Curious News About Tourists
UK. A 29 years old woman took sun on the beach in Brighton. She was with her baby and left him all the day under the rays of the sun. Other persons told her to cover the boy but she did not understand them. Her neighbours called police when they saw vesicles on the skin of the baby. They say, it's probably the baby will not survive.
Ibiza. A group of young British tourists came in their hotel after they drunk somewhere. One of them decided to jump in the pool of the hotel situating under the windows of their room directly from the window. He missed the pool landing on the grass 3 meters far from it. The meditians try to save his life.
India. The government of India declared that many tourists do not want to turn home when thier visa expire. India does not extend visas. But they do not have the "black list" of the transgressors, they say. Probably, India has irresistible attractions to prefer it to other countries. -Mmmm... Do you believe in it?
Swiss. Tourists from Germany (specially) like to walk through the valleys of the Swiss (canton Appelzell Innerrhoden) wearing only backpacks and shoes. The residents that are very religious and conservative do not understand this behaviour. But the court of law acquited one of the tourists.
Italy. The "tourist tax" of euro 41 for those Italians who wants to visit non European countries was not enough to save the economy. So, the government seems to introduce a new touristic tax for those who decide to visit Rome. They will pay about euro 10 for every night in the capital.
How will the World Cup affect Travel queries?
In order to estimate the likely impact of the 2010 World Cup on UK travel queries, we have taken a look at the trends we saw during the last World Cup in 2006.
The graph below demonstrates the month on month (MoM) change in travel query volumes from May – July, across a five year period (2005-2009).
Every year, travel queries increased month-on-month by 2-5 % from May to June. This is expected seasonality as we get closer to the peak of the summer.
The only year we saw an exception to this seasonality was in 2006, the year the last World Cup was held, where we saw a 6% decrease MoM. As this is the only noticeable exception over a five year period, it is highly likely that the MoM decrease was the result of consumers choosing to stay at home to follow the tournament on television rather than travel.
This trend becomes more apparent when we look at MoM query growth between June and July, where generally we see a 3-9% increase. 2006 saw an above average 13% MoM in July, which indicates that interest in travel picked up immediately after the tournament ended.
We then looked at indexed travel queries on a daily basis, to see when exactly travel queries increase from June into July. The chart below shows daily indexed travel queries from May – July for three years 2005-2007 for comparative purposes:
Indexed query volumes in June 2006 were lower than in 2005/2007 – indicates less travel activity in 2006 as consumers watch the tournament at home rather than booking their holidays.
Change in seasonality at start of July 2006 - queries rose rapidly as soon as England dropped out of World Cup, whereas in 2005/2007 queries were falling during this time. This is a clear indication that consumers start looking for holidays once they lose interest in the tournament.
Easter Insights 2010 Whitepaper released March 2010
Our Industry Analyst, Rashad Sharif, has summarised the 2010 January and Easter trends. His key findings can be found in the summary below. You can download the full version of the whitepaper at this link: Easter Insights 2010
2010: The beginning of the road to recovery? Travel query and click growth is much stronger than this time last year. CPCs have fallen across travel products year on year. Monitor your budgets to allow for increased Search activity this year. It is more affordable to increase bids to drive traffic than it was last year.
Query trends in the run up to Easter: Travel queries peak two weeks before Easter Car Hire has the most positive and prolonged query growth over Easter Flight queries peak earliest - indicating primary purchase consideration when booking a holiday Monitor your bids and budgets in the context of rising demand and competition.
Use Easter modified keywords. Easter keywords see high query volumes in the run up to the holiday. Last year we saw CPCs drop as demand increased on these keywords- an opportunity exists to gain cheaper traffic. Top Easter Destinations Recovery of city break destinations YoY suggests a strengthening in the short breaks market. Turkey, Spain and Egypt, New York and Paris among the most popular Easter destinations. Demand for holidays to US and Eurozone destinations has seen large YoY increases.
Sun, Snow and Search In January whitepaper
January 2010 Whitepaper by Michael Wicks, Industry Analyst.
Blazing a trail in Q1 2010.
Last year, travel queries were slower to pick up than usual, due to New Year’s Day falling on a Thursday
· Queries peaked later than normal last year, due to New Year’s Day falling on a Thursday and many people not returning to work until the following Monday 5th January
· Average cost per click fell immediately after Christmas Day, and click through rate rose during the same period
· Queries peaked on a Monday late in January last year
· Hotel and accommodation queries have the highest relative growth over the New Year and January
Recommendations
· Be prepared to take advantage of an increase in traffic immediately after Christmas
· Ensure adequate budgets are available in the run up to - and beyond - Christmas to avoid missing out on your ads appearing against relevant search queries
· Ensure you have a value based offering to encourage consumers to book early and not wait until the lates market
· Keep your budgets turned on throughout January to take advantage of another potential sustained peak
Consumers are slowly moving back to Eurozone and US Dollar destinations
· Growth for Eurozone city break destination queries has increased as the pound has strengthened against the Euro
· Short haul sun has seen a resurgence, driven by queries for Spain and Portugal
· Although some US destinations have seen an improvement in query growth, non US dollar destinations are still outperforming them
Recommendations
· Promote destinations which have seen an improvement in query growth, as well as those which performed well in the early part of the year
· Use the Insights for Search tool to keep on top of the changing destination patterns most relevant to your business
Average query length is increasing year on year
· The length of travel queries is increasing, as people search for more specific queries. This is a trend across all sub-sectors within Travel
Recommendations
· Ensure you have a coherent match type strategy which allows for identification of changes in search behaviour
· Granularity of accounts to ensure that they are delivering more relevant search terms
· As consumers are getting more demanding, it is important to match landing pages to appropriate ad text
There has been a resurgence for ‘premium’ type queries
· Premium type queries are now growing at the same rate as budget queries, which represents a shift from earlier in the year
Recommendations
· Push both premium and economy product as the market for both is growing at over 10%
· Ensure that you have strong value-led creatives, aligned to premium terms
To download the full report, please click here: Sun, Snow and Search.
