Presentation to tourism SMEs in Cambridgeshire, UK on the latest digital marketing trends and opportunities, prepared and delivered May 2011.

1. Consumer behaviours in
travel and tourism and opportunities
for tourism businesses
Andrew Daines
Huntingdonshire Association for Tourism
3 May 2011

2. About me: Andrew Daines
• Travel and tourism industry professional
– 14 years with VisitBritain
– 3 years in the commercial travel sector
– European Travel Commission Marketing & Technology
Network chairman (2010) and vice chairman (2008‐9)
– Tourism Management Institute Council of
Management / National Council member 2006‐11
– Business and Tourism Management graduate
• Keen traveller!
linkedin.com/in/andrewdaines

3. Topics for today
• Overview: the past digital decade
• ‘Traditional’ web – broadcast
• Social media – dialogue
• User ratings and reviews
• Online booking
• Mobile

4. Year Global online
The Digital Decade population (millions)
2000 361
2002 587
2004 817
2006 1,093
2008 1,574
2010 2,050
Source: Internet World Stats

5. The British online
• Over 51 million internet users – 82.5% of the
population
Source: Internet World Stats, June 2010
• 60% of the population use the internet every
day
Source: ONS, August 2010
• 62% of UK adults bought goods and
services online in year to Aug 2010
Source: ONS, August 2010

6. Travellers online
• 37% of UK travellers do ALL their research
online
Source: Hotelmarketing.com, November 2010
• Over a third of travellers visit 6‐10 websites
when planning a trip
Source: WAYN / WTTC / Frommer’s August 2010
• Travellers book flights early, but 20% book
accommodation within 5 days of stay
Source: Travel Daily News, November 2010

7. Maximise free online exposure
• VisitBritain / VisitEngland
– Highly focused audiences
– Lots of free additional distribution
• Google Places
– Part of the UK’s most widely used search engine
– Integration with other Google services, e.g. maps
• Facebook
– World’s largest social media site
– Huge growth in mobile access to Facebook

8. VisitBritain / VisitEngland
National Tourism Product Database
• Display images – up to six. Search results display
products with images first.
• Use the ‘short description’ to identify your
product’s key features in 3 lines / 30 words
• Provide indicative pricing (even if you have online
booking)
• Provide accessibility content
• Make sure telephone / e‐mail / website details
are correct
• Contact for updates: Suzie Rowe, New Vision
Group, datasteward@nvg.net, 0845 166 2217

14. Long descriptions – differentiation
• What’s your product best suited for? (clientele):
– A romantic getaway?
– Family fun?
– Business visitors?
• What’s your location?
– Perfect for peace and quiet?
– Right in the action?
– Brilliant for public transport?
• What’s the food and drink like?
– Breakfast to keep you going all day?
– Locally sourced / gourmet?
– Easily adaptable for special diets?

15. Global, national and regional distribution
VisitBritain
offline / print
Third party
websites
Global and Other online
national National devices
websites Tourism
Product
Database
Interoperability
Regional Gateway
campaign TIC extranet
Cross‐regional
campaign

18. • Compiled from variety of sources – inc.
VisitBritain
• Find your business and check the content
• Sign in, make changes if necessary, then verify
the content as being correct

22. • 664,000,000 subscribers worldwide
• Half the population of North America have a
Facebook account (almost a quarter of the
population of Europe)
Source: Internet World Stats, April 2011
• Facebook users who are referred to travel
booking sites are far more likely to book travel
than those who are referred via search engines
like Google
Source: Mediapost, August 2010

24. • Add or claim your business to edit content and
create Facebook Deals (more later)

27. • Not free...but worthwhile?
• World’s no.1 travel site (UK’s no.2)
• Launched 2000, now with over 35 million
monthly unique users, 10 million members
• Contains over 45 million reviews
• One of the few western social media sites to
be available in China

28. TripAdvisor Business Listings
• How much does it cost?
No. of rooms Rate per annum
Up to 5 rooms £225 ‐ £245
6‐10 rooms £300 ‐ £360
More than 500 rooms Max £6,500

29. Visitors like user reviews and ratings
Source: TripAdvisor, March 2009

35. Savvy businesses embrace TripAdvisor

36. Notice the integration with Facebook?

37. Make user reviews work for you

38. How important is it to be bookable online?
• 70% of UK adults say they prefer to book
online
– To find the best price (54%), convenience (31%)
Source: Travelmole / YouGov, February 2011
• 26% of UK adults do all their holiday booking
online
– On average, visiting the website 3‐4 times before
completing the transaction
Source: Hotelmarketing, November 2010

39. Room rates: online vs offline
Average Room July % YOY Aug %YOY Sept %YOY Q3 %YOY
Rate 2010 2010 2010 2010
Online £62 1% £65 5% £59 ‐1% £62 2%
Offline £55 ‐7% £58 ‐4% £54 ‐8% £56 ‐6%
Combined £57 ‐5% £55 ‐2% £55 ‐6% £57 ‐4
Source: eviivo
Average room rates compiled from
businesses using eviivo’s products and
services in the East of England region
www.eviivo.com

40. Performance: VisitBritain / VisitEngland
White Label Product Search
2007/8 2008/9 2009/10 2010/11
Number of referrals 17,637 18,929 82,422 272,554
Value of referrals 4,588,343 4,161,855 17,015,325 64,274,618
(£)
Number of 1,228 2,297 10,898 13,741
bookings
Value of bookings 187,982 391,545 1,803,750 2,335,907
(£)

41. Mobile headlines
• October – December 2010: 36% of US / 29%
European mobile users accessed online content
Source: ClickZ, February 2011
• Smartphone adoption grew considerably in
2010:
– 63,000,000 smartphone handsets in the US
– 71,651,000 in France / Germany / Italy / Spain / UK
Source: Marketing Charts, February 2011
• Mobile travel bookings accounted for 15% of
all reservations in 2010
Source: Travelmole, February 2011

42. Did Apple change everything?
At October 2010, Apple had sold over 73 million iPhones
Source: telecoms.com, October 2010

43. Facebook Places

46. Growth of Facebook Places
January 2011

47. Growth of Facebook Places
last week

48. Growth of Facebook Places
Yesterday

49. Facebook Deals: Coming soon to Europe...

50. Things to do now
• Check your product entry on visitbritain.com /
enjoyengland.com
– Update or enhance as necessary
– Make sure you’re ‘opted in’ to third party
distribution
– Contact: Suzie Rowe, New Vision Group,
datasteward@nvg.net, 0845 166 2217
• Check your business on Google and Facebook
• Encourage your satisfied customers to tell the
world about their great experience

51. Thank you
Andrew Daines
andrew@andrewdaines.com
www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdaines