INTERNET MARKETING: Success Factors for Marketing Tourism on the Web
by Simon HUdson

With Canada’s online travel market more than doubling over the past few years, capitalizing on the latest tools and trends is intrinsic to marketing success. Nearly one third of all leisure and unmanaged business travel by Canadians was booked online in 2007, with most travelers visiting between two and five websites when shopping for travel online. So how do you make your website stand out from the crowd? 

According to marketing experts, success factors include attracting users, engaging their interest and participation, retaining them and ensuring that they return, learning about their preferences, and relating back to them to provide customized interactions. Research looking at content of web pages suggests that it is crucial that content is accurate, attractive, and easily searchable. Interactivity is also an imperative, as the very behaviour of consumers changes when they log onto the Internet. They not only search for information but also expect interaction and entertainment. A positive experience on the website increases the time spent at the site and therefore increases the dollar amount spent. 

Rich Internet applications like Flash have revolutionized the dreaming and planning aspect of travel. Offering virtual tours is one way of providing interactivity, and virtual tours of hotels that potential customers can view on the corporate website have proven to be a major sales asset. The Fantasyland Hotel in Edmonton, for example, provides 360 degree views of each themed room with the click of a mouse. 

Video is another way of allowing visitors to interact with websites. Most ski resorts in Canada have webcams on the hills so that skiers can check out conditions before they go skiing, but Silver Star in BC has gone one step further and has an interactive mountain tour that gives users a virtual experience of many of the resort’s runs. Drumheller, home of Alberta’s hoodoos, fossils, and dinosaurs, also uses interactive multimedia. The website features a video section called “Meet the People of Drumheller” where local residents give visitors the inside scoop on things to do and see in the heart of the Canadian Badlands. Online visitors are also often seeking immediate feedback. Chinook Country Tourist Association in Southern Alberta has received a great response from its new “Live Chat” facility whereby a visitor can type in a question and receive an immediate live response.

It is also important for tourism operators and destinations to consider the language of their online visitors. The official Travel Alberta website, for example, offers travel information in a number of languages enabling potential visitors from halfway around the world to search for activities, transportation, or general information in their own language and at any time of day (the latter helps to reduce barriers presented by time zones). The Fairmont hotels in Alberta also give international visitors the opportunity to read online information in the language of their choice.

But the design of a website is not the only criteria for success in today’s ever-changing online environment of social networking and user-generated content. In a recent study completed by Compete, Inc. it was found that over $10 billion per year in online travel is influenced by consumer generated content. Rather than passively viewing a collection of static pages, today’s Internet user is becoming an active participant and there is a growth in social networking - the creation and sharing of free content made by individual users. It is changing the way people consume media. For example, home video nights have been replaced by YouTube.com, and flipping through photo albums is now done via Flickr.com. The ease of use is the biggest factor driving this trend, both for users and creators. 

Blogs are helping tourists to become informed before traveling, taking the anxiety out of booking independent trips and also aiding with planning itineraries as well as booking accommodations and transportation options. Blogs can be very detailed - even directing the consumer to the right meal choices in specific restaurants on the best nights - and are frequently modified and updated. The authors, or bloggers, are becoming de facto watchdogs and self-proclaimed experts in specific fields. Web platforms such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendster have inspired wild popularity among millions of Internet users who find friends, professional contacts, and also a forum for their own unvarnished opinions. With the new travel blogs, tourists can quickly access information, up-to-date prices, weather reports, etc., tapping into the combined experiences of the traveling public free of charge and at any time of the night or day rather than having to sift through advertising material, trying to sort the truth from the promotional chaff. 

Prompted by the success and popularity of blogs, some tourism operations have set up blogs as a way of providing tourism information to online visitors. Chinook Country Tourist Association in Southern Alberta has a blog that allows members to publicize events. Others have created their own blogging platforms to let customers share their opinions. Banff Lake Louise Tourism are currently setting up such a platform, hoping to follow in the footsteps of companies like Carnival Cruise Lines who created CarnivalConnections.com in early 2006 to provide a forum for cruise passengers to hook up with former shipmates, plan future sea trips together, and share experiences and opinions on cruise destinations and facilities. By mid-2006 this site had attracted 13,000 registered users, of which 2,000 had already planned further trips with Carnival’s 22 ships. The Rocky Mountaineer has also created a blogging platform called the “Guest Lounge” that brings people together from around the world to share their Rocky Mountaineer experiences. Customers are encouraged to submit ideas and suggestions, and this in turn provides valuable consumer opinion, giving the company immediate market research and feedback for free.
Of course, there is no point in having a state-of-the-art website if no one visits it. Online marketers can advertise via email, using banner ads, and by sponsoring discussion lists and email newsletters. Increasingly, advertising money is being spent on search-engine advertising, which allows companies to target consumers as they research a holiday. The growth of search engine use for online travel research or booking is staggering, and has been facilitated by the introduction of newer “travel-specific” search engines such as Kayak, Sidestep, and Yahoo’s Farechase. In Britain, seven out of ten people use Google when they trawl the Internet for flights. Many companies are forming online partnerships in order to distribute their travel products. For example, World Wide Trails (WWT), a new Northern Alberta-based company, has put together an Adventure Travel Affiliate program for Canadian travel agents interested in making inroads into the adventure market. Describing itself as an “adventure library”, the marketing firm has partnered with more than 50 adventure tour operators to offer over 300 itineraries at www.worldwidetrails.com. 

There are still those who hesitate to book travel online, mainly because of concerns over security and frustration with website performance. But for companies looking to break into the online travel market, the future looks very promising. For the first time, last year more travel was purchased online than offline in the US. Just remember that for the consumer, the Internet is providing inspiration as well as information, and if you can engage your online visitors and provide them with an innovative, interactive experience which helps them with their travel planning, you can stand out from the crowd and convert that surfer into a buyer.