Sourced from scoop.co.nz

Press Release: Ministry of Tourism – Wednesday, 28 February 2007

The Internet is the number one information source for domestic tourists, latest Regional Visitor Monitor (RVM) research released by the Ministry of Tourism reveals.

The Internet has now surpassed family and friends, as a source of information for regional trip planning. Over half of all domestic travellers interviewed (51%) had used the Internet to plan their trip to their destination region for the last quarter of 2006, up from 38% in the first quarter of 2006.

“We believe this is a definite trend emerging here,” said Bruce Bassett, Ministry of Tourism Research Manager. “Information from family and friends and travel books are also highly important, but now the Internet is king for kiwis.”

International visitors surveyed were also increasing their use of the Internet to research their destination region. Nearly half (49%) of the international respondents said the web was a source of information for the last quarter of 2006, up from 37% in the first quarter.

However, for international travellers the Internet is still less significant than guide books and word of mouth.

Since January 2006, 6775 respondents have been surveyed, actual Internet booking of tourism related products by both international and domestic travellers has trended upwards for accommodation (38% to 42%) and activities and attractions (33% to 43%).

Internet bookings for transport over the period experienced softened (50% to 46%).

Mr Bassett said that the research implied that serious consideration needed to be put into web design and strategy by the tourism industry, particularly for those targeting the domestic market.

“We knew the Internet was a key tool for travel planning and booking, but to be seeing this growth over the period of one year sends a clear message to marketers and operators. Your website had better be up to scratch if you want to win a tourist’s business.”

The Regional Visitor Monitor (RVM) is a survey managed by the Ministry of Tourism in conjunction with Tourism New Zealand six participating regions, Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown. It provides seasonal ‘snapshots’ of visitors’ experiences in the regions of New Zealand. For more information contact Bruce Bassett, bruce.bassett@tourism.govt.nz, tel 04 498 7448.

www.tourismresearch.govt.nz
www.tourism.govt.nz

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Cookie - The most common method of evaluating the number of unique visitors to a site is by giving users browsers a cookie that can be used to identify that person as unique. This system is more accurate than IP but there is still the issue of people whole block or delete cookies and also people who use more than one PC to access the internet (business and home) and people who share a login (family PC). However this is the industry standard for reporting unique visitors and Red Sheriffs particular approach to unique cookie tracking is recognized by OPG (Online Publishers Group)

Identified - The only true measure of unique people is to require a login to access the site or place and order. This can be supported by cookies to store login names between sections. This approach will always underreport but does provide the number of unique people who actively interact with you site.

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CR – Conversion Rate. What percentage of clicks/visitors took the desired action of the campaign (business outcome)

CPA – Cost Per Action. How much did each action (business outcome cost)

CPO – Cost Per Order. In e-commerce situations the cost per order is a vial measurement.

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