This Week...CWT Digital at WTM, Expedia and The Telegraph unite and how the travel industry believe social could overtake PPC.

Hello and welcome to our weekly update of all things travel and technology. We expect many of you will be attending World Travel Market this week and be busy with meetings and learning the latest trends in travel. Read on to find out how to catch up with the CWT Digital team at WTM, what’s happening with the latest Big 10 competition and all other top news.


CWT Digital News:

World Travel Market-7th November- The CWT Digital team will be at World Travel Market from today until Wednesday so if you do want to arrange a meeting with Dan Caplin or our sales team then let us know! We’re really looking forward to what WTM will bring this year and are interested to hear about the latest developments and topics in travel and technology. If you’re attending the TTG Tweet up tonight  then you can catch Dan there or if you’re around on Wednesday then make sure you catch Dan in the seminar ‘How cruise is harnessing the potential of online marketing and the power of social media’. The seminar is in the North Gallery Room 4+5 from 11-12pm, you can find out more here.

Next Big 10 opens- 4th November- On Friday we opened up our next big 10 competition to win a free social media audit. Social media is a hot topic in online and everyone is wanting to get involved. The prize entails a consultation with our Online Marketing team, who will carry out an audit on your current social media and provide a comprehensive recommendations document. The deadline to apply is on the 2nd December so if you want to apply you can do so here.


Travel News:

Cruise News- Norwegian Cruise reports profits up-7th November- Norwegian Cruise Lines have had a successful summer season with an 18% jump on profits. Despite pricing being up across the fleet and several voyages being disrupted due to tropical weather conditions Norwegian has seen a ‘strong summer’ and are expecting this to only improve next year.

Expedia teams up with The Telegraph- 4th November- As part of their plans to expand their travel retailing operation The Telegraph have struck up a deal to work with the Expedia Affiliate Network. The affiliate network will be providing The Telegraph with online content for hotels, from which readers can book hotels. Expedia will give access to content from a range of 140,000 hotels worldwide and provide a best price guarantee on all bookings.

Technology News:

Google tweaks search ranking algorithm-3rd November- Last Thursday Google underwent a small upgrade to it’s search ranking which is aimed at placing recent information higher up in the search results. The change will effect about 35% of searches and is aimed at giving users more up to date and relevant information. For example if a user was to search for the Olympics they would have links to the 2012 games 1st over previous results. The update is believed to give users a better service, providing up to date and relevant content first.

Could social overtake PPC in travel?-7th November- A recent World Travel Market survey revealed that 40% of UK travellers are using social media to research their holidays. According to the results travel industry figures view social media as the most important marketing channel in travel ahead of consumer reviews, mobile and pay-per-click advertising. Key findings also included that 48% of the industry believe that social media will overtake PPC while 37% say it will remain behind, 22% of industry figures already use social as a revenue stream and 27% are planning to going forward. The use of social media in travel has been a dominant subject over the years and will in doubt be mentioned several times during WTM and we look forward to hearing opinions on the subject.

That’s all from us this week, it’s going to be a busy week with World Travel Market and we will be keeping up to date with everything that is going on on our Twitter and Facebook so make sure you are following us to keep up. Have a great week!