Travolution@ITT - Part 11 - Bamboozle time

So bring on the search guys!

Esteban Walther from Google and Nick Jones from Yahoo! Search Marketing are on stage for a session moderated by Simon Ferguson, Travolution’s publishing director but here today with his DG&G Travel Information hat on.

Both are doing a good job of wowing the delegates with terrifying (for some) statistics about the amount of business generated through search engines.

One couldn’t help noticing that classified advertising in newspapers is considered one of the least effective methods of targeting consumers.

This is probably something one of the event’s headline sponsors, Times Newspapers, would rather have been omitted from the presentation.

It’s not all stats and graphs about the role of the internet in the travel marketing mix – there’s plenty to woo delegates on the social media side.

Jones does a good job of explaining the role of Flickr and Blogs [with a plug to the Travolution Blog and our showreel from the event. Cheers!].

Bamboozle moment of the presentation: Walther is showing off Google Earth and makes reference during the Q&A to images of the UK capital where you can now see the heads of Londoners.

A delegate in a row in front leans to her colleague and whispers: “This is f***ing madness!”

Indeed it is. But it’s what the internet can do and where travel can take a leading role…

Kevin May, editor, Travolution