Posts Tagged ‘travel and tourism’

Online Travel Videos – Anchoring the Hospitality sector!

Saturday, November 27th, 2010

Online marketing strategies revolve around the ‘attention span’ of audience. Trying to capture the imagination and interests of a potential customer has been the eternal challenge for marketers, and the equation gets even more  complex when you have less than 5 seconds to do that. ‘Magical sales pitch’ and ‘Message from the president’ are now less than passé, and are now being substituted with panoramic snaps and virtual tours of the destination.

It is now statistically proven that professional videos make more than a lasting impression, and that  customer persuasion is maximized when videos are utilized to market a product, resort, hotel or the Tour Packages. Travel industry market dynamics have been metamorphosed by the sophisticated use of Videos at every stage of the marketing cycle. One of the major impacts of video marketing has been on the smaller players in hospitality segment – With zero distribution costs, these operators are now jostling for the market pie with established leaders, and also making their mark with intelligent video marketing.

Online video revolution gathered momentum in the early days of 2004 and by the last quarter of 2005, two significant events changed the online video landscape forever – The summer of 2005 saw Apple launch a video podcasting aggregator in iTunes and by the year-end Tivo started streaming online video content to its boxes. 2006 belonged to YouTube with Multi-format streaming and broadcasting – enabling the online video to get into the mainstream web. The deal which dwarfed everything else on the web was the acquisition of YouTube by Google in October for $1.65 billion. By the end of 2009, YouTube was getting more than a billion streams per day and Hulu (being a late entrant) was almost garnering a billion streams per month.

Travel industry videos – early adopters

According to TIA conducted research – Video attracts more than 30% more viewers; These visitors stay almost 40% longer on your website and the conversion potential is almost 30% greater as compared to a text-based website. A visual experience is always a superior persuasion tool as compared to a text based pitch, and when it comes to the hospitality segment, nothing comes closer to the first-hand visual experience. The urge to explore lies at the core of a traveler’s mindset and very few things motivate a traveler more than a compelling video. Your prospective guests are hooked on to your resort even before they have arrived, and this fact is corroborated by the statistics – almost 60% of customers prefer Web Sites that feature video and customers are up to 70% more likely to book activities, hotels, packages and attractions shown in a video experience.

Some of the pioneers of the travel industry were also the early adopters of travel videos. Thomas Cook, Kuoni and Thomson were convinced of the persuasive powers of the online videos and made this marketing tool an integral part of their customer relationship strategy, and the results have been trailblazing to say the least.

Online video channels – Splashing it on the scene

According to Comscore, almost 15 billion clips were streamed through YouTube alone in the month of May. While 145 million unique visitors arrived on YouTube during this experimentation period, the average consumption volume was around 102 videos during this month (in US alone). This translates into a low figure of 43.1 as YouTube’s (or Google’s) online Video market share.

Available within US, Hulu (streaming movies) is the closest competitor of Google with 3.5% of market share. Microsoft grabbed 1.9% with 642,000 videos viewed in May, followed by Vevo, Viacom, Yahoo, CBS Interactive, Turner, and Fox Interactive, each with around 1%.

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Travel and Tourism Operators: Are you there where tourists are?

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Gone are the days when travelers referred books, maps and sought first person information wherever they went. Today’s techno-savvy travelers understand that online search is prerequisite to stepping out of the house. Not only that, most of the travelers’ very conception of traveling and tourism generates with the help of internet search and website browsing.

A new study has revealed that 34% of the travelers visit search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing for considering vacation destination alternatives and various travel options. This is followed by the websites of specific countries with 23% of the tourists browsing through them for seeking more information. The third preference is given to online travel agencies sharing 22% of tourist enquiries.

Information Sources for Tourists

Preference and Share

Increasing number of tourists believe that internet is the best source of authentic information. Easy usability, anytime availability and sheer volume of information are pulling more tourists towards internet.

Online travel planning

Most of the tourists use internet for complete travel planning from reservations to bookings and shopping. Percentage of tourists preferring online reservations has grown more than 37% since the year 2000.  As people become more and more comfortable with the internet technology, the incidents of online search are destined to shoot up faster than ever. Increasing number of travel and tourism operators are putting up their online presence with interactive websites. All this has been conducive to propel more tourists out of their houses confidently armed with relevant information.

Leisure travelers thronging internet

The percentage of tourists resorting to internet and search engines is very high among leisure travelers.  About 66% of leisure travelers now use internet to plan some or the other aspect of their travel. It is a great jump from 35% in the year 2000. The number of leisure travelers seeking online reservations is reported at 56%.

