Opportunities for the travel sector online

It’s been an interesting few days for the travel sector online. There have been a couple of key announcements from Google that could dramatically change hotel’s PPC strategy and on the mobile side of things, John Tigg (head of mobile at Yahoo) claimed that the travel sector are playing catch up when it comes to mobile marketing. The area of social media and online is certainly hotly contended for the travel sector. It is where the most opportunities lie, to create enticing campaigns and trial new technologies, and it is also the space where we consistently see innovation and smart marketing.

Google’s changes to search results

Google first stirred up a bit of a storm in the travel sector last week, when they announced a trial of hotel price listings in Google Maps. As the image below shows, Google brought up text results to the left of the map, that showed a dropdown of hotel price listings.

So why did this create quite a furore? Because the text results are based on an advertiser’s prices in PPC ads. Anyone that has ever worked in the online travel sector will know that hotels and travel agencies have an aggressive SEO strategy – being number 1 in Google  is a hallowed ground that is fought tooth and nail. So what this potentially means is that while you may have successfully fought your way to the number 1 spot, that could quickly be irrelevant if the hotel in position 3 has a PPC ad that advertises a cheaper rate hotel. This price could show up in their search result and take potential traffic (and conversions) away from you. And it’s now evident that this search strategy is unlikely to be confined to maps, as this article discusses a controlled test rollout in Canada, incorporating this into the main  organic search pages.

From a consumer point of view, this is an excellent move by Google. As they are also going to allow you to search by available date, it has made searching for a hotel room that little bit easier – entire trips can theoretically be planned out without ever having to leave your first search destination – Google. Interestingly though, it makes the consumer journey much less about interaction, community and social engagement, and brings it back completely to price. Just how much loyalty will play out when you can see a cheaper hotel just a few places down in Google, will be interesting. And what this does for Google’s PPC revenue, will of course be even more interesting. Prioritising a consumer experience at the expense of paying advertisers is certainly a very ‘Google’ move.

Outside of search (though not completely) another interesting area for the travel sector, is mobile. The opportunities are huge, but according to the head of mobile at Yahoo, these aren’t being realised by the travel sector. 2010 is the year of mobile, as confirmed by John Tigg when he claimed that one in ten users (four in ten for iphone owners) have made a purchase online through their mobile. He highlighted the fact that many travel companies are yet to optimise their sites for mobile. And we’re not just talking apps here, which only hit a small segment of your customers, but an easy-to-navigate site that is built for mobile.

It’s evident that the appetite for accessing travel sites on mobiles is rapidly increasing. According to research by Nielsen Co, Travelocity is top of the bill, with 1.263 million monthly users in October. A look at how their website displays on a PC compared to their mobile site on an iphone, shows the importance and advantage of having a site that’s optimised for mobile :

Accessing travelocity on a mobile, I am much more likely to convert than I would be if I visited, say, Laterooms.com

Interestingly, they have developed a mobile site, but it sits on a different url and isn’t the default when accessing on a mobile. As a consumer, I don’t want the hassle of  visiting a different site, which highlights the importance of having a mobile-optimised site on your existing url, as practised by travelocity, or ebookers for example.

Higher intent to purchase through mobile

Combine the impending changes to search, with the increasing consumer trend to book travel through their mobiles and it’s clear to see that players in the travel sector are going to have to work hard to keep up with their competitors. And when it comes to mobile, it’s clearly a game worth playing. Something that surprised me, was the finding in a recent study that mobile travel purchase intent is five times higher than that of online. Add that into the consideration with Google’s search changes and it becomes all the more important. The potential for mobile and travel is clear  -think iphone app boarding passes for example, or STA Travel’s mobile ad campaign. As with other marketing areas, I really think that travel will set the trend here. I’m sure that Google’s price testing won’t be restricted to travel for too long and that this year, we’ll see some pretty exciting things in the mobile travel space.