Survey - Content and User Experience in Online Travel 2009

Executive Summary
The results of a survey of global online travel consumers in May 2009 have shown that consumers
are still primarily influenced by price when deciding on a holiday/vacation. However, they also have
additional information needs that change at each stage of the booking cycle. At the planning stage
images of the accommodation and a written description of the destination proved to be the most
important factor in the process, closely followed by information on activities and events and
maps. When booking, three pieces of information ranked as almost equally crucial, with airport and
transportation information on a par with pictures of the room and a guide to the city or resort.
Finally, post-booking a map of the destination was the essential item of content, with travel,
weather, events and activities information and local dining also ranked as important.

Half of all travellers1 have struggled with poorly constructed, confusing and inaccurate websites that
don’t provide them with sufficient images and information. The survey also showed that consumers
were frustrated by out-of-date information, hidden fees and misleading descriptions, as well as
technology-related issues such as slow downloads and broken links.

Introduction
For years now the web has resounded to the phrase ‘content is king’ and more recently there has
been an emphasis on adding content to sites to not only inform and inspire customers but also to
attract them through natural search. Content also plays an important role in the user’s experience
on websites, which impacts on conversion rates and loyalty.

Travel companies want to ensure that they provide their customers with the information they are
looking for, easily accessible at the right time, to support the sale of travel products and services. But
the big question has remained, what content do users want from online travel, and when? The
purpose of our survey was to get a better understanding of what information customers are looking
for from online travel companies, and to get a better understanding of what they like and don’t like
with regard to what is on offer today.

1 FrommersUnlimited & eDigitalResearch

 About this survey
This survey was conducted by Frommer’s® Unlimited, the business-to-business division of
Frommer’s, a branded imprint of Wiley, together with eDigitalResearch.

The questionnaire was carried out online and went out to a broad global community of online
travellers in March and April 2009.

Respondents came from travel newsletters, travel publishing websites including Frommers.com and
a panel of UK consumers interested in online travel.

Our survey involved 1324 online travel consumers - asking what influenced their travel decisions,
what determined where they go, what content they looked for when planning and booking a trip,
and what would improve their experience.

Who is it for?
The survey hopes to provide valuable insight into online travel researchers’ and buyers’ views and
requirements, in order to inform companies that wish to attract and engage with them. It hopes to
enable e-Marketers, e-Commerce managers and website managers to make informed decisions
about the content and functionality they should be providing to be in line with customers’ needs.

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 Results
What influences people’s decisions when planning where to go?
Taking responses of ‘influential’ and ‘very influential’ as key indicators, online research came out as
the most influential source for travel planning (78%). This might be expected, as the survey was of
users online rather than a general representative cross section of travel purchasers.

Friends’ recommendations came in as the second most influential factor, with over half saying it was
influential or very influential. This proved to be more important to younger responders (74% of 18-
35 year olds) compared with those over 55 (47%).

As users continue to embrace social media to connect with friends, this would seem to indicate that
social media will have a role to play in how friends can influence each other’s travel plans. Through
Twitter’s ‘what are you doing?’ Facebook’s status updates and Flickr’s photo sharing, it is getting
increasingly easy to share experiences and thereby influence the travel plans of others.

Travel books seem to be more than twice as influential as newspapers (53%/20%) and the online
travel community appear to have turned their back on travel agencies, with only 4% of respondents
saying they were very influential. These attitudes were consistent across the age ranges.

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 When are they looking for destination information?
Online travellers are looking for destination content throughout the travel cycle but researching
where to go was the primary use of destination information, with 84% using the content before
deciding on a destination. Over a third of responders are also looking at destination information
when booking their flights and accommodation, as well as after booking but before leaving.

When do you normally look for information online about holiday destinations?
No Yes
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Before deciding At the time of At the time of After booking, While in the After returning I don't look for
where to go booking flights booking but before destination destination
accommodation leaving information
online

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 How influential are the following factors to you when deciding on a holiday
destination?
When asked “How influential are the following factors to you when deciding on a vacation/ holiday
destination”, price was the most influential factor for 85%* of respondents, which is probably a
focus for consumers, bearing in mind the current economic uncertainty. This proved more important
for the 18-35 age bracket (90%) than for those over 35 (82%).

(*all % given for influential are made up of “influential” and “very influential”)

Around two-thirds found activities specific to their interests (68%) and this was more pronounced in
North America (79%) than in Europe (61%).

The weather (63%) and length of trip (65%) were rated as the next most influential or very
influential.

