By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications
Regardless of when summer officially starts, once Memorial Day rolls around, many minds turn towards vacation planning…picking a destination, researching local activities, and booking hotels and flights. Naturally, it’s the season when many of us see a noticeable boost in advertising presence from various travel-related companies.
The online marketing landscape for the travel industry continues its evolution as a very competitive environment. How so? The numbers do the talking.
From a travel study by Compete, travelers consume more online content than ever when researching a travel destination. “Summer bookers” – those that literally booked a trip in summer (not necessarily when the travel occurred) – conducted 9.2 research sessions, 20.8 travel site visits, and have 4.4 search clicks before booking. This demonstrates opportunities in online marketing continue to evolve.
Travelers Consume More Online Content Than Ever
The study also shows consumers research deeper and spend more time researching, despite any changes in consumer habits such as staycations and postponed trips due to financial concerns. Basically the intensity of travel research has increased universally with 50% of travel bookers using search engines to research and hotel bookers being the most frequent searchersi.
The internet is the #1 trip planning resource for 79% of business and personal travelers, reported in July of 2009 by OTX & Googleii. Recently Burst Media found that 88% of travelers go online as a resource for vacation planning. These patterns in online travel planning and booking have contributed to why we continue to see some of the most awesome online marketing wins in the travel industry.
For example:
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In March this year, one of our regional resort clients experienced 1500 more bookings year over year! The success was attributed to tightly integrated online and offline campaigns. More specifically, PPC advertising was a huge driver for increasing new customer acquisitions and increasing brand awareness.
- In 2009, Los Angeles-based travel agency All-Travel was recognized by Travel Weekly for its web marketing and advertising strategy. Over 90% of All-Travel’s new business stems from online customers.
- This year, Travel Age West recognized Hawaii-Aloha.com for Travel Agent Superstar, which recognizes an agent’s ability to generate sales despite the odds. The travel agency, focused exclusively on Hawaii vacations, uses an array of integrated digital marketing efforts resulting in outperforming the industry growth rate by over 300%.
Online Travel Industry Is Still Evolving
Travel is a hot industry that hasn’t finished growing. And, America is ready to hit the road again. 51% are planning travel in months ahead. That’s a whopping 49% increase from last year. $4,000 is what the average family of four intends to spend per getawayiii.
The online marketing opportunities continue to grow with the industry; this includes search, content networks, and integrated marketing communications. Savvy consumers that conduct deep research have raised the bar for travel advertisers. Savvy advertisers that know how to turn their online marketing assets into a traveler’s online destination of choice will be the ones that rise to the top.
References:
iRefining the Travel Search Process, Compete, December 2009
iiThe Traveler’s Road to Decision, Google & OTX, July 2009
iiiAmerican Express Spending & Saving Tracker, May 2010