Google Panda and the Travel Industry.… a hoteliers thoughts

Steve Lowy, Founder of the award-winning budget hotel group, Umi Hotels shares his views with us below on Google and the Panda Update.

"I am not one to be controversial but I wanted to let you know my thoughts on some things that have been happening with good old Google recently.

There have been some major changes in the way Google ranks websites within its index and it’s fair to say there has been a definite loss of confidence in the travel market due to these changes, a sector in which Google has made some inroads in recent years, indicating the travel market as being a key vertical for them.

Many people in the industry have been arguing recently that the new search system is inaccurate and unpredictable.  It’s not just the travel sector either; many in the search marketing community have been up in arms about the changes.

The Panda Update as it is known was designed to reduce the amount of spam and content built purely for the benefit of the search engines. The aim is to reward the highest quality websites and mark down those sites that are considered to be content farms.  When Google first launched the Panda update it completely wiped out about 12% of the rankings – which is massive anyway but considering how websites are often interconnected, it had a really big impact. Google then spent a month or so improving the Panda update, but it’s still not quite right.

What’s worse is that Google has also said that the Panda update isn’t like other parts of their algorithm in that it’s a separate entity that’s designed to tidy up the rankings and it’s run on an “every now and then basis” whereas its other algorithm factors run at the same time. If Google run the factors every month then you can safely assume that it could be weeks before you know the impact of some of the SEO work you’ve been doing. This approach just isn’t cutting edge enough – when the rest of the world is going real-time Google seem to be taking a backward step!

The biggest problem is that the effects of this update are unpredictable (because they happen on an ad hoc basis) and they aren’t massively accurate. We have been publishing content on our sites for years (news and events from around the area) to provide more information for our customers, not to rank on the search engines. In our line of business it’s essential that you give visitors a good idea of what’s happening locally.

I’ve been at quite a few travel events since the update and as soon as I start talking about Google this update comes up over and over again. People in the travel industry just aren’t happy about it – as much as anything they seem to feel targeted by Google, which is especially sad as Google has suggested this is one of their key markets for future development.

There has been a move towards social media since its inception around 6/7 years ago and this is something we’re likely to see more of in the coming weeks.  Experian’s Internet Research Division Hitwise recently estimated that around 10% of all internet visitors are arriving at websites from Facebook - roughly 14% of all traffic received from websites is from a social media site – this is an increasing trend and something that we in the travel industry ignore at our peril.

The way we consume media on the world wide web is changing and Google is starting to look antiquated both in terms of the mode of our consumption but also in the way it moves its model further from its founding values to greater commercialism.

As more and more people use social media channels it becomes more important and it has never been more apparent in the area of travel and especially youth travel, where individuals often use social media sites to plan their travels in conjunction with their contacts.

Google needs to be very careful about making these kinds of changes and alienating a significant chunk of the market, especially one that targets the audience of its biggest rival.

I hope this doesn’t come across as waffle but the whole team who work on web and SEO at umi Hotels have been scratching our heads in regards what was going on, and I wanted to share our thoughts. If you have any ideas please let me know as the more we work together in the industry, the more we will be able to understand it all".

Please feel free to comment below and let us know your thoughts on this article.

Linguaphobia! Why us?

Below is an excerpt from Breaking the Language Barrier, a book by Georgina Howard, from Pyrenean Experience, which discusses the importance of learning a language to get the most out of our travelling experiences.

Linguaphobia! Why us?

On my travels I meet a stream of intrepid Brits. They trek the Himalayas in thunder storms and raft the Zambezi with the crocodiles and yet,  no matter how extrovert and gregarious they are by nature, one obstacle seems always to obstruct their path – the language barrier.  Lame excuses such as 'my memory is terrible'  or  'I just don't have the ear',  crop up time and time again. To some extent we can blame our colonial past. Rather than adapting to foreign cultures we have forced them to adapt to ours, and suffered the consequences: a national apathy towards the learning of foreign languages.

Yet it is never the apathetic who suffer from phobias. It is those who struggle valiantly to remedy the problem, braving a few phrases of a new language and bracing themselves for the reply which finally comes - broken and faltering perhaps - but almost inevitably in English.   One morning, at a bakers in Copenhagen, I remember asking, in Danish, for a couple of  wienerbrød.[1]  The woman replied in English, I battled on in Danish, she asserted herself in English, I gritted my teeth and pursued the Danish, she gritted hers and pursued the English and so we went on until I finally left the shop. 

