Building on the existing partnership between Tourism Exchange Australia (TXA) and TripAdvisor, TXA announced a major new co-operative digital initiative for the Australian tourism industry using TripAdvisor’s new TripConnect tool. This initiative results from TXA’s certification as a TripAdvisor Premium Partner for TripConnect.
TripConnect is a powerful new tool for SME accommodation Suppliers to generate incremental bookings by participating in TripAdvisor’s Hotel Price Comparison. TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site with over 260 million unique monthly visitors1.
TripConnect allows Suppliers to place Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bids to capture more direct bookings as travellers shift from the research to the purchase stage. With TripConnect, SME accommodation Suppliers can capture TripAdvisor search traffic, participate in automated review collection and track return on investment for their campaigns.
To participate via TXA, accommodation Suppliers must have a Business Listing with TripAdvisor and use a TXA Connected Booking System
TXA is unique in that TXA booking pages can be used for TripAdvisor direct bookings fed by live availability and prices straight from you’re TXA Connected Booking System. This opens up this incredibly powerful booking capability to SME accommodation Suppliers that have not previously been able to access these tools.
Being first to market with this initiative Tourism NT has over the past 3 months been implementing initiatives around the TXA/TripAdvisor initiative as part of the Accelerator Program with the Digital Marketing Activation Program (DMAP).
Shane Crockett CEO of V3, a partner in TXA with the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) said, “TripAdvisor is a key player in the consumer travel purchase cycle, generating leads and facilitating online reviews which now play a significant role in the decision making process. This initiative is one of the best opportunities for Suppliers to maximise their sales potential on one of the world’s largest travel sites, increase conversion and direct bookings and reduce cost of sale”.
Liz Ward, CEO of ATDW said “We are excited to be able to leverage TXA’s certification as a TripAdvisor Premium Partner to bring a package to help Australian accommodation suppliers engage with and effectively use TripAdvisor and CPC to boost bookings. We expect it to be a highly effective tool to reach and convert TripAdvisor’s huge audience to book directly via TXA and increase their revenues.”
“This TripAdvisor initiative is just another phase of our ongoing TXA digital strategy to help Suppliers maximise their online marketing to deliver better results at a lower cost.”
Avril Carter, TripAdvisor’s Territory Manager for Business Listings, Australasia, said “As the world’s largest online travel site, our new TripConnect TXA relationship means operators of all sizes can capture consumers and convert them to direct bookings more effectively through their TripAdvisor Business Listings. This will deliver direct bookings and achieve higher visibility within TripAdvisor consumer searches.”
Google Analytics, worldwide data, July 2013