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Travel – Online PersonaAnkur Sharma30 July 2011

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How are we going to kill time? Why Talk Travel? Online + Travel Major Online Marketing Drivers - Travel What’s the catch? What to focus on?

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Why Talk Travel? Largest service industry globally in terms of gross revenue and FOREX earnings One of the largest employment generators in the world Generated around 9.4% of world GDP and 8.2% of total employment in 2009 Inbound tourists across the world rose from 682 million in 2001 to 920 million in 2008 According to Forrester, web is the preferred media source for travel information, favoured 17:1 over TV and 6:1 over Newspapers and Magazines

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US Travel Industry Impact

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A thought to ponder on…

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Online Travel Market - US In 2008, 37%-38% of all hotel bookings were generated from the Internet (one-third in 2007, 29% in 2006) At least another third of all hotel bookings were influenced by the Internet, but done offline (call centre, walk-ins, group bookings, etc.) By the end of 2010, over 45% of all hotel bookings were completed online In 2008 US travel sales booked online reached $105 billion, up 12% from 2007

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Online Travel Market - Europe Online travel sales increased by 24% from 2006 to 2007 and reached EUR 49.4 billion in the European market in 2007 Online travel market in Europe was expected to grow to about EUR 58.4 billion in 2008 The European online travel market was expected to reach EUR 67 billion in 2009 UK accounted for 30% of the European online travel market in 2007, with Germany in second place at 19%. The direct sellers accounted for 65% of online sales in the European market in 2007, and the intermediaries 35%

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Online Travel Market – AP Online travel sales in Asia will grow about 90% over the next 10 years with China, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong & Vietnam leading the way By 2011 end, the Chinese online travel market is expected to rake around US$ 15.4 billion worth in bookings Indonesias online travel sector was expected to grow by between 70% - 83% a year from 2006 to 2010 compared to US (US expected growth was 17% a year during the same period) Online travel sector in Vietnam was likely to fuel the boom in e-commerce, forecast to grow 202% a year between 2006 & 2010

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Online Travel Market - India Travel portals in India did business of $800 million (of the total $15.5 billion travel market in the country) in 2006 In 2006, India attracted 4.43 million foreign tourists; the same year, around 350-400 million domestic tourists are estimated to have travelled around the country Air passengers in the country increased from 22.788 million in 2005 to 32.172 million in 2006

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Online Marketing Drivers - Travel1. Organic Search (SEO)2. Paid Search (SEM)3. Email Marketing4. Social Media5. Meta Search6. Mobile Marketing

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What else? 69% of businesses & 63% of consumers plan travel by searching the internet, visiting an average of 22 sites before deciding on a destination Mobile travel bookings accounted for 15% of all reservations in 2010, up from 9% in 2009 Airline websites are the second most frequently visited (40% of both business and leisure travellers), followed by hotel sites (36% of both business and leisure travellers) Destination sites are popular with both leisure and business travellers, with 40% of leisure travellers and 32% of business travellers using these sites to book their last trip

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What’s the catch?

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Caught! Massive fluctuations across the different verticals within travel and across the size of the organisations 43% of cruise companies rank email marketing as the most influential marketing channel whereas for hotels it is only 13% In companies with a marketing budget of over US$ 51 million, 84% see search as the key, while only 44% of small travel companies (with marketing budgets below US$25,000) rank search as the most influential channel

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Bowled!! Most influential marketing channels are segregated in terms of regional differences: German marketers love organic search, Brits love paid, Italian marketers hate EDMs but are in love with mobile marketing For social media campaigns, about 80% of marketers said that they produced Twitter campaigns and social media promotions in-house, but such functions as search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising are largely outsourced Google says two-thirds of businesses now plan their travel using search engines, with smart phone bookings rising 69% just in 2010

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What to focus on? Website Design & Usability Content & Personalization SEO Strategy Sunk Cost Fallacy Social Media Strategy Conversion Strategy Partner Marketing /Affiliate Program Strategy

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Questions?

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Thank You! Ankur Sharma +91 9886403253 ankurdineshsharma@gmail.com http://in.linkedin.com/in/ankurdineshsharma http://www.twitter.com/ankurdinesh