Opportunities for the Travel Sector Online

The area of social media and online is certainly hotly contended for the travel sector. It is where the most opportunities lie, to create enticing campaigns and trial new technologies, and it is also the space where we consistently see innovation and smart marketing.

Google’s changes to search results

Google first stirred up a bit of a storm in the travel sector last week, when they announced a trial of hotel price listings in Google Maps. As the image below shows, Google brought up text results to the left of the map, that showed a dropdown of hotel price listings.



So why did this create quite a furore? Because the text results are based on an advertiser’s prices in PPC ads. Anyone that has ever worked in the online travel sector will know that hotels and travel agencies have an aggressive SEO strategy – being number 1 in Google  is a hallowed ground that is fought tooth and nail. So what this potentially means is that while you may have successfully fought your way to the number 1 spot, that could quickly be irrelevant if the hotel in position 3 has a PPC ad that advertises a cheaper rate hotel. This price could show up in their search result and take potential traffic (and conversions) away from you. And it’s now evident that this search strategy is unlikely to be confined to maps, as this article discusses a controlled test rollout in Canada, incorporating this into the main  organic search pages.

From a consumer point of view, this is an excellent move by Google. As they are also going to allow you to search by available date, it has made searching for a hotel room that little bit easier – entire trips can theoretically be planned out without ever having to leave your first search destination – Google. Interestingly though, it makes the consumer journey much less about interaction, community and social engagement, and brings it back completely to price. Just how much loyalty will play out when you can see a cheaper hotel just a few places down in Google, will be interesting. And what this does for Google’s PPC revenue, will of course be even more interesting. Prioritising a consumer experience at the expense of paying advertisers is certainly a very ‘Google’ move.

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Source - Simply Zesty

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