http://www.travolution.co.ukThe latest information from Travolution6015480915http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/07/03/2679/social-networks-not-suited-to-booking-travel-question-time-report.htmlCCPFri, 03 Jul 2009 10:05:14 +01:00 Consumers are not ready for social networking integrated with travel booking it emerged at Travolution Question Time earlier this week. While social media is being broadly used in the travel research stage an expert panel said the time was not right for the booking element. Tamara Heber-Percy, co-founder of boutique hotel specialist Mr & Mrs Smith , which has a partnership with Dopplr, said it was not at the stage of people booking. “We are looking at it with our affiliates to see what we can do but it does not seem to be the right time.” WAYN co-founder Jerome Touze said its attempts at integrating a booking facilities had not been as successful as hoped. “We have a community who are interested in where they are going next so we thought by plugging in a booking engine it would work but it was naïve because they don’t come to WAYN to http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/07/03/2680/money-should-not-be-the-driver-for-social-media-question-time-report.htmlCCPFri, 03 Jul 2009 10:05:14 +01:00 Track everything you do on social networks and don’t expect major financial return was the message from online experts earlier this week. A high-profile panel including Frommers Unlimited , Orange , Microsoft and Mr & Mrs Smith told the room to measure success on social media by more than just the return on investment. Mr&Mrs Smith co-founder Tamara Heber-Percy said it viewed its ROI as threefold – bookings, brand awareness and membership renewals. “It’s how much our new media is drawing in people who have never visited the site before and we have just started tracking membership renewals and we’re looking at re-engaging them on facebook or twitter.” Frommers Unlimited’s Joel Brandon-Bravo warned against just focusing onhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/07/03/2681/aggregation-of-networks-is-next-step-question-time-report.htmlCCPFri, 03 Jul 2009 10:05:14 +01:00 A technology that aggregates social networks and user-generated content could be the next major development online said panellists at the Travolution Question Time. Those gathered at Tuesday’s event heard that a service connecting all the social networks consumers now subscribe to is needed because of the huge spread of social media sites. Frommers Unlimited ’s Joel Brandon-Bravo said a filtering system would also need to be built in to filter out the noise. Microsoft Advertising community manager Mel Carson described the holy-grail as a technology, which would not only aggregate these new technologies but provide value to marketers and consumers by capturing the desires and conversations of everyone interacting with each other. Others said developments such as Facebook Connect pointed to the way things would go. http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/09/2622/trust-emerges-as-pan-european-constant-for-travel-sites.htmlCCPTue, 09 Jun 2009 05:41:00 +01:00 A study by Yahoo has revealed  that “trustworthiness” is the most important characteristic for a  travel web site looking to appeal to users across Europe. The survey asked 11,000 internet users in Europe’s five biggest online markets – UK, France Germany, Italy and Spain – a number of questions about travel web sites. While trustworthiness emerged as the number one across Europe, the characteristic most preferred by Brits was ‘simplicity and clarity’ whil the French went for web sites that were ‘friendly’. “Special offers and latest deals” emerged as the most desired content feature for a travel web site, followed by a price comparison tool. The lowest priority was information about carbon footprints. While evenings  are well-established as the prime time for researching travel, Brits emerged as  the most likely to be online after work during the week, with 62% doing so againshttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/06/05/2612/google-trademark-case-on-hold.htmlCCPFri, 05 Jun 2009 09:25:00 +01:00 A significant legal announcement expected this week on Google ’s appeal against losing a trademark case in France has been postponed. The advocate general of the European Court of Justice was due to deliver his opinion on the long-running Google/Louis Vuitton(LVMH) trademark dispute yesterday. However, the announcement has been postponed, with no new date set. The luxury goods manufacturer won a case in France against the search giant in 2005 for trademark  infringement after it objected to Google AdWords selling LVMH trademarked brand names. Google appealed, with the French Supreme Court referring the case on to the European Court of Justice. Lawyers for both sides presented their case to the court in March. A