Hitwise and Experian Company published a chart that illustrates the percentage of all UK Internet visits accounted for by the largest and most significant online categories – and how this situation has changed over the last three years.

This data chimes nicely with the findings of the latest Ofcom Communications Market Report. It concluded that the communications market has not been particularly harmed by the recession, and that ‘the internet and TV is regarded as a higher priority than almost anything except food.’

Read the full report on the Hitwise blog

The ETC/UNWTO Handbook on E-Marketing for Tourism Destinations is the first comprehensive e-marketing handbook for tourism destinations. The all-new 300-page publication is a practical ‘how-to’-manual for tourism destination staff at national, regional and city tourism organisations, designed to help improve e-marketing skills and manage new projects.

The book covers all the basics including website design, search engine optimisation, email marketing, social networking, and e-commerce. It has advice on how to build better content, get distribution of it, use CRM, succeed with online PR, support the travel trade on-territory, and get into mobile marketing. Web analytics, online research methods, and performance measurement get full treatment, and new areas such as digital television are also covered. It also includes over 30 examples of e-marketing in action.

Find more information at http://www.etc-corporate.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=230

Recommendations by personal acquaintances and opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising globally, according to the latest twice-yearly Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 internet consumers from 50 countries.

The Nielsen survey, the largest of its kind, shows that 9 in every 10 internet consumers worldwide trust recommendations from people they know, whilst 7 in every 10 trust consumer opinions posted online.

However, in this new age of consumer control, advertisers will be encouraged by the fact that brand websites - the most trusted form of advertiser-led advertising - are trusted by as many people (70%) as consumer opinions posted online. (Nielsen, July 2009)

Twihotels.com, a new Twitter application that helps users to tweet their hotel requirements, has been launched. According to hotelsmag.com, users input their request parameters on TwiHotels.com, and the site then tweets the room requests from @twihotels.

Several hoteliers are already monitoring the twihotels feed and would theoretically respond to the requesting person with relevant offers. It added the site is in beta mode right now.

Twihotels also includes a search feature on the site, according to a report filed by Inventorspot. To discover relevant hotel queries, one can do a specific keyword search or can also opt for advanced search that provides drop down results based on country and city names.

Twihotels.com is an incubation of MapXL, a division of Compare Infobase Limited.

The company mentioned that Twihotels is an OAuth based application. (It added that Twitter and other social networking sites such as Facebook recommend OAuth, which requires no registration. It does not involve sharing username details). OAuth is described as an open protocol to allow secure API authorisation in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications. (EyeForTravel, August 2009)

Did you know that mobile broadband subscribers worldwide topped the 225 million mark at the end of March 2009, representing 93% year on year growth, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.

Around a third of young adults (those under 36) in the UK regularly access sites such as Facebook and Twitter from their mobile phones, according to a survey among more than 1,000 adults between 16 and 35 years old in the UK by CCS Insight. The research company noted that the 16 to 24 year-olds are often cited as the most vibrant segment of the market, but when it comes to buying mobile content, it’s those over 24 who are doing the spending.

Coincidentally, UK mobile operator O2 said that it has forged an agreement with Twitter allowing users to receive free SMS alerts from Twitter. The deal follows up existing agreements from Facebook and Bebo and takes effect from August 2009. As part of the deal, Twitter will be heavily promoted on O2’s Active portal and will likely be expanded to Telefonica’s other operations. O2 said that over a million customers per month now access social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook using O2 Active, bolstered by hundreds of thousands of iPhone users who have downloaded social networking applications. O2 believe that mobile will soon become the most popular way of accessing social networking sites, giving real time access to tweets and status updates wherever you are. (Telecoms.com, July 2009)

On another note BT willturn cash machines into Wi-Fi hotspots, in a five-year deal with ATM provider Cashbox. The BT Openzone wireless broadband service will initially be available in 10 locations, including sites in London, Manchester and Glasgow.

However Cashbox is looking to expand its connectivity to more of its 2,500 ATM sites. BT broadband customers with inclusive Wi-Fi minutes as well as O2 iPhone users will be able to use the service. (ITPRO, June 2009).

The lack of user-friendly handsets contributed to a slow take-up of mobile Web services in the UK. But things may be changing. The launch of the 3G iPhone in the summer of 2008 gave the market a big boost, according to eMarketer. Nifty, practical iPhone applications such as maps, GPS services, games, news and social networking have caught consumers’ attention and are starting to build momentum.

Estimates of UK mobile internet users still range between just 7.2 million and 17.4 million, however.

Comparative estimates: UK mobile internet users, 2008:
- Mobile Data Association (MDA), February 2009: 17.4 million
- comScore M:Metrix, December 2008: 12.9 million
- Nielsen Online, November 2008: 7.2 million

According to the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), more mobile users in the UK are accessing the internet via computer than by handset.

UK adults who have accessed the internet via selected mobile devices, 2008 (as a % of respondents):
- Portable computer (laptop) via wireless connection: 23% (up from 18% in 2007)
- Mobile phone via GPRS: 15% (15%)
- Hanheld computer (PDA): 4% (4%)
- Mobile phone via UMTS (3G mobile): 4% (3%)

A majority of internet users not yet connected via phone would like Web access on their mobile, according to eMarketer. But compelling content and services are needed to attract more converts.

