|
56.4%
|
4.3
And the winner is
Galapagos Network...
Introducing "CT Index," a new monthly feature
that graphically shows the top 10 Web Page Ad performers on our site. To
take a look, click on the CT Index link above right.
People from 85 countries visited CT in October
For the month of October, visitors accessed Cultural Travels’ combined sites (Cultural Travels, The Cultured Traveler and Cultural Travels Japan) from 85 countries, 53 states and provinces and more than 400 U.S. cities. (That last figure excludes AOL visitors who all show up as coming in through Virginia). We’re not going to spin those figures; we’re just happy about them and wanted to let you in on the good news.
With air ticket sales so down, where do agents go?
The figures are telling: According to ASTA, Travel
agents in 1995 sold $73 billion worth of airline tickets; this year they’ll
sell $60 to $65 billion worth. For agents who’ve relied primarily on air
tickets for income, this is obviously a hurtful trend. Agents in this bind
obviously have to look to tours and cruises as new
mainstays in their
offerings. But how to come up to speed in a market that’s already
populated with savvy, experienced tour and cruise agents? One way is to
use sites like Cultural Travels as research tools that can do two valuable
things: Show them what’s out there that they can report back to clients,
and let them find higher-priced trips they can make very good commissions
on.
Why our travelers are really, really, really motivated
When travelers make several conscious decisions to work their way to your web site, you can be certain you’re dealing with motivated people. We point that out because we know that potential clients who reach your home web page via your Cultural Travels Web Page Ad have made three separate, deliberate decisions to find their way to you:
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Decision No. 1:
After arriving at Cultural Travels, they select a Theme and Destination
to narrow their focus.
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Then they scan listings. If the short description and thumbnail image of
your full-page ad interests them, they make Decision No. 2 and click on the
thumbnail.
- The thumbnail takes them to your Web Page Ad, which lists your trips, links to online articles about or by you, and also links to your home web page. Decision No. 3: They click on the link to your home web page.
When they arrive at your home web page, they already know a lot about you. The fact that they want to learn more is exactly what you expect out of advertising.
Marketing theories that go boom in the night
Two separate items got us to thinking about the Theory of Unintended Consequences. Item 1: The airlines cut out travel agents to save commission expenses, and even go to the trouble of creating Internet fronts like Orbitz* so that they can shill their own sales. The result? Ticket prices (therefore, profits) plummet as Internet shoppers chase ever more competitive prices. Which leads to Item 2: As Internet shoppers adapt a “self-service” mentality, they become more willing to wait until the last minute to choose among travel suppliers, reasoning – correctly – that increasingly desperate suppliers will always come up with bargains as deadlines near.
(*Orbitz, co-owned by five airlines, sold $950 million worth of tickets the first half of this year. In 2001, it lot $103 million on revenue of $39 million. In the first quarter of 2002, it lost $9 million on revenues of $27 million.)
Ultra-affluent households are surprisingly un-Internet savvy
Just when you think you’ve got the world figured out, something happens to challenge all your certainties. Wouldn’t you think that the wealthier the household, the greater and more informed its use of the Internet? Turns out it doesn’t work that way. Mediamark Research reported earlier this year that only 8.9% of U.S. households making more than $150,000 per year have ever used the Internet, compared to 33% of households making $75,000 to $149,999, and 25.2% of households earning between $50,000 and $74,999. Just as telling: only 9.5% of the ultra-affluent had home Internet access, v. 33.6% in the $75,000+ income group. What’s at work here is probably a combination of very stressed lifestyles (breadwinners with little time for Internet surfing) and the ability to have intermediaries – personal secretaries, household staff – do the shopping, even for travel.
Some interesting online market factoids:
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Twenty-nine percent of the world’s Internet population is located in Asia,
according to James Vaile, vice president of Expedia-Asia-Pacific.
By 2004, he predicts, the online travel market there will be
$8.3 billion.
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In the first half of this year,
43% of all consumer
spending online was for travel
or travel-related products, according to ComScore Networks.
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Forrester Research reports that
the average age of online
travel consumers is 44 years and their average annual household income is
$76,000.
Fifty-five percent hold professional or managerial positions, while 60%
are college graduates. Fifty-three percent are male.
- CoolSavings, an Internet shopping club, surveyed its members and found that more than 80% said they’ll rely on online research to help make holiday gift-buying decisions. Eighteen percent said they’ll use the Internet exclusively for shopping and buying decisions. While these data don’t relate exactly to the travel industry, they indicate the growing acceptance of Internet research among online shoppers – which means your business increasingly will stand or fall on how people perceive your Internet presence.
Research company validates our broken record
Yes, we know that our constant harping on responding quickly to e-mail inquiries can begin to sound an awful lot like nagging. But it’s not like we make this stuff up. Jupiter Research recently surveyed 227 U. S. companies and found that only 38% of them replied to customer e-mails within six hours. Almost one out of four (23%) took three days or more to respond or didn’t answer at all. This is like owning a piano and never playing it, or subscribing to a newspaper and never reading it. What’s the point of having e-mail if you don’t use it? Worse, though, is the fact that e-mail has replaced written correspondence for many people and is just as important in their minds. If somebody sends you a formal letter, whether it’s about love or business, do you answer it promptly? Damn right you do. E-mail’s the same.
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