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CENTRE FOR CULTURAL POLICY STUDIES

Online Travel Marketing for Web 2.0:

Investigating strategy in a digital SME MA Global Media & Communication | Major Project

Student: 1160350

Supervised by Dr. Jonathan Vickery

Submitted: October 2012 (extension granted)

12,158 words

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... 4

1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5

Background ............................................................................................................................................... 5

Online marketing and the travel industry ............................................................................................. 5

Web 2.0 ................................................................................................................................................. 6

Open House Group ................................................................................................................................... 6

Research questions ................................................................................................................................... 7

2 Literature Review .................................................................................................................................. 8

Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 8

The early Internet: optimism and pessimism ....................................................................................... 8

Web 2.0 and ‘Travel 2.0’ ..................................................................................................................... 11

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 14

3. Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 16

Research approach, challenges and limitations...................................................................................... 16

4. Online Marketing at Open House Group ............................................................................................... 19

A Strategic Shift ....................................................................................................................................... 19

Traditional search engine strategy ..................................................................................................... 19

“SEO 2.0” ............................................................................................................................................. 20

Inbound & Content Marketing (ICM) ...................................................................................................... 21

Social Media ............................................................................................................................................ 23

Social networking sites........................................................................................................................ 24

Blogger relations ................................................................................................................................. 25

5. How should OH meet the challenges of Web 2.0? ............................................................................. 27

Adding commercial value ........................................................................................................................ 27

ICM strategy ........................................................................................................................................ 27

Social media ........................................................................................................................................ 28

Boosting engagement and interaction ................................................................................................... 29

User-generated content (UGC) ........................................................................................................... 29

Community-building ........................................................................................................................... 30

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Expanding global horizons ...................................................................................................................... 31

Content creation and targeting .......................................................................................................... 31

Going beyond Europe ......................................................................................................................... 32

6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 34

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 36

Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 42

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge and extend my thanks to the following people, whose input has

been crucial in bringing this project to fruition.

My supervisor Dr. Jonathan Vickery, who has provided precious constructive criticism and academic

insight throughout.

Paul Anderson and the other members of the marketing team at Open House Group SL, who not only

participated as interviewees in the research process, but also provided support and encouragement

during the progress of the project.

Nathalie Laurent, Marketing Projects Manager at Open House Group SL, for offering me the job

opportunity that inspired this investigation.

Dr Eleonora Belfiore and Dr Christopher Bilton for their initial assistance in working out the logistics of

conducting a project, and submitting it on time, while working full-time overseas.

And finally, my family and friends for their continued support during my studies at the excellent

University of Warwick.

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1 INTRODUCTION

The internet is well-established as a marketing medium (Shankar 2009). However, its changing nature

presents many challenges and opportunities to businesses using it as such. One major recent change is

the emergence of the so-called Web 2.0, a term widely used to denote a shift in internet culture marked

by high interactivity, social networking, user-generated content and information transparency (O’Reilly

2005), all of which are increasingly global in scope. But has Web 2.0 really affected online marketing or

is it just a social phenomenon? As the internet’s second-largest industry (Kilion 2009), travel is an ideal

sector to study for the effects of this online trend.

This project takes the opportunity to look in depth at whether and how the new Web 2.0 environment

affects the marketing strategy of one travel SME (small to medium enterprise). Open House Group (OH)

is a valuable subject for a number of reasons. The company is typical of a new wave of travel businesses

made possible by the rise of online marketing (Buhalis 2007), offering a service somewhere between

that of a simple listings site and an online travel agency. It relies almost exclusively on the Internet to

communicate with potential clients and attract business. Therefore the company is forced to react and

adapt its online marketing strategy to changes and developments as they occur, providing plenty of

scope for analysis. Finally, studies show that accommodation, OH’s product, is one of the major topics of

online investigation by travel consumers (Conrady 2007; Gretzel 2008). Gaining an understanding of

how the business markets online in the Web 2.0 environment will not only contribute empirical

evidence on evolving new media marketing techniques; it will also give rise to Web 2.0 marketing

strategy recommendations for the business and others like it. Furthermore, it can provide a basis for

future research on how travel providers are responding to the current online environment.

Background

Online marketing and the travel industry

Online marketing, which means using the Internet to promote goods and services, has expanded rapidly

during the last ten to fifteen years. (Shankar 2009) Initially limited to websites and email, the online

marketing sector has grown with the emergence of new internet technologies including social media

platforms and mobile applications (Winer 2009). By the end of 2012, the online media spending of US

businesses is expected to exceed $60 billion: 18% of all money spent on advertising (Advertising Age

2007).

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In the travel industry, the Internet had a disruptive impact on traditional intermediary travel agencies,

increasing competition and enabling consumers to go direct to suppliers (Barnett 2001). Now, travel

organisations from private accommodation providers (Hudson 2002; Leong 2001) to national tourist

boards (Burgess 2002; Kozak 2006) are increasingly focusing on online marketing. The nature of the

Internet is well-suited to the sector’s needs, as it provides a platform to easily and cheaply attract

visitors from different geographical locations. OH is just one of many holiday accommodation companies

taking advantage of this; a recent study showed that internet bookings make up 21% of the European

vacation rental market, while online sales have grown to represent over 24% of the European travel

market as a whole (Cowen 2008). These trends suggest that travel companies can gain a significant

advantage by developing effective online marketing strategy.

Web 2.0

Since the mid-2000s, researchers and commentators have observed a change in the culture and

technology of the Internet, associated with the rise of social networks like MySpace, and user-generated

information libraries like Wikipedia (Madden 2006). The nature of the web is now believed to be more

interactive, social and transparent than in its earlier days, with greater global interconnectivity. The term

‘Web 2.0’ was coined early on to refer to this phenomenon (O’Reilly 2005). In the online travel domain,

there are indications that it has had a significant effect, fuelling the emergence of travel forums, blogs

and review sites uniting potential travel consumers from across the globe (Conrady 2007). Exploring the

implications of this cultural shift for online travel marketing forms an integral part of this investigation.

Open House Group

Open House Group SL (hereafter known as OH) is a vacation rental management company based in

Spain, which manages holiday accommodation in ten major European cities. These are Barcelona,

Dublin, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Venice, Florence and Rome. These destinations represent

key tourist attractions, each receiving millions of international visitors annually (Bremner 2007). Since its

founding in 1997, the company has used the Internet as the primary platform for its evolving marketing

and communications strategy. Currently, the following activities are conducted online:

E-commerce: Properties are featured and bookings are processed.

After-sales communication: Confirmation and the discount package.

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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Driving traffic towards the e-commerce sites by aiming to

understand Google’s ranking algorithms and to gain an advantage through them.

Inbound/Content marketing (ICM): Creating online content (written, photographic and video)

designed to attract the target audience.

Social media: Connecting directly with audiences via social media (Facebook, Twitter, bloggers).

Online Reputation Management (ORM): Largely consists of monitoring forums and blogs to identify

and deal with negative reviews and comments.

Research questions

The project sets out to critically explore the online marketing strategy at OH, to gain insight into how the

shifts in internet culture and behaviour are affecting it, and to evaluate to what extent it meets the

demands and challenges of the interactive web, or Web 2.0. Finally, the aim is to make

recommendations about how the company could improve its strategy. With these objectives in mind,

the following research questions have been formulated:

1. How has the increasingly interactive and social web – the so-called Web 2.0 – affected the online

travel domain?

2. What is Open House Group’s current online marketing strategy?

3. What challenges and opportunities face a medium-sized travel enterprise like Open House Group

trying to market in the Web 2.0 environment?

4. How should an internet travel enterprise like Open House Group adapt its online marketing strategy

to meet these challenges and opportunities?

These research questions will be answered by conducting primary research in the form of employee

interviews and analysis of company strategy, as well as through secondary sources on online marketing

and the travel industry. The literature review will first consider the background data relevant to the

topic, and is followed by a detailed description of the research methodology applied.

