Google Destination Insights: Keeping up with travel trends

Since its inception in 2020, Google Destination Insights has been a primary resource for hotel marketers looking to understand traveller’s behaviour patterns and trends to inform their strategy. In our latest article, Propeller explores the capabilities of Google Destination Insights and how companies can utilise this tool to their advantage.

Google Destination Insights offers a fantastic range of metrics and insights, allowing anyone to understand consumer trends. These include:

• Destination Insights: Find data about the destinations travellers are searching for and booking the most.
• Accommodation Insights: Understand data about the types of accommodations in those destination travellers are looking to book. Looking back to our recent article on Lifestyle Hotels, shows the true value of this data for informing business strategy and expansion plans.
• Travel Demand Insights: This presents data on the demand for travel by region, time of year, and type of traveller.
• Search Insights: Data on how travellers are researching, planning, and booking trips, including what channels or devices they use.
• Competitive Insights: Companies can find data on their competitors in the travel market and find ways to differentiate themselves.

Businesses can make informed decisions by analysing traveller behaviour and data from Google Destination Insights. Some examples of how this data can be used include:

 

Combining Insights

 

Companies can merge internal and external data sources, such as flight and hotel bookings or customer surveys, to improve their understanding of their customers’ travel patterns and adjust marketing campaigns to meet these needs.

 

Optimising Campaigns

 

Insights can be used to identify high-value customers and offer personalised deals tailored to their preferences. For example, if customers book multiple trips, businesses can provide loyalty rewards to drive more bookings and increase revenue.

 

Search Optimisation

 

Companies can identify relevant search terms and analyse the data available to them to identify business opportunities. For example, any hotelier could review searches for hotels in specific areas and dedicate ad spend or website content to include the most popular terms.

 

Product Offerings

 

Destination Insights can also be used to refine product offerings and customise experiences for different traveller profiles. Hoteliers can identify additional amenities guests want, such as complimentary breakfast or Wi-Fi access and make sure to make these available offerings more prominent in their advertisements.

 

Partnership opportunities

 

Companies looking to form strategic partnerships can utilise Destination Insights to find companies to work with. A hotel brand based in London could conduct a flight search to identify the best-performing flights or airports and partner with airlines for mutual benefit. This could lead to lucrative package deals or discounts to bring in further business.

 

Market Analysis

 

Businesses can use Google Destination Insights to monitor travel trends. This includes information such as in-demand destinations, regular travel seasons, and up-and-coming travel interests. By analysingv this data, businesses can adapt their products and marketing techniques to stay ahead of the curve.

 

Competitor Analysis

 

The platform has the feature to track competitors’ performance in the travel industry. Businesses can gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses by analysing their search and booking patterns. They can identify gaps in the market, take advantage of new opportunities, and adjust their strategies.

 

Destination and Product Development

 

Hotels, airlines and more can use search data and travel trends analysis to identify emerging interests of travellers, which can help them develop new travel products and destinations that cater to those interests. 

 

Customer Engagement and Retention

 

Companies can use Destination Insights to analyse search and booking behaviour. This enables companies to identify their customers’ preferences and needs and personalise their approach. For example, if they determine that a customer frequently books luxury hotels, they could tailor their offers to the customer and provide them with exclusive discounts or loyalty rewards.

 

How to use Travel Destination Insights

 

Anyone can access this free service through a simple Google search. Upon reaching the page, users will be presented with a range of customisable tools. The top of the page opens with some topline stats about the fastest-growing destination globally and the country with the most inbound interest.This is followed by a tool that enables users to search the ‘Top insights for your selected country’, which reveals inbound and outbound destination demand, and global trends. 

For a free tool, Google has given users a lot of incredible data at their disposal. Completely customisable, anyone in the travel or tourism industry could ustilise these available tools to better understand their customers and create new packages based on real data insights.

By leveraging this tool correctly, travel industry companies understand customer preferences and consumer trends for a better customer experience. Furthermore, its personalised solutions are designed to help companies in the travel industry provide tailored experiences that will meet the needs of their customers as they change and evolve.

Ultimately data is only valuable when put to use, and Google Travel Insights helps businesses do just that.