Recommended Market Insight
1. Executive Summary How will travel companies cope with consumers who do business anywhere and everywhere? How will they improve their customer experience in the face of multiple organizational and technological challenges? What is their path to growth in a world of declining brand equity, competition from search engines and low cost competition? These are some of the […]
Apple has officially unveiled the iPhone X.
CEO Tim Cook stated the device is “the future of the smartphone,” and it’s clear the iPhone X (pronounced “ten”) offers the most significant update to the iPhone family in years, with edge-to-edge OLED display, facial recognition capabilities and an aptitude for augmented reality.
Tourism boards have come a long way in recent years.
Once a forgotten-about resource, now an increasing number are actively reaching out to international travellers, and using their online presence to persuade and motivate people to visit.
The end goal for travel and hospitality brands used to be securing a booking. Now, in an increasingly competitive market, many are placing a greater focus on securing the best all-round ‘experience’.
In fact, this emphasis on customer experience is so high that it has now collectively overtaken customer acquisition as the biggest business priority in travel.
Travel brands no longer rely so heavily on TV advertising to reach holiday-hungry consumers. Now, with a whopping 97% of millennials reported to have posted photos or videos of their travels on social networking sites – the internet is a veritable treasure trove of inspiration.
As well as capitalising on this growing consumer desire to share experiences, travel brands are also expanding their own social media strategies to better market their services (and capture the attention of all demographics).
Having a quality user experience can be critical to the success of a business. But many marketers often underestimate the role that website performance plays in the user experience.
Nowhere is this truer than on mobile, where a slow-loading or poor-performing webpage can lose a user’s attention and interest within seconds.
The travel sector has seen dramatic changes to the customer journey in recent years.
Gone are the days of a simple process with minimal touchpoints: flicking through brochures; speaking to a travel agent; deciding where to book.
The rise of digital in the travel industry has seen a decline in the reliance on local travel agents and instead 83% are now booking their holidays online either themselves or via online travel agents.
According to recent research, travel is the second poorest performing sector for mobile user experience.
According to iProspect estimates, the travel industry is missing out on £900 million a year in potential revenue due to this poor mobile performance.
SaleCycle has recently conducted some research on increasing online travel bookings, looking at mobile optimisation. All but one of the top 50 travel sites were ‘mobile-friendly’ i.e. they were tailored in some way to a small screen, but good mobile UX goes deeper than that.
The effect of weather on purchasing decisions can be significant, especially in the travel sector, where travel companies see sales for overseas holidays soar when the weather here in the UK is poor.
Reacting to these changes in supply and demand in real time is key to maximising profitability and ensuring visibility in high conversion periods.
Influencers are a huge and growing phenomenon in the travel industry – as in so many others – catering to a generation with the desire and means to travel the world and post the perfect pictures of their trip to Instagram.
More than ever, we are seeing brands trying to provide a one-stop shop for all our needs in order to keep us within their website or app.
Influencer marketing is an increasingly important part of the marketing mix in many industries, and the travel and hospitality industries are two that are making extensive use of influencers.
With a wealth of inspiration at consumers’ fingertips, clever marketing creative has never been more important for the travel and tourism industry.
Instagram has a huge influence on the purchasing decisions of its users. According to reports, 75% of people say that they have bought clothes or beauty products based on something they’ve seen on Instagram.
Great marketing creative is always popular on the Econsultancy blog.
Dan Young is Head of Digital Experience at easyJet. He is set to speak at this year’s Festival of Marketing, all about the customer experience of easyJet’s native mobile app.
The online travel industry is big business. In a recent report, The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) found that four in five people in Britain chose to book their holidays online in 2018.
Last month, The Drum reported that Lastminute.com would be moving the vast majority of its digital spend from Google to Facebook after trialling the effectiveness of each platform for customer acquisition over three months.
When it comes to the opportunity for customer engagement, the travel industry already has a head-start – because who doesn’t get excited at the prospect of going on holiday?
But while travel consumers might naturally be more inclined to engage, this also means there is greater opportunity for brands to get it wrong. Delays and disruptions might mar a travel experience, but how a brand deals with it can make or break a customer relationship.