The final research question is perhaps the most important, as it aims to set out how OH can progress in

the evolving Web 2.0 environment. Although this company will be the main focus of any conclusions

drawn, it is expected that ideas and recommendations will be applicable to similar travel organisations

using the internet as a marketing communications medium.

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2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

As discussed previously, the arrival of the internet had major implications for the traditional functioning

of the tourist industry (Buhalis 2007), and so naturally gave rise to a significant body of industry

research. This literature review investigates existing research into the relationship between the

development of the internet, and the marketing approaches of travel organisations. Although there has

been a great deal of study in the field of online travel marketing, the studies are overwhelmingly general

in scope and so there has been no choice but to review papers which deal with a broad range of travel

organisations. The few papers identified that do focus on accommodation providers are generally a

simple resume of the activities of a hotel or a group of hotels. Leong’s (2001) review of Internet

marketing practices among hotels in Singapore being a classic example.

Much of the research identified focuses on the effects of the Internet on travel businesses, rather than

on the actual Internet marketing strategies applied by them. It makes sense to review the literature

chronologically, as the research mirrors the development of the Internet itself. The evolution towards an

interactive web is a key theme, particularly in the later literature. (Conrady 2007; Kilion 2009) During the

early Internet stage (approximately mid-1990s – 2005), the medium was new, and information storage

and access were its major functions. The second phase (Web 2.0) saw the development of the web as an

interactive medium, the rise of user-generated content (UGC) and the breaking down of communication

barriers between the traditional supplier and consumer (Wilson 2012). A number of useful sources

discussing the implications of Web 2.0 for travel marketing have been included for review.

The early Internet: optimism and pessimism

Early discussions of the implications of the web on the travel industry tend to focus on its implications

for the established structure of the sector. Barnett (2001) represents a recurring concern in the

literature of this period when he writes: “The characteristics of traditional travel agencies are not yet

aligned with the demands of the new travel economy.” The paper recognises that the internet could

alter the market structure, touching on the “disintermediation of retail agencies...and the emergence of

new virtual intermediaries.” However, the general argument is still situated within the traditional

understanding of the travel industry as a three-way game between supplier, consumer and intermediary

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(travel agency). Thus Barnett’s main discourse is about the technological possibilities of the Internet for

traditional travel agencies. There is little discussion of its promotional opportunities beyond the

recommendation that travel organisations be ‘more creative with their marketing.’

By focusing on the workings of the industry rather than its communication with consumers, Barnett

missed a point that emerges in two region-specific studies reviewed. Both Hudson (2001) and Doolin

(2002) take a far more audience-centred focus, revealing a growing understanding that one of the

Internet’s key effects has been to shift the balance of power from the supplier to the consumer. Doolin’s

New Zealand case study of online tourism marketing echoes Barnett (above) in recognising that ‘the

Internet, which offers global reach and multimedia capability, is an increasingly important means of

promoting and distributing tourism services.’ However, it goes a step further by highlighting a vital sea

change:

Moving from simply broadcasting information to letting consumers interact with the Website

content allows the tourism organisation to engage consumers’ interest and participation

(increasing the likelihood that they will return to the site), to capture information about their

preferences, and to use that information to provide personalised communication and services.

(Doolin 2007; 557)

This highlighting of ‘consumer’s interest and participation’ foreshadows the future Web 2.0

developments of the online travel domain, and represents a move away from the more technical

discussions of online marketing in other contemporary studies, which tend to focus chiefly on issues of

functionality and e-commerce features for travel providers). Burgess and Cooper’s (2000) extended

model of Internet Commerce Adoption (eMICA) similarly recommended ‘medium to high interactivity’ as

an important aspect of online business. However, it defines this as increased communication from the

business to the customer (e.g. in the form of updates or newsletters), with little discussion of the

consumer-sourced input that we begin to see as we move towards the Web 2.0 era.

The other regional case study mentioned also reflects an understanding of the centrality of consumer.

Hudson (2001) examines the online marketing of the tourism sector in Banff, a rural resort in Canada.

Like the other studies already discussed, it observes an increasing pace in online bookings but, crucially,

notes that the local holiday accommodation providers were responding to this by spending more and

more of their advertising budgets online. The study thus clearly draws the link between the Internet-

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triggered changes in consumer behaviour, and the adjustments the travel industry was making as a

result. In this it escapes the simplicity of research like Barnett’s, for example, which highlights new

features provided by travel organisations using Internet technology, but fails to explain the link between

these and the changes in online behaviour.

This consumer-Internet-industry link is even clearer when we consider the information factor, so central

to both the Internet and tourism. As noted by the World Tourism Organisation Business Council (1999),

travel and tourism consumers thirst for information, in the absence of any tangible experience of the

product prior to purchase. Hudson found that potential visitors to Banff were increasingly exploiting the

Internet’s ability to fulfil this need by searching for information on the same destination from different

online sources prior to making bookings. While traditionally the sources of information had been

commercially-interested parties such as travel agents and accommodation providers, consumers were

now turning to online destination guides, which were unaffiliated with any commercial booking sites or

local businesses. While dispensing with the necessity for the distribution ‘middle man’ (the travel agent)

by availing themselves of direct online bookings, it was apparent that consumers were beginning to seek

an ‘information middle man,’ presumably considered to be neutral, to help inform bookings and choices.

This effect, to become more pronounced with the advent of Web 2.0, was also noted by Buhalis and

Zoge (2007), whose literature review revealed that customers researching travel ‘would check an

average of five sites before booking.’ In Banff, the response of local service providers was to place paid

links – online advertising – on these hitherto unaffiliated information pages. The industry was forced to

find new ways to market itself in the face of increasing consumer self-sufficiency, brought on by the

Internet.

Xiang (2008) agrees that power in the form of information provision is being taken away from the

industry, but it proposes that the new wielder of power is not necessarily the consumer, but instead the

online search engine. These portals, Google in particular (Xiang 2009) are the means by which most

Internet users access travel sites when looking for information. As early as 2005, 64% of Americans were

planning their travel using online search engines. Xiang questions the ability of these intermediaries to

accurately or fairly represent the online tourism domain, citing the fact that while millions of results are

theoretically found, most users will not look beyond the third page (Spink 2004), resulting in low

visibility ratios. The concern is not misplaced. The rise of search engine optimisation (SEO) as a

professional sub-specialty of its own within online marketing (SEMPO 2012), proves that ranking on

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search engine result pages (SERPs) is of high importance to businesses operating online. However, the

very thorough investigation of numerical results in this paper comes at the expense of deeper,

potentially more valuable data about how and why Google and the other search engines choose to rank

information. It is asserted that ‘a huge amount of potentially useful information has been filtered out,’

of search results, but without a closer look at the unpresented results, or at search engine strategies, it

is difficult for the paper to make any conclusions about online marketing strategy that travel companies

should adopt in order to improve visibility and avoid being filtered out.

Web 2.0 and ‘Travel 2.0’

The second generation of Internet development (c. 2005 –), known as Web 2.0, refers to the widely

noted shift towards consumer interactivity, the proliferation of user-generated content (UGC) and the

trend towards personalisation of online information and services. (O’Reilly 2005) Information is

increasingly sought from non-traditional sources; the rise of user-edited data libraries like Wikipedia and

Yahoo! Answers exemplifies this trend. Unlike during the pre- and early Internet days of marketing,

interactivity is no longer simply from business to consumer, but inexorably from consumer-to-consumer

(Kozak 2006) as the popularity of online consumer blogs and forums such as NetMums.com shows.

These consumer interactions are increasingly international, unlimited by geographical boundaries. No

longer able to control the conversation, businesses must now instead trying to find ways to influence it,

which presents a new set of challenges, as shall be seen.

Another integral feature of Web 2.0 is the rise of the social network (Li 2008). Although online

chatrooms and instant messenger services were present during the early days of the web, only in the

last 5 or 6 years has the Internet become a major platform for social interaction, information-sharing

and identity-building. The largest of the numerous social networks, Facebook and Twitter, count in

excess of 900 million and 200 million users respectively (Hachman 2012; Dugan 2012). Unsurprisingly,

social media is now an area of intense focus for marketing activity, attracting $3.4 billion of investment

globally in 2010 (Shah 2011), up from $2 billion in 2008 (eMarketer 2009).

