1 / 25

Internet: Friend or Foe?

Internet: Friend or Foe?. Neville Bhada Southeast Tourism Society May 15, 2008. WEB. Over 50% of travel is now booked on the Internet. Internet: #1 Source of travel planning and purchasing.

hollyi
Download Presentation

Internet: Friend or Foe?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Internet: Friend or Foe? Neville Bhada Southeast Tourism Society May 15, 2008

  2. WEB Over 50% of travel is now booked on the Internet

  3. Internet: #1 Source of travel planning and purchasing • Consumers are using the Internet in record numbers for travel planning but that doesn’t mean they like the process • Forrester Research predicts that travel will remain the number one online retail category and grow to $119 billion by 2010. Source: Randall Travel Marketing

  4. Where do travelers turn for accurate information for summer travel planning? • 52% - online travel agency • 45% - family or friend recommendation • 25% - travel guide books • 19% - travel community sites • 19% - magazines and newspapers • 17% - traditional travel agents • 16% - convention and visitor bureaus Source: Randall Travel Marketing

  5. Pros & Cons of the Web • + Affordable • + Creative • - Segmented • - Dismal click throughs • Overall 0.2% • Yahoo 0.27% • Facebook 0.04%

  6. Podcasting • What the heck is it??? • It’s here….. Get used to it • Low penetration • Segmented • gapodcastnetwork.com • podstrike.com

  7. Blogs • Web log = Blog • Low readership • Segmented • blogger.com • wordpress.com

  8. Social Networking • MySpace • Friendster • FaceBook • LinkedIn • FlickR • Twitter • BlackPlanet • Xanga • Plaxo

  9. RSS • Real Simple Syndication • Create an RSS feed of your press releases. • RSS is the next iteration of the traditional blast fax or e-mail.

  10. Increase Your Web Ranking • Your web ranking is determined by: • The Number of Sites that link to yours • Text/Keywords in the body of your pages • Title Tags • “Alt” Tags

  11. Increase Your Web Ranking • Be aware of text embedded in an image • Keywords in the backend are not the factor they once were • Search Engine Optimization Southeast Tourism Society

  12. Your URL – Does it make a difference? • Choose Carefully • International Events or Events.com • Sub domains: • SoutheastTourism.org/top20/index.html • Top20.SoutheastTourism.org • Vanity URLs: • ILoveEvents.com • LetItOut.com = Kleenex.com • Be Patient

  13. Sponsored Links

  14. Sponsored Links • Effective • You determine the cost • You set the limit on how much you're willing to spend each day. • You specify how much you're willing to pay per click or per impression. • For example, if you set a maximum bid of 35 cents for the word stapler, and the next highest bid is 23 cents, Google gives your ad priority among the sponsored links it serves up when somebody searches for stapler. If you bid less than the highest bid, Google still lets you play, it just doesn’t show your ad as often as other people’s.

  15. Web site - Make your site ineffective • Add too much text • Include bad navigation • Increase loading time • Add too many bells & whistles • Make the page too crowded

  16. Web Site - Things to Remember • Negative (white) space is a good thing • Favorite colors don’t always work on a site • Elements that work on some sites may not work on yours • “Less is More”

  17. Electronic Press Kit • Contact information • Image Library • Bios of key personnel • Product/Service information • MP3 audio files, RSS, Podcasts • exploreasheville.com • visitjacksonville.com • visitportland.com

  18. LOW HANGING FRUIT • Southeast Tourism Society Top 20 Events • Southeasttourism.org/top_20_events.html • Southern Festivals • Southfest.com • Soul of the South • Soulofthesouth.com • State travel newsletters

  19. Tripadvisor.com • User Generated Content (UGC) • 10 million travel reviews • 25 million visitors each month • 70% of those booking a hotel read User Generated Content like that provided by Trip Advisor

  20. WIRE SERVICES • WhereToGoNext.com • TravelNewsFast.com • SouthernTravelNews.com • Hospitality1st.com • TravelAdvanceNews.com • Businesswire.com • PRNewsWire.com • PRLeap.com

  21. Tips to increase your productivity • Don’t need WWW • Don’t need a .com on the popular sites • To minimize search time, add a Quote mark (“) before your search term • Hire a college kid • Don’t sweat the small stuff

  22. Thank you…… Neville Bhada Southeast Tourism Society 404.364.9847 neville@southeasttourism.org

More Related