Presentation by E-Tourism Frontiers CEO Damian Cook at E-Tourism East Africa Conference Nairobi March 2012

2. Our Mission
• To develop a sustainable and equitable online
tourism sector in emerging destinations by
education and provision of resources to both the
private and public sectors to enable a shift from
traditional sales and marketing methods and to
create locally based, business driven environments
for online travel distribution and e-commerce.

3. Hashtag:
#ETourismEastAfrica

4. “KENYA’S TOURISM IS
REDUNDANT IN A
GLOBAL MARKET”
-Johannes Zutt, World Bank 2012

5. TOURISM IS A
CHANGE RESISTANT
INDUSTRY

6. THE FUTURE IS
ONLINE
• 58% of all travel is now researched, booked
bought and sold online
• 96% of travellers start their research on
the internet
• Travel sales are expected to double this
year, exceeding $300 Billion

7. THE FUTURE IS
SOCIAL
• 30% on average of all time online is spent
social networking
• Facebook is one of the largest populations
on earth with over 850 Million people
• Social media is more popular and powerful
than TV and print media combined

8. HOW ARE WE
RESISTING CHANGE?

9. LACK OF
TRANSACTION AND
CONVERSION...

11. Looking at Kenya’s
Tourists

12. NO MATTER WHAT
TRAVEL IS NEVER
GOING TO GET ANY
CHEAPER

13. THE FUTURE OF
GROWTH WILL BE
ABOUT YIELD AND
NOT ARRIVALS

14. LESS CAN
BE MORE

15. THE FUTURE TRAVELLER
WILL TRAVEL LESS AND
EXPECT MORE...

16. WE NEED TO SELL
EXPERIENCES

17. A Tale of Two Giraffes
• Selling the same product side by side is a
real challenge

18. THE MARKET IS TOO
CROWDED AND TOO
LOUD TO BE MAKING
BLAND GENERIC
STATEMENTS

19. ESPECIALLY IN A MARKET
DRIVEN BY SEARCH AND
SOCIAL MEDIA

20. STRONG UNIQUE
MESSAGING

21. Old business models
don’t fit into New
Technology

22. E-Tourism means
• Communicating the right
• Content across a variety of
• Channels to the best value
• Clients who will
• Convert to a sale and keep
• Coming back

23. This means
• Realtime Bookability and E-Commerce
• Strong Social Media Presence
• Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Channel, Blog..
• Managing Online Relationships
• Managing and Optimizing Conversion

24. The Web is Changing
Constantly...

26. Content Generation
• Over the past 5 years the web has changed
radically
• People have become able to create content
on the internet with no skills or technical
knowledge
• As a result- the internet now doubles in
size every 11 hours
• Users mainly consume content from other
users

27. UGC
• Blogs
• Images
• Video
• Wikis
• Reviews
• Social Profiles
• Tweets

28. What Does That Mean?

29. Our Users Are In
Control

30. You need to work with
them...

31. And they come
prepared...

33. Facebook is writing
autobiographies...

34. Our Profiles are how
we want the world to
see us...

35. How do you let your
guests be seen...?

36. THE SINGLE
STUPIDEST THING
YOU CAN DO IF YOU
WANT GOOD UGC

37. AND I CAN
GUARANTEE LOTS
OF YOU DO IT...

38. QUESTION...

39. DO YOU GIVE YOUR
GUESTS AN
ELECTRICITY AND
WATER BILL WHEN
THEY CHECK OUT?...

40. THAT WOULD BE
CRAZY...

41. THEN
WHY
DO YOU CHARGE
THEM TO USE THE
INTERNET?...

44. TWO 2012
LANDMARKS:
ONE BILLION
TOURISM ARRIVALS
and...

45. IN AUGUST
FACEBOOK WILL
REACH ONE BILLION
USERS

46. WELCOME TO THE
WORLD’S LARGEST
SOURCE MARKET

47. Conversion
• There is so much competition in the
marketplace and so much demand from the
market for sales that CONVERSION of
interest to sale is essential
• As search and social becomes increasingly
monetized branding alone is not a good
investment
• To see return on your online investment
you need to convert

50. Social Conversion
• Spending on Social Media Advertising has
doubled in the last year
• Ad spend on Facebook in 2010: $1.3 Billion
• Video Advertising had grown but not as
radically

51. SOCIAL SELLS
• US online buyers who were led to their
purchase by a search engine or social media
site (November 2010)
• Search: 51%
• Search and social: 48%
• Social: 1%

52. SOCIAL ON THE
ROAD
• 72.7% of US social network users accessed
social networks at least daily while they
were travelling.

53. VICARIOUS TRAVEL

54. Multiplying the
Travel Experience
• The vicarious travel experience effectively
means that each person is now travelling with
an average of 120 spectators
• These are not passive spectators
• They are engaging, commenting and
recommending constantly
• Travel suppliers now need to be a part of this
atmosphere of constant engagement

55. It’s a Visual Medium:
Show Me Don’t Tell Me

59. Show me an experience
that inspires me...

62. Individuals Become
Broadcasters &
Syndicators

63. Anything can become
popular... and creative

64. User Generated
Content:
Raw, Real, Reliable...

65. Sourced UGC

69. Leveraged UGC

70. One Day in Canada

75. Pure UGC

77. Africa goes Viral
• ‘The Battle at Kruger’ a tourists video shot in
South Africa has become the 12th most
popular video on YouTube
• It has been viewed over 66,276,000 times
and counting

78. The Media Rules have
changed...

79. SOCIAL MEDIA CAN
BUILD YOU UP... AND
BRING YOU DOWN

80. ANOTHER AFRICAN
VIRAL HIT

82. 120 Million Views...

87. The truth starts to
emerge online...

89. SOCIAL MEDIA WILL
KEEP YOU HONEST...

90. Opinions
are important
• 20% of North Americans read reviews before
making a hotel booking during domestic
travel.
• 33% of North Americans read reviews before
making a hotel booking before overseas travel
to Europe.
• 50% of North Americans read reviews before
making a hotel booking before booking long
haul travel. source: NEW MEDIA TREND WATCH

91. Trip Advisor

93. Your Authenticity will
be questioned...

94. Response time is
speeding up...

96. TRAVELLING MOBILE
• Three out of ten cell phones in use in the US are now
"smartphones" with internet connectivity.
• In 2010, nearly two in ten travelers (19%) have downloaded a
travel-related application (app) to their smartphone.
• Half have navigated a destination using the built in GPS
functionality or searched for the latest information on flight
schedules and delays.
• Three in ten have compared airfares or hotel rates or shared
information or photos about their travel experiences using
their smartphone.
• One in six has booked air travel or lodging or viewed a virtual
visitor guide that provides information on things to do and see
while visiting a destination.

97. THE FUTURE IS MOBILE AND
LOCATION BASED
• Tools, Apps and Sites that know where you
are are becoming very popular
• Find information and contacts around you
• Post, report and relate to your content
• More and more destinations are focussing
on Location Based Services

98. Facebook Places
• Facebook based location service
• One button check in
• Is becoming an extremely popular tool for
destination marketing

99. THE FUTURE:
CONSTANT SOCIAL
INTEGRATION...

100. KEEP AWARE...
KEEP EVOLVING