The term, ‘Travel 2.0’ refers to the application and effects of the Web 2.0 phenomenon within the travel

and tourism industry. Conrady’s 2007 study identifies ‘web services that let people collaborate and

share information online’ as a central component. This paper is one of the most significant and

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comprehensive analyses of Travel 2.0, incorporating research from major industry organisations

including PhocusWright and the International Tourism Exchange. The authors establish a clear departure

from the ‘Travel 1.0’ online environment, which was industry-led and commodity-focused, to a more

user-led, experience-focused one. They highlight four key features of Travel 2.0: transparency,

community, personalisation and experience. As a largely consumer-focused sector with a significant

online stake (Kilion 2009), the industry has been directly affected by the rise of travel blogs, online

reviews, consumer forums and social networks. The effects of these and the possibilities they present

for online travel marketing is the subject of a substantial body of research literature.

The Internet makes vast amounts of information available to travel consumers with just a few clicks of a

mouse. Previously, it was noted how search engines act as a key mediator in the investigation and

selection of travel options online, as researched by Xiang (2008). Conrady (2007) argues that Travel 2.0

has added a new dimension to this, pointing to a wave of aggregators, comparison sites and metasearch

engines. These platforms, examples being Kayak.co.uk, Tazzoo (now www.Sprice.fr) and

TripAdvisor.com, do more than simply return results for travel-related search terms. They offer

additional information, often including both positive and negative reviews by other travellers.

Photographs of accommodation and destinations are often freely available. The significance lies in the

fact that a large body of information travel consumers use to inform their decisions comes from sources

outside the providers’ control. This user-generated content promises more transparency than could

traditionally be expected from an official source such as an online travel agent. The raison d’etre of the

new collaborative platforms is the free sharing of information, rather than the promotion of a particular

business or destination. This is certainly recognised by consumers; studies consistently show that they

regard such data as far more credible than that provided by marketers (Precourt 2009; Li 2009). It is also

apparent that marketers themselves are being forced to adapt their approach in response to the

increased transparency of information, by incorporating user reviews into their websites, for example.

Conrady’s (2007) study identifies luxury hotel brand Sheraton as one of the earliest providers to do this.

As a broad overview, Conrady’s study is a valuable source of information, but the scope of the project –

covering all aspects of online technology from search to social networks to rich media, places limitations

on its capacity to provide real insight into the effects of greater transparency, and indeed to what extent

the wider information sharing is beneficial or genuine. For example, online forums and consumer sites

are often open to abuse by unethical individuals or companies; a problem that goes hand in hand with

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the freedom and anonymity offered by these platforms (Savolainen 2007). It would have been useful to

temper the study’s enthusiasm for Web 2.0 with a look at some of these negative issues, which actually

compromise transparency and reliability of information.

Like Conrady (2007), Gretzel (2008) also emphasises the impact of greater information availability on the

online travel arena. This paper focuses on online travel reviews as part of online community, a key

feature of Travel 2.0 as identified by Conrady. However, Gretzel’s narrower scope of study allows a more

detailed analysis. She cites many figures underlining the widespread practice among travel buyers of

referring to consumer opinion online, including the following:

Compete, Inc (2006) found that nearly 50% of travel purchasers visited a message board, forum, or online community

for their online travel purchasing and one in three of these buyers said that consumer reviews helped with their

purchase decision.

Compete (2006) in Gretzel (2008)

The same study also found that 25% of the buyers then shared their opinions on a consumer review site

after making their purchase, suggesting a reciprocal cycle of information gathering and sharing within

the virtual community. This feature of the Internet has been widely commented on. The capacity to

interact with users of similar interests has fuelled the emergence of diverse online communities who

share opinions and advice on a range of topics, from gaming, to current affairs, to travel (Li 2008; Wilson

2012). Gretzel argues that the influence of word of mouth (WOM), already considered a powerful force

in traditional marketing, (Li 2009) has been not only replicated but expanded, in the world of online

communities. The differences highlighted are that ‘electronic word of mouth’ (eWOM) involves the

sharing of opinions between people without social ties, and on a much larger volume. Both of these are

accounted for by the nature of the Internet itself, which connects users regardless of geographical

distance, and being a non-physical forum, has the capacity to include many more actors than a

traditional social circle. The study investigated the role of eWOM sources, especially travel reviews, in

travel planning and decisions. Although the sample was restricted to users of TripAdvisor, this limitation

is offset somewhat by the universality of the platform; TripAdvisor is the most popular travel forum and

had 24 million visitors and 5 million registered users at the time the research was undertaken. It was

discovered that among a range of questions including where to eat and which attractions to visit,

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readers of online travel reviews relied most heavily on them when it came to choosing holiday

accommodation: 78% of respondents rated it as ‘very or extremely important.’

Xiang and Gretzel’s 2010 study went still further by honing in on social networks, a specific breed of

online community. While sharing similarities to Gretzel’s (2008) review sites – particularly the volume of

participants which she emphasised as central to eWOM – the key difference is that social networks like

Facebook are more likely to include contacts who are known to the user. This reduces the anonymity

feature that Gretzel’s 2008 paper makes much of. Referrals and recommendations often come from

known people, and so the concept of eWOM loses some of its distinction in this context; it becomes

more or less the same basic phenomenon already known to marketers – word of mouth. On one key

point, however, both papers agree: holiday accommodation is an overwhelmingly important topic in

online travel information search, returning many results from virtual community sites and review

platforms. The 2010 study found that that users looking for travel-related terms like ‘hotel’ will be

presented with many social network and user-generated results, an important point missed by Xiang’s

(2008) investigation into search engines’ representation of the travel domain. Once again it indicates the

rising influence of consumer-generated information in Travel 2.0.

Conclusion

This review of literature has shown that there is a substantial body of research into the effects of the

Internet on the travel industry. Studies show that the arrival of the Internet had a marked change on the

behaviour of consumers in the travel industry. They began to seek information from sources other than

the traditional providers, using the new medium to consult less interested parties including other

consumers. This only expanded as the Web 2.0 phenomenon emerged. Travel consumers are now

routinely using the internet to interact with each other, get recommendations and make decisions about

purchasing. Research has established that the online community is both vociferous and influential,

having a direct impact on sales in the travel industry (Compete 2006; Wilson 2012). One of the most

salient features of this new phase is its globality; information and opinion sharing takes place across

international boundaries.

What the research currently lacks, however, is real insight into how businesses in the travel industry are

responding to the new challenges and opportunities presented by Web 2.0, specifically in the field of

marketing. Studies overwhelmingly focus on the numbers of consumers referring to the Internet

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(Compete 2006), the popularity of online reviews (Gretzel 2008) or the importance of social networks

(Xiang 2010). While it is clear that the marketing environment has changed, it is far less clear how the

industry is responding: how marketing is affected, what tactics and strategies are employed, and how

these work in practice.

With these questions in mind, this project undertakes an investigation of Open House Group (OH), an

internet-reliant small to medium enterprise (SME) in the travel industry. With the advantage of having

spent four months working in the company, I have set out to evaluate to what extent the new web

culture has affected OH’s online marketing strategy, and what developments should be made in order to

market more successfully in the interactive and international Web 2.0 environment.

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3. METHODOLOGY

Working as an online marketing intern at Open House Group’s (OH) Barcelona headquarters from April

to August 2012, I was actively involved with the spectrum of activities it conducts in this area. Through

taking an active role in ICM, social media, ORM and progression of the e-commerce sites, I began to

appreciate the strategies and tactics employed by the company in its efforts to market the product –

vacation rentals in ten European cities – and the brand online. It seemed that the business was adapting

its approach in order to keep up with the interactive web, or Web 2.0. Traditionally, the focus of the

online presence had been on the e-commerce sites, through which sales were processed. Now,

however, there was increasing focus on developing brand personality and consumer interaction via

social media platforms, building online reputation by collaborating with travel bloggers, relaunching the

e-commerce sites and creating high quality content for the online destination guides.

