Natural search is massive opportunity for travel industry
Natural search engine optimisation is a ‘massive’ opportunity for the travel industry, according to a search engine marketing specialist
Blogs, videos, metasearch sites and social networking sites should form part of every companies online marketing strategy so that they can be more easily picked up by Google and other search engines.
Speaking at the Travolution Conference at WTM, Neutralize business development manager Martin Dinham said search marketing was becoming a saturated market and that most users prefer to turn to organic search listings.
Dinham said: “If you’re not on the left hand side of Google you are going to be missing out on an awful lot of traffic it can bring you. The majority of traffic on your website should be coming from natural search.”
He revealed figures showing that paid for search accounts for 90% of the market spend, some £1.26 billion, compared with natural search at only £147 million.
Dinham also advised conference delegates to measure how traffic was coming to their websites.
“A third of US travellers go online to research but don’t actually book online. If your phone rings you need to know the call came from your pay-per-click campaign?” he said.
Hitwise figures show 40% of all visitors to travel and tourism websites come from search engines and that figure is increasing. In addition, tour operators and travel agencies are seeing a 14% increase in traffic to their sites that have originated from search engines.
Report by Linda Fox
Linda Fox
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Global tourism exceeds 1.5 billion travelers announces UN-Tourism
Qatar Airways offers reduced timetable to over 60 destinations
WTTC global tourism reached record economic impact of 11 trillion in 2025
Marginal increase for New York City tourism in 2025
Hands In, UATP join forces for airline multi-card payments