Kchapman - -
Three things that an advertising agency would want to know in a
situation like this are:
ˇ who's traveling to Heathrow (LHR) and Gatwick (LGW) from the U.S.?
ˇ what's your competitive position?
ˇ who's your target customer?
US-UK TRAVEL
-------------
StarUK is a website of the English Tourism Council that is a wealth of
information on who travels to the U.K. and what they do there. They
tell us that the U.S. accounts for 3.6 million trips to the U.K. with
an average stay of 8 days.
StarUK
"UK Tourism Facts 2001"
http://www.staruk.com//default.asp?ID=564&parentid=469
Though they don't break out statistics for U.S. visitors, the English
Tourism Council says that visitors break down into these categories:
Vacationers: 33.3%
Business: 29.8%
Visiting friends/relatives: 25.9%
Other: 11.4%
Those in the "other" category spend the most, at 755L per trip;
business visits average 527L per trip; people on holidays spend 453L
per trip; and those visiting friends or relatives spend the least at
385L per trip.
This page has a variety of other information that you may find
valuable, such as the length of stays; where people visited; how
people booked their reservations; use of the Internet in booking
reservations; age breakdowns; and the months for trips. This data
will be helpful in knowing you to reach and what your message will be.
And the StarUK website is a wealth of other information on developing
tourism business.
For example, U.S. business travelers are more likely to use company
travel agents; stays are likely to be shorter; but business needs more
likely to require a car - - and a larger auto with four doors.
Business travelers are also more likely to be frequent visitors, as
maintaining a business relationship requires time with the customer.
However, U.S. business travelers are also highly likely to be members
of "customer loyalty" or "affinity" programs that reward them for
continued rentals from Hertz, Avis or National.
How they get to the U.K. is important because each of the airlines has
a whole series of programs that you can use to get to potential
customers, including Frequent Flier programs; 100K programs for the
very active fliers; in-flight magazines; websites; travel agent
programs; and affiliate programs with rental car agencies and hotel
chains.
The U.S. visitors get to the U.K. predominantly on British Airways.
This information from the U.S. government is several years old but is
generally considered still to be reliable:
1996 market share
==================
British Airways 45%
Virgin Atlantic 15%
American Airlines 16%
United Airlines 11%
Other 5 U.S. carriers 13%
GAO
"International Aviation: Competition Issues in the US-UK Market"
http://ntl.bts.gov/data/GAO/rc97103t.pdf
Where the U.S. residents come from may be important if you intend to
use local media, such as New York Times Travel section. Though the
NY Times is distributed nationwide and has both a well-known website
and Sunday travel section, you can measure its demographics against
any program that you plan.
We don't have precise numbers on the home state or city of travelers,
but the U.S. Department of Transportation collects information on
departure airports that give you a very good idea of the region travel
is originating from. This data is available on the Internet in
monthly reports from T-100 forms and even includes air carriers and
the number of passengers they are carrying. However, I've summarized
the 2001 information below (note that this data won't correspond
exactly to the number of visitors because it includes traffic in both
directions as well as through passengers not stopping in London):
PASSENGER DATA, US-UK 2001
============================
New York JFK-LHR : 2.4 million passengers
Los Angeles LAX-LHR : 1.4 million
Chicago ORD-LHR : 1.3 million
San Francisco SFO-LHR : 914,000
Washington IAD-LHR: 901,000
Boston BOS-LHR : 790,000
Orlando MCO-LGW : 751,000
Newark EWR-LHR : 647,000
Atlanta ATL-LGW : 503,000
Miami MIA-LHR : 498,000
US Department of Transportation
"Top 50 US-International Airport Pairs"
http://ostpxweb.ost.dot.gov/aviation/international-series/
SEGMENTATION ANALYSIS
-----------------------------------------
This analysis of UK travelers done by the U.S. Commerce Department is
interesting because it attempts to analyze how travel decisions are
made, contending that travel agents and tour operators are the key to
reaching vacation travelers:
U.S. Commercial Service (Department of Commerce)
http://www.oceac.com/buyusa/tra/pages/uk_091302.htm
In discussing advertising with U.S. media, be sure to find out what
research they have done on their readers' ways of researching and
booking travel. All of the serious travel publications will have such
data, though you may have to ask for it. (You'll see that some is
online.)
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is probably the best
source of data on U.S. business travelers. NBTA serves corporate
travel managers and has a wide range of data available on the habits
of U.S. business travelers - - and you'll be happy to know that London
leads the travel destinations for U.S. business travelers:
NBTA
"Business Travel and Corporate Travel Manager Facts"
http://www.nbta.org/about/facts.htm
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
---------------------
The piece of this puzzle that we can't answer for you is:
* who are your prime competitors?
* how do they communicate with their customers?
Analyzing only one or two of them will give you a good idea where they
advertise and what strategies work for them. Each of the major
international car rental companies (Hertz, Avis, National) have strong
"Frequent Renter" programs and strong affiliate programs with the
airlines. Frequent business travelers receive monthly mailings; are
encouraged to use rental car company websites to track status in
rewards programs; and also do co-promotion with the airlines.