It was fascinating to be part of the team during this apparent evolution in strategy, as it became clear

that there were many factors at play, often beyond the organisation’s control. One example is the

question of increased information transparency, highlighted in the previous chapter. As a provider of

holiday accommodation, OH occasionally finds itself the subject of negative reviews posted by users of

popular online forums such as TripAdvisor. Developing effective ways to monitor and deal with these

very public customer service complaints without alienating the users of travel forums (a key market) is

just one of the many challenges faced by the marketing team. OH also has numerous competitors, all

offering short-stay rental accommodation and using the internet to market to consumers. AirBnB.com,

Casamundo.com, Wimdu.com and Rentalia.com are just a few examples. This means that a study of the

company’s marketing activities and factors affecting it will be relevant not only to business itself, but

also within the wider context of how the new online environment and technologies are affecting

marketing for travel accommodation providers.

Research approach, challenges and limitations

Information-finding was conducted as a combination of primary and secondary research. The Internet

has been an indispensable resource not only for the background literature on online marketing strategy,

but also for accessing the company’s online marketing output, including webpages, social media

interaction and forum comments. Industry-specific peer-reviewed journals such as The Journal of

Interactive Marketing and Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism were a major source

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of information. I used theoretical sources for analysis on the trends and changing online landscape

associated with Web 2.0, how the travel sector globally is responding to these, and how its online

marketing has been affected. This contextual background is complemented by specific first-hand

research into how one typical online travel business is approaching the shifting marketing environment.

A look at the literature in this area revealed that there is an established tradition of researchers in travel

and tourism conducting in-depth interviews to investigate qualitative factors and ideas. In order to gain

a fuller understanding of online marketing at OH, I have taken an approach very similar to that of Buhalis

and Zoge (2007). Their study, ‘The Strategic Impact on the Tourism Industry’ is one of the few projects

identified that conducted interviews with industry professionals, as opposed to surveying industry

consumers. Their goal was to assess how the Internet had affected distribution and competition within

the travel sector, and they undertook ‘standardised in-depth semi-structured interviews’ as part of this:

Non probability, purposeful judgmental sampling was employed and a small number of experts of the travel industry

were targeted for in-depth interviews. The sampling criteria were the respondents’ experience of online travel, their

responsibilities and knowledge with regards to their company’s operations on the Internet as well as their overall

understanding of the industry.

Buhalis and Zoge (2007); p486

In this present study, each of the five members of staff I selected for interview (See Appendix table 1)

represents a key function of the marketing department, and their status as marketing professionals

increases the likelihood of eliciting valuable information and well-informed discussion; they can be

regarded as experts both on the company and on the industry. The structure of the interviews was

roughly standardised (see Appendix Table 2), while still allowing flexibility to facilitate unplanned topics

of discussion relevant to the research. The insight from theoretical research, combined with observation

and first-hand experience of the company, were keys that helped to guide the interview questioning. An

open approach was vital as a major aim of the interviews was to discover issues and factors experienced

by the marketing team that were unknown to the researcher. In the words of Buhalis and Zoge (2007),

“Interviewees were prompted for further information when they raised interesting issues.”

Many topics and strands of investigation were uncovered, and these have been fully integrated into the

case study and analysis. But while the aforementioned authors chose to group their data under themes

emerging from content analysis, I take a more department-based approach, first considering the

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findings under the different sub-divisions of online marketing team, before identifying the key themes

and challenges that emerge across the board.

A number of limitations affected the conducting of the project. Issues of confidentiality mean that the

staff may well have been less open to sharing all information possible. Concerns were expressed,

particularly with regards to future strategy. Although the interviewing was very fruitful, we cannot

discount the possibility that there may have been concerns about conveying the right impression of the

company, restricting the frankness of discussion. This is particularly probable with respect to

shortcomings and uncertainties; many of the negative issues explored emerged from my own

observations, rather than from the interviews.

In a similar vein, there was quite limited access to quantitative data – I was told that the competitive

nature of the industry makes the company guarded about revealing such things, to avoid the possibility

of its getting into the wrong hands. Thus the study is unable to assess effectiveness of strategy in terms

of sales figures, for example. It would have been interesting to look at correlations between activities

and web traffic/sales conversions, but in the absence of such data, the focus is restricted to qualitative

evaluations of performance. Levels of interaction on social media sites are one such barometer.

Another challenge, although small, was the issue of time. When conducting primary research in the

work environment, the daily functions of the business environment naturally take precedence over

investigative activities. Interviews often had to be postponed to accommodate staff schedules. Overall,

however, these factors only had the effect of adding a slight delay. The advantages of being an

employee within the organisation being studied were considerable. Aside from ease of access to staff,

spending months working with the marketing team helped to build a rich understanding of the

strategies employed and the challenges faced. These will be explored in the following chapters.

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4. ONLINE MARKETING AT OPEN HOUSE GROUP

Marketing at Open House Group (OH) consists more or less exclusively of online activities. The business

was established in 1997, and has evolved its online marketing approach as the Internet itself has

evolved. The company has an in-house marketing team dedicated to creating and implementing

strategies that will work in the ever more interactive and information-rich internet environment. This

chapter will consider these strategies in detail, examining the rationale behind them and analysing how

they work in practice, with particular focus on the challenges and opportunities presented by Web 2.0.

The company’s various online platforms are listed in Table 3 of the Appendix.

A Strategic Shift

Traditionally, the overreaching aim of all online marketing activity at OH is to enhance the brand’s

search engine rankings. In effect, this means ensuring that the various websites (one for each

destination) where apartments can be browsed and booked, are discovered by potential customers

searching for accommodation using Google, the largest search engine (Xiang 2009). As noted in the

research reviewed, search engine optimisation (SEO) is a major consideration for online businesses in

the travel industry as searches typically return thousands of results, with users rarely looking beyond the

first three pages (Spink 2004). The strategies employed by the department to achieve high rankings have

always been subject to change. In order to rank websites, Google uses algorithms that are constantly

being altered, sometimes on a weekly basis. Basic factors affecting a site’s rank include its age, quantity

of visitors and number of external links. (Google Webmaster Guidelines 2012) Over time, the

sophistication of these algorithms has increased, with more and different factors being taken into

account when assigning ranking value. The technical intricacies of the system are beyond the scope of

this project, and in any case are not completely at the command of even SEO professionals, due to

Google’s secrecy about its methods (Evans 2007). However, this uncertainty does not prevent

companies like OH, dependent as they are on internet traffic, from devoting considerable time and

resources to activities designed to raise their rankings. There is evidence of a shift, however, in the

strategies used, which reflects the already-mentioned shift in the character of the Internet.

Traditional search engine strategy

Initially, two of the major SEO activities undertaken by the company were link-building and creating

keyword-rich content. Through buying or exchanging hyperlinks with well-ranked pages, the company’s

own pages received a boost – known as ‘link juice’ – in the Google rankings. These links were often

20

placed in travel directories – lists of sites – or in lists on travel-related websites and blogs. They also

appear in text and posts supplied to such websites for link building purposes. The use of keywords has

been for a long time the golden rule of SEO; companies identifying popular search terms and

incorporating them into their own content for their own sites, and hyperlinked content to be seeded on

other sites. (Appleton 2010) OH is no exception to this trend; terms like ‘holiday apartment rental’ and

‘apartment in Berlin’ appear repeatedly in its content. The rationale behind keyword use (known

pejoratively as ‘keyword stuffing’ when regarded as excessive) is that Google traditionally judged a

website’s area of relevance based partly on its use of such terms (Evans 2007). Therefore if Oh-

Berlin.com used the term ‘holiday apartment in Berlin’ several times, it would be judged as highly

relevant to a search for accommodation there, and be highly ranked in the results seen by the Internet

user, increasing the flow of traffic and ultimately of possible conversions. Of course, keywords were

never the only factor Google considered, and their importance has diminished as the system of assigning

ranking has become increasingly complex (Google 2010).

