Travelers View a Lot of Content
Expedia’s most recent travel market report is a treasure trove of insights for travel startups, travel agency owners, tour operators, hotels, car rental companies and destination marketing companies.
One area highlighted in the survey that’s relevant to your business is the sheer amount of time taken and content viewed before they made a decision on their next trip. The study found travelers view up to 277 web pages and spend 300 minutes in the 45 days before the departure date.
They begin light reading in the trip planning project at just 2.5 pages per day progressing to 25 web pages per day on the day of purchase. Those pageviews encompass websites of travel blogs, review sites, online travel agencies (OTAs) to airline websites, hotel websites, and meta-travel websites.
The Mind Travels First: Shoppers Enjoy the Journey
While some believe this frenzy of activity reflects frustration with their search or silly dreaming, it actually tells us how travelers explore and make decisions. Even Google referred to the activity as travel snacking. But this search activity is likely just the process of them trying to figure out the kind of trip they want and then assembling a trip. And whether they’re vague in their dream or looking for something very specific in destination, amenities, attractions, events and costs, this online travel search for them is an adventure.
Part of the love of travel is savoring the act of travel shopping which is not just reading descriptions and click buttons.
Whatever this process might be called, it’s a chance for them to explore their feelings about any or all aspects of an envisioned trip. Because as they say “the mind travels first.” And today, that travel imagination is fed by photos, videos, blogs, news stories, and opinions of friends and family. The variety and volume of travel content available is astounding and continually expanding.
Those travel companies that tailor content to this adventure information quest, can access them multiple times. This raises the likelihood of them finding your site, loving your brand, and choosing your travel company and trip/tour packages.
One of the most important insights not provided is the search behavior for each type of traveler and for each type of trip. It’s apparent that the more complex the trip, the more pre-trip research is conducted. The process for each age demographic might be unique.
When designing your content travel strategy, topics and helpfulness, it’s vital to fill gaps in their search process and make it as fluid as possible. And at each step or content piece (content touchpoints), educate the traveler about the benefits of using a travel agent or advisor. The more times this is repeated, the more likely they are to finally absorb that message.
Travel Search Habits
The Expedia survey called The Path To Purchase: Uncovering how Travelers Plan found that when starting with an OTA, most travelers (89%) then go to another travel website, such as an airline, hotel, or meta-travel website. Those that start with the travel website alternative are then are most likely to head back to an OTA (24%).
Similarly, with the complexity of putting together a great trip so high, they may turn to a travel advisor at any point of time even while visiting Expedia, Travelocity, or other major travel shopping platforms.
Not that OTAs are relying on this frustration, and providing ways to simplify the process in their system to make it easy for the traveler to choose them.
“Nearly 3 in 5 travelers did not have a specific destination in mind or considered multiple destinations when they first decided to take a trip” — from the Expedia report.
It is likely that the average traveler isn’t fully aware of a travel agency or a travel advisor/planner. When they do find one, they might bounce off the site because the value proposition doesn’t seem to match what they need. And part of that may be that is the expanded variety of trips/itineraries/products now. Ten years ago travelers only viewed 73 pages before their trip and in 2023, that number increased to 141 pages in the 45 days before the trip.
Their trip research goes something like this:
- started thinking about a trip to booking — is 71 days
- begins with the 33 day trip inspiration phase
- enters the 38 day trip research and planning phase
- and the final phase between booking and departure of 73 days on average
Travelers may surf to their favorite OTA or begin with a search engine. It’s almost certain they will use Google at some point, particularly with the popularity of Google flights and the Gemini AI search tool to use AI to find flights.
The Final Insight: A Long Process with Multiple Opportunities for Reaching Them
Expedia’s survey revealed more about travelers’ research and booking habits. However, the value of this for you and your travel business is that there is an extensive time period to reach them during their research.
You’ll want to craft creative content experiences built for your specific prospects and optimize it for Google rankings, with the visuals and promotional graphics to make it effective on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin and Twitter.
Consider hiring a travel marketing specialist to help you perfect your content to match their travel intent.
Call Gord at 416 998 6246 to discuss your plan to grow.
