"Content is key"

September 2008

In the coming years content will be key to branding, survival and growth online travel sites.

Consumers in the travel sector are becoming more brand loyal and less likely to use the internet to find new travel sites, according to latest stats from internet monitoring company Hitwise. The company saw inventory owners such as airlines, hotel companies and map providers receive 77% of the share of the top 300 search terms sending visitors to travel websites. They concluded that this indicates consumers are using search engines more as navigational tools to help them find specific information about a brand rather than as a guiding hand to help them discover new or cheap travel providers. The statistics, which collects data from a variety of ISP networks, also show a 12% decrease in generic searches such as “cheap airline tickets”.

The number of travelers booking online is down, says eMarketer, but perhaps not for the reason you suspect: economic uncertainties. "The fact that fewer travelers are booking online is not due to economic concerns — online travel bookers are an affluent demographic — it is caused by frustrations related to the planning and booking capabilities of online travel agencies," said Jeff Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer. He is author of the new report, "U.S. Online Travel: Planning and Booking." He adds: "This, in turn, is spurring a renewed appreciation for the expertise and personalized services offered by traditional travel agents."

As long as travel sites do not improve their online services, online travel sites are steering customers back to offline travel agents -- a complete turnaround of what has been happening in the category for the last decade, says the study. The secret weapon of good (offline) travel agents is knowledge, expertise and personalized content and services, be it about a destination, best routings or how to get the tastiest deals off the web and anyone planning to make a booking even more slightly complicated than a simple ABA journey is still more likely to want some hand-holding while they do so.

Therefore specific high quality and personalized travel content combined with opportunities for marketing, customer base building and improved customer service offers is the key to survival and growth of the online travel industry.