Mobile tech to take lion’s share of travel firm spend, finds TTE research

Posted on 3 January, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

By Travolution

Mobile technology will take the lion’s share of expenditure by travel companies this year, according to research for Travolution by Travel Technology Europe.

Mobile accounted for 72% of additional technology spend expected in 2014, followed by social media at 44% and reservations systems at 34%.

Likewise, mobile apps/websites are seen as the biggest trend (42%) for technology companies in the travel sector this year.

The study also found that more than 80% of respondents plan to spend more on technology in 2014.

Travel Technology Europe event manager Sarina Patel said: “2014 is set to be a year of investment in technology. The overwhelming response that 83% of Travel Technology Europe’s survey respondents expect their customers to spend more on new technology in 2014 is simply staggering.

“Almost three quarters (72%) of this expenditure is expected to be around mobile technology, compared to just 34% into features like reservations systems.

“Interestingly, not only is the travel technology world gearing up for the year of mobile, it is planning the relevant investments to deliver what is expected to be a real step change.

“We’re looking forward to hearing how our exhibitors and attendees convert this optimism into commercial success during the event.

“At the 2014 edition of Travel Technology Europe we will have a number of sessions dedicated to the mobile minefield with platforms for buyers, developers and innovators to shape the ideas that will change how mobile technology is embraced within the travel sector. It promises to be an exciting occasion.”

The full research findings:

1. On what technological areas do you expect travel firms to spend more on in 2014?

Mobile – 72%
Social – 44%
Reservation Systems – 34%
Customer Relationship Management – 43%
Call/Contact Centre – 12%
Front end websites – 38%
Payments – 21%
Accountancy/back end systems – 12%
Supplier (API) connectivity – 31%
Analytics/Business Intelligence – 48%

2. Of the following what do you think will be the biggest trend for technology firms in 2014?

Cloud computing – 12%
Personalisation engines – 12%
Mobile apps/websites – 42%
Targeted/behavioural marketing 8%
Search Engine Marketing – 5%
Social Media Marketing – 5%
Big Data – 16%

3. What’s the biggest challenge buyers of technology in travel are looking to overcome?

Systems integration – 32%
Legacy Systems – 15%
Costs/Lack of Resources – 18%
Follow-up Support – 11%
Speed to Market – 10%
Proliferation of Channels – 11%
Proliferation of Devices – 5%

4. Overall are your customers planning to spend more or less on bringing in new technology in 2014?

More – 83%
Less – 17%

5. What is the most common mistake travel technology buyers make when choosing technology?

Requirements are badly specified – 39%
Unrealistic delivery and post-sale expectations – 39% Inadequate in-house expertise/support – 22%

Facebook targets travel as ‘super user’ study finds holiday posts dominate

Posted on 29 November, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Facebook targets travel as ‘super user’ study finds holiday posts dominate

By Travolution

A European study of Facebook’s heaviest users has found travel is the biggest vertical on the social network, equating to more than double the next biggest category.

Facebook carried out a qualitative study of 16 ‘super-users’ in the UK and Germany and a quantitative study of 3,000 regular users who have been on holiday in the last 12 months.

The firm says the activities of its top 20% of users are indicative of where mainstream users are heading next.

The research found that 42% of stories on timelines are travel-related, while 51% of users in the survey put posts about ‘holidays’ as one of their top three types, above music, food, pets, babies and weddings.

Other findings of the Facebook user survey included:

83% say they enjoy looking at photos of friends’ and family’s holidays, even when they’re not considering going on holiday
52% said when using Facebook they’d started dreaming about a holiday even when they didn’t have one planned
97% of those who go online while abroad for information use Facebook
91% of them use Facebook at least every couple of days while they’re on vacation
99% do something on Facebook when they get back from a vacation
32% of these users do so before they even get home from the airport

Tracy Yaverbaun, group director of retail, travel, luxury and fashion, said the insight had confirmed what Facebook already perceived to be the case regarding its importance for the travel sector.

“We want to build specialisms in certain industries to give value back to marketers using the platform. In the UK we did not really have a travel category until this year.

“What was happening was we were seeing much more engagement from our users that were talking about and sharing their experiences of travel.

