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Online Travellers 
Online Travellers
The internet is the world's greatest travel
portal. Customers now surf the globe from home in search of the perfect
holiday and hospitality providers have to work hard to match their
expectations online.
The proliferation of web based travel
portals, combined with easy access to online photos and video clips
means travellers can now pay a virtual visit to their planned holiday
destination before they ever leave the house. Beach view wallpapers
decorate computer screens in offices and homes around the world and
destination websites receive millions of hits every day. The internet
has become an essential tool when comes to planning holidays or business
trips with most people now booking flights, hotels, hire cars, even
restaurants online. This has had a profound effect on the marketing
strategies and even the service concepts offered by many hospitality
based businesses.
Trip Advisor® is perhaps one of the most
significant additions to the international travel landscape in the last
10 years and for selected groups of connected friends, Twitter® is also
becoming a personalised guide to the globe. A few years ago, very few
hotels or holiday homes would have considered starting their own
Facebook® page or You Tube® channel, but today's traveller relies
increasingly rely on video and social media when making accommodation
choices, so marketing departments have no choice but to keep pace.
So
how do people actually use these travel sites and online media portals?
Do they believe every recommendation they read? Will they book for two
weeks based on a nice photo? Research suggests the process is generally
much more involved with people using a combination of online resources
to make their choices, collecting valuable snippets along the way and
balancing opinion with facts. Marc Ribail is Chief Operating Officer at
Samui Villas and Homes, a highly successful private villa management and
rental firm based in Koh Samui,Thailand. He believes that today's
travellers research their destination and accommodation choices
thoroughly, especially at the high end of the market. "Details are
important with so much information available online," he said. "The web
gives people the freedom to tick all the boxes. By looking online at our
photos and video clips, potential guests can check whether the villa is
child friendly, they can see the ocean views from every room and even
confirm the length of the swimming pool. This not only helps them choose
the right property, it also helps us because most guests know what to
expect in advance of their arrival."
Of course, visuals are
not always the acid test when it comes to travel. As anyone who's
ordered from a fast food restaurant will tell you, the photos on the
menu rarely match the food on the plate. With web designers now skilled
in image manipulation, a picture can hide a thousand unwritten words.
But then there's always text and word of mouth. The internet is awash
with comprehensive descriptions, personal recommendations, holiday snaps
and video records, the only problem being that on balance they tend to
cancel each other out. A cursory glance through the average Trip
Advisor® list often leaves you torn between booking immediately and
writing a letter of complaint in advance, and with a world of eclectic
tastes to consider, one man's palace may be another man's dungeon.
Just
like the search engines, clever web marketing professionals now monitor
user activity in order to match visitors' expectations. Armed with the
knowledge that travellers want valuable information, honesty, and images
that actually tell them something, they increasingly focus on detail,
using the web to offer an informative overview of their products and
services. "If you offer quality, there's nothing to hide," continued
Ribail. "The web lays your cards on the table and if you try to deceive
people, you'll be found out for sure."
Source: http://www.samuivillasandhomes.com/news/news_520.html
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