Friday, April 20, 2007

The Long Tail of Travel

The April edition of Travolution is now available.

To build on some of the excellent articles in the issue, we've decided to launch our own community project.

This is not a clean-up-the-school-playing-fields type initiative [there are so few left to tidy up!], but something we hope to develop to become an excellent resource for one of the most hotly debated topics to emerge in recent years - The Long Tail. And, more specifically, The Long Tail of Travel.

Our cover story for the April edition tackles the basics: what is it?; views from a marketing agency and a product owner; how long can the tail get?

We are keen to expand project this to include:

  • Data that supports/criticises the theory
  • Opinions of others in the industry
  • Academic ideas
  • Economic analysis
The community aspect of this project is that we hope, over time, to have a body of excellent work created by you, the industry.

See more at the Long Tail of Travel page on the Travolution website.

Anyone with ideas, articles, links to other work, can email us or leave comments here on the blog.

Remember: we want you all to get involved.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I received April's issue, haven't had chance to read it yet, but I will, looking forward to reading what this 'long tail' is all about..

Anonymous said...

The tail really is of interest when looking for cheap clicks and extending reach/volume - the Tripadvisor model is testament to that. Backed up by the KEI (keyword effectiveness index) it clearly makes sense to be there. However, the key to all of this is inventory... If you have it flaunt it, but ultimately the vast majority of terms will drive relatively few impressions/clicks/pax over the course of a year - the ones that do make it all worth while!

Next question, how do you optimise these terms when you see money trickling away?

Travolution Blogger said...

Darren: your holiday rentals business of providing a vast array of accommodation across Europe to a UK market via the web is just one of many examples.

Go here for all the articles on our Long Tail of Travel page on the Travolution website.

Travolution Blogger said...

Searchmonkey: in short, when the money trickles away, use SEO. [PPC is not the only area where the Long Tail is most felt]

TripAdvisor is indeed one of the best examples to understand the hotel sector and the Long Tail of Travel.

Its European MD, Marc Charron, writes about it here.

Anonymous said...

Kevin - do you think the Long Tail is one of the contributors to the 'death of the British Seaside' (title of Trevor MacDonald's Tonight programme this coming Friday (27th Apr))? With all the new destinations being opened up by websites and low-cost flights, would you define this as part of the Long Tail effect - swapping Skegness for Talinn etc?