One of the great barriers we have to overcome is that most other Europeans are, by necessity,  streets ahead of us in learning foreign languages, and in particular English. Many look for any opportunity to try out their English skills and we - demoralised and deflated – understandably give in.

However, this is not the whole picture. Another reason for our linguaphobia is the simple fact that we know so little about our own language.  Most of us have little idea of how English is made up, we know nothing of  pronouns and prepositions, and the word  grammar strikes a note of horror, recalling images of clinical classrooms and military verb drills. Usually, it is only when we come to learn a foreign language that we gain our first real insight into our mother tongue.  This seems to me a little like putting the cart before the horse or - as they say in Spanish - before the ox  (poner el carro delante de los bueyes)!

Unfortunately, from the point of view of the non-native English speaker our general ignorance of foreign languages is frequently interpreted as arrogance. In learning a few phrases of the local language we offer other cultures an important token of respect and show people that we are prepared to meet them on their terms rather than expect them to surrender to our own. From our perspective, no matter how well other people speak English, the ability to speak their native tongue allows us a far deeper insight into the nuances of their culture and the nature of their values. It enables those wonderful, impromptu conversations with locals in shops, on trains and walks around town, and inevitably enhances our ability to build solid friendships and business relationships.

So brave yourselves for the adventures of learning a foreign language, it can be a fun process (honest) and add a whole new dimension to your travel experiences.

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[1] (What we term Danish pastries, the Danes call Wienerbrød  which translates literally to "Viennese bread" !?)

Five Ways NOT to Speak Spanish in Spain!

Welcome to our first guest blogger post, by Georgina Howard, from Pyrenean Experience, Spanish Language & Walking Holidays in the Pyrenees 

Five Ways NOT  to Speak Spanish in Spain!

We often embark on our holidays with the illusion of picking up a few words in the local lingo .. here, at least, are 5 ways NOT to do it!

One:    Make a bee line for Spanish resorts full of other British people.  Here, you will often find impatient English-speaking shopkeepers and waiters who find nothing amusing in waiting half-an-hour for you to mumble your order in broken Spanish, when a two-minute conversation in English would suffice.

Two:    Head for the large metropolises full of busy people of all nationalities with little time to stop and chat. Over-zealous female Spanish students are in particular danger of being misunderstood; try convincing the taxi driver that you weren’t really after his telephone number and that all you were really interested in was practising your irregular verbs!

Three:  Bury your head in a phrase book. Nothing kills spontaneous, friendly interactions with the locals more than a ten-minute flurry of page-turning in a desperate attempt to find a phrase which almost certainly doesn’t exist (for such is the fame of phrase books). Smile, gesticulate, keep the conversation going in whatever way you can and then, once rapport is created, you can nail them for language practice! 

Four:   Visit Spain with a friend who speaks much better Spanish than you do. It is far too easy to take a back seat and let them do all the talking. And, if you are finally encouraged to speak out alone, the thrill of buying a glass of wine on your own in a Spanish bodega looses its punch with your partner gazing scholarly over your shoulder.

Five:    Spend invaluable holiday time inside a language school with 20 other foreigners and one Spanish teacher.  There is nothing less motivating than studying Spanish grammar inside a sterile classroom in Spain while the bustle of real Spain; sunshine and laughter, cerveza and tapas, pass by mutely on the other side of the window pane.

HAS THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL BEEN SWITCHED OFF?

In my local there used to be a sign which said: ‘We regret to inform customers the light at the end of the tunnel has now been switched off – we apologise for any inconvenience’.

Could the same be said about the UK tourism industry?  We have just found out the economy slipped back into negative growth in the final quarter of last year, no doubt due to the ‘wrong kind of snow’. With unemployment rising and those in work probably having to endure six years of falling incomes what is there to be optimistic about?

‘The Royal Wedding’ I hear you all cry. No doubt all eyes will be on the Royal Couple on 29 April as it has been declared a ‘public holiday’ note not a ‘bank holiday’. Therefore employers are under no obligation to let their staff have time off, or to pay those that work on the day other than normal time.

The great occasion is all set against an increasingly worsening industrial background and it is not beyond the realms of possibility there will be a strike on London Underground which will include 29 April. Being so close to Easter combine that then with British Airways Cabin crew having another go at industrial suicide while they ruin people’s holiday plans.