However, search patterns and preferences of leisure travelers differ while selecting an airline or accommodation. Tourists searching for these travel services prefer to visit the websites of online travel agencies (42% and 31% for airlines and accommodation, respectively). About 41% of travelers are giving more importance to the websites of reputed airlines (41%), whereas such brand-specific behavior is not observed while selecting accommodation facilities. Only 21% of tourists intentionally visited reputed lodging and hotel websites. About 13% of travelers visited Meta search engines that compare fares for selecting an airline.

These statistics fortifies the fact that internet is indispensible, rather a preferred medium for searching information about travel and tourism. More and more tourists are going online for their travel and tourism needs. It is imperative for the travel and tourism industry participants to enhance their online presence and fetch more tourist traffic to their websites.

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Travel and Tourism Industry: Can Internet Marketing Hold The Decline In Business Trips?

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

The graph of travel industry trends for the last five years show the key travel-segment changes that are reshaping the travel industry landscape. The mid-level and economy segments have seen the most growth.  On the other hand, leisure oriented groups that form the core of travelling and tourism business has shown slower growth in some phases.

Business trips and related tourism, which is an important segment of travel industry has shown a certain decline since the last year. Following data supports this fact.

  • Globally, domestic business trips declined by 3.2% in 2009 while international business arrivals plunged by 7.2%
  • Spending by domestic business travelers fell by 6.2% while spending by international business travelers plunged 14.6% in 2009
  • Germany, United States and United Kingdom accounted for 41% of the decline in international business departures.
  • The Middle East was the only region to experience moderate growth (4.6%) in business arrivals in 2009, mainly in Saudi Arabia.

However, the blame of decline in business trips is generally fixed on the advent of electronic media in business arena. Video conferences, teleconferences, video calls and online chats have vanished the distance between the people and merged the globe more smoothly as a single marketing platform that is approachable anytime from anywhere. Also, electronic media has proved effectiveness in instant communication that is turning to be the key differentiator in business success. This has curtailed the business travelling need to the bare minimum.

How can internet marketing help?

This is the most proper time to give the electronic media the dose of its own medicine. Internet technology that has applied brakes on business related travel can be successfully utilized to put life back into it and compel more businessmen to go touring.

Reach out to maximum business clients: Internet marketing can reach a large number of prospects without causing a much dent in your marketing and advertising budget. Once your target client is reached, it becomes easy to undertake various tools that will help you to understand the business travelers’ pulse and preferences.

Explain advantages: You can explain the advantages of holding a conference at a venue. Emphasis may be laid upon the facilities and business related infrastructure available at the venue, personal interaction, network buildup, mass approach, etc.

Offer discounts: To pull businessmen out of their cubicles and make them travel across, emails can be sent to offer discounts in travel, accommodation, dining and other hospitality gestures. Banner ads are effective in attracting attention to the offers.

Offer memberships: Extend memberships of your agency and hotels to the business traveler. This may entice them to undertake travelling to avail membership benefits. Special benefits may be offered to business travelers if they travel with family and without business motive. Co-relating business trip with other tourism and travel types will benefit the industry and boost the number of business trips. Internet marketing can certainly accelerate the process.

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Multilingual Marketing Strategy: The Cutting Age of Travel & Tourism Industry

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Modern day tourists ride around on technology and rely heavily on the internet for seeking information and planning tourism related activities viz. traveling, staying, shopping and dining. Extensive use of internet by the tourists makes it imperative for travel and tourism industry to up their ante and embolden their presence on the internet to reach out to maximum number of tourists.

It doesn’t need a mention that tourists belong to the multilingual fraternity spread across the globe. While planning to boost internet presence, the industry players must be careful in selecting the language that will establish an instant bond with the tourists. If travel and tourism industry is thinking in English, it must rethink in other global languages.

Tourists speak different tongue

Latest survey has revealed that 75% of the internet users browse non-English pages and 98% conduct search in their native languages. As tourism and travel industry is getting out of the shadow of recession and hogging fresh positive look, the industry needs to cater to every little need of the tourist.

Attracting foreign tourists is important for any player in travel and tourism industry. The efforts of the operators must reach not only the local tourists but also it should pull out the foreign tourist by innovative approach and strategies. Internet marketing via newsletters and emails is very effective in this respect. However, all these methods will bear more fruits if conducted in the tourists’ native language.

Verbal or otherwise, language creates an instant bond with the tourists, makes them comfortable and creates a leeway for further discussions.  Not only that, while the tourists are on the go, creating interactive travel counseling in their native language can prove to be very handy. Such user friendly methods can fetch more business to the operators and satisfaction to the tourists.

Tourists are observed to have more loyalty to websites and services offered in their native languages.  Industry operators must consider this aspect seriously and switch over to multilingual marketing strategy.

  • Websites designed in local languages are more user-friendly and has better conversion rates.
  • Internet marketing in local language has proven deep impact.
  • Advertises in local languages finds an easy connect with the tourists.

