Introducing the ETC New Media Trend Watch

The internet has revolutionised the way in which consumers make their travel decisions. Web-based marketing campaigns have become an increasingly important means of promoting destinations and tourism services. Social networking websites provide forums for tourists to discuss the places they have visited. More and more people are booking online.

New Media Trend Watch has been created to help keep European tourism marketing professionals fully up to date on trends in internet usage by tourism consumers across the world. As well as the latest tourism and travel news stories on online marketing and ecommerce, it offers research reports and white papers, a free newsletter and a unique graph service for comparing country data. And all this is entirely free of charge, courtesy of the European Travel Commission.

Graphs & Statistics China, US and India were the top three internet countries worldwide at year end 2011, according to Internet World Stats.  Those three countries remained in the lead in the first quarter of 2012.

Newsflash Asian travellers would be receptive to apps enhancing their sightseeing experience Worldwide tablet sales will reach nearly 36% of total PC sales in 2015 Cruise sector recorded the biggest increase in bookings via mobile devices in the last six months Online travel shoppers respond best to intuitive eCommerce experiences EyeForTravel/Digital Visitor video – 50% of travel brands generate direct bookings from social media