Detailed results of a global survey asking online travel consumers what they want from online travel sites before, during and after booking a holiday are now available for download at www.frommers.biz/contentsurvey.
The results show that consumers are still primarily influenced by price when deciding on a holiday. However, they also have additional information needs that change at each stage of the booking cycle. At the planning stage, images of the accommodation and a written description of the destination proved to be the most important factor in the process, closely followed by a information on activities and events and maps. At the time of booking, three pieces of information ranked as almost equally crucial, with airport and transportation information on par with pictures of the room and a guide to the city or resort. Finally post-booking, a map of the destination was ranked as the most essential item of online content, with travel, weather, events and activities information and local dining also ranked as important.
Half of all travellers have struggled with poorly constructed, confusing and inaccurate websites that don’t provide them with sufficient images and information. The survey also showed that consumers were frustrated by out-of-date information, hidden fees and misleading descriptions, as well as technology-related issues such as slow downloads and broken links.
When planning a holiday, Americans found information about the weather to be more important that Europeans.
Joel Brandon Bravo general manager of Frommer’s Unlimited said: “People are booking closer to departure than ever before. This research will help travel providers to understand exactly what content and tools they need to use to influence consumers in a very fast-changing market.”
Dominic Bean head of business development for eDigitalResearch which is launching an online travel benchmarking study this summer said: “we were concerned but not surprised by the dissatisfaction shown by travelers’ experiences online. We regularly research and report on the consumer experience of using major high street retailers’ websites and have seen online standards in general retailing transform in the past two years. It appears that travel has a long way to go to match these levels of online service.”
The research queried more than 1,200 people and was carried out for Frommer’s® Unlimited, the business-to-business division of Frommer’s, a branded imprint of Wiley, by web usage specialists eDigitalResearch. Top line results from the global survey were first released at the PhocusWright Travolution conference in London this year.