Keeping the above points in view,

  • Travel and tourism related website should offer information in different languages.
  • Information should take into consideration the cultural aspects of each region and language.
  • Emails and newsletters should be drafted in regional languages, preferably.
  • The staff employed by the industry should be well conversant with more than one language.

Laying more importance on regional languages and imbibing them in every internet marketing aspect will certainly take the operators closer to the tourists and make their business more successful.

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Interactive Travel Consulting: Is Tourism Industry Ready For It?

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Travelers have the full globe open for exploration. Alaska to Australia, Siberia to Sri Lanka… A traveler, who rides on his hunch and has wanderlust, is unstoppable. A large number of travelers do not plan their itinerary and stroll down to some of the most unconventional places.

This is the genre of tourist who may need consulting at any given time and at unusual places. And here is where the interactive travel counseling takes birth. Internet and mobiles are the two powerful and effective medium that can be a handy tool for interactive travel consulting.

Travel and tourism service sector still need to evolve in this aspect of tourism. Most of the agencies and tour operators often end up in drawing the tour schedule and arranging for stay and food. However, actual help may be needed in dire straits when no other source of information and guidance is available.

  • Travel and tourism sector must consider setting up toll free numbers that can be reached from anywhere in the world and at any time irrespective of the time and zone a tourist is in. Providing around the clock direct contact with the agency from where the tourist started, that too in his / her native language will ease many troubles of the tourist roaming thousands of miles away.
  • Making customized tourist plans and information available for internet access; and / or providing it on any portable medium like CDs and flash drives shall be very handy. Tourists can inform the agency in advance about their likely area of operation and seek maximum information about the same.

  • Tourism must also collect the tourists who are willing to share their travelling experiences. Their information about the common problems faced at various areas they have recently visited may prove to be very useful interactive travel consulting source. Availability of contact numbers of previous visitors to the places where a tourist is planning to visit may be useful in seeking information in the need of the hour.
  • Tour operators must also plan to setup consultation centers for the incoming tourists. Locals who had visited various places previously shall be made available to guide foreign tourists in solving problems and providing crucial information that common tour operators fail to give.

As more and more tourists are willing to trade the unbeaten path, interactive travel consulting is what is going to help them immensely. Tourism industry must gear up to for efficient interactive tourism consulting in near future.

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Travel and Tourism Industry: Increasing Popularity of Niche Tourism Concepts

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Travel and tourism industry cannot remain unaffected by the human desire for change and novelty. The quest for newness is visible in every sphere of businesses, including production to packaging and promotion. Competition to outdo the other compels businesses to evolve and endeavor for something different, something better than what the competitors are doing.

Travel and tourism industry is no exception. It has judged human liking for unusual and unexplored, and has introduced many niche tourism concepts within the last few years. Niche tourism is growing as the fastest sector within the travel and tourism industry. Common travelers are looking for variety of niche tourism concepts as big cities, museums, beaches, hotels, et al are done to death and people are looking for travel and tourism that will not only relax them but also amuse their minds.

Home-stays: This concept is fast catching up to cater to the tourists who want to stay away from the hustle-bustle of the big hotels and spend an innocuous stay. Home-stays offer all the comforts of a hotel and allow you to be yourself without being bothered with the artificial mannerism. Moreover you get the real feel of the culture of the place you visit.

Camping: Hitherto, camping was the favorite of trekkers and mountaineers. Now it has donned a new avatar to provide complete comfort even for a family stay. Family camping at the mountain peaks and in deep jungles is turning out to be a perfect way to get you lost, for the better.

Sports tourism: This existed since quite a long time; however now it is complete with travel, stay and ticket package with additional tit-bits thrown in. It has done away with sports fans’ separate worries for arranging tours, compromising with stay and then fighting for tickets.

Agricultural tourism: Modern city life has left us deprived of real rural feel and understanding about how the food we eat is produced. To understand the agrarian and rural life on which the altar of modernism is erected, more people are exploring how a rural and agricultural life is.

Ancestry tourism: Global cultural conundrum has taken us away from our birthplace and culture. However, the urge to explore our roots lie dormant within us. Ancestral tourism helps us to explore our origins and get up-close with our own culture.

Hobby tourism: No hobby is localized. There is thread running underneath that connects you to other hobby-mates and places that will enrich you with deep understanding about your hobby. Tourism industry is glad to meet your needs.

Creating a craze

The industry is getting flooded with many innovative ideas to instigate tourists to experience what they wished for till now. These niche concepts are catching the fancy of tourists who travel with family and average budget. They prefer to let loose during the vacations instead of falling into the systematic stay at hotels. They are not willing to let the artificial facades of hospitality spoil their fun.

Most of these concepts are run by small or medium sized tour operators. The increasing popularity of niche tourism is projected to cause a dent in the earnings from leisure travelers of major operators. Either the big operators will have to divert efforts towards niche tourism or restricted themselves to business tourism.

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