“It’s the most shared topic. We have seen a lot of travel companies, whether it’s OTAs or tourist boards, reaching out to us.

“So we decided to redouble our efforts and put some thought into how we approach travel and we wanted to back this up with third party measurement.”

Yaverbaun said travel firms which are using Facebook with a clear end goal in mind, whether it was driving own customer acquisitions costs or finding more customers, were seeing strong results.

The report on the study highlighted Secret Escapes’ work to develop new markets using Custom Audiences, and Hotel Tonight targeting new customers for their last-minute booking app.

The former saw an 85% increase in Click Through Rate and a 20% decrease in Cost Per Click compared to desktop campaigns, while the latter had a ten times increase in click-to-install rate compared to standard mobile banner ads.

British Airways also used Facebook for its Home Advantage London Olympics advertising campaign, reaching 12.8 million people overall of which 5.8 million were reached by Facebook.

As well as Custom Audiences, Facebook has started offering Lookalike Audiences which matches firms’ existing customer profiles to users of the social network and targets them.

Andy Pang, Facebook measurement solutions group lead, said the network was most interested in driving insight from its growth markets in northern Europe.

“We know marketers talk about the five stages of travel, but we were very keen to find out how Facebook was the influencer within those five stages.

“With marketing budgets being relatively tight finding the most effective platform is a key consideration among most marketers.”

Pang said the study uncovered some interesting early examples of users in Europe starting to use Facebook’s new Graph Search functionality despite it not being fully rolled out yet.

There was also evidence that travellers use Facebook as a storage device for their holiday content like pictures.

One respondent had last their camera while abroad but because they had auto upload on Facebook they had not lost their photographs.

Pang added a number of respondents talked about Facebook as being a useful time saver because they could log in once and get access to all their applications without the need for multiple passwords.

Yaverbaun said this single view of the user was helping marketers understand how customers move across multiple devices.

“A lot of advertisers are starting to see great results from doing the right things on the platform. A lot of people are not clear about why they want to be on Facebook.

“A lot know they have to be doing something because they see others doing it, but the challenge is to show them why.

“The first things our teams ask them is what is their objective, what is the outcome they are after. A lot of firms, particularly OTAs will not invest in something until they are sure it has some sort of return for them.”

Facebook survey shows influence of travel posts

Posted on 22 November, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Facebook survey shows influence of travel posts

By Kate Rice

Travel is one of the biggest verticals on Facebook, according to a study the company conducted in Europe, with a little more than half of survey respondents listing holidays as one of the top three posts they see on Facebook.

Vacation-related posts comes above nights out, music, food, pets, babies and weddings, according to the study.

The study polled more than 3,000 Facebook users in the U.K., Germany and Scandanavia, but Lee McCabe, head of travel for Facebook, said the company would conduct a similar study in the U.S., and he said he expected the results to be similar.

McCabe said that because travel is so ubiquitous on Facebook, it’s an ideal place for travel businesses to inspire people.

“Just viewing someone’s vacation photos on Facebook is a huge influence to kick your friend into the dreaming state,” he said.

McCabe said travel marketers could use Custom Audience, a Facebook tool businesses can use to find their customers in their database on Facebook and target them with relevant ads. For example, an airline could use a database of emails of passengers who have flown to Hawaii in the past to reach that same group on Facebook and show them an ad on Facebook for a discounted rate to Hawaii.

Eighty-four percent of Facebook users in the survey said that their friends’ and families’ holidays inspire them; 65% say that without Facebook they wouldn’t know where their families have been on vacation.

Eighty-three percent said that they liked looking at photos of their friends’ and families’ vacations, even if they were not actively considering a vacation. Fifty-two percent said that when they’re on Facebook they start dreaming about a vacation, even though they don’t have one on the horizon.

And 47% said that when using Facebook they’ve scrolled through albums to find out more about a destination; 58% said that the experiences of friends and family at a destination have encouraged them to visit a place they hadn’t previously considered.

According to the study, 95% of respondents used Facebook during the booking process: They used Facebook to share links to booking sites, to contact those going with them or to post about their plans.

During the vacation, 91% said they went on Facebook at least every couple days. And when they return from vacation, Facebook is the place where 99% of respondents post something on Facebook about their vacation after they return; 32% post even before they get home from the airport.