“SEO 2.0”

Both link-building and keyword placement continue to be part of the company’s SEO strategy. However,

over the past 3 years, there has been a new focus on developing online content around the company’s

destinations, in the form of articles and increasingly video content as well. The launch of social media

activity on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms has also taken place. I believe these developments

reflect attempts to take the brand in a more interactive and informative direction, reacting to the

evolution of the internet from a commercial and technical platform into a more interactive and social

one (Conrady 2007; Kilion 2009). However, the move does not reflect a reduced focus on SEO; the

business is as dependent as ever on being discovered through searches. Instead, it reflects the fact that

Web 2.0 is not merely a cultural trend, but now a commercial reality. Google’s recent algorithm updates,

particularly ‘PANDA’ and ‘PENGUIN,’ magnified the importance of the quality of content provided, and

user experience in the factors affecting ranking (Kumar 2012). There are also increasing indications that

the level of social network activity associated with a brand also affects its position in the search engine

results pages (SERPs) (SEOMoz 2011; Dyer 2012). Presence in directories and lists of links have

diminished in Google ranking value, probably reflecting their falling popularity, while heavy keyword use

is now penalised in rankings (Google Webmaster Guidelines 2012). OH has adjusted its link-building

strategy to exclude directories, and more recently abandoned keyword-rich hyperlinks like ‘Prague

apartments’ for branded ones like ‘Oh-Prague.com.’ Conrady’s (2007) values of transparency,

21

experience and community can be seen at play, as rankings are increasingly based on the quality of user

experience provided by websites, and the amount of ‘social buzz’ they generate with the online

community. It is clear that OH has had to adapt its strategy to reflect the values of Web 2.0. In addition

to the rise of content marketing and social networking by OH, the nature of its online reputation

management (ORM) has also changed, in response to the rise in information transparency, another key

feature of the new online environment.

Inbound & Content Marketing (ICM)

One major aspect of OH’s developing Web 2.0 strategy is the growing emphasis on content. In addition

to the browse-and-book e-commerce sites (for example, www.oh-barcelona.com), the company has

invested considerable resources over the past two years in creating an extensive online destination

guide for Barcelona (www.oh-barcelona.com/en/blog/), which features hundreds of articles about the

city’s cultural attractions and activities. More recently, new city guides for Berlin and Rome were

launched. Interviews with staff revealed that the purpose behind these guides is linked to a relatively

new phenomenon: inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is currently something of a ‘buzzword’ in the online marketing industry (Basu 2011).

Although coined as early as 2005 (Halligan 2009), it has only begun to take off recently as a new

approach to attracting customers via the internet, and is closely linked to the user-centric Web 2.0

ethos. Digital marketing company HubSpot, widely credited with originating the trend, defines it simply:

‘Inbound marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.’ (Burnes/Hubspot 2008) It is

often contrasted with ‘outbound’ marketing, which is sometimes used to describe traditional marketing

techniques:

Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head. Instead of interrupting people with television ads,

they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they

create their own business blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling,

they create useful content and tools so that prospects contact them looking for more information.

(Burnes/Hubspot 2008)

In essence, the goal of ICM is to create content, whether in the form of articles, or multimedia, that will

attract interest from potential customers. The belief is that marketing to a small, interested and

invested group is more profitable than spreading a wide net in the hope of converting a proportion of

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those reached (Halligan 2009). This ‘build it and they will come’ approach is behind OH’s strategy of

providing detailed city guides. The articles, photographs and videos used are all produced by the

company’s employees, in the cities. This approach enables brand-building in line with the organisation’s

slogan: ‘Your Trusted Host in the City.’ In that respect, the content strategy is beneficial, as it positions

the company as not only an accommodation provider, but also as a ‘local expert’ and source of travel

information.

It is unclear, however, how much this added value benefits the company from a commercial point of

view. The problem with providing useful information for free is that it does not necessarily lead to sales.

In fact, more than one member of staff interviewed admitted that there was no appreciable level of

traffic driven to the e-commerce sites from the city guides. This is despite the inclusion of links to the

apartment booking pages within the articles. The guides also fail to provide significant SEO benefit, not

improving ranking values according to insight from the company’s head of search marketing.

Other issues affecting the effectiveness of the ICM strategy are linked to the company’s international

dimension. While the original city guide articles are written in English by a professional copywriter or

journalist, they are sent to external translators to be translated for the five other European language

sites the company operates. Questions of quality are frequently raised by native speakers within the

team, and it is almost certain that the brand-building value is not recreated across the various language

platforms. In addition to this, there was no evidence of research or targeting of content according to

audience interest, a point I develop further in chapter 5.

While the basis of an inbound, content-focused strategy is in place at OH, there is plenty of scope for

refining and improving the approach. The premise of building quality content around the destinations is

cleverly targeted to exploit the considerable appetite for online travel information (Kozak 2006; Kilion

2009), while the company’s emphasis on local sources and – more recently – established travel writers

gives it an edge over competitor sites adopting the same approach (Apartment Barcelona 2012).

However, more work needs to be done to ensure the content provides a sustainable commercial

advantage. In the next chapter, recommendations for a more effective inbound marketing strategy will

be made.

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Social Media

In 2010, OH launched the first Oh-Barcelona Facebook page (www.facebook.com/oh_barcelona). The

company now has a presence on five social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, WAYN and

Pinterest), using these to communicate directly with online audiences. The other, linked, facet of its

social media strategy is the blogger relations; identifying and building relationships with online travel

writers, in hopes of creating positive exposure and reputation.

The previous chapter touched on the rise of social networking online. From circa 2005 onwards, there

has been a consistent growth in the use and influence of the so-called social media platforms, which

now claim billions of users worldwide (Hachman 2012; Dugan 2012). Kaplan and Haenlein define these

modern platforms as:

A group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web

2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.

Kaplan (2010)

These ‘ideological’ Web 2.0 foundations on which social media are built are those of personal

experience and user-based creation. Once again there is clear evidence of the move away from ‘official’

sources of information and the rise in collaborative, community and identity-building activity. The

‘applications’ range from personal profile platforms like Facebook, to professional networks such as

LinkedIn. They also include the wide range of travel-related forums such as TripAdvisor, where

consumers discuss purchasing options and make decisions based on feedback from their peers (Gretzel

2008). Blogs, regularly updated sites often sharing personal experiences, have also proliferated. It is

estimated that in 2011, there were over 181 million blogs online, compared with just 36 million in 2006

(NielsenWire 2012).

Travel is one of the most popular blogging topics, with hundreds of thousands of sites devoted to this

subject. These are social media platforms because they began as a form of personal expression, and are

built to encourage commenting and user feedback. Research has found them to be highly influential

with travel purchasers (Pan 2007; Schmallegger 2008). This is beginning to be exploited commercially by

both bloggers and travel organisations, including OH.

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Social networking sites

The aims of the company’s social media activity were described to me as both brand-building and

selling. The primary approach seems to be establishing a relationship and dialogue with online

audiences, and this is in line with existing social media theory, which generally holds that the social

nature of these platforms makes them unsuitable for overtly commercial language or activity (Webber

2012; Akalp 2012). From this emerges one of the key challenges faced by OH in its social media strategy.

Using a destination-focused approach, as for ICM, the company’s social media platforms are updated on

a daily basis with eye-catching images and interesting facts aimed at creating positive associations, and

positioning the brand as a travel expert. Based on the increasing levels of interaction (in the form of

comments, approvals and shares from the community) and the growing size of the fan base, there

seems to be success in this brand-building drive. The more problematic question is how to convert the

social goodwill and interaction into business. While it was clear that the activity on OH’s social platforms

generated responses and engagement, it was far from clear how these platforms contributed to the e-

commerce side of the business. OH is not alone in this predicament; it has often been said that the

benefits of social media marketing are qualitative rather than quantitative, particularly in the short-

term. However, this non-quantifiability is beginning to be challenged by experts (Pouros 2012). Like the

industry in general, the social media team seems convinced that users would not tolerate a ‘pushy’

marketing approach, and steers well clear, only mentioning rental apartments – the product – very

occasionally. Again, however, there are indications that a certain degree of commercial interaction on

social media is not only tolerated but appreciated, particularly by younger users (Webtrends 2009). In

the next chapter, I will look at ways in which OH’s encouraging social media response could be leveraged

to give measurable results for the company.

