The document provides guidance on promoting a travel business online. It recommends having a professional website that is optimized for usability and search engines. The website should include high-quality images, videos, and updated content. It also suggests using social networks and user reviews to spread word-of-mouth advertising. While website costs can vary widely, businesses should aim to keep expenses low through an incremental development process and open-source technology. Ongoing testing and analytics are also important to monitor traffic and improve the site over time.

1. How to promote your
travel business on the
internet
Steve Carson
www.thinkmonkeys.com

2. Why should your Travel
Business have a website?

3. 2/3rds of travellers plan
their vacations online

4. Why Have a Website?
Your Business is open to the world 24/7, 365 days a
year
A website is an online brochure/catalogue that can
be changed at any time
Provides instant gratification for users
Great way to gather information and statistics
about your market
Fantastic opportunity to cater to niche and micro-
niche markets

5. General Structure of a
Professional Website
Design - you never get a second chance to make a
first impression. Consider redesigns every few years.
Use Flash sparingly
Images - quality images are a must for travel sites
Videos - consider adding videos to your site
Content - well written, up-to-date content. No spelling
mistakes or typos. Consider translation by a native
speaker.

10. General Structure of a
Professional Website
Simple Booking Process
Avoid need for registration and login
Include About Us and Privacy Policy to reassure
users
Include Testimonials

11. Usability
"On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a
website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails
to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do
on the site, people leave.If users get lost on a website, they
leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t
answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern
here?"Jakob Nielsen

12. Why is Usability
Important?
Web usability issues account for $25 billion in
lost sales every year. (Zona Research)
On average e-commerce sites could increase
sales by 79% with a usability redesign (Jakob
Nielsen)
58% of users who experience usability
problems on a website do not return (Forrester
Research)

13. Basics of Usability
Consistency of presentation and controls
Calls to action – make sure users can access
key content or tools relevant to their visit
quickly and easily.
Logical organization of information and a clear
site structure
Contextual navigation – breadcrumb trails,
on/off states in navigation menus so you know
where you are.

14. Basics of Usability
Continued...
Efficient navigation – the 'Three Click Rule',
users should be able to find whichever
information they want within three clicks.
Search – many users go straight for the search
function when coming to a new website. Make
sure that your search returns relevant results
and if possible that these results can be refined
and filtered.
Speed – users will desert websites that are slow
to load.

17. Web 2.0 – User Generated
Content and Social
Networking

18. Social Networks
Facebook, Twitter and smaller social networking
sites are hugely popular, using them you can
leverage the power of digital word-of-mouth.
Consider a Facebook page for your business and a
“Like us on Facebook” button so users can
promote you to their friends.
Consider a Twitter account for your business.
Tweet special offers, seasonal observations, news
etc. - reward loyal customers with coupons.

19. Social Networks
continued...
Use Facebook and Twitter to
strengthen relationships with
existing customers and to
create a community around
your business.
Add sharing links to key pages
on your site. 'Share this page
on Facebook/Twitter and the
other sharing sites. This
enables people to quickly
share your content with others

20. How Much Does a
Website Cost
How long is a piece of string?
You can expect to pay from around 20,000 THB
for a very simple site to 500,000 THB for a very
complex one

21. Keeping Website Spend
Low
Website must be built Content Management
System so you can add/edit/delete pages, images
etc at will without paying a Programmer.
Show Web Designer examples of sites that you like
Spend time getting the design right before building
the site. Rebuilding can be expensive.
Clearly specify any functionality. Vague
specifications will lead to a lot of rework.

22. Keeping Website Spend
Low
For a new website consider a phased approach
– no need to go live with 1000 features, release
core features first and new features
incrementally. “Release early, release often”
Use open source technology – such as Plone,
Drupal, Joomla, and MySql. These are often
better than paid products and come without the
need for expensive licenses.

23. Maintenance and
Ongoing Costs
Hosting – beware of false economy as page load
speed is important.
Support – backups, emergency maintenance.
Downtime may mean you miss bookings. Clearly
define the support agreement you are getting
from your web supplier
Third party services such as booking engines often
come with a monthly charge.

24. Testing
Testing should be done pre-release and on an
ongoing basis - it is hugely important for high
quality websites
Check for dead links, spelling mistakes
Check functionality of booking forms, contact forms
and all site functionality.
Consider test scripts that can be repeated
Cross-browser and cross-device testing - how does
your site look on an iPad? What does your site look
like on the new browser Google Chrome?

25. Search Engines in Brief
Google and the other search engines are critically
important to the success of your website.
Know which keywords you are targeting and make
sure that website copy includes them.
Make sure that the HTML code behind your site
conforms to Web Standards like XHTML and is
Search Engine Friendly. Ask your web developer
to confirm that this is the case.
Get other websites to link to yours.
Consider hiring a professional

26. Monitoring the Situation
Get Google Analytics installed on your site –
you can monitor where interested users come
from, what keywords they searched on, bounce
rate and many other useful statistics.
Study these statistics and use them to improve
your site – if 90% of visitors to your site come
from France then maybe you need a French
translation.

28. Mobile Internet: The
Future
The mobile internet – how does your site look
on an iPhone or a Blackberry? Consider a
mobile optimised version of your website.
Consider iPhone/Android/Blackberry Apps to
make life easier for repeat customers.

29. ANY QUESTIONS?