Montreal - Spain from May 5th to May 22nd on Air Transat.
I booked with voyagesarabais.com. These guys offer pretty low airfares and, as much as I know, they offer a good service.
They are from Trois-Rivières, Quebec and they are doing an awesome job to be the leader in Quebec’s tourism industry. I’m not paid to say that. ; )
My previous post about usability is, among others, “dedicated” to this company. They have cheap airfares and packages but it is soooo frustrating to navigate on their website. They use the engine from Softvoyage which is, by far, a leader in usability problems. Even this morning I had to manage with other problems like the fact that when we change the departure date, it modifies automatically the return date even if I’ve already changed the return date myself. It’s nothing big but it’s annoying.
Also, I wonder if voyagesarabais.com knows how much it will help them to optimize their website for search engines. It would surely bring more traffic… and sales!
P.S. How come I live so far from Europe!? Each time I have to pay “too much” for plane tickets!
I read a lot of blogs everyday and I think it’s time to thank everyone who is working hard to write about travel and tourism. Here is a list of those I like the most :
Thanks to you!
It’s not the complete list so if I forgot you, thanks anyway!
MGM Grand, Las Vegas, launched their new website in 2006. In terms of Search Engine Optimization and usability, it is not perfect… but WOW what a nice intro video! Take a look a this nice job done by some creative guys from Montreal.
As I always say, the 80-20 rule is what you should focus on. It applies perfectly to usability.
I’m actually planning a trip to Spain (lucky me!). Since I’m trying to get the better price for my plane ticket, I’m going thru a lot (and a lot!) of airfare websites. Some of them are well done but some others made me so frustrated! When tourists are looking for tickets, a car to rent, an hotel to book, they most of the time make a lot of searches on each websites. You can imagine how frustrating and discouraging it is to be slowed down by usability problems. You want tourists to buy tickets from you, then be sure that it is easy for them to do so. Happy experiences will also make them come back next time!
Here is a list of usability problems that you should fix quickly in case of an airfare search form:
- Customer should not always have to fill the form and he wants to change a date or a destination.
- The most used item (for example : a dropdown list of years for a leaving date) should be selected as default. We are December 28th 2006. Why is “2006″ the default date in the dropdown? Sure we are in 2006 but 99% of people are searching for 2007!
- Calendars are cool but please give alternatives. Calendars are good for some of the customers but for others it is simpler to write down the date directly.
- In the French version of your website you should use the french names of the countries/cities in your lists.
- If someone is accidently searching for past dates do not launch the search process for nothing. Tell him right away that the entered dates are not valid.
In conclusion, I would suggest you to use your own forms from a customer perspective, you’ll see that it is not always easy to use. ; )
I really wish I could go to the Travel Distribution France 2007 event. I could finally speak to the people I read everyday!
Here is what I need: Plane tickets, hotel room and a pass for the event.
I wonder which one of the partners will invite me and provide me with one of the needs I have! 
Easyjet? Hotels.com? Go Voyages? Boscolo Hotels? I will wear your t-shirt (or even tatoo your logo on my back!) all event long if you want! haha
Invite Mathieu to Travel Distribution France 2007
5 days remaining until the holidays break. I hope you’ll have fun and enjoy these days with your friends and family.
I received a couple of emails from you asking me why I didn’t write lately. Actually I have a lot of work to do but I will get back a soon as I can. Now maybe… ; )
The guys at Opodo recently asked me what I thought of their new promo : Weekend breaks.
I professionally can’t tell you all my comments but I really want you to take a look at the site. When I write about how to efficiently write for search engines, Opodo is a pretty good example of “what to do”.
If you consider using Google AdWords to drive people to your website, here are the 3 steps you should follow:
Step 1
Take a deep breath.
Are you ready now? Okay…
Step 2
Wait!
Step 3
Answer to this question:
Did you Optimize your Website?
What are you waiting for? A good keyword strategy, some html modifications and you’re done. It will take a couple of weeks to see the results.
Okay now, here are the AdWords tips you should follow according to Google, I think these guys are right (haha).
- Identify your advertising goals.
- Organize your account for maximum effectiveness.
- Choose relevant keywords and sites.
- Create straightforward, targeted ads.
- Optimize your website for conversions.
- Track your account performance.
- Test and modify your campaigns to get the results you want.
All these tips are important but I would insist on the last two. For some of you it’s obvious but measuring and modifying your campaign depending on the results you get is how you will get the maximum out of Google Adwords for your money.
If you want more tips or you want to discuss about your next AdWords campaign, write us!
I wish to find a city/country that would be enough open-minded to work with Internet specialists I often read or I to strategically use Internet to grow their tourism/travel related incomes like no one ever did.
The day will come! It will!
If you think that “the day” is today, you just have to send an email here.
Mailing Campaigns are highly used in the tourism and travel industry. Maybe you already use that to inform your customers and grow your sales.
Do you know Campaign monitor? You should!
Campaign Monitor helps you to do what counts the most : Monitoring! In each campaign your create, you will get stats about who opened the email, who clicked on which link, bounced emails, etc. I strongly suggest to take a look at it. It worth it. It is not really expensive, there is a base-fee for each campaign and 1 cent by email address.
You really should calculate your ROI in that kind of marketing/sales actions… and each of your actions on the Internet because it is measurable!
radar