5 HOT STORIES NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK
This week’s top stories: 1. Website content 2. Scotland vote 3. Thomson TV ads 4. Egypt praises FCO 5. Blastland joins OTA
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Agents’ website content ‘must improve’ to keep online share Lee Hayhurst
A study into online booking has highlighted how information on agents’ websites is vital if they are to continue to hold their own against web retailers. The Expedia study reported that
traditional agents such as Thomas Cook, Thomson and The Co-operative Travel attracted 27% of British holidaymakers’ website visits, just behind online travel agents’ share of 28%. The report found Britons have a
voracious appetite for travel content, visiting 35 travel-related sites in the five weeks before booking. It suggested this showed the importance of quality content – for example, product information, photos, videos, blogs, user- generated content – to secure bookings. Expedia’s ‘The Traveller’s Path to
Purchase’ report studied the activity of bookers on the 10 biggest UK travel sites. Delegates at next week’s Abta
Travel Convention will hear an expert panel debate the value of content for attracting potential customers at a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast. The session comes after Thomas Cook
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travelweekly.co.uk — 18 September 2014
head of digital John Straw declared at this year’s ITT conference: “We are rubbish when it comes to content relating to travel in all our collective websites.” Among the speakers lined up is Sarah McDonald, former Google head of travel and now marketing chief for online video production community Wooshii. She said: “In my last year at Google
all anyone wanted to know about was content strategy – knowing they have to supply more and better content to sell a high value holiday. “You need to constantly refresh
content and address key customer questions they might ask a retail consultant, like is a hotel suitable for my two-year-old, do people like me go there, is the nightlife wild?” The Travel Convention comes as Abta
research showed it continues to be the most-recognised industry body in the UK, with awareness rising the most among younger holidaymakers. Market research firm Arkenford found
public recognition of Abta had risen by one percentage point on last year to 75%, with recognition among 16 to 24-year-olds up from 38% to 41%.
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