Do you deal with the British, US or and Canadian markets? You may be surprised to learn that there are both subtle and distinct differences in how people research and book travel in these markets.
In a recent study, Expedia Media Solutions researched just how different the markets are and some key points emerged. Here are high level observations.
- Even though mobile searches have grown in all three markets, Canada shows the least growth. Why is this? The answer may be because of the more complex planning and expense required for long haul travel. The key bit of information here is that in both the UK and America, mobile growth for online content consumption out paced desktop, but in Canada desktop is still ahead. In all cases, content is being sought across multiple devices, so digital design and communication must be geared to flow across the channels.
- Brits spend more minutes engaging with travel content on desktop, while Americans do the reverse. Canadians engage more on desktop and have the largest margin between channels, while the other two countries show mobile is continuing to rise. This suggests that you can target richer content to the UK and Canadian markets but create timely offers and less detail for the US.
- If you are considering getting a mobile app, it’s a good idea, but browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer) are still the most popular way to access information across all devices. The US shows the highest use of apps of the three on mobile. Tablet users also prefer browsers by a large percentage.
- It maybe no great shock to learn that online visits to travel sites increases rapidly between the period when people first think of travelling and the time they actually book. But where do they for inspiration? Search engines ares still the most popular, so SEO for many business websites is a key factor early on.
- The share shifts when people start to narrow their choices. Search engines ares still important but friends and family drop. Searches on OTA, airline and hotel sites rise as people start to compare options. This shows that the closer to booking, people are looking at details like how to get there and what it will cost.
- What about social media? The graphic below shows that only 11 per cent of online bookers use social media and only at the early stages of the purchase path. Social media is important, but small businesses should be strategic in use. From this graph it suggests that content should be geared to inspiration and deals. Interestingly, people read articles and blogs longer into the purchase cycle suggesting that deeper information is important. A tactic may be to link your social media communication piece to your blog for more info and build a remarketing campaign from this.
- At the start of a search for travel information, how locked in is the destination?Brits and Canadians are quite a bit more likely to be considering two or more destinations than Americans. In fact, 65 per cent of American travel shoppers are only considering one destination while less than 50% each of Canadians and Brits have one place in mind.
- What destinations do most people investigate? Once again there are marked differences in choices. Canadians are research Europe, Latin America and Asia most while Americans check out their own country most, followed by Europe and then Latin America. Brits look close in as well. Fully 61 per cent of destination research is for Europe, followed by Asia and Latin America. Note that Africa outpaces Canada, Australia and New Zealand (except for Canada by Canadians) in all three countries, suggesting opportunities for product development or more robust advertising efforts to gain market share.
- How does advertising play into travel destination choice? The effectiveness of advertising on people considering two or more destinations varies from a low of 27 per cent of Americans to 38 per cent for Canadians. So, according to the study, roughly one third of shoppers can be influenced by advertising.
- The most influential time to advertise appears to be earlier on in the process. What needs to learned now though is what kind of advertising is the most influential. Given that OTA’s are searched consistently along the path to purchase, cost is probably a key factor in decision making. So it may be very worthwhile to offer price point or sale pricing or coupon information if your product is a deciding component of a trip. A good offer or package price might be the trigger to click on an ad. Build a remarketing campaign that strategically follows your prospects and lead them to an online booking event. This is exactly the kind of process matching perfectly with Adventure Engine. Plan your landing page and the structure of the offer with the call to action and start to influence the path to purchase in your favour. Be there. Make it easy.
