Recently I’ve been working on digital experiences in the travel industry. By “Travel Industry”, I mean all stages of the travel customer journey from Dreaming to Doing stage and all points in between:
Dreaming Stage
I will say it’s undergoing quite an upheaval recently due to a few factors in the space.
On one hand, we have the whole Google Travel side of things. Google has been working with DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations) for a while now, helping to disseminate content and further brand (and by “brand” I mean City, State, Country, Town, and the like) value and messaging throughout the world for the whole “Dreaming” stage. From SERP blog posts, Google Earth and Voyager explorations, and the ever-growing Street View 360 Point of Interest photospheres and walking tours, Google has changed the game when it comes to getting people information they are looking for when deciding where to vacation, when to travel and what to do when they are in an unknown town whether for business or pleasure (or both).
Planning | Booking Stages
Recently they have plunged into the “Planning” and “Booking” stages with direct booking options, hotels, air rates and the like. It’s to get people the info they are looking for faster and easier than just linking to other sites where people then bounce back and forth multiple times before they find the “right” site to help them.
Doing Stage
They are even doing an amazing job now with the “Doing” stage, with events on SERP pages directly to help people find fun things to do while they are in town or for locals looking for something new or exciting to do over the weekend.
It’s working. People want that. People want easy and fast. It’s a great thing, but it’s scaring the rest of the industry.
I say – it’s all good. As one of those looking for ways to reach people to inspire and influence their decision on travel, it just asks those in the travel space to think a bit differently at finding ancillary and alternative inspirational opportunities.
Let’s talk about what that looks like in the next post.