So a trip to the Costas with a low cost carrier might be an attractive proposition – assuming an ash cloud free year!

As we go through this year no doubt the media will whip up a frenzy of Olympic fever as we get ever closer to 27 July 2012 when the waiting will be finally over – and of course it’s the year of the Queens Diamond Jubilee and the next London Mayoral election. So again all eyes on London.

While there is no doubt the Olympics will be a huge boost to the worldwide profile of London the question many are asking is  - if you are not actually going to the Olympics then won’t you steer well clear of London? With a massive security operation likely to be in place, a large traffic exclusion zone around East London, sky high prices for everything why would any normal person want to go?

With election for London Mayor in May, perhaps even Boris Johnson won’t get a ticket if Red Ken has his way!

WILL THE X-FACTOR EVER COME BACK?

Unless you have been living in a cave off the coast of Scotland for the last month or so then you will not have escaped the fact a certain Matt Cardle won X-Factor and is sitting pretty with the Christmas number one.

While Mr Cardle was starting to enjoy his millionaire lifestyle the programme sent the media into a wild frenzy talking about its favourite subject – itself!

The winner only got a passing mention as most of the euphoria was about the fact up to 20m watched the final show; how much an advert cost during it; did this mean a return to the good times for terrestrial TV; what would Simon Cowell do now, would he abandon the UK for the USA, as we all collectively went X-Factor mad.

Various ‘gurus’ were wheeled out to say that at £250,000 a 30 second slot was excellent value to promote your favourite product – and so near to Christmas. Others talked about how it ‘connected with its audience’ and showed any Tom, Dick or Harriett could live their dream. Days later it was still in the news but this time because of the record number of complaints the regulator had received about the clothes, or lack of them, some of the female performers on the show wore which combined with ‘suggestive gyrating’ was just too much for many a sensitive soul. But the show was still making headlines.

One thing though was certain; the X-Factor thoroughly trounced the BBC’s reality TV show competition – Strictly Come Dancing when it came to audience figures.

For those involved in the travel and media business this may have stirred memories of another time the Beeb and ITV went head to head. This time the two contenders were; in the red corner for the BBC, ‘The Holiday Programme’ and in the blue corner for ITV, ‘Wish You Were Here........?

For three decades these two programmes fought for audiences, reporting from ever more exotic destinations to try and encourage the cautious Brit to go further than Bognor and that not all foreign food was bad for you.

Their presenters became household names; Joan Bakewell, Anne Gregg and Frank Bough among those fronting for the BBC, while ITV mustered Judith Chalmers, Anthea Turner and Anna Walker to its ranks.

Avidly watched by millions, travel companies and their PR people bent over backwards to get their holidays featured. With destination reports lasting up to eight minutes it guaranteed to get the phones ringing in the booking office.

According to one seasoned travel PR specialist enquiries after a client had appeared could easily run into several thousand.

Sadly neither programme survived the first decade of the new millennium and nothing has emerged to replace them. But could there still be a place for such a programme in today’s TV schedules?

We appear to be travelling more than ever, just look at the success of Ryanair and Easyjet. The internet has made booking your own flight, hire car, hotel etc something that can be done in minutes. Whereas in the heyday of those two programmes you would have had to pop into your local travel agent – the only place with the ability to offer the travel junky their fix.

That may just be it, making travel arrangements is no longer the preserve of an elite, slightly mysterious industry, anyone can do it. Many like to travel independently, rather than booking an inclusive package where everything is taken care of from the time you arrive at the airport to the time you got back - the sort of holidays those programmes thrived on.

Maybe ‘The Holiday Programme’ and ‘Wish You Were Here....?’ were part of that whole mystery and awe which once surrounded travel which  the internet has been so good at stripping away.

In addition we now live in a multi channel digital age. Virtually every home now has access to 100s of channels, some of course claim to offer travel programmes but what both the viewers think of it is hard to know.

Sadly programmes like The Holiday Programme and Wish You Were......Here? will never have their own x-factor again!

Wish you were here – in Iraq!

When families sit down over the Festive season to plan next year’s holiday it’s pretty safe to assume that Iraq is unlikely to figure very highly – if at all!

For over two decades the country, which houses the cradle of civilisation, has been an international pariah. Since the invasion in 2003 our televisions and newspapers have been full of images unlikely to inspire many to visit: British soldiers on fire clambering from armoured vehicles while being pelted with stones, the bloody aftermath of suicide bombers and airstrikes on Bagdad.