In fact, iPhones are not for everyone. In the short term, there is a lack of proven, affordable internet-ready handset alternatives that meet a range of consumer and professional needs.

The financial crisis has overtaken content providers and mobile developers too, slowing the migration of prime content to the mobile Internet. But the mobile Web is gaining ground in the UK, and soon the audience will be large and broad enough to interest mainstream advertisers. (eMarketer, March 2009)

Mobile marketing will take significant steps next year, albeit from a small base, as more UK advertisers, heartened by the growing number of high-specification (3G) mobile users, move to exploit this always-on medium.  Data from the Office for National Statistics suggested that 19% of adults ages 16 and older accessed the Web via their mobile phone in the three months prior to polling in early 2008, and this was before the highly successful UK launch of the 3G iPhone in July.

The 2009 mobile growth spurt will take two main forms: increasingly sophisticated usage of SMS, short codes and bar codes in direct-response campaigns, and microsites designed for mobile users. November 2008 research by mobile marketing agency Sponge found that 40% of UK e-retailers polled already had a transactional Website that was mobile-friendly. Another 50% said they planned to create such a site in the next 12 months. Moreover, one in five online retailers reported having used mobile microsites to drive promotions during 2008. (eMarketer, December 2008)

Travel companies should focus on using mobile phone technology to improve their customer service levels until the public is ready to start buying through their handset, delegates at World Travel Market were recently told.  

Gerry Samuels, founder and executive director at Mobile Travel Technologies, told delegates at an EyeforTravel seminar that right now it was only the developing countries, who had leapfrogged the PC, that were booking travel in large numbers on the mobile phone platform.

Mobile users in developed countries instead saw their phones as a means of emailing and searching only, with some responding well to promotional offers which meant they could react immediately to offers.  Generic booking will take a little longer in the developed markets.

Markets such as Japan, which is accepted as being a few years ahead of the UK, reached a tipping point in 2006 where there are more people accessing the internet through mobiles than PCs. This is because they have 3G networks everywhere and it is affordable.  In the UK mobile phone internet is seen as a means to check emails in dead time on the road, while the Japanese are out and about making travel bookings.

The need to improve access for mobile internet users was also highlighted.  Some travel sites have poor useability for mobile users, and it is important to optimise search engines as most users will use a search site such as Google or Yahoo, rather than going directly to the site. (TravelMole,  November 2008).

More from ADK will follow in in our next blog update.

Tourist destination VisitBrighton hopes to become the “First Photosynth City” as its use of Microsoft’s cutting-edge technology gathers pace.

New Mind, the destination management supplier for Brighton, has incorporated Photosynth, a new feature of Microsoft’s Bing Maps for Enterprise, into its Destination Management System (DMS). Photosynth allows users to take a selection of photos depicting a scene or object and ‘automagically’ ‘stitch’ them all together to make an interactive 3D experience to share on the web.

With visitors to the VisitBrighton site already exploring synths of popular landmarks including Brighton Pier and the Royal Pavilion - tourism bosses are now encouraging local accommodation providers, restaurants and attractions to seize the opportunity to create their own synths and ‘bring their businesses to life’. (TravelDailyNews, July 2009)

The online travel industry is lagging behind other sectors when it comes to website engagement and customer service, according to the first eTravel Benchmark survey by eDigitalResearch.

As part of this survey, eDigitalResearch compared 18 ferry, cruise and airline websites in seven key areas ranging from first impressions to the search and booking process.

When measured using the net promoter score to find out which are most likely to be recommended through word of mouth, travel companies achieved an average score of 5. In other recent eDigitalResearch benchmarking studies, the retail sector scored 27, finance 18 and car manufacturing 7.

The survey finds that the online travel sector is clearly lagging behind. Overall, ferry operators fared better in the survey with P&O Ferries emerging as the top performer and Stena Line second. Airlines, however, were let down by poor first impressions and disappointing customer service. When measured on telephone customer service, only British Airways made it into the top 10 rankings, rated seventh, and just two airlines (Virgin Atlantic and BA) scored highly enough to make the top 10 for email customer service.

The results indicate that online travel sites need to look beyond the ‘wow’ factor and work harder at improving the entire end-to-end website experience, according to eDigitalResearch. The company indicated that although there are clear leaders in certain categories, there is not one operator who has managed to tick all the boxes consistently.

Based on overall performance, the 18 websites were ranked as follows, with their overall score indicated:

- P&O Ferries: 86.1%
- StenaLine: 84.9%
- Princess Cruises: 84.7%
- Thomson Flights: 84.3%
- P&O Cruises: 84.1%
- Brittany Ferries: 83.3%
- British Airways: 81.8%
- SeaFrance: 81.3%
- Virgin Atlantic: 79.6%
- Royal Caribbean Cruises: 79.4%
- easyJet: 78.0%
- Cunard: 77.3%
- Fred Olsen Cruises: 77.0%
- Ryanair: 76.9%
- bmibaby: 76.3%
- Celebrity Cruises: 75.0%
- Monarch: 74.0%
- Eurotunnel: 68.2%

The eTravel Benchmark survey will be repeated in September. (Travelmole, July 2009)

ADK Ltd assists tourism and travel businesses to adopt engaging websites and to use design to their advantage. Once way they have done this is through their Design for Tourism Programme