2008 The Year Of Niche Travel

I have good news and bad          made for mass consumption of       news. Let’s start with the      uniform goods. They have yet to    bad news, so this article       switch to an era of individual     can proceed in the positive           consumption of unique goods.”      manner readers will have become       Jeffrey goes on to say that        accustomed to: Travel bookings        holidays should not be designed    are down in the USA, both online      through some kind of               and offline for 2007. Now, the        one-size-fits-all brief.           flip side: travel expenditure is      Increasingly people want the       on the up. Usually one would          personalisation that offline       expect these two figures to move      travel agencies are often better   in largely the same direction,        at providing.                      but as there is a drop in the                                            number of people buying, the          To me, from an online marketing    larger revenues can only mean         point of view, this is a huge      that people are willing to spend      opportunity for niche operators.   more for a holiday. This is good     Not only are people prepared to    news but what does it mean?           spend more on their holidays but                                         they are increasing looking for    In a recent article, Forrester       more individual holidays. These   analyst Henry Hartveldt states        niche holiday makers lean towards  that “Customers are tired of          those experts who have the         spending two or three hours           knowledge to create interesting    trying to find the airline or         holiday experiences for them.      hotel or vacation package that        Often the brick and mortar         meets their needs.” In the same       holiday providers offer customers  article, Jeffery Grau,                a better experience in this        Emarketer’s senior analyst,           regard – they can talk to a sales  states that “Online travel            rep, who will be able to           distributors’ booking tools were      understand their experiences and   help them to make their ideal         more for their own holiday         holiday.                             experience, rather than having to                                        make do with an inflexible         We carried out some of our own        package that is sold to the mass   keyword research on a variety of      market.                            phrases related to tailor made                                           holidays and found that there are     Of course this could create a      a nice selection of these being       dilemma in the programming of      used on UK search engines with        your site – as Jeffery Grau said   fairly good numbers.                 earlier – most websites are                                              designed for the old world where   So, we know the market is there,      consumer choice meant selecting    but how can niche operators           the country, city and hotel. If    capitalise on the demand? The         you have the time and resources    answer is, of course, by              to make your site offer the        providing everything that can be      functionality, then excellent,     found in the high street online.      but it isn’t always necessary:     You need to allow customers to        You can create a similar effect    mix and match hotels, flights and     by listing a few sample            itineraries to create their own       itineraries online, and then       unique experience. By all means       offering your customers a chance   offer itinerary suggestions, but      to have their dream package made   always remember that your             for them in person: Provide phone  customers are unique and will         numbers, with calls to action,     like certain bits while disliking     letting the customer know that     others, so give them the option       they can have their dream          to make the changes THEY want.        vacation tailored to their needs,  You will likely find a large          and that your staff are prepared   proportion of your visitors will      to bend over backwards to          consider paying just a little         structure a package just for       them.                                 that the market is going to exert                                        greater influence in the future.   It may seem that changing the way     2008 could well be the year of     your company offers holidays is       niche travel, and if you get the   excessive for the niche market        groundwork right, you may find a   which is, by definition, limited,     nice increase in traffic from      but the trends in the US (which       those disillusioned by the         Europe usually catches up with        paint-by-numbers nature of the UK  sooner or later) suggest to us        package holiday market.            About the Author: Frank Orman is the managing director of LeadGenerators - specialists in SEO for travel. Focussing on site conversion, pay per click and SEO issues, the company has achieved some excellent results in its 4 years in business. Published At: www.Isnare.com