To implement a social media strategy can place considerable demand on time and resources (Wasing

2012). With a total of 13 social media sites to update and monitor on Facebook, Twitter, Google+,

Pinterest and WAYN, OH’s social presence is more fragmented and cumbersome than necessary. The

instantaneous nature of the platforms means that someone has to be available to respond to comments

and questions from fans at almost any time. The company aims to reply within 6-10 hours, and on

Facebook and Twitter at least, there is plenty of evidence of swift and meaningful interaction with users,

who sometimes ask for advice on travel in the destinations. However, streamlining would make this

process more efficient and manageable. There is also talk of plans to integrate customer service for

existing clients into the social media platforms, particularly Facebook. This could not only benefit client

25

care, but would also help the social media strategy contribute more to the business as a commercial

entity, which is discussed in the next chapter.

Blogger relations

The second part of OH’s social media strategy aims to exploit the power of travel blogging and travel

bloggers. Initially, the travel industry was wary of the influence that these independent users wielded

among their target audience, particularly in the form of negative word of mouth, which could have a

negative impact on organisations criticized (Conrady 2007). Now, however, researchers like

Schmallegger (2008) believe that sponsored ‘professional blogging’ has become an industry norm in

travel, replicating to some degree the traditional relationship between the newspaper travel editor and

the resort or hotel chain. There is now even a semi-professional international community of travel

bloggers – The Travel Bloggers’ Exchange (TBEX) – whose activities and conferences are sponsored by

big travel organizations, such as Expedia and Canada Tourism (TBEX 2012). Aside from establishing a

presence at TBEX, OH’s strategy involves identifying influential travel bloggers; those with a significantly

large and engaged online following (largely as indicated by social media metrics such as number of

Twitter followers). These are generally bloggers already making money from reviewing and hosting

advertisements. The company offers to host them free-of-charge in a rental apartment in return for

coverage, most often in the form of photos of the apartment, mentions of the brand and links to the

company’s sites. In this way, OH seeks to build a reputation for its product among highly-engaged and

travel-focused audiences.

The challenges that face the company in this field are linked to the recurring issue of reconciling social

with commercial activity. Despite the undeniable commercialization of the travel blogosphere (Cowper

2011), the bloggers OH deals with tend to strongly value their independence, cultivating their image as

global explorers discovering the world, rather than as brand promoters or publicists. The latter image, in

all likelihood, would damage their influence, given that readers of blogs place a great value on their

objectivity (Pan 2007). Thus from the bloggers’ point of view the challenge is an ethical one; how can

they remain objective while accepting complimentary services in return for granting exposure? This

worry can limit the extent of positive word of mouth bestowed on the company by the writers. The

ambiguity created by an essentially commercial exchange masquerading as a spontaneous social output

can also make it difficult for OH to be sure of its return on investment. One blogging couple was

provided with free accommodation in multiple cities on the understanding that they would share photos

and brand mentions with their social media fans, but in the end their output was disappointingly low.

26

The company is now tentatively trying to avoid these scenarios by drafting written agreements

specifying, for example, a required number of mentions, but there is always the fear of a backlash. With

users so concerned about objectivity, it could only take one disgruntled blogger to damage the

company’s reputation.

It is clear that OH’s online marketing strategy is evolving and developing in response to the trends and

challenges of Web 2.0. The company’s application of emerging industry strategies like inbound

marketing reflects its commitment to an approach increasingly built on user engagement, interactivity

and experience. The social media strategy mirrors the content strategy with its emphasis on destination

marketing, but also seeks to build conversation and reputation by engaging users and unofficial industry

influencers: the travel bloggers. But the company faces significant challenges in the Web 2.0

environment, not least of which is trying to convey a commercial message without alienating a ‘social’

audience. Also, I suggest that there is a need to more fully exploit the interactive potential of Web 2.0,

as well as its very international scope. The next chapter sets out some ways in which these hurdles could

be overcome. It also recommends ways in which the existing strategy can be adjusted and improved to

make better use of the opportunities presented by the current online climate.

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5. HOW SHOULD OH MEET THE CHALLENGES OF WEB 2.0?

I have identified three major challenges facing Open House Group (OH) in its attempts to develop an

online marketing strategy that fully exploits the web 2.0 environment. This chapter presents three

corresponding sets of recommendations suggesting how the company can deal with these issues. Firstly,

there is often no clear commercial advantage created by its current activities, chiefly the inbound (ICM)

and social media aspects, which focus on building brand but could also be leveraged for more tangible

results. Secondly, the levels of engagement and interaction from the audience, although positive and

growing, need to be further enhanced in order to build a truly engaged and eventually lucrative

community. Thirdly, the company is failing to take advantage of the global opportunities presented by

today’s Internet, and particularly given the current economic climate, I will suggest that the time is ripe

to develop a strategy that is targeted, and actively seeks to go beyond the borders of Europe.

Adding commercial value

ICM strategy

As outlined previously, the company employs a strategy of destination marketing, developing written

and video content around each of the cities in order to create interest and develop the brand as a

source of expert local knowledge. Unfortunately, the benefits do not go far beyond this, as there is no

linked increase in traffic or apartment bookings. In order to make the content work commercially, there

needs to be a shift in the way it is created, managed and shared.

Currently, there is no evidence of research done into demand for content. Instead, the articles on the

city guides are created based on specific tourist attractions, or aspects of local culture that the authors

deem interesting. One of the basic principles of content marketing is that content needs to be of

interest and use to the viewer, as this will encourage traffic and sharing (Defren 2012; Kramer 2012).

Therefore it would be useful to conduct research into the kind of information that the audience is

looking for. It is also vital to get a better understanding of who that audience is. Although traffic figures

are available for the city guides, it is not really known who the readers are nor at what stage in the sales

funnel (ProBlogger 2010) they are when they read them. A better understanding of this would also help

to guide the content. One way to assess this would be to analyse the traffic sources, a component of the

Google Analytics package which shows which sites visitors are coming from. In the case of search engine

28

referrals, it also reveals which search terms lead them to the company website. If a certain term is

popular at one time, for example, ‘city beach Berlin,’ OH could meet this demand by creating a new

piece of content on that theme, boosting search engine rankings at the same time.

Another problem with the content strategy is that currently, too much information is available for free.

For example, it is entirely possible for a prospective traveller to research and plan a trip to Barcelona

using the Oh-Barcelona city guide, creating an itinerary of top attractions and gaining useful insider tips

and local information from the website, without making a single contribution to the company.

Eventually, the decision to travel being made, accommodation could be booked from an entirely

different website that offers no destination information, but rock-bottom prices. This kind of low-fidelity

behaviour is very normal among Internet travel consumers (Buhalis 2007). I would suggest that the

amount of free information on the city guides be streamlined down to a few useful but basic articles and

video, perhaps twenty or thirty instead of the hundreds that are now available. The full city guide can

then be provided in exchange for value, not necessarily money, but data, recognised as a vital

commodity in online marketing (Accela 2005). Increasingly, company websites are offering useful

content – often in the form of a PDF download – in exchange for an email address, which they can use

for direct marketing in future. Such an approach would be one way for OH to extract more value from its

content. Similarly, a short questionnaire in exchange for access to the full city guide would allow OH to

gather more information about, for example, what travellers would like to know before they go on

holiday. This data would then help to inform future content creation.

It has been noted already that personalisation and customisation is integral to the Web 2.0 ethos.