However in the U.S., travel agents are unimportant in their marketing
programs, so reaching the agents can be a way to promote YOUR
business, particularly when the agent is handling more of the
planning, as in a pleasure trip.
American Express, Carlson WagonLit, Navigant, WorldTravel BTI and
Rosenbluth International (as well as Expedia and Orbitz, two on-line
agencies) dominate the U.S. travel agency business. Each has its own
Intranet facilities for agents, such as Carlson WagonLit's "My Trip
and More."
My local travel agent says that the cost for the customer is most
important, though obviously commissions are a consideration. Though
commissions for international car rentals are far higher than for
domestic rentals (5% vs. about 3%), travel agents are extremely leery
of "up charges," penalties and surprises from international rental car
companies (including the majors). Companies with guarantees (for
customer and agent) and the ability to service a breakdown in a remote
location are viewed by agent and customer as less risky.
Though the corporate affiliate may be with a car rental firm,
decisions are made based on past experience of agents, she indicates.
Company Internet, and the print publications Travel Age West, Travel &
Leisure and the New York Times Travel Section are the ones she reads
the most.
US TRAVEL MEDIA
------------------
It's impossible to make a concrete suggestion on media, not knowing
your business strategy. And the options are almost never-ending, with
display, classified ad and even online programs for each type of
publication:
* Internet advertising
* affiliate programs with travel agencies or airlines
* in-house publications
* conventions to reach travel managers or agents
* magazines
* travel books
* travel guides, both online and in print
* Sunday magazine sections
* in-flight magazines (which won't reach someone before leaving home
but will reach the frequent traveler)
* radio (even Expedia sponsors a weekly radio program)
The best source for comparative media information in the U.S. has
always been Standard Rate and Data Service, which is a subscription
service (though many U.S. libraries have access to it):
http://www.srds.com/
However, I'll try to outline what some of the major travel media are:
CONSUMER PUBLICATIONS
New York Times Travel Section is published on Sundays, but travel is
so important to the New York Times that it has a permanent spot on the
home page. Additionally, NY Times Electronic Media has developed a
newsletter delivered via e-mail for travel. Note that almost all of
the print publications will have some e-mail or electronic service
that they offer to customers as well:
http://www.nytimes.com/
Travel & Leisure – this monthly magazine is now owned by American
Express and is the top general travel magazine
http://www.travelandleisure.com/
Condé Nast Traveler is a publication that competes closely with Travel
& Leisure:
http://www.condenet.com/mags/trav/
National Geographic seems to reach every home in the U.S. and has its
own travel publication:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/
The New Yorker is a literary-news magazine published weekly (it too is
owned by Condé Nast). It carries a large number of travel articles
and is known for the popularity its small-format ads in the 2nd half
of the publication. These ads are inexpensive and known for the
concentration of small international destinations:
http://www.newyorker.com/
TRADE PUBLICATIONS
Travel Age West
http://www.travelagewest.com/home.asp
Travel Agent, a weekly controlled circulation publication:
http://www.travelagentcentral.com/travelagentcentral/
Travel Weekly
http://www.twcrossroads.com/
ONLINE
Internet usage for American travelers is undoubtedly higher than
indicated by the British Tourism Council, as most sources indicate
that two-thirds of U.S. travelers have researched their trip and at
least some portion of the trip was booked online by 33%.
American Express SkyGuide for business travelers:
http://www.skyguide.net/
Fodor's Travel Guide, primarily directed at leisure travel:
http://www.fodors.com/
Frommer's Travel Guide, primarily directed at leisure travel:
http://www.frommers.com/
Lonely Planet Travel Guide, general considered to have a younger
audience than Fodor's or Frommer's:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
The following two sites are major online websites for booking travel
in the U.S., though they seem to be strongly allied with the major car
rental companies:
Expedia
www.expedia.com
Orbitz
www.orbitz.com
IN-FLIGHT
American Airlines
"American Way"
http://www.americanwaymag.com/
British Airways has very little information online about its in-flight
magazine, "Highlights," but you may wish to contact them directly. :
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ba.jsp/genfaq/gb/public/en_gb
United Airlines
"Hemispheres"
http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/home.htm
Virgin Atlantic
"Hot Air"
River Publishing handles the space sales for the in-flight magazine:
http://www.riverltd.co.uk/clients/clientsfrmPub.html
MORE RESOURCES
------------------------------
For further background research, you may find these links useful:
University of Wales
Travel links
http://www.uwic.ac.uk/library/information/subjects/colchesterave/Tourlinks.htm
Visit Britain
British Tourism Authority in the US
http://www.travelbritain.org/newhome/links.htm
The website for end-users, sponsored by NBTA and the U.S. Government's
Transportation Safety Administration (TSA). It has many specific
recommendations about car rentals:
Biztraveler.org
http://www.biztraveler.org/
Google search strategy:
U.S. + U.K. + travelers
If any part of this answer is unclear, please let me know before
rating the answer.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
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