EyeforTravel: Innovations in Travel Search

by Josiah Mackenzie on September 17, 2009 No Comments

Presentations by the following executives…with a lot of good research data to follow:

  • Krista Pappas, Microsoft Bing Travel
  • Gary Jackson, Google Travel
  • Anne Payne, BeDynamic
  • Yen Lee, Uptake

Yen Lee of Uptake – “The Long, Fat Tail of Search”

Numbers that really matter

  • 73% of consumers search before they make a booking
  • They search an average of 10 times
  • 86% of leads are generated by organic search (there IS a free lunch)
  • Typical travel search is 3.1 keywords
    • It’s becoming more specific: was ‘chicago’…then ‘chicago hotels’…now it may be ‘chicago family hotels’
    • (this means they give us more context now)
    • Always tailor unique content to consumer preferences

Krista Pappas of Microsoft – “Maximizing SEM In a Tough Travel Economy”