In parallel to the FITUR/09 International Tourism Trade Fair, Online Marketing Spain has presented an overview of search marketing in the tourist industry as part of SMX Travel, a series of seminars aimed at promoting tourism marketing through online search engines, which ended on Friday 30 January.

The day began with a presentation by Alfonso de la Nuez, managing director of Xperience Consulting. This international marketing consultancy had carried out a study of the effectiveness and user-satisfaction of travel and hotel portals, which was presented at the seminar. The study involved a number of tasks which the participants were asked to complete using the main tourism and hotel portals. Once they had done this, they provided feedback on their degree of satisfaction and preferences with regard to the portals. The level of efficiency of the portals was generally very high, although many users expressed a preference for those with better presentation. As Mr De la Nuez pointed explained, the results of the study proved that travel portals need to have an attractive design that is agreeable to the eye. They must also provide a simple, user-friendly search engine and a wide choice of offers and possibilities.

After Xperience Consulting/s presentation, John G. C. Kester, head of market research at the World Tourism Organisation and Robert Philips, managing director of Intelligence Leisure Solutions, along with other speakers occupying managerial positions in the tourist industry, discussed some of the keys to successful search marketing. Honesty in search services, making the most of the possibilities offered by internet search engines and specialised portals, and providing clients with the maximum degree of access are essential for obtaining good results in this field. This implies the need for companies in the tourist sector to step up the use of these strategies and take an active part in applying these methods, incorporating search marketing into their instruments for promotion and working with specialised teams who are familiar with new technologies and can make maximum use of their resources.

In a context where users increasingly plan and purchase travel services via the internet, and in view of the downturn -or its presumed effects- which favours obtaining maximum benefits from the available resources, search marketing provides an excellent opportunity for tourism companies for its efficiency, cost-effectiveness and instrumental value for the client.