I recently attended a really insightful webinar produced by Google. It covered the behaviors of a selection of vacation goers who book their holidays online and how their actions are changing this year in comparison to previous years. There was a lot of useful information for the Las Vegas business owner so here’s the first part of my 2 part summary of some of the key points of the presentation entitled “Google & Compete Present: Travel Shopping for 2009″. In this part I’ll look at the trends of vacation goers this year in comparison to previous years.
Travel Booking Activity is Rebounding
The vast majority of data collected supports a rebound of travel booking activity this year in comparison to last. 40% of upcoming travelers surveyed are planning for more than in 2008. Clearly the harsh economic conditions of last year would affect the pockets of potential vacation goers, but the good news, as Google reports, is that potential travelers are now looking considering a vacation. More specifically, Google’s findings report that only 14% of the consumers surveyed are planning to cut back on their travel this year compared to last.
Online Travel Bookers in March at an all time high
I found this stat really interesting. A lot of economists and analysts aren’t putting their necks out and predicting the start of the upturn, but the signs are out there that things are improving and I think this is one of the many indicators. Google’s online travel bookers graph below shows that March 2009 had the highest amount of online travel bookers compared to any month in 2007 and 2008. Clearly now the view is that people do have an amount of disposable income to put towards a vacation.
Consumers are likely to do more this summer
Google’s results show that online travel bookers are pretty likely to book and do more than last summer. Taking guided tours and renting cars see the highest growth but overall this data looks very promising for all tourism related industries.
Consumers are willing to re-visit destinations this summer
Google’s survey reports that half of travelers surveyed are looking to revisit destinations they have already visited. I think this stat really does hit home the fact that it’s imperative to give incredible customer service and good financial incentives to insure that loyal travelers want to return back for a fabulous experience. Only 30% of those surveyed wanted to visit a destination they had not been to. With a substantial amount of tourists under its belt, this is great new for Las Vegas. At Nyx Marketing, we would encourage businesses to make the most of this finding by collecting guests data (email, facebook and twitter addresses) to ensure that a company can effectively build customer loyalty by offering them targeted incentives for revisits.
Where 2009′s vacation goers will be heading
65% of those surveyed will be traveling to other US states this summer according to Google. Only 11% will be visiting other countries, which suggests that many travelers will looking for holidays close to home this year. For the tourism based business this has huge implications for any search efforts. If 65% of travelers will be visiting other states, then I would strongly advise targeting any PPC efforts to the states which show most interest in Vegas and in your industry. Looking at Google Insights we can see the majority of interest in Las Vegas tourism related searches (vegas hotels, hotel las vegas) comes from nearby states such as Arizona, Utah and California while, unsurprisingly, searches for Las Vegas flights seem to come from states slightly further afield namely Hawaii, Montana and Wyoming.
Knowing the behaviors and locations of your potential consumers is crucial in your online marketing efforts. In the next part of this blog, we will focus on what sites consumers use to start their travel planning, what factors are important to travelers and also ask how long travelers spend researching online before they booked their trip.
