A few months ago Brand Republic spoke to Matthew Walls, head of Marketing at Expedia.co.uk about the use of digital techniques and direct marketing strategies.
According to the article "In mid-January, statistics from online research service Hitwise revealed that Expedia.co.uk lost top spot to Thomson Holidays in terms of the number of weekly website hits achieved. With the online travel industry expected to be worth more than £33bn by 2011, according to figures from Euromonitor International, the stakes, and the rewards on offer, can only get higher." This certainly proves that the tourism and travel market is a booming business that's worth investment and expansion, specifically within the Caribbean market. However, what is the best way to attract the online marketplace to your site?
Walls claims direct marketing.
But, is direct marketing the way forward? Well, It certainly lets you understand your customer so much more. What services and travel spots they've searched in the past, their income, their age etc etc. - all crucial aspects of forming a basic marketing strategy. However unfortunately for Walls, he started off as a creative marketer, and now, he spends most of his time reading figures on his potential clients. A necessary evil.
The key is to create an experience for the user to keep them on your site to allow you to collect data. What are they searching? What are they NOT searching? Hotels.com has been integrated with Microsoft mapping technology, which provides detailed street-level information to add graphical and visual elements to people's searches. The aim is not, as Walls explains, to second-guess customers' requirements, but to enhance specific searches.
For the full article check out the following link -
http://www.brandrepublic.com/InDepth/Features/781729/Expedia-embraces-new-generation-digital-DM-techniques/
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