Some tips for the Travel Agent: Making a Great web site
These days, the travel agency is more dependent on having a
well-designed, easy-to-use web site that is updated frequently.
But who can afford to keep an IT person on staff? A CMS (Content
Management Solution) does help keep your website content fresh,
but what about all the other functions a travel website should
do? Travellers want to search and sort inventory quickly and
according to their personal tastes. A personal profile with good
search and filtering tools is good for this and the option to
request targeted marketing material make a travel site even more
desirable. Having these tools at your disposal will generally
increase the usage of your site, but you don't want them to add
hours to your work day, they should be easy to use. Marketing
like email newsletters can be automated, sending information
straight from your in-house destinations database using a
well-designed template, instead of you having to type it out and
arrange it.
If you are considering a website for your travel agency or if
you are looking to improve your current website, here are a few
tips to help you evaluate your website.
Four good things for your site:
1)Look good
Travel is a lifestyle industry. Looks are important. Whether
your message is "good value for your money", "extreme
adventure", "luxury" or all "of the above", the graphic content
of your site should reinforce this. More people are surfing with
higher speed connections and HTML has progressed to a point
where an experienced developer can put a lot of punch on a page
and still have it download quickly. There should be continuity
to your look, unifying the elements from your brochures,
newspaper and fax marketing. Having a patchwork of marketing
material can make your company look like it was cobbled
together. While looks are important, you should not sacrifice
usability. All the old-school rules about good interface design
still apply. 2)Put your name up front
If your site links off to a third party booking engine, take the
option to have your branding included on the page. Otherwise it
looks to the user like you've pushed them out your door. If
there is a fee involved in placing your branding on the site, we
suggest you buy it if you can afford to. It really does help
with customer loyalty. If at all possible, avoid using a
"frameset" to include your branding. (Your HTML person will know
what this is if you don't.) Framesets are old, clunky and not
search engine friendly. They should be used as a last resort if
the third party will not permit you to co-brand using templates.
3)Be fresh
Content management tools will help you keep your page content
up-to-date, but you can also be leading edge by giving your
customer opportunities to create a profile, add themselves to a
targeted newsletter subscription list, enter a contest or
interact with your real-life agents. Online marketing tools,
email request managers and even online chat helps your customer
get the information they need, but they also have to give you
their information. Give the user many opportunities to contact a
real person.
4)Offer value add services
Travellers are always looking for useful third party information
that can help them make their buying decision. Instead of just
linking off to a third party website, consider co-branding
opportunities with other providers. You may even be able to
integrate a currency converter or real-time weather application
directly into your site. By adding useful tools to your site,
you increase the likelihood that a user will come back to your
site to find information in the future. If you provide your
visitors with the option to send the page to a friend or email a
page, they may even do some viral marketing for you.
Your web site should act like another agent on your staff. It
should look nice, be courteous to the user and employ all of the
skills necessary for closing a sale. Your site can be designed
to ask questions, narrow the user's choices, provide information
and recommendations, close the sale and then sell add-ons like
insurance. It can also offer the option of talking to you or
your agents at any point in the sales-closing process.
In conclusion, there are many factors that can contribute to the
success of your travel website or any website for that matter.
The key is to remember that your website is your presence on the
Internet and should be as important as your physical location.
If you invest the time, money, and effort to make your website
as professional and trustworthy as your physical office, your
customers will be more likely to do business with you online.