'Net Features : travel

Five First-Tier Travel Affiliate Programs to Consider

Affiliate Insider : feature — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:50:00 GMT

Few Website Magazine readers will be launching their own travel related services in the coming year but as the economy continues to rebound and as consumers are becoming increasingly likely to spend their discretionary income hitting the road perhaps...(read more)

Travel Domain Auction @ Sedo

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:05:00 GMT

Domain name marketplace Sedo announced it will hold a travel and geographical domain-themed auction from March 5 to March 12, 2010. There looks to be quite a few interesting properties in the auction including Belgium.com, VisitSpain.net, Tourism.biz, and Souvenirs.net.

Travel and geo domains are some of the most valuable online properties on the market today. Sedo recently brokered some of the highest sales in 2009 in the travel/geo space, including Russia.com for $1.5 million, the second highest sale ever in its category, Fly.com (acquired by TravelZoo) for $1.6 million, Brazil.com for $500,000, and Jets.com for $375,000.

During the themed auction, Sedo is also offering some very interesting fixed-price domains, including PuertoRico.com, Sweden.com, Hotel.eu, and Morocco.com.

Sedo is still accepting travel and geo domains for this auction event. Qualifying sellers can also apply directly through their Sedo account.

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Social Media for Travel - Yondr.com

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:49:00 GMT

There is a social media site for every niche – from web design to animal lovers. Travel enthusiasts (and the Web marketers that love them, i.e. you) now have a new site to capture and share their travel experiences with the launch of Yondr which launched today.

I personally wonder whether the travel industry is ready for its own exclusive social media destination. According to industry analyst Compete however, user-generated content (UGC) will continue to influence travel planning, with two-thirds of consumers stating that UGC impacts their travel purchases. According to the study, 56% view UGC as credible, and more than 61% of Internet users say they trust and prefer consumer-generated media. Yondr hopes to fill the existing void by providing travelers with an interactive publishing platform for the travel industry. But will it?

The service launches in the 13 countries global partner Solimar International currently services throughout Africa, Asia, and South and Central America. “Travel is the ultimate industry to harness the power of online communities, and Yondr is the most comprehensive collection of travel-oriented social networking tools that we’ve ever seen,” said Chris Seek, President of Solimar International. “Yondr’s ability to go beyond 140 characters and offer ‘living, breathing’ interactive geo-tagged multimedia will significantly influence consumer decision-making and infuse new life into the travel industry. We’re eager to integrate Yondr into our international travel promotion campaigns.”

Is there really a demand for social media sites in the travel industry exclusively? “Consumer behavior is rapidly changing with the proliferation of online communities, and to date, the travel industry has not effectively leveraged or monetized this growing global trend,” said Sanjay Khurana, Yondr Co-founder and CEO. “With Yondr we aim to build a community of like-minded individuals that can share and relive their travel experiences in unique ways, while powering travel organizations with robust Web and mobile tools that more deeply engage their customers.”

KAYAK Provides Important Travel Industry Data

Mike Phillips — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:30:00 GMT

KAYAK, a travel comparison site has a wealth of data. And now it's open to anyone who wants it.

Two features, a trends page and KAYAK Travel Index provides some valuable knowledge about user travel search preferences that should come in very handy for anyone in the travel industry - bloggers, affiliates and advertisers included.

The trends page gives details into such metrics as Most Popular Destinations, Biggest Upward Trends and Biggest Downward Trends. Click on a city and a graph appears, showing search trends for that city, pulled from "hundreds of millions of searches over the past 12 months on KAYAK sites," according to the website. Some of the data includes where particular city residents are looking to go, where visitors to that city are searching from and the most searched hotels in that city. One of the nice features is that pricing data comes from actual user selections, not just airline or hotel pricing itself. You can also save the trends data in an Excel file.

The KAYAK Travel Index shows a measure of demand. The inital page shows overall demand (in terms of dollars booked) for all destinations searched, or you can enter a specific airport city name and get some more detailed data. For instance, travel searches for Chicago peaked in mid-August this year, while actual bookings seem to be highest in October of this year.

KAYAK is providing a view into their own data - this information is only across KAYAK sites including kayak.com, sidestep.com, travelpost.com and other KAYAK affiliate sites. However, it does offer good insight into overall search and travel behavior that can help travel industry insiders find the best prospects to target at the right time. Definitely worth a look.

Performance Marketing: Travel & Home

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:15:00 GMT

The U.S. economy has yet to really turn around. Whether the bottom in site or not, one thing is for certain - consumers are spending less and that isn't good news for performance marketers.

Performics released the second month’s consumer behavior findings from its “2009 Online Buyer Economic Trend Study” and the results are for all intents and purposes - depressing.

Family vacations and home improvements - two popular summer pastimes – are those industries feeling the greatest direct heat as a result of the economic downturn. According to the survey results, nearly 50 percent of respondents say they plan on spending less money than they normally do on home improvements this spring or summer. Similarly, nearly one out of five respondents cancelled summer vacation plans due to the economy. Twenty to 34 percent of consumers scaled back vacation plans since 2008 in terms of amount of money spent (33 percent decrease), number of trips being taken (32 percent decrease), length of stay (25 percent decrease), distance traveled (20 percent decrease), and number of trips involving air travel (34 percent decrease).

Should you scale back your marketing or ad spending in the home and travel areas?
While some consumers may cut back on spending, many plan to maintain their past spending levels. For example, 43 percent of consumers plan to spend the same as they normally do on home improvements. The May study also asked about the recent Mother’s Day holiday; although 40 percent of respondents spent less money on mom in 2009 than they normally do, more than half said they spent the same this year as last year.

“From a low-key Mother’s Day to cutbacks on summer travel and home improvement, it’s clear consumers continue to tighten their belts and be more selective with their spending,” notes Michael Kahn, SVP of Marketing at Performics. “Advertisers across the board, especially in highly affected segments like travel and home improvement, must acknowledge these behaviors and find creative ways to engage their consumer audience online and stay competitive.”