Even if airfares are getting pricy once more, talk is still cheap ”“ and a local travel market researcher notes a sharp increase in the amount of talk about travel, online anyway.
In a new report, Sherman-based PhoCusWright tracked a 34 percent jump in monthly visitors to travel websites that include social media tools for sojourners to compare notes on the destinations they have visited.
That of course, is a far faster rate of increase than that experienced by the overall travel industry itself, reflecting both the increase in social media aficionados as well as the media”™s particular value in travel, where new destinations offer both promise and peril.
Among PhoCusWright”™s other findings, the company determined that Facebook members who are steered to travel sites are far more likely to book a trip than those that arrive via Google, Yahoo, Bing or other search engines. And online travel agency websites that book reservations accounted for nearly three in four travel reviews posted online, easily overtaking travel review sites like TripAdvisor. That company has responded with its own social media tools, including a “Trip Friends” application designed in conjunction with Facebook to increase the interactivity of its website.
”˜Chaos Calls”™
The dizzying proliferation of social media platforms is expected to dominate PhoCusWright”™s “Chaos Calls: Navigating the New” conference scheduled for Nov. 16-18 in Phoenix ”“ including Facebook”™s Open Graph application that allows web developers to integrate their sites with Facebook.
The conference”™s keynote speakers include Steve Hafner, CEO of Norwalk-based Kayak.com Inc., and Jeff Boyd, CEO of Norwalk-based Priceline.com Inc., which has steadily increased revenue throughout the recession in part due to road warriors turning to its websites to find the cheapest bookings in a bid to save on unavoidable travel ”“ or deals too good to pass up.
While Priceline has a presence on Facebook and Twitter, its busy home page does not feature obvious links to the social media sites.
That is not the case with Kayak, whose comparatively streamlined home page has easy-to-find links for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and an application download for Apple Inc.”™s iPhone.
”˜Coopetition”™
At the same time, travel websites are having to work harder to ensure that “rich media” offerings on their own websites turn up on Google searches and others. Kayak now faces the daunting prospect of enhanced search capabilities on Google, after the latter company acquired ITA Software this month for $700 million.
“Do not expect another Kayak look-alike ”“ they claim to be building something that the industry has never seen before,” stated Carroll Rheem, director of research at PhoCusWright, in an analysis of how Google”™s travel search capabilities might evolve with ITA in hand. “Would brands like Kayak still want to work with ITA now that it is owned by their gargantuan competitor? (It) does not seem likely, but there are not many great alternatives yet, so ”˜coopetition”™ may be the route they choose.”
For its part, PhoCusWright maintains a “PhoCusWright Connect” page that spells out the varying ways its customers and colleagues can use a range of tools to discuss topics covered by the company ”“ including the comparatively ancient tool of blogs. In a bid to increase the visibility of its own conference in November, PhoCusWright is offering a discount admission of $500 to travel industry bloggers, a fraction of the regular admission price ”“ and promising a link to their blog pages and Twitter accounts.