Another way that OH could utilise its destination-based content would be to provide it to consumers

after booking an apartment, and allow them to select and deselect different articles and videos to build

a personalised itinerary or guidebook, based on their own interests. Enhancing the after-sales offering in

this way would be likely to improve customer loyalty, while monitoring the popularity of different

articles and videos would provide more useful data to guide content planning.

Social media

The social media strategy so far focuses on building relationships and interactions with the audience.

This is showing increasing signs of success. Many techniques have been developed for initiating

discussions, and attracting approval ratings (‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ on Facebook, for example), not least of

29

which is publishing attractive photos of the various destinations. Now, however, there needs to be more

emphasis on the commercial side of the business. Many travel organisations have effectively integrated

booking services and special deals into their Facebook pages, for example Vueling (2012) and STA Travel

(2012). While continuing to engage their fans with destination-focused updates, the Vueling airline and

STA Travel pages also function as commercial platforms. I suggest OH needs to adopt a similar approach.

Currently, it is not immediately clear from any of the social media platforms that they are linked to an

accommodation provider.1

Boosting engagement and interaction

User-generated content (UGC)

As discussed in previous chapters, UGC is one of the most salient features of Web 2.0. Internet users are

no longer content to be passive absorbers of information, but instead have come to expect

opportunities for input and sharing (Wilson 2012), largely as a result of the interactive web with its

culture of social media, blogging and discussion platforms (O’Reilly 2005; Kozak 2006). Travel companies

are tapping into this phenomenon, OH among them. In spring 2012 the company ran very successful

UGC campaign: ‘Go with Oh,’ inviting travel bloggers to enter a competition for an accommodation-paid

trip around Europe. The entries were made in the form of articles, published on the bloggers’ own sites,

featuring the Go with Oh logo, links to the company site and social media platforms. The result was a

huge surge in brand exposure; OH effectively created 140 brand ambassadors, each spreading the word

with their own audience of travel enthusiasts. Such is the potential of user-generated content; it saves

the company’s own resources while at the same time opening up broader access for the brand message.

I strongly recommend that the company invest more in similar incentivised competitions, but with wider

appeal. One criticism of the ‘Go with Oh’ campaign is that it was limiting in its requirements: not

everyone has a travel blog, after all. It also required a time commitment in the form of writing and

illustrating the articles. This meant that the target was a relatively small group of internet users;

research shows that most users are viewers or curators. Although 77% of internet users read blogs, only

19 million people are believed to write their own original content, compared with the 3.46 billion who

1 In fact since the time of writing, a ‘Plan Your Trip’ application has been integrated into the Oh-Barcelona

Facebook page, linking users to the apartments booking page. There is also a dedicated discount code provided for

users of the page. Both of these developments represent steps towards making the social media strategy more

commercially beneficial. In time, I would recommend similar changes be rolled out across all the destinations.

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read them (Singer 2009; NielsenWire 2012). Considering that 46% of adult internet users now share

their own photos and videos online (Rainie 2012), a photography competition, for example, would

potentially attract many more entries. Travel by its nature as a personal and social experience is very

conducive to the taking and sharing of photos, which are quickly and easily created and require no

professional expertise. The rise of digital photography and the Web 2.0 social sharing culture now makes

it even easier for people to enter such competitions. Using Twitter, for instance, OH could call for users

to enter by ‘tweeting’ (uploading and publishing) their image and tagging the ‘Go with Oh’ account. This

tagging creates a link to the company profile page, thus publicising the brand to each entrant’s network

of followers. Such a campaign would also provide a bank of user-generated images that could be used

promotionally by OH in future, potentially increasing audience investment in the brand by allowing them

to directly shape its output.

Community-building

Chapter 2 included a detailed look at the popularity of online travel forums as a source of information to

travel bookers. According to its own data, TripAdvisor, the largest travel forum, now hosts 75 million

consumer-created reviews and has 32 million members (TripAdvisor 2012) OH is one of the 1.6 million

businesses mentioned by users of the platform, and so the company employs a policy of monitoring the

forums regularly for mentions, responding to complaints where necessary with a message of apology or

explanation from a senior member of staff. This minimal intervention approach has become by and large

an industry standard; the company’s own experience show that involvement beyond this, for example in

the form of self-promotion, causes a backlash, as forum users react negatively to commercialisation of

what they deem a social and objective space (Pan 2007).

But this does not mean that travel forums hold no commercial benefit for the company. On the

contrary, I would suggest that the enthusiasm that forum users have for contributing to and curating

such platforms (TripAdvisor receives 50 new contributions per minute) is a force that OH could harness,

by creating its own travel community. Already, on the social networks Facebook and Twitter, there is

evidence of an involved and engaged fan base. I suggest that if OH were to create an online forum

where it was easy and simple to share photos and opinions, on travel topics, an interactive community

could be built. Such a community would be a valuable source of consumer insight for the company, who

could initiate discussions about key topics such as which destinations people want to visit or what

facilities they consider indispensable in holiday accommodation. The challenge, as always, would be to

31

avoid over-commercialization and encourage organic social interaction, while still conveying the brand

message. Done right, this forum would allow a deeper connection to be made between the brand and

its audience. Other businesses, alert to the possibilities of this conversation-driven approach, are

beginning to use services such as Ning.com to set up their own social spaces (Mashable 2012).

Expanding global horizons

As discussed in Chapter 2, one of the vital aspects of Web 2.0 is its growing international scope. It was

originally anticipated that a large part of this project would deal with the strategies that OH uses to

market online to global audiences; the nature of the business as both an online enterprise and a travel

accommodation provider means that a large proportion of its traffic and business comes from outside

its base country of Spain. However, the research conducted through observation, interviews and

analysis of the online content revealed very little evidence of an international strategy beyond

multilingual output. Each of the e-commerce sites and destination guides is available in English, Spanish,

German, French, Italian and Dutch. These choices were not based particularly on initial research into the

market, but represent the main European languages. This reflects the fact that when the company

started in 1997, it was expected that European tourists would be the major, if not the only, market.

Fifteen years on, the multilingual approach has allowed the company to grow by attracting traffic from

different countries in Europe, but it is not doing enough to exploit the potential offered by the

increasingly global nature of the web.

Content creation and targeting

As mentioned in the previous chapter, there is a problem of translation quality that has been noted by

many within the workforce. The texts produced for the websites are marketing communications, and so

are written to a high grammatical standard, in a persuasive tone, neither of which is necessarily

reproduced by the translations. The importance of good translations and local language is an important

element in establishing trust from foreign language audiences online (Gracia 2011; King 2012).

Therefore this would be the first issue to tackle; ensuring that the quality of the brand message as it is

communicated in English is replicated effectively across the board.

Secondly, the current strategy of replicating web copy, destination articles, and social media updates,

seems to reflect an assumption that the needs of all the different market groups can be met with the

same communication. There is plenty of evidence to suggest, however, that adopting a more culturally-

32

nuanced approach to online marketing yields better results. Studies have shown that there are national

and cultural variations in general online behaviour and attitudes (Chau 2002), what kind of web content

audiences are interested in, and how they go about searching for it online (Flomenbaum 2012; Chung

2008). One recent investigation revealed intra-European cultural differences in the reasons motivating

travellers to share their experiences online, and in the platforms where they choose to do so (Wilson

2012). This is particularly relevant to OH as a European company trying to develop a more interactive

and user-generated strategy. The company should take an analytical look at the characteristics and

demands of its different markets and develop a more targeted communications offering. For example,

interviews revealed that popularity of its destinations varied from market to market, with Barcelona

performing best in French. A small insight like this might be used to inform a particular push towards

that destination on the French website, a Francophone social media campaign, or perhaps a discount

offering for other cities in that market, to try and boost French bookings in the less popular destinations.

Going beyond Europe

While today’s internet offers the possibility to market to international audiences, my research indicates

that OH’s online marketing is Eurocentric and thus not exploiting the wider opportunities now available.

The vast majority of its bookings currently come from within Europe, and there was a downplaying of

the importance of other markets when I explored this topic during the interviews. Plans for new

directions were hinted at but concerned further European languages – Portuguese or Swedish.

