Google's Advice to Travel Agents

In an interview with Travel Trade, Google's travel industry director - Rob Torres - gives advice to travel agents about the online business.

1) Travel agents should have both online and offline presence, even if the online one is just brochureware with a phone number.

- And you work for who? Google? You should be telling them the virtue and ease of having a website with Google Checkout.

2) 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. Like DUHH...

Torres suggests making search engine optimization a core part of online marketing.

Hallelujah!!! Amen to that, Brother!

"Showing up in natural search results costs companies nothing," he said. Yeah right. Proper SEO involves a good platform, good understanding of Google's algo, and lots and lots of time. Or you hire someone to do it. And when was the last time an SEO company said they would optimize you site for FREE? What he meant to say was that natural search results DON'T MAKE MONEY FOR GOOGLE.

3) Social Online Community

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.

I agree the OTAs needs to do that. But I am still wondering about a hotel groups own site. What can we do?

4) 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.

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."

Boost Google traffic even more! From my perspective - as I posted last year - the stuff on YouTube is mixed: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and the WTF?

As a hotelier, I would prefer to do my own vids. And am working with TVtrip.com to do just that.

5) 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.

"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.

That's really the value of OTAs to a hotel company like Millennium & Copthorne. We don't have the resources to go after all these niches and long tails. If an OTA can get that niche and speciality, then they should get the commission. Having said that, if a particular part of the long tail starts bringing in a good chunk of the business, then we - as a hotelier - should go after that chunk ourselves.....