SmarterLiving.com's Krista Pappas talks with our news editor about the challenges of the online travel industry, search engines and metrics that matter.
Roger Park: Can you give me an overview of BookingBuddy and your role at the company?
Krista Pappas: BookingBuddy is a part of Smarter Living, Inc., an online travel network which publishes two sites: Booking Buddy and SmarterTravel.com, an online travel magazine. We consider ourselves to be a new breed of travel site that specializes in comprehensiveness, and we help consumers find great deals and easily plan the best itineraries for their travel needs. We currently have more than 130 commercial partners including Kayak, Starwood, United, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Hilton and Enterprise, who have chosen to partner with us as an alternative to higher cost channels.
As a senior vice president at Smarter Living, my role includes strategy for our products and the company's commercial relationships.
Park: What is the current state of online travel marketing?
Pappas: Because there has been an increase in the amount of web pages containing some form of user-generated content, it makes what people say about your brand and your product even more important. Marketing extends beyond just advertising online, as consumers are becoming more savvy and less loyal, and the internet allows them to quickly move on to a competitor if their experience with your brand and products does not completely satisfy their needs. Travel marketers need to work very hard to lead the way by finding ways to get people to talk positively about their brand and their product; making it critical that the experiences people have with the brands and products be positive and meet and surpass expectations.
Read the full article
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment