Digital Content Top Priority for Travel Companies

13 February 2012
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Frommer’s Unlimited releases 2011 Digital Marketing and Content B2B Survey

London/Hoboken -  Social media, content, mobile and apps, and natural search engine optimisation will be the top four areas for travel organizations with 83% planning to increase overall digital marketing spend in 2012, according to a new global survey released today by digital travel online content specialists Frommer’s® Unlimited, the business-to-business division of Frommer’s®, a branded imprint of Wiley. A full copy of the report is available from www.frommers.biz/research.

The survey of 350 travel organisations was undertaken with global digital travel news service Tnooz and respondents included airlines, agents, tour operators and consolidators, hoteliers, tourist boards, car rental, rail, travel insurance, publishing and cruise companies. 78% of the survey said they planned to increase digital marketing budgets for the year ahead and 19% said budgets would remain the same. Only 3% said they were decreasing marketing spend in 2012.

Two thirds of businesses surveyed (65%) said they would invest more money in social media next year and more than half said they would also be increasing spend on content (55%), mobile and apps (54%) and natural search engine optimization (52%). The survey also revealed that nearly 80% of companies plan to have iPhone apps and 75% are aiming to have an iPad app by the end of 2012. Three quarters will also support a mobile web platform by the end of next year.

International content is also an area of growing focus. Three quarters of the survey say they are maintaining and increasing translation budgets for 2012. Half of the travel organizations surveyed currently operate a site in one language, a third operate sites in up to five languages and a fifth have sites in more than 5 languages. For 2012 that will increase – 26% said they plan to have up to 5 language sites and 17% plan to have more than 5 language sites.

Giles Longhurst, Frommer’s Unlimited Director Europe Middle East and Africa said: “In our fourth annual survey we’re seeing a clear trend of sustained investment in content in many different platforms and global players looking to create engagement as well as customer acquisition. We see this as a maturing of the online marketplace as marketers look closer at the final stages of the purchase funnel and how they can convert more visitors into loyal customers. Companies this year prioritized the need to use content to drive conversions above driving natural search traffic has moved to second priority. We also found it interesting to see that 85% of our survey said their cost per visitor was under US$5 but 5% of respondents said their cost per visitor was over ten dollars – higher than our survey last year.”

Kevin May, editor of Tnooz, said: “The annual Frommer’s Unlimited survey is a succinct signpost of the changing priorities of digital marketers. Year on year we see even greater numbers respond to the need for content and we’re now seeing that need reflected on mobile and multi-lingual platforms. While we weren’t surprised to see such an investment in Apple mobile products there is clearly more to be done to respond to mobile needs on companies’ mobile platforms.”

The problems organisations face in managing content are similar year-on-year. The overwhelming problem facing six out of ten respondents is still keeping content up to date. Creating content which is consistent with brand values was highlighted by almost five out of ten of the survey sample and integrating content with products was a problem for three out of ten surveyed. In answer to new questions posed this year 44% said they had problems developing mobile content strategy and launching multilingual sites.

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