Our experience in Spain and Europe François Derbaix Founder and CEO Toprural

1. Our experience in Spain and Europe François Derbaix Founder and CEO Toprural.com Twitter: @fderbaix - @toprural E-mail: francois@toprural.com - info@toprural.com Riga, June 9th 2010

2. Agenda • Toprural.com and the rural tourism in Spain • Toprural.com and the rural tourism in Europe • Collaboration with rural tourism associations • Bonus: 7 recommendations for online promotion http://en.toprural.com

3. Toprural birth in Spain (2000) • 50 national rural tourism websites already existing in Spain • Local and national rural tourism associations already with website • Toprural strategy and strengths: • Contents: 5.000 accommodations the 1st day online • Travellers reviews: 1st web publishing opinions in 2000 • Search engine: easy to use, many search options • ¡Web usability, web usability, web usability! • Our client (the owner) is not the king, it’s the traveller http://blog.toprural.com/...

4. Rural tourism in Spain today • 14,000 rural accommodation • 2.7M rural travellers made 7.9M overnight stays • Demand grew 0.3% in 2009 (the only touristical segment with positive growth in Spain) • 90% national travellers (Spaniards) • Offer grew 5.8% en 2009 • More competitive market, decrease in occupancy rate Source: National Spanish Statistical Institute http://blog.toprural.com/...

5. Rural traveller profile in 2009 • 50% looked for a cheaper accommodation or reduced the expenses • 30% travelled less time • They mostly reduced the expenses in activities, food & transport, maintaining the budget for the lodging • Price was the 2nd most important key decision factor • Booking time was delayed (average: 20 days before) • 92% sought accommodation online Source: Toprural survey (October 2009)

6. Rural tourism and the Internet • Internet is the main promotion channel for the rural tourism in Spain • 88% of the accommodation has its own webpage and 83% pays for online promotion • For accommodation owners, a key to succes is to benefit from online promotion channels and Social Media

7. Agenda • Toprural.com and the rural tourism in Spain • Toprural.com and the rural tourism in Europe • Collaboration with rural tourism associations • Bonus: 7 recommendations for online promotion http://en.toprural.com

8. Toprural: from Spain to 10 European countries • International expansion since 2003, to grow the company spreading out our potential market (Portugal 2003, France 2005, Italy and Belgium 2007, Germany, Austria and Netherlands 2009, …) • Positive experience: capacity to grow the international rural tourism / cross-border rural tourism • Key difficulties: • No rural tourism legislation and no official rural tourism listings in some countries (ex. France, Germany or Austria) • Complicated local Search Engine Optimization: after 5 years in france we still do not have a good positionning in google.fr – 80% of Toprural's traffic comes from Spain (we are working on that) http://blog.toprural.com/...

9. Toprural today: illustration http://blog.toprural.com/...

10. Toprural today: key figures • Private company promoting 70k rural accommodation in 10 countries • Freemium model: 55k free promotion & 15k paying promotion • 48 full time employees, from 10 countries, based in Madrid • 4.5 M€ turnover in 2009 and >1M€ net profit • 18M visits / y. (Nº 1 rural tourism website in Europe) • Richest content in rural tourism in Europe: 800k photos, 165k travelers reviews, 3k videos http://blog.toprural.com/...

11. Agenda • Toprural.com and the rural tourism in Spain • Toprural.com and the rural tourism in Europe • Collaboration with rural tourism associations • Bonus: 7 recommendations for online promotion http://en.toprural.com

12. Association & commercial websites' strengths • Associations' strengths: • Close to the owner • Knowledge of the sector • Lobby: Preferencial contact with authorities • Information and training of the newcoming owners Commercial websites' strenghts: • Close to the traveller (eg. users reviews) • Knowledge of the Internet (usability, SEO, marketing) • Flexibility in website development • Get traffic and booking volume http://blog.toprural.com/...

13. Traffic comparison between Toprural and associations Toprural.com (blue), Gites-de-france.com (red), Agriturist.it, Gitesdewallonie.be and Plattelandstoerisme.be Source: Alexa.com (May 2010) http://blog.toprural.com/...

14. Synergies associations – commercial websites Freemium model: associations can publish all their members accommodation for free. Eg.: Gîtes de Wallonie (BE), Accueil Champêtre (BE), Gîtes de France Champagne-Ardennes (FR), and many others. Volume discount: associations can negociate a discount if many members are interested in a paid promotion. Eg.: Hiruak Bat (ES), Casas Açorianas (PT), etc. Communication: associations can provide us relevant information for our blog, newsletter, Twitter or Facebook Advertising: associations can advertise their destinations or websites (eg. French Britain announced on Toprural's French homepage in Spanish) We have the same objective: promoting rural tourism. Let's work together!, with our own strengths. http://blog.toprural.com/...

15. Agenda • Toprural.com and the rural tourism in Spain • Toprural.com and the rural tourism in Europe • Collaboration with rural tourism associations • Bonus: 7 recommendations for online promotion http://en.toprural.com

16. 7 recommendations for online promotion 1. Get your own simple and standard webpage 2. Be where the traffic is 3. Participate on Facebook 4. Participate on Twitter 5. Put your accommodation on Google Maps 6. Many pictures and amateur vídeos 7. Travellers’ reviews are welcome It’s all about participating!

17. 1. Get your own simple and standard webpage • A few recommendations: • Run away from: web designers & developers • Use aCMS platform: to build it on a place where you can update it yourself (eg. Wordpress) • Ask for profesional advice: not to design it, but to use standard tools to create it • Use your own domain name: eg. you.lv in place of yourname.wordpress.com • Use a local domain: eg. yourname.lv • Link to your webpage: do it everytime you can, it's your business card

18. 2. Be where the traffic is • A few recommendations: • Be at the right place: It’s not about “having” a webpage, it's about being & participating at the right places. Be where the users are. • Users are not on associations websites: they usually have very poor websites, with very little traffic (visitors) • Let´s try it: ask for a trial promotion (Homeaway, Toprural, Rentalia, ...) • Measure the profitability of these promotions

19. 3. Participate on Facebook • A few recommendations: • Create a personal profile: for you as a person, not as a rural accommodation • Create a fb page: for your business • Promote your fb page: the travelers will be able to “like” it and recommend it • Interact: with the community, personaly (as a person) and in your business page

20. 4. Participate on Twitter • A few recommendations: • Use personal Twitter account for your person or a corporate Twitter account for your accommodation • Use Search Twitter for the keywords you’re interested in • Reply to messages of potential customers • Promote your Twitter account to gain followers • Listen, and participate in the conversation

21. 5. Put your accommodation on Google Maps • A few recommendations: • Put your business on Google Maps: http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter • Specify your Geo position on every Internet site where you promote your accommodation

22. 6. Many pictures and amateur videos • A few recommendations: • Publish on the Internet as many (nice) pictures of your accommodation as you can (unlimited pictures on Toprural, Flickr, G Maps, …) • Make an amateur video of yourself presenting your accommodation (it is important that you appear and talk on the video) • Publish your video on several websites (unlimited videos on Toprural, Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, ...)

23. 6. Many pictures and amateur videos (illustration)

24. 7. Travellers reviews are welcome • Most popular travel website include travellers reviews, with no censorship • Travellers reviews, comments and recommendations are what make your business credible • Publish your reply • Invite your customers to review your business online • Censorship = spread the bad review accross the Internet Ex. reviews on: Booking.com, Tripadvisor.com, Hotels.com, Venere.com, Toprural.com

25. 7. Travellers reviews are welcome (illustration)