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.
Like this? Email a link or share it with your friends
Nice post and agree entirely. Photos generate a desire to travel but they also convey huge amounts of information in a very short period of time. The caveat is that you get a lot more natural search traffic from text but perhaps that might change.
Totally agree, Mark. I’ve been banging on about the need for Travel Companies, Tourist Offices, DMCs and PRs to be much more photo active for ages.
Every website, every blogger, needs a constant supply of pictures, quickly, and PRs can exploit that…but often don’t.
Yesterday a PR emailed me some photos I’d requested. “Can you tell me where you are going to use them?” she asked. I replied with a url. “Here. 5 days ago”.
That is not an isolated example. It is the norm.
The other problem area is image library registration. I’m registered with loads of travel organisation image libraries. Very useful… but strangely the images you need for a story are always in a library you don’t have a login for. That means a registration process that rarely gets completed inside 24hrs. Too late. If you have relevant images (or other resources) for a news story in a library, put a generic login/password on the press release.
Some organisations invest heavily in their imagery and one stands out in particular for me. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell the Austrian National Tourist Board that the money and effort they have always put into all their press and promotional photography is admired and appreciated! :)
Two more points before I finish this ramble…
I don’t know if Jim Cruickshank covered it, and most people know about it anyway, but I’m amazed how many websites miss the opportunity – usually because of lazy CMS systems – to make the most of the (now required) ALT attribute in IMG tags. Always write a full description of the image in there! That’s how Bing will find it.
and…
Hope you don’t mind me riding your coat-tails on this but, at the British Guild of Travel Writers we have some truly amazing travel photographers. They often have particular expertise in subjects or destinations and are usually out in the field doing it right now – maybe in your new tour destination. If any of the Travolution Summit attendees were inspired to source more photos I’d be happy to point them in the right direction.
I’m not really supposed to, because it theoretically dilutes sales of the BGTW yearbook (so don’t tell our Chairman or Treasurer!), but I’ve extracted a list of guild photographers and their ‘special interests’ from our database and I’ll slip it to any Travsummit attendee who’d like to email me – webmaster@bgtw.org
Thanks, Alastair. Some great points, and good advice on alt attributes. I would also encourage travel companies to employ some of the photographers at the Guild.
Hi Mark
Well, I’m certainly no “big name” in the travel industry, but I have always believed that lots of great quality photos are really important. Primarily because that is what I look for when I do a search for a destination and it is the first thing – before reading any of the content – that determines whether I hit the back button or not.
So I have built my website as I would like to find it. In fact having an image at the top of every page I write so that it is the first thing my visitors see under the page title has become my site “signature”. The only places where I haven’t are where I am still looking for a great shot.
It means, however, reaching a balance between longer page loading times which Google and other SE’s mark negatively and not placing advertising in that normally lucrative “top of the fold” spot. But the balance of that decision is for each author to make.
50% of my visitors each month find me from a Google image search, and most of those then stay a while.
And, yes, always always use the ALT tag – honestly though, or it will backfire not only in potential reports to Google but also in your bounce rate. And, incorporate your profitable keywords in those alt descriptions. If you have more than one photo for a great keyword focused page, use different associated keywords (with high demand and low supply) for the alt tags to maximise your potential of being found.
Regards
Donna
PS
Forgot to say that most Flickr members are a wonderfully generous lot: ask nicely with no expectations and nearly all will willingly give you permission to use their great photographs. I have made some great new friends that way!
Otherwise there is the Flickr Creative Commons collection where you are free to use the photographs with credits etc.
Donna
What about video? I’d say that’s more important still? And travel cos HAVE invested a lot in this. Take TUI or Kuoni for example.
I do agree though – because there’s this vast library of ‘free’ shots available on Flickr, the real value of a genuinely brilliant image has been forgotten.
Video still has a bit further to go but expectations of hotel/resort video is growing….
During planning / research stage
Video of the accommodation was important to 29% of respondents
Video of the destination was important to 26%
Giles