Source: ezinearticles.com
The Problem
Given, german travel agencies , the current weak pound against the Euro, many British hoteliers are wondering how to best maximise bookings from European markets.
The Opportunity
Amongst all the doom and gloom in the UK hospitality sector with the deepening of the UK recession, there exists real opportunities for sales growth for British hoteliers in the Euro markets.
The most effective and cost effective way of targeting this market is online, via search engines like Google.
Using Search Engines to Target Europeans
It is estimated that over 70% of holidaymakers now research overseas holidays, german travel agencies , online, with search engines being the favoured medium for finding travel information.
The dominant search engine across Europe, german travel agencies , is Google, who, like other search engines offer local language variants of the search engine. For example, Google in France is www.google.fr, in Spain, www.google.es etc. Each of these local search engines offer the ability for Europeans to search in their native tongue. In order to gain exposure in the local search engines, you need to offer your, german travel agencies , content in the language of the market you are targeting.
How to Achieve This
1. Know your key markets
Firstly you need to establish which markets you wish to target. For most hoteliers targeting the German, French, Italian and Spanish markets will be enough but consideration should be given to your positioning and transport network. Russia & China are markets luxury operators have had success in targeting. Local transport connections (i.e. cheap ferry connections / low cost flights) will also impact on visitor numbers from Euro countries, german travel agencies , .
2. Identify content for translation
The best approach for achieving results from European markets is to translate your entire, german travel agencies , site into the relevant language. This is however expensive and time consuming to maintain without, german travel agencies , sophisticated software.
A suitable compromise is to identify key landing pages for translation. The translation of key landing pages provides the user with required information and search engines with popular phrases used by native speakers.
3. Consider search terminology used by Native speakers
It is important that you ensure that your translation agency give consideration to the keywords used by natives of the target market. A literal translation of an English term to a foreign language is a, german travel agencies , definite "faux-pas". Direct translations usually render keywords that are not used by natives in online search., german travel agencies , It is important that you consult with your Internet Marketing, german travel agencies , Company or translation agency as part of this process.
4. Use a professional for translations
As soon as you have selected the languages to translate, you must now decide on an appropriate translator. In-house translations are possible for some operators but for best results the services of a translation company are recommended.
5. Ensure you optimise the landing pages
It, german travel agencies , is important that you also translate the Meta tags on the website and add the, german travel agencies , translated Meta tags to the new landing pages; this helps the search engine identify what the content is about.
6. Advertise rates in Euros
Once the visitor is on your site, it is important that you encourage them to book. Advertising the room rates in Euro can help to convert visitors to bookings.
7. Translate the online booking engine
For best results, talk to your online booking provider about translating the booking engine. Many online booking engine providers offer the main European languages as a standard option but you will still need to translate your room descriptions.
Paul Jones is an experienced tourism industry employee and in his spare time enjoys model collecting, design and assembly.