The carbon footprint of the destination seems to be the least influential of all the factors we
suggested, although it does have some degree of influence on nearly half of respondents (47%).

Females found length of trip a slightly larger influence on where to go than males (39% vs 33%),
while for males, nightlife was more influential than for females (25% vs 16%).

So online travel companies should answer consumer’s requirements based on how much they want
to spend, what type of holiday activities, how long they go for and what the weather is like as
primary ways of organising and searching for travel products.

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 Are you loyal to particular brands when you are booking your vacations/
holidays? (i.e. have you booked with a company more than once)

Yes 30%
Sometimes 42%
No 28%

Those loyal to brands increased to 38% for the oldest demographic (55+).

Does a website that offers you good information on destinations, such as

travel guides, make you more or less likely to book?

Adding information about destinations does increase the intention to purchase for over half of
visitors.

More likely to book with them 56%

No effect on booking with them 43%
Less likely to book with them 1%

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 What information are customers looking for when PLANNING a holiday?
In response to the question “Please indicate how important you find the following when planning a
vacation/ holiday”, images proved to be the most important factor in the planning process (76%).
They were closely followed by a written description of the destination (71%) and maps (69%).

Information on activities and events was important to two-thirds (67%) and proved to be more
important with respondents from North America (76%) than to Europeans (59%).

The weather was important or very important to 64% as a whole, but despite often being cited as an
obsession for the British it actually proved to be marginally more important to North Americans
(66%) and the ROW (74%) than Europeans (62%).

Travel information - such as the time zone, currency and visa information as well as reviews by other
travellers -was important to just over 60% when planning where to go.

Video content was only important to just over a quarter of respondents.

So there seems to be a need to balance “being inspirational” with being “informative” although,
interestingly, respondents did not value video content as highly. This suggests investment should be
concentrated on static images which can both inform and inspire.

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 What information are customers looking for when BOOKING a holiday?
Now that the user has decided where they want to go, we asked what information they were looking
for at the time of booking. Rather than looking to be inspired, or researching the holiday destination
at this stage of the customer journey travellers want to understand the details of the holiday -
getting to their destination and familiarising themselves with the area.

Three pieces of information ranked as almost equally important at the booking stage. Airport and
transportation information was the most requested information (71%), on a par with pictures of the
room (70%) and a guide to the city or resort (70%). As they enter the booking stage customers seek
reassurance about the site or company. Security information was important to nearly two-thirds of
customers (63%) and rated as more important to females (69%) than males (58%). This was followed
by reviews from other travellers (63%) and weather (61%).

The North American audience place even more importance on airport and transportation
information (81%) than the European (65%).

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 What information are customers looking for AFTER booking a holiday?
In response to the question – “Please indicate how important you find the following after you have
booked a vacation/ holiday”, a map of the destination was the most important item of content
wanted after booking (70% of respondents). Of those it was important to 80% of Americans and 63%
of Europeans.

Travel, weather, local events and activities information as well as local dining information all proved
important to around 60% of respondents. A description of the destination was important to 55% and
all other suggested content was important to less than half of respondents.

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 Bad customer experiences online
We provided a range of choices to customers to suggest bad experiences they may have had with
online travel websites. To do this we asked “Which of the following poor practises have you
encountered before on travel websites?”

Every bad experience we suggested had been experienced by at least a third of respondents. Finding
sites confusing was the largest complaint for over half of respondents (52%) and this was a bigger
complaint in America (65%) than Europe (45%). Insufficient pictures (51%) was the next biggest
complaint.

Over 4 in 10 complained that there was insufficient information on destinations (46%), hotels (44%)
and things to see and do (40%). A similar number had found sites providing misleading information
(42%), and again this was truer in America (53%) than Europe (36%).

Finally, not getting a reply to emails and content not being bookable online were irritations for just
over a third of respondents (34%).

We also provided a free text box to allow consumers to let us know of other bad experiences they
had endured from online travel websites. The most common additional complaints were content
which is not up to date, broken links on sites and hidden fees when booking.

We also asked our respondents to let us know how travel websites could improve their offering. Of
the 523 suggestions made, some were recurring themes such as having a clearly displayed phone
number and providing telephone customer support. Where that wasn’t available, providing email

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 customer service and responding to email requests promptly ranked highly and is obviously more
essential for large and more complicated purchases.

Users also wanted a more honest approach to the products and pricing - to be able to see the
complete price and to compare prices more easily. They sometimes felt deceived by descriptions
and even by images.

