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2009 Survey – Online Marketing and Web Content

Executive SummaryFrommer’s Unlimited in conjunction with TravelMole surveyed 225 travel companies worldwide on online

marketing and web content priorities.

The results indicate 2010 will be another bumper growth year for online marketing spend in travel, with over half

of those surveyed indicating they plan to increase spending next year. Of that group, half plan to increase their

budgets by 11-50%.

According to respondents, engaging with social media is the biggest priority for travel marketers, followed by search

engine optimisation, and content as the next largest areas of increasing spend. Two thirds of respondents plan to

increase spending on content. We believe one possible objective is to improve search engine marketing perfor-

mance, which also reflects the fact that unique content is a priority for twice as many respondents as last year.

Among the other areas respondents ranked as growing in importance are destination content (70% this year

as compared to 20% last year) and addressing international markets with investment in multilingual content as

a priority.

IntroductionFrommer’s Unlimited undertook this survey in an effort to better understand how companies are maximizing their

online investments to yield meaningful results. With the increasing importance of the internet as a sales channel,

along with the growth in cost per click marketing and customer lead generation through natural search, there are

tremendous opportunities in the travel sector.

This second annual survey was carried out to determine trends in digital marketing and web content development

priorities. The opportunity to complete the survey was offered to a wide range of travel businesses marketing and

ecommerce managers. In addition, we partnered with TravelMole.com to solicit global responses through their

newsletters.

Who responded?There were 225 respondents to the survey across a wide range of sectors within travel, with 115 completing all

ten questions. The sectors represented a good cross section of the travel industry and included: media/publish-

ing, travel agencies, hotels & hospitality, operators/consolidators, airlines, tourist offices, rail, cruise, car rental and travel insurance.

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Results

Marketing BudgetsOnline marketing continues to be a priority for survey respondents, with 86% planning to either keep spending at

current levels or to increase budgets. The majority (54%) are increasing their online marketing budgets, with half

of those planning an increase of 11-50%.

Is your online marketing budget changing this year?

54%

15%

31% Increasing

Decreasing

Remaining the same

Increasing Remaining the same Decreasing

Social media marketing 60% 22% 4%

Search Engine Optimisation 57% 30% 5%

Content 54% 34% 4%

AdWords 39% 35% 11%

Display advertising 26% 35% 22%

Meta Search 26% 47% 6%

Of your online spending plans this year, is your spend on:

Priorities for online marketingSocial media marketing is gathering attention and budget share with 60% reporting that they plan to increase

spending this year. Search engine optimisation and content also captured increasing spend for over half of the

respondents. Display advertising and spend with meta search companies remain static again this year.

Of your online spending plans this year, is your spend on:

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66% 5%

29%

Increasing

Decreasing

Remaining the same

Budgets for online contentSpending for online content continued to track closely to online marketing budget trends this year; however, there

was a higher priority on content than online marketing. We saw an increase in the percent of respondents that

plan to increase spend on content or keep it at the same level, 95% this year compared to 90% last year. The

majority this year (66%), plan to increase spending with an increase of 11-50% being the most common in this

group. Only 5% planned to decrease their online content budget this year, compared to 10% last year.

Is your web content budget changing this year?

Cost per visitor Of those that responded to this question, 76% reported a cost per visitor across their online marketing mix of under $5 with 36% being less than $1 and 39% falling between $1 - 5.

What is your average cost per visitor across your online marketing mix? (in US dollars)

36%

40%

13%

11%

Under $1

$1 - $5

$5 - $10

Over $10

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0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Audio or podcasts

Mobile phone delivery

Video

User-generated content

Events listings

Blogs

Marketing campaign microsites

Image galleries

Product/property desc.(eg hotel desc)

Multi-lingual sites

Google or other mapping

Destination content

Unique content

Search engine optimisation

Where do you plan to spend your web content budget?

This year

Next year

Priorities for online contentOverall there seems to be a much higher interest in improving the broad range of content offered by travel sites.

Search engine optimisation continues to be a top priority for web content budgets this year, selected by over

84% of respondents, up from 67% last year. In tandem with this spending, unique content has shown a dramat-ic increase now being included in 81% of people’s plans, nearly double last year’s of just 41%.

Adding destination content was in the plans of 80% of responders, up from 57% last year, as were adding

events content up from 26% to 70%.

There is evidence that companies are looking to international markets more this year, with the number planning

to invest in multi-lingual content up from 13% to 79%.

