Inspiration vs conversion: What do you want?

It's almost a contradiction in terms - we live in a world of mass information, on a planet with six billion people and in the travel industry, there are thousands of destinations, millions of flights, gazillions of hotels, tour operators, travel agents vying for millions of travellers.

Yet, with the splintering of the Web and the migration to mobile, where every individual is a moving target, everyone is looking to individualise the travel planning and booking process, as well as the experience.

It's a big subject to get one's head around and I must say the panel on "Individualisation of Travel" at ITB Berlin did a valiant job of it.

Moderator Robert Cole of RockCheetah started off by saying that individualizing travel fundamentally meant providing the right product in the right destination through right channel at right time to the right person.

However, as has been noted, the myriad of travel options is staggering. Add to this, he said are the phases of the seven-step travel process that make timing and relevance even more challenging - Inspiration, Research, Planning, Validation, Booking, The Travel Experience and Sharing.

"If this didn't make travel decision making more complex enough, every traveler exhibits multiple persona trip-centric priorities that change depending on the itinerary. For example, when I book a family vacation, the shopping process and trip experience are very different than when I take a weekend away with my wife."

Finally, said Cole, individuals make decisions in dramatically different ways - some spontaneously, others thoughtfully deliberate; some use logic, others emotions.

The traditional approach was positioning a product relative to the competition and crafting a message for broadcast to a mass market, to establishing relationships with customers (especially frequent travelers) - now it's having conversations.

"Social media now enables intimate connections between brands and individual consumers with an unprecedented degree of interactivity.

"As a result, there is no such thing as a relationship with an average consumer demographic. What matters now is the aggregate of all relationships with all consumers.
For decisions impacting consumers, companies can no longer fall back on the excuse of it's "just business." Now, it's personal," said Cole.

At Lufthansa, Marcus Casey, Director of E-commerce and Mobile, said that while the airline offered an all-inclusive product, it now offered a la carte pricing. "People want to be addressed as individuals and they want to be inspired and to be helped."

For example, the airline has created special interest groups such as "FanFlug", aimed at soccer fans. "We create special content for them, and put together special offers."

Thomas Helbing of Ray Sono, an owner-managed agency for digital communication and interaction, said it was no longer about a website but a web environment. "The website is central but all around it, different parts are all linked. Suppliers need to go where the fans are."

Uwe Frers, Founder of TripsByTrips, spoke of the revolution in the media - from a top-down approach to fully-connected. Customer recommendations - is that the media of the future, he asked? The good news is only 10-15% write critical reviews, he said.

Peter-Mario Kubsch, Managing Director, Studiosus Reisen
Studiosus, the market leader in Germany in the field of study travel, said 50% of new customers come on the back of recommendations. "Some people do not have the time, they trust their providers and ask for a price and they book it rather quickly."

Jordan Stolper, Co-Founder & CEO, gliider, a travel research tool that lets users gather travel information from any site on the web and then get them deals specific to the trip, said the traveller is directing his or her interests. "Going on a trip is as exciting as the actual trip. I don't need people to hold my hand to go to China or Germany like I did 10 years ago.

"People are fearless these days so let's make it possible for them by using a combination of collaboration, commerce and social media."

On the other hand though, Casey said it was important not to overburden the individual. "The more choices I have, the more afraid I get."

Using iGoogle as an example, he said this tool was not being used by too many people "because it is too much, it offers too many options".

"So how do you make it simple for the individual is important."

Melbing said as contradictory as it sounded, "it requires a lot of effort to keep things simple and make things convenient for the customer. The customer is saying, please show me only the relevant information. Those who simplify will win. Yes, have the complexity at the back end but don't show it."

Inevitably, the discussion moved to social networking with the panelists clearly showing some frustration and fatigue with this subject. Remember when it was all about search?

Casey said that when Lufthansa initially experimented with Twitter, it thought it could increase sales but it's also served as a good channel to build loyalty. "What we noticed is that people loyal to Lufthansa wanted to be part of the conversation."

And it hasn't been as interactive as had been expected. "It's really only 10% user generated and the rest is our content."

As far as Frers is concerned, Twitter has no major commercial relevance but is a good search and information tool.

Given that travellers were now being driven by interests, the panelists were asked if destination branding using generic taglines - such as Istanbul Inspirations or Malaysia - Truly Asia - was part of legacy thinking.

Kubsch of Studiosus Reisen disagreed, saying travellers still need to be inspired by the romance of a place. He said that in Studiosus' survey of travellers, when it asked, where do you want to go to next year, only 15% of people actually went to where they stated the year before.

"People have no idea what they want. Sometimes they do. We just have to be able to catch them and convert them at the right time."

Stolper of Gliider said the online travel business is built around people clicking for fantasies, but there is a big gap between inspiration and conversion. "What do you want to get better at?"

He said the industry needed better targeting "without presupposing what they want when they don't know what they want. Either we get better at inspiration or at conversion?"