Hotels Increase 2012 Marketing Budgets for Mobile and Social Campaigns

From Travelclick: Hotels Increase 2012 Marketing Budgets for Mobile and Social Campaigns: Increases in Staff and Budgets Show Optimistic Outlook for Hotel Industry in 2012

Smartphone usage is rapidly increasing around the world. Recognizing this growing trend and the opportunity to capture market share among consumers booking travel via digital devices, global hoteliers are investing more resources into mobile websites and other marketing initiatives.

According to a recent poll conducted by TravelClick 50 percent of hotels plan to put more marketing dollars towards mobile websites and marketing. Overall, 43 percent of hotels are planning to increase overall marketing budgets for 2012. Of those surveyed, 34 percent expect to keep their marketing budgets the same as 2011, and only 3 percent plan to decrease their marketing spend.

"According to Nielsen, 40 percent of the Western Europe and 38 percent of the U.S. cell phone markets are dominated by smartphones. Given these rising numbers, it is essential that hoteliers optimize their websites for mobile use to increase direct bookings from travelers that are using their mobile devices to select rooms," said Jason Ewell, Senior Vice President, E-Commerce, TravelClick.

The poll, which was conducted during a webinar titled: "2011 Second Quarter Global Hotel Industry Update," also showed that almost all the attendees polled (95.3 percent) plan to either increase their workforce (50 percent) or keep their workforce the same (45.3 percent). Of the respondents planning to increase their workforce, 30 percent plan to hire staff specifically for social media.

"Not only are hoteliers increasing budgets for mobile websites and marketing, but they are also increasing staff in areas such as social media. Hoteliers are recognizing how important mobile and social media are to guests, and they have begun to put more resources towards creating and maintaining these channels through staff additions and marketing increases," continued Ewell.

Destinia introduces English hotel search

One of these days, of course when DóndeEs.com is a huge success, I'd like to go back to Spain to visit my wife's aunt in Córdaba. While the hotel we stayed at last time was in a great location, right across from the 'La Mezquita,' we left wishing that we had stayed someplace else. The problem was, before we booked our hotel, we didn't really know that much about Córdaba. I wish we would have had access to a resource like Destinia.com. Note: The following is a paid review.

Destinia introduces in English market

Destinia is a Spanish online travel agency that is now introducing it's services for the English language market. With Destinia, travelers can search hotels within a catalog of more than 150.000 hotels in countries all over the world. In addition, the site provides searches for activities, beaches, car rentals, and flights.

Probably the best way to search for hotels is to use their wide selection of travel guides. This way simplifies the search by guiding you through selecting the continent, country, region and place and then choosing the hotel that most interests you. The other option is by using the hotel search engine, where you can enter your destination, the arrival and departure dates, the number of people traveling with you and rooms required. This will do an availability search and will offer up a list of the the best hotel deals.

I'm not sure when we'll be able to go back, hopefully soon, but I do know one thing. When we start our planning, I know we'll use Destinia.com to do our hotel research and probably make our reservations.