Conclusion
The purchase of a holiday tends to be a collaborative one even though more females actively
research travel information than males. The holiday decision tree is: 1) Finding a holiday within
budget, 2) that meets my requirements 3) for a length of time that I can go for.

Depending on the stage of customer journey, travellers need to be inspired about their potential
holiday as well as having enough information to make an informed purchase.

Traveller information requirements change depending on the stage of the customer journey. At
the planning stage images and content about their desired destination help travellers make an
informed choice. Video is not considered important to research, but may act to make the website
more engaging.

Respondents’ information needs to become more detailed and factual at the booking stage.
Travellers are less concerned with inspiration, but rather want to understand the specifics about the
trip – airport transfers and a map as well as detailed information about their immediate location.

There seems to be a switch from traditional sources to online advice, yet there is a desire to have
local information (e.g. maps, activities, dining etc), so printable travel guides / recommendations for
the local area would benefit travellers.

Booking a holiday can be complex and a little daunting; therefore a clearly displayed telephone
contact number would help provide re-assurance. Email customer service option although not
preferred, would also assist travellers when making a booking. However, these must be adequately
resourced to avoid creating dissatisfaction among users.

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 Who answered our survey?
Gender:

Gender of Respondents
1%
Male
35%
Female
64%
Prefer not to say

The gender split of those that responded showed a heavy female bias when compared to internet
usage generally, which is much more evenly split2. This illustrates that more females actively
research travel information online than males, and/or are more likely to take the time to complete
surveys. If the former is true then this might inform us on the target audience for travel content.

Age:

Age
25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
Under 16-17 18-20 21-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-84 85+ Prefer
16 not to
say

The age range of those who answered the survey seemed to indicate a flattening out of the bell
curve. Practically equal percentages of people between the age of 25 and 64 completed the survey,
with the latter being the most popular age group by a small margin. Any previous conception that
online travel is the preserve of 25-45 years old is no longer the case.

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 Where do they live?

Where do you live?

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
North South UK Europe (not Africa Asia Australia/ NZ Other
America America inc. UK)

Over half of responses came from people living in the UK (52%), with North America making up just
over a quarter (27%), the rest of Europe 9% and all other territories making up the 11%.

How often do they go on holiday?

How many vacations/ holidays do you take in an average year?

50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
None 1-2 per year 2-3 per year 3-4 per year 4-5 per year 5 or more per
year

Nearly half our respondents (47%) take 1-2 holidays per year. A quarter (25%) take 2-3 with 22%
taking more and 5% taking none at all. There were differences between regions. Most surprisingly,
of those in the UK 8% claimed not to take any vacations, while in the North America and ROW only
1% claimed not to take one.

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 Who decides?

Who decides?
Just me Myself and someone else (it's a joint decision) Someone else

1%

27%

72%

When asked “Who normally makes the decisions about your vacations/ holidays?” 72% said it was a
joint decision, while 27% were the sole decision maker. This indicates that the female bias of the
responses is less influential if the ultimate decision is a joint one.

Notes:
1 - All spelling in this document is in UK English although the survey responses and distribution are global.

2 - US online user demographics: 68% of men and 66% of women are online. 90% of men and 91% of women use search engines. 52% of
US men and 48% of US women have broadband. From ZDNet Research 2005. Combine this with a global ratio of men to women of 51% to
49% and the online usage by gender is nearly an even share.

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 About Frommer’s Unlimited
Frommer’s Unlimited is the business-to-business division of Frommer’s Travel. For more than 50
years, Frommer’s®, a branded imprint of Wiley, has been the trusted source of useful and engaging
travel information. Frommer’s Unlimited enables businesses to create high-value propositions for
their customers by leveraging Frommer’s travel expertise, rich content resources and technical
capabilities. Products and services provided by Frommer’s Unlimited include global destination and
events content, private label Websites, mobile applications and custom publishing. Frommer’s is a
registered trademark of Arthur Frommer. For more information visit frommers.biz or contact us:

The Americas UK, Europe & Asia

Craig Schickler Giles Longhurst

Director of E-Business Development Business Development Manager
111 River Street Truman Brewery
Hoboken, NJ 07030 91 Brick Lane
USA London, E1 6QL
Phone: 201 748 5659 United Kingdom
Fax: 201 748 5612 Phone: +44 (020) 7770 6072
info@frommers.biz Fax: +44 (020) 7770 6051
info@frommers.biz

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 About eDigital Research

eDigitalResearch is a leading UK and European provider of digital market research that helps you to
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comprehensive understanding of the travel consumer – has resulted in a set of proprietary tools
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