using content management in travel

www.contentmanager.eu.com

Moving from Travel 1.0 to 2.0 using Content Management Solutions

Contentmanager.eu.com focus on online travel websites.


What was Travel 1.0 ?• 1st generation travel sites – moving from offline brochure to online websites.

• All about electronic brochure content, price and one way conversations.

What did Travel 1.0 achieve ?• Sophisticated online booking engines focusing on price comparison.

• Content produced for offline made available electronically online.

• Access to broader audience via the internet.

• Reduction in costs associated with traditional media outputs.

• Ability to quickly change prices and content (not possible with print).

• Additional channel to market to accompany traditional sales channels.

Travel 1.0 – the simple user experience


Travel 1.0 – the simple user experience

Why was Travel 1.0 not enough ?• Travel is about more than simple brochure content and prices.

Where has Travel 1.0 failed ?• Interaction with customer is short and based on best price and booking.

• Travel web sites have become price comparison exercises.

• Users online travel experience is poor relative to other online experiences.

• The travel experience has been reduced to one selling point.

• Price has become sole motivator for purchase behaviour.

• Price has become the only differentiator between travel web sites.

• Industry generated content is perceived as biased and suffers credibility.

• Industry generated content is often seen as out of date and manipulated.


Looking beyond Travel 1.0

How has the online traveller changed ?• Users have moved beyond brochure content & price comparison web sites.• Users are familiar with Web 2.0 Concepts – Blogs,Forum,Wiki‘s.• Users want to be creative, share information & collaborate with each other.• Customers are confident and want to be their own travel agent!

What are the ‘new’ goals of a travel web site ?• To motivate potential travellers to begin a purchasing process.• To provide travel expertise to a learning, receptive and more advanced

audience.• To meet the needs of a traveller engaged in a purchasing process (not just

the desires).• To aggregate content in a manner that provides value.• To make a decision possible 24/7 not just 9 to 5.


Travel 2.0 – the enhanced user experience

What is Travel 2.0 and what is the future ?• 2nd generation travel sites are about the user and an enhanced experience.• All about aggregated content, price and two way conversations.

What do users ‘want’ to enhance their experience ?• To be able to pre-experience a holiday or trip.• To speculate about their travel plans without sales contact.• To enjoy an asynchronous learning experience any time of the day.• Travellers love to talk about travel – they want to share their trips.• Bragging rights - to be able to be seen as a well travelled person.• Via the social network travel becomes a hobby with a network of friends.• To be presented with content that is accepted by the user as valuable info.• To read feedback from other travellers during the purchase process.• Prices for ‘products‘ that are available at point of selection.• To receive content in a variety of formats to suite their lifestyles choices.



What are the strategies for creating a Travel 2.0 website ?• Customer centric information – personalised to a user or group.• Experience centric information – verticals of expertise offered to gain credibility.• Community based information – shared user experience with social networks.• Provide users with pre-experience of a destination or location.• Embrace Web 2.0 not as a ‘thing‘ but an approach to aggregating information.

What would a typical Travel 2.0 website contain ?• Traditional (static) brochure content.• Price comparisons – vertical and horizontal.• Blogs, Wiki‘s. Forums, Social Networks – user generated content.• Personalisation delivery mechanisms – implicit and explicit.• Rich Media – movies, sound, flash, streaming video, interactive applications.• 3rd Party content connectors – independent aggregated content



What are the benefits of a combined Travel 1.0 and 2.0 approach ?

What are the business benefits to the travel industry ?• Potenitial customers less likely to source multiple websites.• Sale moves away from price centric to service centric.• Purchase behaviour can be invoked via enhanced experience.• Content created can be repacked for output to other sites.• Content become self supporting via customers.• Ownership of added content can provide further revenue opportunities.

What are the customer benefits likely to result in modified user behaviour ? • Users explore purchasing behaviour even if not in purchase mode.• Users are more likely to advise a site where their content is shown.• Users like to ‘vote‘ on an experience – content becomes inclusive.• Allows users to establish themselves as ‘peers‘ amongst a travel group.• Sites are more likely to be bookmarked and revisited if of travel value.


Using CMS solutions for Travel 1.0 and 2.0 websites

Travel 1.0 solutions facilitated by CMS • Easy WYSIWYG creation of online brochure content by non technical authors.• Workflow processes to provide approval and audit trail of content.• Easy automated creation of alternative ouput such as RSS.• Easy creation of two way tools such as Polls, Forms.

Travel 2.0 solutions facilitated by CMS• Explicit Personalisation – content based on profiles, roles, groups • Implicit Personalisation – content based on users website clicking behaviour.• Integration with booking engines – can also be personalised.• Provision of Web 2.0 components – Blogs, Wiki‘s, Forums for user generated

content• Web Services for aggregating content such as RSS, integration with booking

engines or other process applications.


Examples of travel companies using Travel 1.0 & 2.0 today

Inspirational Content + Contextual Products = Booking• By personalising content you can improve the customer experience and in turn increase the chance of conversions.


Examples of travel websites using Travel 1.0 & 2.0 today

www.wayn.com

• displays products based on your trip location from Mr & Mrs Smith

• Contextually recommends places of interest including bars, restaurants and fellow travelers reviews

• Great use of visual imagery to inspire the customer.

Personal Content + Contextual Products = Booking



www.tvtrip.com

• Select your hotel from the thousands of high quality video guides

• View in-line reviews of the hotel while watching the video

• Product Videos have been shown to increase bookings

Inspirational Video + Contextual Product = Booking



blogs.statravel.com

• Empower your customers to create blogs, videos and store images

•Provide easy, simple click sharing and subscription options

•Display unobtrusive products and price points contextually

User Generated Content + Contextual Product = Booking



Sharing Content + Contextual Product = Booking

blogs.statravel.com

• Visitor posts video to facebook to share with friends




blogs.statravel.com

• Friends view video now displaying STA Travel logo overlay

• Clicking the video takes you to the website.




blogs.statravel.com

• Post reel advert is added on the fly with live flight feeds + price



travel.travelocity.com/feeds

• Offer customers the option to subscribe to product notifications via RSS

• RSS is a global standard technology adopted by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo

• Really Simple Syndication of content and product offers

Content Syndication + Contextual Product = Booking



www.findrenewal.com

• Westin Hotel Group’s personal renewal widget delivers a tip a day

• offer bite-sized, practical tips to finding renewal at work, home, on the road, and everywhere in between

• Be Useful and avoid product based widgets

Inspirational Content + Widget = Curiosity


Conclusion

Travel 1.0 was all about travel companies moving from offline brochure to online websites.

• Resulting in one way conversations controlled by booking engines.

Travel 2.0 is all about user empowerment and content creation.

• The Web has empowered customers to become their own travel agents.

• Web2.0 technology has delivered accessible content technology to the masses

• Content applications such as blogs, wikis, forums, widgets along with review sites such as Trip Advisor, Holidays Uncovered and Holiday Critic highlight customer opinions that influence booking decisions.

• Travel communities such as Where Are You Now (WAYN), STA Travel Blogs, travelers point, Dopplr and tvtrip.com encourage and inspire curiosity.

2nd Generation travel websites will embrace both Travel 1.0 and 2.0 concepts and separate themselves from the competition accordingly.

using content management in travel

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