Google gaga for travel
Google has said it will not be a travel agent, despite travel being the strongest industry for search, with Google Flights to be rolled out in Australia by next year.
Google head of travel Dougal McKenzie addressed the Helloworld Owner Manager Summit in Wellington and said they do not want to be an OTA or own any product.
“You can book online but we’re not the merchant on record. We then send them through to people like yourselves or other ways to book,” McKenzie said.
Travel ranks as Google’s biggest industry by query and is growing the fastest at a rate of 15%.
Not only that, 16% of the queries are wholly new to Google, a sign that the appetite for destinations has not abated.
“Everything has changed while nothing has changed,” McKenzie said.
The methods have altered, but the reasons why we travel remain the same.
Mobile is transforming the travel space, as consumers reach for their smartphone within 15 minutes of waking up and just before they go to sleep.
“It’s changed peoples expectations of companies they work with,” McKenzie said.
The key was to tap into the “micro-moments” that consumers have on mobile throughout the day.
A micro-moment is when they reach for a device to act on a need, and that can be to know, to do, to go or to buy.
“These are spontaneous, intent rich moments where people are making decisions and preferences are being changed.”
“People will steal a moment here and there and check their phone and happily flit from dream and plan and book,” McKenzie said.
Google has seen a 50% increase in mobile queries in the past year but a 6% decrease in time spent on the device, indicating that the user experience is improving,
“It reconfirms the idea of stolen moments of small transactions at odd times,” McKenzie said.
Consumers are hyper informed, “We no longer go online, we live online.”
Google has a wealth of data and said that this allows businesses to understand the relationship between online and in-store purchases.
“The more time they spend researching online the more money they spend in store.”
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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