By Mark Hodson, editor, 101 Holidays
Before the internet, people used to book holidays on the high street (imagine!). We’d pop into our friendly local travel agent, pick up a bundle of brochures then return a few days later to pay a deposit. Actually, large numbers of people still do this.
Then along came travel websites, complete with search boxes, live prices and (sometimes) online booking. Most travel companies love the web because they don’t need to spend a fortune on printing expensive brochures. But it turns out that the public aren’t so chuffed.
At yesterday’s Travolution Summit, a one-day conference in London about online travel, several speakers highlighted the fact that users of travel websites want to see more glossy pics - just like in those old brochures.
Giles Longhurst, director of the publisher Frommer’s Unlimited, presented the findings of a survey that showed - among other things - what users dislike about travel websites. The most common complaint: insufficient pictures. (You can download the full report here.)
Another speaker who highlighted the importance of photos on travel sites was Jim Cruickshank, director of product management at the Microsoft-owned search engine, Bing.
Cruickshank reported that while 80% of people say they are satisfied with search engines, only 30% are happy with how the results are presented. He predicted a “radical” change, particularly in travel, where he promised a “huge focus” on “deepening the experience”.
“Users are fnding travel searches particularly difficult. We need to change up the search experience, to help people cut through the cacophony of search results. Currently it’s all about pages of blue links,” he told the audience.
Top of Cruickshank’s list of proposed changes: more images.
Bing has already experimented publicly with Visual Search (see below) although the Travel section is a bit skinny. The aim, says Cruickshank, is for users to be able to “search travel destination by images”.
Funnily, that’s exactly what we’ve been doing at 101 Holidays, albeit in a simpler form. Our original homepage - designed by the very talented Gary Homewood - was intended to capture the fun of flicking through a travel brochure.
But the problem for travel websites is the dearth of decent travel photographs. Many tour operators, hoteliers and tourist boards seem reluctant to invest in professional photographers. A company might spend tens of thousands of pounds on building on a new website, but leave nothing in the budget for those all-important images. Meanwhile, travel photographers are giving up the profession because they can’t make a living out of it.
Something’s wrong. Perhaps we need to recognise the simple, vital pleasure of looking at a beautiful photograph, and how that connects us with the travel experience.
