Online content is now a primary source of travel information, exceeding all other forms of traditional media and marketing in Europe. Travel businesses connect with consumers through online marketing, social media, travel apps, search functionality, and booking platforms. These diverse information sources and sales channels increasingly drive the European tourism sector.
Within the European tourism sector, the exploration of culture is a key motivator for travellers, accounting for 22% of tourism trips made by EU27 citizens in 2011. Culture-related searches in top travel-generating markets accounted for 45% of all tourism-related searches on Greece, 31% for Italy, and 44% for Spain.
The reality of this is made clear by the observation that destinations making greater use of the internet in reaching customers had performed better than their peers in more recent years and gained market share from their competitors. This is part of the reason why Greece and Spain had not experienced gains in the market share over the decade prior to the study while the gain in Italy’s market share was relatively subdued.
Online content drives significant business, with online content supporting 10%, 26%, and 43% of all tourist arrivals in Greece, Italy, and Spain, respectively. The EU average is 49%, including research and booking. This leaves significant upside potential for the tourism industry in these countries to embrace an online presence more fully.
Online content provides benefits to smaller and independent establishments as well as well-known brands. By extension, increased online content also benefits the cultural tourism segment which includes many small and medium-sized enterprises, allowing tourists to experience more niche cultural activities.
Meaningful opportunities exist for these three countries to grow their tourism economies by investing in online content:
Our mission statement: We go that bit further to provide our customers worldwide with the best advice on how to maximise the benefits of location information in their business. Our consultants come with location intelligence inside.