Eight out of ten travel companies are planning to increase or maintain online spending according to a new survey from digital travel online content specialist Frommer’s^® Unlimited.

The survey of 88 travel companies included airlines, agents, tour operators, hoteliers and shipping companies. More than half of those surveyed said they planned to increase budgets and a quarter said they expected online marketing budgets to increase by between 11% and 50%. A full copy of the report is available from business@whatsonwhen.com.

Joel Brandon-Bravo of Frommer’s Unlimited said: “In these tough times it was encouraging to see the online channel continuing to grow in importance with more than 50% of respondents planning to increase online spend in this year. Within this there was a noticeable shift away from traditional online advertising such as banners and a much stronger emphasis placed on content and search engine optimization. The main priority for customers was increasing conversions and the main issue clients had with their content was keeping it accurate and up to date.”

Of the airlines that completed the question, 40% planned to reduce spend by up to 10% and 60% planned to increase their spending by varying degrees from 10% to more than 100%.

Ten hotel companies responded, with only two decreasing budgets by 1-10% and one keeping it level. Of the seven who plan to increase their budgets, four will do so by 1-10%, two by 11-50% and one by over 100%. Eleven out of twenty travel agencies plan to increase spending, with nine doing so by 1-50%. When asked what online priorities travel marketers had, just over two thirds said they would increase spending on SEO (67%), half planned to increase destination content and 45% expected to increase spend on AdWords. But a fifth said they expected to reduce spend on banners and six out of ten expected metasearch spend to remain the same.

Unique content was a priority for 42% of the travel companies surveyed, which also reinforces the strong position of SEO as sites increasingly try to offer exclusive content to their customers and to search engines. User-generated content (33.3%) is the next priority for travel companies to add to their sites followed by video (28.9%), image galleries and marketing micro sites. Delivering content over mobile and localizing for non-English markets were the lowest priorities.

“The priority allocated to SEO and increasing destination content goes hand in hand because researching destinations has been shown to be the most popular use of Google in the travel category, ” said Brandon-Bravo. “In addition, sites are offering information about the holiday destination as a key part of their product sale. The survey clearly shows that travel companies’ overall priority in adding content to their website is to increase customer conversion. This is something we’ve always advocated. Content should attract, engage and convert customers in the online travel space and we’ve increasingly tailored our services to accommodate these needs for our clients. In response to the market demand for an integrated strategy for search engine optimisation and content provision.”

About Frommer’s^®

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The market leader in travel guides, Frommer’s publishes more than 300 guides and sells 2.5 million guides annually, reaching 7 million travelers who count on Frommer’s for exact prices, savvy trip-planning, sightseeing advice, dozens of detailed maps, and candid reviews of hotels and restaurants in every price range. Frommers.com is a comprehensive, opinionated travel resource featuring more than 3,500 world destinations. Frommer’s is a registered trademark of Arthur Frommer. Frommer’s is a branded imprint of Wiley’s Professional/Trade business which provides must-have content to professionals, consumers, and students worldwide in all media.