spokesperson for the ECJ said there were a number of possible reasons for the delay, ranging from “not having the translations ready” to the case requiring more time. The advocate ghttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/29/2584/keyword-concentration-revealed-in-flight-searches.htmlCCPFri, 29 May 2009 09:56:08 +01:00 Natural search results for flights are concentrated around specific key words, according to a study from SEM agency Greenlight . The study into how UK users of Google searched for flights found that three search terms 'Alicante flight', 'Dublin flight' and 'Malaga flight' accounted for 41%of the total volume in March. Greenlights look at the flight category analysed 3200 generic and destination-specific key words. In total, 17m searches were carried out in March using these terms. Cheapflights.co.uk was by far the most visible site, appearing on the first page of Google results in 91% of searches. The next most visible site is lastminute.com, appearing 58% of the time. The highest-ranked airline dotcom is monarch.co.uk, visible 36% of the time. Ryanair made the top ten with 19%, coming in ahead of its rival easyJet which got onto the first page 14% of the time. Coming in at 29 on the http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/29/2585/reworked-seo-study-still-has-tripadvisor-as-top-site.htmlCCPFri, 29 May 2009 09:56:08 +01:00 TripAdvisor was the most effective site in the hotel sector in terms of its natural search visibility this March, according to SEM agency Greenlight . Greenlight has changed the methodology of its study and will now provide actual search figures for the month under discussion. Previously, the monthly figures were an average based on the previous twelve months. The rethink is in response to a change in how Google makes its data available. TripAdvisor.com came up on the first page of Google results in 39% of searches in March, with tripadvisor.co.uk appearing 37% of the time. TUI Travels laterooms also featured in 37% of the searches. The leading hotel chain web sits were Marriott.com and Hilton.co.uk, although both sites were only visible on 5% of searches. The study looked at 1362 key words relating to 115 top destinations. In total, 8.2mhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/01/2497/eleven-candidates-vie-for-five-places-on-itt-board.htmlCCPFri, 01 May 2009 04:00:00 +01:00Eleven candidates are vying for five places on the Institute of Travel and Tourism's board at the next election, including a challenger for current chairman Steven Freudmann.http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/01/2492/travel-firms-urged-to-look-overseas-for-better-marketing-opportunities.htmlCCPFri, 01 May 2009 09:01:00 +01:00 Travel companies could take advantage of more favourable online marketing rates and less competition by looking overseas. Search specialist Greig Holbrook told the TTI Spring Conference that French and German consumers spend more on online travel but pay-per-click rates are lower and the online sector is less crowded.  Holbrook, director of Oban Multilingual , which specialises in multi-lingual search engine optimisation, said online marketing overseas enabled companies to spread their risk especially in tough economic times. He warned companies not to expect to be picked up by search engines by translating everything from English because different countries have their own idiosyncracies. “It’s about their behaviour in their own country and companies need to start thinking beyond Google and the way people are searching abroad.” The language of people online is also crucial http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/05/01/2490/all-inclusive-holiday-searches-jump-25.htmlCCPFri, 01 May 2009 08:19:00 +01:00 Searches for all-inclusive holidays have increased 25% year-on-year according to figures from Hitwise . According to director of research Robin Goad there were more than 5,500 variations on the term with ‘all inclusive holidays’ accounting for 25% of searches, ‘cheap all inclusive holidays’ almost 9% of searches and ‘all inclusive holidays 2009’ for 1.41%. Goad, who was speaking at the TTI Spring Conference, added that for the term ‘all-inclusive holidays’ there was a 50/50 split between the searches that ended up on a website from paid search versus organic. Across the entire travel industry in the past 12 months the percentage of paid search clicks is declining.  