The search engine giant launched a solution to help tourism industry stakeholders make informed and timely decisions in response to current travel demand.
2020 saw a rapid decline in global tourism. This year, the varying caseloads, recoveries, vaccine responses, and lockdown regulations from one country to the next have made it difficult for travel providers to successfully gauge demand as potential industry reopening draws nearer.
The tech leader's platform acknowledges these hurdles and aims to provide the industry with data and insights on travel demand and booking trends.
What Is Travel Insights With Google, Exactly?
It’s a suite of tools designed to provide the travel industry with insights to reach travelers at every stage of their journey, be it when researching a trip, booking flights and hotels, or exploring local businesses.
Being a search engine heavyweight means that Google collects and has access to an enormous amount of user data: data that can provide useful insights into current search trends.
In an interview with Phocuswire, Richard Holden, Google’s vice president, is quoted as saying, “We spent a lot of time thinking about the data that we have, the data we’re able to collect and the insights we have from users as well, and what can we do to help the industry recover?”
Essentially, the tech company launched the platform as an initiative to help travel providers understand the pent-up demand and take steps toward business recovery.
Who Is The Platform For?
The platform is for anyone interested in discovering the change in demand for travel.
You could be an official tourism board, hotel, accommodation provider, DMO, or activity provider, among other things.
About The Tools
Divided into three different tools, the platform is a source of free information that travel businesses and providers can use to understand demand and make data-driven operational decisions.
It shows which countries are currently on top of travelers’ lists to visit and where the opportunity might lie within those in terms of more specific geographical areas.
Using the travel insights with Google tool, it is possible to filter data by the origin and destination country, trip type (international or domestic), demand category (air, accommodation, or both), and date range.
The results then show a comparison in travel demand between this year's and last year's search volumes. Further insights on the geographic demand show search according to the destination area, destination country, and destination city.
You also get data on demand growth by location, and finally, where the sources of demand originate from.
For travel providers, this tool could be beneficial to gauge demand for a destination on your books or to help with planning a new one. By checking the data, it's possible to determine whether there is an increase or decrease in interest compared with previous years.
Anticipating the routes travelers plan to take can help you get your product out front when travel resumes and activity on specific routes picks up again.
2. Hotel Insights
The Hotel Insights tool provides data on what the interest looks like right now for places to stay in your region and whether it is generated by domestic or international travelers.
You can explore booking trends and discover more about the travelers who are searching for accommodation in your location.
There is also access to resources on Google My Business, guides to improving your accommodation/hotel website, as well as guides on Google Advertising to help you stand out online.
By creating a stronger digital presence for your business, you can reach new customers who are searching for travel products exactly like yours and drive conversions.
Google has geared this tool specifically toward small to medium-sized independent hotels and accommodation providers to help you better reach your market as you plan to welcome back travelers.
3. Travel Analytics Center
The Travel Analytics Center is for Google’s travel commercial partners only. It gives the account holders broader demand data and insights to enhance their account data and empower decision-making.
As with the Destination and Hotel Insights tools, the purpose of this one is to give the travel partners actionable data to reach travelers and make operational decisions.
More Useful Resources
In addition to the three Travel Insights with Google tools, the website has other useful resources for small to medium-sized travel businesses and professionals.
Grow Stronger with Google, Google for Small Business, Google Digital Garage, and the UNWTO hub contain business guides, skills training programs, marketing kits, accelerator programs, and more to help support the professionals and businesses who move the global travel industry.
Final Thoughts
The tools and resources in Travel Insights with Google are designed to help the travel industry on its path to recovery. Check out what’s on offer to see how it can complement your travel marketing strategy. Aptly placed, data-driven messaging can help you to reach travelers at the right time and place when tourism rebounds.
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About the author
Lucas Ennis (he/him)
After 8 years in banking I made the shift into software sales where I spent two years in a high volume phone sales role with a software company in San Francisco that was acquired by Intuit during my time there. I have been with WeTravel for almost 4 years now and currently lead our sales team.