Unwrapping Christmas Travel Trends Whitepaper Nov 2009
November 2009: Here is the next instalment of our Travel research papers. Michael Wicks, our Industry Analyst, looks at the festive season ahead and provides key recommendations which will hopefully enable you to maximise your traffic. For full details, find the paper here: Unwrapping Christmas Travel Trends.
Online insights for the festive period
December is becoming increasingly important for travel consumers. In our latest in-depth look at the search trends within the travel sector we look for opportunities for advertisers to capture a share of the Christmas market and get in pole position for Q1 2010.
Promote your brand over Christmas
· December is becoming an important month for travel consumers as their search activity increases relative to other months
· Query growth is beginning to accelerate
Recommendations:
· Ensure adequate budgets are available in the run up to Christmas to avoid missing on customers either in December or in January
· Do not ignore the peaking traffic in week 52 of the year
The mix of queries changes over the Christmas and New Year period
· The long tail grows in importance in December; consumers are searching across a broader range of queries with additional modifiers
Recommendations:
· Set up more granular Ad Groups that capture more specific requests from customers
· Test different creative strategies to convince the consumer to book ahead of the traditional booking window
· Ensure ad text has a clear call to action
Opportunities arise from drops in Ad Coverage and Ad Depth
· December offers advertisers an opportunity to acquire traffic in a less competitive auction
· Advertisers who do maintain their investment over December will be in a stronger position in January as their Quality Score will not have been negatively impacted
Recommendations:
· Focus on capturing long tail traffic
· Fully understand the value of a pre-Christmas communication with consumers who will book in the New Year
· Query volumes are indicative of interest, so to take advantage of this evaluate value propositions in copy to ensure maximum commercial return
Surfing this Summer Whitepaper June 2009
Our findings are referenced against factors we believe had some effect on people's travel related behaviour. We looked at how major sporting events, public holidays, macroeconomic conditions and weather influenced people's online travel research.
The results are interesting, highlighting opportunities where advertiser exposure to online traffic could be increased. For example the adverse weather in August and September 2008 lead to high travel query volumes throughout September, possibly because people were motivated to find some late sun. As our ad depth study shows, advertisers failed to fully capitalize on these searches. You can download the white paper here: Surfing this Summer.
Spring into Summer: April 2009 White paper.
New Year Revelations White paper December 2008
December 2008: New Year Revelations Whitepaper by Michael Wicks
Insights and opportunities from the online frontier
January is becoming increasingly important to online travel businesses and after the highest ever month in terms of online traffic last year, advertisers are gearing up for the 2009 Q1 peak. In our latest in-depth look at the search trends within the travel sector we look for opportunities for advertisers to capture a share of the Q1 market. To download the paper, please click here: New Year Revelations.
Consumers booking travel are increasingly going online in January
· 12% YoY growth
· 71% MoM growth up from 66% in previous year
· 34% growth in last week of December against previous week
· Correlation with offline spend
Recommendations:
· Modify budgets to accommodate seasonal and daily peaks
· Allocate budgets accordingly over the year, and allow flexibility during peak periods
· Align offline and online investment
Exploring Q1 activity in depth
· Impressions decline more sharply than clicks in the post Christmas period
· High traffic volume is sustained throughout Q1
· Queries rise but clicks fall pre-Christmas as consumers research their holiday purchases
Recommendations:
· Expand keyword lists to cover increasing number of unique search terms
· Keep budgets uncapped throughout Q1 – not just January – to capture the entire opportunity
· Make sure keywords cover research-led queries and that landing page content is relevant
High growth exists in value led keywords
· Customers are increasingly seeking value through their searches
· Auction intensity is increasing for value-led keywords
Recommendations:
· Include 'budget' keywords in key Q1 campaigns
· Emphasise price and value for money in ad text
· Ensure CPCs are competitive in order to show more frequently against 'budget' keywords
Shifting destination patterns: slowing demand for secondary holidays like city breaks
· Travel queries still growing at 20% YoY
· Slowing demand especially for city break and short haul destinations
· Increased demand for domestic holidays
Recommendations:
· Ensure maximum keyword coverage for high demand destinations
Consumers are increasingly engaging longer and more specific searches
· 3 to 5 worded queries growing twice as fast as shorter terms
· "Tail" category now growing fastest
Recommendations:
· Build coverage on longer, niche keywords
· Create specific ad texts tailored to niche searches
Consumers are increasingly researching and purchasing travel products online
· 70% of consumers have researched and purchased a travel product online
· Only 27% research online and purchase offline
· Only 38% of consumers do any form of research offline
Recommendations:
· Run online campaigns in conjunction with offline campaigns to reinforce message during consumer research phase
· Direct traffic to educational sections of websites