How not to get ‘holidazed’

“Not all those who wander are lost,” once mused The Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien. And why would they be, with the advent of technology?

Thanks to Google Maps and Uber, gone are the days of fearing disorientation and feeling obliged to follow a pre-drawn path on a paper map. Even in unfamiliar cities, we can now head off the beaten path, but easily recalibrate and get back on track. To book flights and hotels, we would previously consult brick-and-mortar travel agencies and select from a few given options. Today, we can piece together our own travel itineraries with little or no human interaction. We take digital detours across the web to shortlist the most suitable alternatives, before settling on an online purchase.

Consumers can now make dynamic, seamless and informed travel plans on PCs, laptops and mobile devices. While technology has presented an unprecedented growth opportunity for travel businesses, with digital travel sales in the Asia Pacific region worth $121 billion by the end of 2015 (according to eMarketer), the emergence of self-reliant and digitally-enabled travellers means traditional travel suppliers are bypassed and no longer privy to consumer travel preferences. Travel marketers who fail to understand online consumer behaviour and offer personalised digital options will be left ‘holidazed’, losing out on 21 per cent of potential revenue.

How can today’s travel suppliers stay relevant? Here are three considerations that can help you unravel newfound consumer complexity, re-engage consumers and ensure sales take-off.

Thanks to uniquely designed tours that replicate the wayfarer expeditions from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit , many have come to recognise the capital of New Zealand not only as the meadow-filled, moss-draped and vertiginous Middle Earth that Frodo Baggins and his companions trekked through, but also as “the place I took my own epic vacation”.

Journey before the journey Such tours rake in $27 million of tourism revenue each year, according to Tourism New Zealand’s website. Suffice to say, without an understanding of the different paths undertaken by various characters, travel suppliers would have been unable to authentically reproduce these expeditions. Similarly, in the context of digital travel, travel marketers would do well not to neglect each consumer’s online journey from awareness to purchase.

Another study, by Google, tracked 3,000 consumers who pursued product information across multiple channels, including digital travel offerings. Amazingly, all 3,000 took entirely unique paths to purchase, it found. It’s clear that travel marketers must pay attention to consumer browsing behaviour across multiple touch points and adjust advertising efforts based on the journeys undertaken by different individuals.

Mobile optimisation Mobile travel bookings are projected to rise across the world. Recently, a popular Indian travel portal conducted a survey, which revealed that 21 per cent of Indians are using mobile apps to make travel bookings. According to market reports, airlines in India sell about 170,000 seats daily on domestic flights, of which nearly 50,000 are sold by online travel agencies.

According to Criteo’s latest Travel Flash Report, in the first half of 2015, 23 per cent of online travel bookings across the world were made on a mobile device. In the Asia-Pacific region, at 27 per cent, the numbers are higher than the global average – a strong indication that this region’s future will be led by mobile.

The travel market also has one of the most discerning online audiences, with purchase decisions typically driven by extensive research across websites, applications and devices. Forty-eight per cent of consumers involve a mobile device in travel product research, says a study by Expedia Media Solutions. As such, marketers need a combined understanding of user behaviour across all devices, especially mobile.

A recent Skyscanner survey revealed that while 45 per cent of Indians prefer to make their travel booking on personal computers, increasingly more and more travellers are booking through apps via their mobile and tablet devices (27 per cent), followed by mobile web (13 per cent).

What’s most important in today’s cross-device era is the continuation of consumer engagement across all screens and channels. Plans for mobile optimisation should no longer be up in the air. Customers who can’t access your travel products through your mobile website or branded application will simply switch to a competitor with mobile-optimised assets.

Data-driven planning Having understood the importance of each consumer’s online journey from awareness to purchase, and having recognised mobile optimisation as imperative, all that’s left is scalability and personalisation.

To facilitate digital media planning and effectively engage consumers, a data-driven ad buying tool should possess two key capabilities. The first is the ability to compute an individual’s readiness to purchase and the amount he or she is likely to spend, by assessing factors such as each country’s travel seasonality, consumers’ navigation patterns across multiple devices, likely destination and pre-booking window. The second is to deliver timely and personalised ads to consumers based on the computation mentioned above, to boost online revenue at optimal costs.

In another line that encapsulates the unique journeys undertaken by individuals, JRR Tolkien said: “Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread.” There’s no better time than now to seize the opportunities presented by today’s dynamic digital travel environment. With a slew of digital and data-centric tools readily available, travel marketers need not be intimidated or befuddled by tech-savvy consumers and their complex online behaviour. We just need to shed our ‘one-track’ (or ‘one-trek’) marketing approach.

Yuko Saito is managing director of Criteo Southeast Asia, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Criteo is a performance marketing technology company.