Adding to or improving hotel and property descriptions is also up from 26% to 76% and image galleries

increased from 28% to 75%.

Mobile phone delivery, audio, and video were the lowest priorities this year, yet identified as top future initiatives.

Where do you plan to spend your web content budget?

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Multi-lingual prioritiesEnglish is the most common language currently used to reach customers (98%), with 65% targeting European

and 53% Asian language markets. About half of respondents indicated they plan to use European (49%) and

Asian (56%) languages in the future.

What languages do you use, or plan to use, to reach your customers?

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

English European

languages

Asian

languages

What languages do you use, or plan to use, to

reach your customers?

Currently use

Plan to use

Priorities when adding contentWhat are companies trying to achieve by adding content to their sites?

Top priorities have shifted this year. Attracting search traffic was the first priority for 35% of respondents, compared with 19% last year. Increasing conversions, which had the top spot last year, was the second most

popular priority. The presumption could be made that those surveyed believe that more qualified traffic to their site will help drive more customer conversions.

Building community and capturing customer data were least often selected as priorities this year, which was

consistent with last year’s survey.

What are your top 5 priorities when adding content to your website?

1st Priority 2nd priority 3rd Priority 4th Priority 5th priority

Attracting search traffic 35% 22% 29% 7% 8%

Increasing conversions 29% 32% 16% 16% 7%

Brand Building 25% 12% 21% 22% 21%

Other 23% 0% 8% 0% 69%

Targeting customer sectors 18% 29% 14% 28% 11%

Improved service and loyalty 10% 19% 23% 28% 20%

Capturing customer data 6% 14% 23% 22% 34%

Building community 5% 10% 15% 25% 44%

What are your top 5 priorities when adding content to your website?

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42%

18%

40%

Yes

No but plan to

No and don’t plan to

In house or outsourced content?Sixty percent (60%) of the respondents already outsource their content creation or plan to. This is an increase

from last year, when 52% of those surveyed currently outsourced or planned to in the future. The remaining 40%

do not outsource their content creation and plan to continue to service these needs using internal resources.

Do you currently outsource content creation?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Other

No problems

Integrating content with products

Dealing with variety of third-party content

providers

Creating content consistent with the brand

Keeping content up-to-date and accurate

When dealing with content, which of the following

problems do you experience?

Content problemsThe overwhelming issue facing our respondents again this year is keeping their content up to date. 74% of those

surveyed identified this as a problem, up from 66% last year. Creating content on brand, dealing with multiple sources, and integrating their content effectively with their products were each highlighted by a third of respon-

dents. Write-in replies highlighted problems with having unique content for SEO and translation issues.

When dealing with content, which of the following problems do you experience?

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ResearchFor a copy of last year’s survey and consumer survey, please visit frommers.biz/research

About TravelMole.comTravelMole is the oldest and largest online travel and tourism media company, serving over 400,000 travel and

tourism industry professionals and 40 million consumer globally. In addition to the highly acclaimed TravelMole

online publication, it’s five news bureaus around the world also publish VISION on Sustainable Tourism, Cruise Mole, Secret Agent, Travel Technology Digest, Hotel Resort Insider, WEEKEND destinations and various custom publications. Whether you are a consumer, travel agent, tour operator, conference and meeting planner, group

travel organiser, tourist officer, trade supplier, hotelier, travel journalist, destination marketing officer, or other travel and tourism professional you will find a wealth of relevant, useful information here on TravelMole.com. Its Hollywood based film crew produce over 1,000 shorts clips each year, published on TravelMole.TV.

About Frommer’s UnlimitedFrommer’s Unlimited is the business-to-business division of Frommer’s Travel. For more than 50 years,

Frommer’s®, a branded imprint of Wiley, has been the trusted source of useful and engaging travel

information. Frommer’s Unlimited enables businesses to create high-value propositions for their customers by

leveraging Frommer’s travel expertise, rich content resources and technical capabilities. Products and services

provided by Frommer’s Unlimited include global destination and events content, private label Websites, mobile

applications and custom publishing. Frommer’s is a registered trademark of Arthur Frommer.

For more information visit frommers.biz or contact us:

The Americas

Craig SchicklerDirector of E-Business Development

111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA

Phone: 201 748 5659 Fax: 201 748 5612

info@frommers.biz

UK, Europe & Asia Giles Longhurst

Business Development Manager

Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane

London, E1 6QL, United Kingdom

Phone: +44 (020) 7770 6072 Fax: +44 (020) 7770 6051

info@frommers.biz