But could this all change and quickly? Figures from Iraq’s Ministry of Tourism show international arrivals have gone from zero in 2005 to around 1.3m in 2009, reflecting a return to something approaching normality as the country rules itself combined with an absence of foreign troops on its streets.

A few minutes on the internet and you will see that things are starting to happen, you can book a tour of the country and even find out how previous visitors have rated Iraq’s hotels, B&Bs, tourist attractions and restaurants!

Initially its history and religious destinations are likely to be the biggest driver for tourism. Cities such as Najaf will once more become sacred destinations for pilgrims rather than a scene of bloody battles.

Of course the Kurdish north of the country largely escaped the ravages of war and runs its own affairs and has a far more pleasant climate for western visitors.

Direct flights from a number of countries such as Germany, Norway and Greece will no doubt pave the way for others.

Time is a great healer and as memories of harsh conflict fade and providing no more flare ups occur then Iraq just could become the tourist destination of the future.

Journalist – the next endangered species?

A few months ago a company posted an offer on the site’s ‘Any Takers’ section offering journalists the opportunity to go and take part in a project designed to help save one of the world’s seemingly growing number of endangered animals. Maybe it prompted some to think should journalists and in particular travel journalists be added to the list!

It has been estimated during 2009 local newspapers shed over 1,000 journalists while a new website has just been set up to try and help the estimated 6,000 people who have left the TV industry over the last three years. While not all of the latter will have been journalists many will but it just goes to underline the pressure the media industry is under.

Some salutary figures underline how things are changing, and fast. In 2003 the Nottingham Evening Post’s circulation was 80,000, today its 42,500; while the Leicester Mercury has fallen from 97,000 to 56,000 in the same period. Turning national newspapers the mighty News of the World has slipped from 4m to 2.9m and the Daily Mirror 2.1m to 1.2m. In simple terms it seems falling circulation = falling revenue = falling headcount.

Looking at those regional titles fewer and fewer have anyone with the title – ‘Travel Editor’. Yes they still have travel pages to fill to support relevant advertising, or should it be advertising to support the relevant editorial?

But now it appears a journalist will be given the travel pages to fill in addition to his/her day job. Or, horrors of horrors, the editor’s secretary will do it! So they spend a couple of hours a week ringing some nibs out of press releases and dishing out the odd press trip which makes the main feature. But with falling circulations how much longer will travel companies be happy to offer freebies?

What about the nationals? Are they the last bastion of the Travel Editor or have cracks also started to appear there? Do they have their seat at the editorial conference or are they in fact working from a desk in the spare bedroom and doing everything by email? Can freelancers with stories to sell easily get the ear of the travel editor or is the response from the temp answering the telephone – ‘just put it in an email’ – which never gets answered?

Newspaper circulation is falling and journalist jobs are going - could there be a connection? After all people don’t buy a newspaper to read the advertisements do they.

Bank Holiday Bonanza

With the mass hysteria over the forthcoming Royal Wedding having died down – at least for the present – most people’s attention is likely to have been grabbed by the announcement the day in question, 29 April, is going to be a bank holiday! That, combined with a late Easter, means many will only have to take three days off to get themselves a ten day pass from work.

Not surprisingly the UK holidays industry is in raptures, ABTA is already predicting a bookings surge over the Easter break, particularly in London as people flock to get a glimpse of the happy couple.

But what this does do is once again highlight how stingy England is when it comes to bank holidays, and also how the majority we do enjoy are usually in a two month slot. We, next year excepted, have eight days designated as bank holidays – four of those usually occur in April and May and three more are at Christmas/New Year.

Many of our European neighbours have 13 or even 14 days designated as bank holidays – as does that often quoted bastion of hard work, Japan. In the land of the Rising Sun only June and August are without one.

This has long been a bone of contention for the UK’s leisure and holidays industry who feel extra bank holidays would be both good for business as well as making people all feel better.

During the last Foot & Mouth crisis there were strong rumours the government would indeed introduce an extra bank holiday to support the suffering tourism industry. ‘Trafalgar Day’ 21 October was the strong favourite, fitting nicely between the August bank holiday and Christmas.

But as we all know nothing ever came of that and there is precious little likelihood of 29 April becoming a permanent fixture on the holiday calendar either.

So if England were to have any more bank holidays – when should they be?