In March 09 paid clicks for all travel categories were 21.7% compared to 26.4% in March 08. The travel agency sector reported the biggest decline with the percentage of paid search clicks dropping from 50.2% in March 08 to 37.9% in http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/28/2477/tripadvisor-dominates-google-for-hotel-searches.htmlCCPTue, 28 Apr 2009 09:22:55 +01:00 TripAdvisor has come out significantly ahead of other Expedia Inc brands in a study about which hotel-related sites are most visible within Google UK natural search results. The study by digital media agency Greenlight Search found that 5.6 million searches were generated this March from a selection of 1,200 hotel sector key terms. The rankings are based on a site’s presence on the first page of Google for the term. TripAdvisor.co.uk was identified as the most visible website, appearing on 42% of all searches. However, the most visible site in the flights category, Cheapflights, had visibility of 100%. Six flights sites had a stronger showing in their sector than the hotel market leader. However, tripadvisor.com also did well in the hotel search rankings made the hotel seahttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/28/2478/study-reveals-impact-of-seo-from-leading-brands-on-flight-searches.htmlCCPTue, 28 Apr 2009 09:22:55 +01:00 UK-based research from Greenlight Search into the most visible sites in Google natural search has revealed a clean sweep for cheapflights.co.uk in the flights category. The study found that a selection of 3,200 generic and destination-specific key terms generated 5.5 million searches in March. The rankings are based on a site’s presence on the first page of Google for the term. Cheapflights achieved 100% visibility across all categories of key-terms – generic, domestic, short- and long-haul terms. Skyscanner.net and travelsupermarket.com achieved 80%+ visibility and comprise the top three. Lastminute.com was the most visible online agent at 59%. Dealchecker.co.uk is the only other site to be visible on more than half the 5.5m searches. By category, there were 643,000 searches for  14 prominent destinations in the UK and Irelandhttp://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/24/2464/travel-site-owners-urged-to-relax-obsession-with-conversion.htmlCCPFri, 24 Apr 2009 10:14:00 +01:00 Travel websites are failing consumers by being too focused on conversion and failing to provide simple, easy-to-find information. Delegates at the Travolution Summit were told how companies get too wrapped up in conversion figures, which according to one senior figure ‘will never be good enough.’ Nucleus managing director Peter Matthews said: “Conversion is linked to the number of visitors, so it can be misleading.” He added that companies needed to focus on reducing complexity. “It’s about relevant search results on sites not just on Google and de-complicating. Everyone is trying to intercept everyone else and the simplest things are the most beautiful things.” Other speakers criticised the industry for its me too approach and lack of innovation. Marty Carroll, director of consulting, Foviance said: “There is a copy cat mentality in the http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/24/2458/consumers-visit-20-travel-sites-before-booking-google.htmlCCPFri, 24 Apr 2009 08:54:00 +01:00 Companies worried about web conversion rates should know Google reports the average online travel consumer visits more than 20 sites over the course of a month before making an initial booking. Google senior ecommerce project manager Graham Cooke told the Travolution Summit: “Companies have been focused on acquisition and retention of customers. Conversion has been the weak link.” That appeared not to matter as the web boomed. “Everyone was growing with the rising tide,” said Cooke. But since the onset of recession: “Trying to capture indecisive customers has never been more important.” Research by Google suggests the average travel customer makes 12 online searches, visits 22 sites and takes 29 days from initial search to first transaction. Cooke recommends online retailers monitor their traffic continually – tracking the number of visitors by channel, the amount of revenue by channel, by visit and by http://www.travolution.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/21/2453/google-reveals-weakness-in-uk-travel-vertical.htmlCCPTue, 21 Apr 2009 06:00:00 +01:00 Search giant Google 's UK performance in the first three months of 2009 was better than the previous quarter, but the period-on-period improvement was not as far-reaching as in previous years. UK revenues for Q1 2009 came in at $733 million, a 7% improvement on Q4 2008, Google said in a statement last week. However, this figure represents a 9% year-on-year decline. Exchange rates have worked against Google since then, although Q1 2009's UK return was boosted by a significant gain from the expiration of a set of pound hedges that were put in place in Q3 of 2008. Google usually sees a lift in its UK revenues from travel in the first quarter of any year as it coincides with the peak booking season. Travel search spend typically slows in Q4, hence the expectation of a quarter-on-quarter improvement. However, this time Google's chief financial officer Patrick Pichette told analysts: "We did see