Small Business Challenge : Internet Marketing in the Travel Sector

Recently I visited the New York Times Travel Show to find out how are small businesses in the travel industry marketing themselves during the down economy? The New York Times Travel Show, Feb. 6-8, is the largest consumer and travel trade show of its kind in the U.S.
The entire travel industry has felt the impact of the recession. Hardest hit are smaller tour operators focused on one specific destination, as well as some destinations with a glut of accommodations- like Vegas. The challenge is how do you market your business, sell services in a down economy when you have a product that is not a “need” but a “want” ?
Many businesses represented at the show indicated online advertising and social media will play a key role in their 2009 marketing plans- regardless of the economic slowdown.
As an Interactive Marketing Consultant for the tourism industry I see trends such as: moving some money from Pay per Click to Lead Generation. Bidding on Google can be quite competitive and small budgets go fast. When clicks don’t convert it can be hard to have a strong presence in Google Adwords. Surprisingly many of my smaller travel clients are finding Google is not performing for them. Part of this is due to a lack of knowledge on how to mange bids/keywords and ad groups- which can be a full time job. Anyone with $ 50 can create a GoogleAdwords campaign, but that doesn’t mean you are equipped to manage a campaign.
People want tangible results. In lead generation or CPL you only pay per lead received. You also receive the actual email address and contact information of the person that clicks on you unique landing page (part of the lead gen campaign). At the end of the campaign you now own the database of leads. Once you have that “contact info” you can market to them again and again at no cost. I work with lead generation programs in addition to other interactive advertising programs for tourism clients – feel free to post a question