Find out why 74% of the respondents picked mobile investment as a big winner for the travel industry

EyeforTravel Infographic and Survey Report: Marketing and Mobile Strategies to Engage the Connected Traveller’.

With research findings showing us that 148.3 million bookings were made online last year, and 65% of same-day hotel reservations were made via a smartphone, according to eMarketer.

Currently there’s a lot of room for disruption in travel and the stakes are high. The prize will go to brands that can successfully offer a seamless connected experience. Partnerships, data and technological innovation will decide who wins and who loses out.

"A smartphone is a critical tool for the travel industry, particularly in terms of understanding passenger patterns for booking, search and on trip decisions," said Shreya Ganapathy, Head of Content and Marketing at EyeforTravel. "When you consider how the mobiles have changed the way people interact with brands, its time travel brands follow the change, but what’s the right digital strategy is what we are trying to get answers to.”

So with this growth at stake and shift to mobile, data and technology to create the seamless travel experience we at EyeforTravel did a survey in January 2017 to give us an outlook at what impacts customer experience, online marketing and mobile investment, and the impact of changes on the travel landscape.

EyeforTravels report and infographic on what companies are spending their digital dollars you can access the report and infographic here.

Here’s a few findings: when it came to asking what would be the greatest opportunities to focus on in 2017 we had mobile as a clear winner at 74%, followed with content marketing at 65% followed by social media. Artificial intelligence, text based communication, VR and application development also showing increase from our last year’s survey.  Biometric tools and robotics are not the main focus for our respondents for 2017.

Want the rest of the report- get it here!

Nominations now open for EyeforTravel’s Start-Up Travel Awards 2017

Does your travel company have what it takes to succeed in travel?  Is your app or product a key weapon in your battle to win and engage travel consumers?  New travel brands will find out as they battle it out as part of EyeforTravel’s Start-Up Travel awards taking place in San Francisco, April 24th – 25 as part of EyeforTravel’s San Francisco Summit.

Research showed us Travel startups attracted billions of dollars in funding last year, and the travel booking sector attracted some of the most investment — more than $650 million.

“Start-ups represents a fundamental shift in innovation in travel.  At EyeforTravel we believe that the brands investing and innovating in mobile and new offerings deserve to be recognised”, says Tim Gunstone, MD, EyeforTravel Ltd.

As Charles Ralston from TripStreak said on the previous EyeforTravel Awards “The Start-up Village is a really great value for money, especially for start-ups that can’t typically afford to spend thousands on conference. Bravo to EyeforTravel for pioneering this!”

Travel is being changed by mobile, the sharing economy social media and that constant drive to deliver the best customer experience.  Technology is transforming the way travel is sold – providing exciting opportunities to enhance the customer experience, grow loyalty and ancillary revenues.

EyeforTravel’s Start-Up Awards seek to recognize the young brands who are making significant progress for travel – trailblazing the way for others to follow.

With new apps, services and devices hitting the travel market and extra capabilities coming to devices, travel brands cannot sit still and must continue to innovate. EyeforTravel are offering new brands a stage to shout about it!

Previous finalists include FLYR, Seatwizer, Flitways, Stiya, Biz Airlines, spacebase, tripstr, Grabr, wellobox and more!

The Start-up awards is a day-long event

• Starting with learning sessions – quizzing travel entrepreneurs on their secrets of success
• Meet the investors – and see what they look for in a travel start-up
• Start-up Pitches for the companies that are shortlisted
• Finalists and Winners announced

To get involved and see if you make the cut you can register today to pitch or just attend the day – learn more here

All entries must be received by February 28^th. Find out how to enter your brand and for full terms and conditions, visit –http://events.eyefortravel.com/san-francisco-summit/startup-village.php

For all awards enquires contact: -

Shreya Ganapathy

Project and Content Director | Eyefortravel

W:  +44 20 7375 7150

shreya@eyefortravel.com

How Is Data Changing Travel?

Data is the driving force behind the changes being felt in the travel industry and its effects are being applied everywhere, from flight searches to hotel front desks. The pace and level of this change can seem overwhelming but we want to help guide you through this with our new State of Data in Travel Survey.

Take just five minutes to complete the survey and we will send you the results, so you can see how the industry is changing, where the challenges are, and how you compare. If you work with data at all, whether as a CEO, marketer, revenue manager, analyst, or data professional, we would love to hear from you. Completing the survey will also get you access to a host of free content and a chance to win a pair of Luxe Edition Beats Solo2 headphones!

We want to use the survey to figure out where the opportunities and the barriers are, such as:

• How are budgets changing? 
• What are the most popular data sources and where are the gaps?
• What is driving investment into data?
• What channels are working well for marketers?
• What is holding the industry back? Staffing & skills? Attribution issues? Poorly-defined KPIs? Data quality & cleanliness?

We will be analysing your answers alongside hundreds of other travel professionals to create a comprehensive report.

This report is part of our Smart Travel Data Series, which you will also receive for completing the survey. You can access the white papers we have already released as part of this series through the following links, with more content to come:

• Understanding the Travel Consumer's Path to Purchase
• Improving the Airline Experience
• EyeforTravel Smart Travel Data Summit 2016 Round-up  
• Airport 3.0: The Technology and Data Transforming Airport Operations 

We look forward to hearing about your experience with data in the travel industry and will continue to produce research to support you and your organisation.

Alex Hadwick

Head of Research, EyeforTravel