Perhaps because his background includes a stint as vice president of strategic hotel partnerships at Expedia, Rob Torres, Google’s travel industry director, is understandably excited by the fact that 2007 was the first year that more travel dollars were spent online than offline.
Yet, at the same time, he is not at all surprised that many travelers are returning to using traditional travel agents as well.
"It doesn’t surprise me because I think what is happening is more people are looking for service again, especially for complicated purchases. It’s very tough to actually transact complicated travel purchases online," Torres told Travel Trade.
Though his job at Google involves working with the largest online travel agencies and travel organizations, and tracking the most modern and nifty online technology, Torres knows that most of the advice he gives to his big clients applies also to traditional travel agencies, small, medium and Home Based.
In an exclusive interview with Travel Trade, Torres made it very clear that all travel agents, whether originally offline or online, need to combine the best of both worlds.
"It’s not one or the other anymore. Five, six years ago everyone thought it’s the death of the brick-and-mortar agent, but I think we’ve found that’s not the case," he said. "There’s a certain group of shoppers that want to transact online and then there’s still a certain group that doesn’t." He also added that even those who transact online sometimes want to transact offline.
The travel agencies that survived the lean years are here to stay, he added. But many of those agencies "have also now built an online presence because they know that people go back and forth" from online to offline and back and travel agents need to take advantage of both.
Those that haven’t yet built an online presence need to.
"If they can somehow build some sort of online presence, even if it doesn’t have booking capability, but is driving customers to their storefronts or their call centers, they’re going to have a better advantage and better chance at acquiring customers than they may have had," said Torres.
"Because although not everyone is purchasing online, they’re all reviewing online. You have to be there to play...You don’t even have to have the most exciting bells and whistles; if you’re not being found at all," you’re not even in the game.
In order to make the most of their online presence, Torres detailed several online marketing trends and needs in the retail travel industry. All can be tailored for travel sellers big or small.
Be There 24/7
"People today can shop for travel any time they want. They can wake up at three o’clock in the morning and shop for travel," Torres said.
Travel agents have to make sure that they, or rather their Web sites, are accessible at all times. Even if the Web site simply drives traffic to a retail storefront, the site must be reachable.
Part of that is making sure that your Web site shows up in search results, Torres stressed.
"The Web allows people to shop 24 hours a day and if you’ve got somebody shopping 24 hours a day, you want to make sure that you’re showing up online when they’re shopping."
Torres suggests making search engine optimization a core part of online marketing. Agents need to be "making sure they’re showing up in natural search results whenever possible."
Look at the various search engines and see what the requirements are for making sure your Web site is indexed and frequently read. Make sure Web pages are set up correctly with the best meta tags.
"Showing up in natural search results costs companies nothing," he said.
Social Online Community
The other part of being online all the time is adding a social community to your site so that people can communicate with other travelers any time they want.
"In the past, people relied on family and friends for recommendations," said Torres.
"Now, people have this alternative place to go...and more and more customers are relying on customer reviews and social media to actually make their decisions.
"They’re relying on social networks of like-minded people to find out what they like and where they should go."
Travel agents, he urged, should have a plan for incorporating social networks into their Web sites.
"Then, you are the new place for these people to go. It really helps extend what you’re doing as a travel agent."
It also builds more brand loyalty and, Torres believes, it makes traditional agents more relative in the dot-com world of today.
"If travel agents can be the online as well as offline expert on a specific region/area/product, they’re going to become more relevant."
Having a social community on your Web site allows people to begin their trip research before contacting a travel agent, a trend that all travel professionals are by now aware of. Providing a setting for pre-booking research on your Web site keeps people engaged with your business.
"You know that people are going to other sites to do that [research travel] so if you provide it on your own site, you’re actually keeping people and engaging people longer on your own site," Torres said.
Video on Your Web Site
In addition to social networking, offering travel videos is another way of both engaging potential customers on your site and allowing them to do their own research.
Torres said, "If you think about travel, it’s really experiential. What better way to actually experience travel, without being there, before you go than by video?"
"Allowing others to upload their own videos and share so customers can see the commonality (i.e. this person is just like me and look what they did) - it’s really going to become a core part of the travel marketer’s plan."
Currently, Torres said he thinks the travel industry, including travel agents, "are missing out on this video bonanza."
YouTube, he pointed out, is the sixth most visited Web site on the Internet, and MySpace’s video site is growing rapidly. Those sites are where agents’ potential clients are going.
He suggested that travel agents take a closer look at YouTube. The site, owned by Google, allows users to set up a channel whereby they can aggregate user-generated videos and decide which ones they want associated with their Web site. In this way, "you let your customers produce them [travel videos] and there’s no cost to you."
Take Advantage of the Long Tail
The long tail, in online marketing terms, refers to the thousands of small sites targeted at niche hobbies, interests and themes. And according to Torres, the long tail of Web sites do matter to online marketers.
"People are using small sites more than ever and you need to make sure that you’re paying attention to that as a marketer," he said.
"If you’re trying to acquire more customers, don’t just pay attention to the head of the tail [i.e. the large sites or search engines]. You can become more effective and sometimes more cost efficient by looking at this long tail."
What this means for travel agents is that rather than posting a profile on MySpace, an agent would be better off creating a profile on a Web site dedicated to that agent’s specialty.
For example, an agent who puts together dive vacations should create a profile on dive Web sites.
"That’s where their customers are and at the end of the day it might be more efficient and less expensive for them to be a part of the long tail than it is to be on large sites," Torres said.
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