Although the travel industry by its very nature might suggest a long tradition of international horizons,

the famous globalisation phenomenon has had as much of an impact on the sector in the past two

decades as on other, more local industries (Horner 2005). The reason is twofold: traditionally, Europeans

travelled overwhelmingly within the continent, and the dominance of travel agents meant that most

businesses in the industry dealt mainly with local customers, although they were sending them abroad

on holiday (Buhalis 2007; Kilion 2009). The international business boom of the 1980s and the arrival of

the internet in the 1990s each played a part in bringing travel businesses and consumers from different

parts of the world into contact (Horner 2005). Breakdown of political barriers and increasing prosperity

in traditionally poorer regions have also fuelled this trend. Tourists from Asia, Russia, the Middle East

and Latin America are travelling internationally in unprecedented numbers (Risi/UNWTO 2011; Jing

2011) and use of Internet as a gateway to travel services is increasing in countries like India and China

(Kilion 2009). As Horner (2005) warns in his study of globalisation in the leisure industry, companies like

33

OH can no longer afford to simply focus on the European tourist market. This is especially true given the

current economic recession from which the continent’s travel market is still struggling to recover

(UNWTO 2011). I believe that OH’s global approach needs to go beyond simply operating in six different

European languages. There should be a concerted effort to develop understanding of demand,

behaviour and attitudes of travellers from potentially lucrative tourist markets such as China and Russia

(Jing 2011), with the aim of creating a targeted online marketing strategy to attract bookings from these

regions. This would necessarily require adding new languages, but more importantly, different tactics.

If, for example, it was found that most visitors from China travel for business, the tone, content and

platforms chosen for the Chinese online marketing would reflect this. I agree with Thomas (2008) that

‘firms using Internet marketing in the international arena should use localization of language and

content to effectively serve foreign markets.’

34

6. CONCLUSION

This project has generated many useful insights into the implications of the ‘second generation’ of

internet – Web 2.0 – for marketing online in the travel industry. As the literature review revealed, there

is a lack of specific research into how exactly businesses in this sector are reacting to the phenomenon.

The first of the four research questions asked: ‘How has the increasingly interactive and social web – the

so-called Web 2.0 – affected the online travel domain?’ Through exploration of industry literature, and

observation of company practice at OH, it has become evident that the effect on the sector is significant.

Consumers of travel across the world are keen and active users of the internet, embracing and shaping

the interactive and social ethos of Web 2.0 by sharing their experiences in blogs and online travel

forums, turning away from industry sources and seeking advice and information from each other

(Compete 2006; Wilson 2012). The rise of consumer-fed platforms such as TripAdvisor is a key indicator

of this cultural shift. While slow to react initially, businesses in the travel industry are now recognising

the importance of these changes in relation to their online marketing strategy. The business-consumer

broadcasting approaches that once worked have to be adapted, and in many cases, swept aside.

The second and third research questions sought to investigate in depth the effects of this trend on one

travel organisation. In answering ‘What is Open House Group’s current online marketing strategy?’ it

became clear that this strategy was fluid and evolving, in response to Web 2.0. OH increasingly relies on

social networking, inbound marketing and the blogosphere to maintain and increase its appeal to

potential customers. There is evidence of a move from a sales-focused approach to one that is more

focused on building interaction and relationships with the audience. OH adopted a destination

marketing approach, using its ten cities as topics around which to develop multimedia content and

conversation, via online city guides and social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. The

company is also attempting to leverage the power of travel bloggers, unofficial industry experts with

high online influence, in order to build a positive brand reputation. This echoes wider developments in

the online marketing arena; as the Internet has become more user-led and experience-focused,

companies have been forced to react by offering more to users than a mere sales platform, and to court

the favour of the travel bloggers (Schmallegger 2008).

The project then investigated: ‘What challenges and opportunities face a medium-sized travel enterprise

like Open House Group trying to market in the Web 2.0 environment?’ One of the major challenges faced

by companies is reconciling the commercial aims of the business with the increasingly social and

35

community-based approach demanded by the new web culture. This culture also presents the challenge

of how to boost interaction and engagement among potential customers, and harness the power of the

online community, which is a major marketing opportunity. A third issue identified was the absence of a

strategy for targeting the different global audiences now emerging as important and active users of

online travel services.

Finally, the fourth research question asked: ‘How should a medium-sized travel enterprise like Open

House Group adapt its online marketing strategy to meet these challenges and opportunities?’ Through

analysing OH’s online marketing strategy, I have identified a number of areas for development in Web

2.0 marketing. I have recommended that OH increase commercial return by following other travel

providers in beginning to integrate e-commerce into their social media platforms. I also suggested that a

more demand-based content strategy should be adopted, and that more travel information be

exchanged for contact data and consumer insights rather than made freely available.

Travel businesses marketing online must also fully exploit the travel consumer’s appetite for opinion-

sharing and content generation. The popularity of photo-sharing and travel forums provide

opportunities to create and manage interactive communities of brand ambassadors. Finally, the

company’s current approach to global marketing is inadequate given its position as a travel provider,

and the market opportunities available. Instead of remaining stuck in an early web model of simply

replicating offering across different languages, internet travel providers like OH need to apply the Web

2.0 values of customisation and user experience, developing a targeted and localised marketing strategy

for different international markets, especially those in the emerging tourist economies.

This project has built on earlier research which established the foundation premise: that a wave of

increasingly social, interactive and opinionated internet users have made Web 2.0 very relevant to the

travel industry, by using the new platforms as a tool for research, service reviewing (Gretzel 2008), peer-

to-peer consultation (Xiang 2010) and purchase decisions (Compete 2006). The present study has

approached this phenomenon from the industry point of view, conducting a detailed investigation into

how online marketing practices are evolving in response to it, and recommending strategies based on

the current internet environment. Building on this project, future research into the qualitative and

quantitative effectiveness of the marketing techniques explored would provide further valuable insight.

It is vital that service providers in the travel sector discover and apply the most effective methods of

online communication, given the meteoric rise of the internet as a forum, information resource and

marketplace for travel products.

36

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42

APPENDIX

*Interviews took place in June 2012 in a private meeting room at the Barcelona premises of

Open House Group. They lasted between 30-45 minutes.

Table 2 The three overarching interview questions**

Question

1. Describe [sub-department’s] role within the company’s online marketing

2. What challenges and limitations do you face in marketing OH via [sub-

department]?

3. How have these online marketing approaches changed over time and what are

the factors affecting these changes?

**As elaborated in the Methodology section, a flexible approach was taken, with these

questions providing only a basic framework for the discussions. While avoiding leading the

interviewees, discussions always attempted to discover to what extent Web 2.0 factors –

interactivity, customization, social networking, transparency – affected online marketing

decisions.

Table 1 Interview details*

Staff member Sub-department/Role at Open House Group

Paul Anderson Marketing Manager

Nathalie Laurent Online Reputation Management (ORM) & Partner Relations

Julie Sheridan Content Manager

Luis Gasca Search & Direct Marketing Manager

Sara Robles Romero Social Media Manager

43

Table 3 Open House Group online presence ***

E-commerce site Social media platforms

www.openhousegroup.com -

www.gowithoh.com www.facebook.com/gowithoh

www.twitter.com/gowithoh

www.oh-barcelona.com www.facebook.com/ohbarcelona

www.facebook.com/OhBarcelonaES

www.twitter.com/oh_barcelona

www.oh-berlin.com www.facebook.com/OhBerlin

www.twitter.com/oh_berlin

www.oh-rome.com www.facebook.com/OhRome

www.twitter.com/Oh_Rome

www.oh-prague.com -

www.oh-dublin.com -

www.oh-london.com -

www.oh-paris.com -

www.oh-vienna.com -

www.oh-venice.com -

www.oh-florence.com -

***There are a number of less used social media profiles on Pinterest, WAYN. These were not a

significant part of the activity while I was at the company and have not been listed here. The

Google Plus profiles have also been omitted from the list because of their low impact, and the

fact that any posts shared there were duplicated from the Facebook output.