Travel marketers plan increased online spending

Almost nine out of ten travel companies are planning to increase or maintain online spend according to a new global survey released at World Travel Market by digital travel online content specialists Frommer’s® Unlimited, the business-to-business division of Frommer’s, a branded imprint of Wiley.
 

The survey of 225 travel companies was undertaken with global travel news service TravelMole and included airlines, agents, tour operators and consolidators, hoteliers, tourist boards, car rental, rail, travel insurance, publishing and cruise companies.
 

More than half of those surveyed (54 percent) said they planned to increase budgets and just over a third plan to maintain online budgets. A full copy of the report is available from www.Frommers.biz/research.
 

Joel Brandon Bravo, Frommer’s Unlimited general manager, said:
 

“This is the second year we’ve undertaken this survey and we were impressed to see a similar overall trend as the same point last year with half of marketers planning to increase online spend. But we were particularly interested to see the changes in where people were planning to increase their spend and the increased focus on content such as multilingual, destination and unique content as well as social media marketing.”
 

Key trends identified in the research include a continued shift away from traditional online advertising. 22 percent say these budgets will decrease next year
 

Search engine optimization continues to be the top priority for web content budgets – it was selected as most important by over 84 percent of respondents compared to 67 percent last year. Fifty-seven percent say they will increase spend on search engine optimization compared to 67 percent in 2008
 

Unique content and destination content are second and third in importance for marketers with around half saying they will increase content in this area, but many more marketers are taking note of its importance. Unique content is now being included in 81 percent of people’s plans, nearly double last year’s number of just 41 percent
 

Adding destination content was ranked third in importance and is in the plans of 80 percent of respondents, up from 57 percent last year.
 

Still another finding was the change in why marketers are adding content to their sites. Over a third said they wanted content to drive search traffic.
 

Increasing conversions was the main reason identified for adding content in 2008 but that’s slipped into second place for just 29 percent of the sample in 2009. Frommer’s Unlimited speculated that that those surveyed could have found that more qualified traffic driven to their site will increase conversions.
 

A big change this year is the emphasis on social media – 60 percent of the Frommer’s Unlimited global survey sample said they would be increasing their spend in this area next year. This is the top area singled out for budget increases.
 

There is also evidence that companies are looking to more international markets this year with the number planning to invest in multi-lingual content up from 13 percent to 79 percent. English is the most common language used to reach customers (98 percent) and 65 percent of the survey say they will be targeting European and 53 percent Asian language markets.
 

Mobile phone delivery, audio and video are still ranked as lowest priorities for the year ahead but identified as top future initiatives
 

The overwhelming issue facing respondents is still keeping content up to date. Seven-four percent of those surveyed identified this as a problem – up from 66 percent last year. Creating content which is consistent with brand values, dealing with multiple sources of content and being able to integrate content effectively with products was highlighted by a third of respondents.
 

Further issues volunteered by the survey sample included problems with unique content for SEO and translation issues.
 

By David Wilkening