiders are already seeing the effects social media is having on current business models and are warning others to follow their lead.

“Customer engagement is a more effective way of getting business, but it s not a next day thing,” said Cindy Estis Green, Managing Partner of the Estis Group. “If you do it well you’ll reap benefits for years, but there is a ramp up period that will be a challenge.”

Tim Peter, Managing Director of Leading Interactive Reservations said that this paradigm shift is altering the current state of the web as a monologue provided by a specific company. Communication, it seems, is becoming a two way street and those that are doing the chatter want attention.

“If your customers are talking about your brand, it’s better to engage in a dialogue with them,” said Peter, who added that it’s important to speak directly to potential clientele. “Social sites are about authentic dialogue. Corporate speak and sales spiel will get you mocked brutally. Speak plainly or don’t talk to them.”

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Online Travel Firms Map Strategies To Capture The Weekenders

Vacations these days often mean long weekends — and online travel sites are providing more services for such customers.

A study by online travel tracker PhoCusWright found that 84% of leisure travelers this year took or plan to take at least one long weekend trip.

"People are working harder than ever and are crunched for time," said Lorraine Sileo, PhoCusWright analyst. "The idea is to take a break without spending too much time away from the office."

She says the other factor is cost. High gasoline prices, credit worries and other pressures on consumers are fueling a move toward more weekend trips rather than more costly week-plus getaways, Sileo says.

The rise of long weekend vacations can be good news for online travel providers. According to the annual study by PhoCusWright, weekend travelers spend $6 of every $10 on travel Web sites, vs. just $3 of every $10 for those taking vacations of a week or longer. PhoCusWright did phone interviews with 500 online travel shoppers.

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Offline Influence on Online Search Yields 39% Conversion

According to a the "iProspect Offline Channel Influence on Online Search Behavior Study," conducted by JupiterResearch, 67% of the online search population is driven to search by offline channels. It also revealed that 39% of online searchers who are influenced by offline channels ultimately make a purchase. This 39% conversion rate suggests a synergistic relationship exists between search and offline channels, concludes the study.

iProspect president, Robert Murray, said "Search is no longer an add-on consideration for marketers... it's clear that its efficacy is multiplied when combined with offline channels... The bottom line is that integration is no longer optional... but at the end of the day, it's pretty much meaningless if a purchase isn't made."

 

Beginning with the hypothesis that the use of search engines to perform searches is growing more important to the majority of online users, the study set out to identify the importance and frequency of searches, then the offline influences driving the prospect to the Internet, concluding with behavior of searchers in converting to a purchase.

 

The vast majority of the younger age group reported a growth of importance in performing queries on search engines, and a significant percentage of online users 25 and older reported the same. Almost three quarters of online users who have been using the Internet for less than a year report that search has grown in importance to them, while more than half of online users with more than one year of Internet experience concur with their less experienced counterparts.

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5 Tips for Optimizing Images for Search Engines

Next to contextual search (i.e. just a plain 'regular' search on a search engine) Image Search is the fastest growing vertical search in the space. Compared to shopping, news, blogging, etc., image search has them beat by a mile. However, what's even more important about image search, is how Google's Universal Search, Ask's 3d Search and Yahoo's Blended Search are utilizing and incorporating images from each of their image search verticals into the 'regular' search results.

No longer are images appearing as just 3 images at the top of a results page, you'll see images incorporated in a lot of different ways. You'll see images coming up with the news one boxes, with descriptions of videos that aren't on Google Video or YouTube, a group of images could appear at the bottom of a page, as opposed to the top of the page. All of the search engines are striving to make the results more relevant and incorporating images into the results is definitely part of that strategy. Just take a look at how Ask is incorporating images for a search on "Jodie Foster".

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Canadian Internet Has a Ways to Go

In many respects, Canada is an online powerhouse.

According to eMarketer estimates, the country has a slightly higher proportion of its population online than the United States.

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UK Catches Up in Broadband

In May 2007, 15.23 million UK households had Internet access, according to the UK Office of National Statistics' "2007 Omnibus Survey."

That represents 61% of UK households, up nearly 7% since the previous year's study.

"The UK government has managed to successfully create a regulatory environment that has fostered competition in the sector," said eMarketer senior analyst Ben Macklin.

"Separating the wholesale and retail arms of British Telecom has given smaller ISPs and access providers an opportunity to compete with their bigger rivals," he said.

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What percentage of their budget do the Hoteliers allocate for online marketing?

In June, Hospitality eBusiness Strategies asked Hoteliers what percentage of their budget they allocated for online marketing. The highest percentage of respondents, 60%, said they allocate between 26-50% of their budget to Internet marketing. 20% allocate 25% or less, 20% allocate 51-75%, and no one said they allocate more than 76% of their budget to Internet marketing.

First-time users, the future growth engine for online travel in Asia

In the United States, online travel sites are fighting to take over consumers from competitors. In Asia, the race is on to capture the interest of the first-time user and build up some brand loyalty to sites.

Online travel in the Asia-Pacific region is likely to experience explosive growth the rest of the decade. From 2006 to 2010, India is expected to grow at 271.6 percent annually, while Vietnam’s online travel sector is forecast to expand 202 percent and China’s and Indonesia’s in the 70 to 83 percent range. (The biggest markets in revenue terms outside of Japan are India at US$300 million and China at US$200 million.) The U.S. online travel business, by contrast, will grow 17 percent on an annual basis during the same time.

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Le dénicheur de voyages à bas prix Travelzoo débarque en France

Spécialiste des bons plans voyages, l'américain Travelzoo a lancé son service il y a deux mois en France. Le Groupe compte 11 millions d'abonnés dans le monde, dont déjà 100.000 à sa newsletter en France.

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"Internet est notre premier canal de réservation depuis le début de l'année"

Présent sur Internet depuis un peu moins longtemps que les voyagistes, l'hôtellerie a, depuis, largement compensé son retard. Pour Best Western France, le Web représente plus de 40 % de son chiffre d'affaires. Son directeur général revient sur les modalités de cette croissance.

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