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Research Outline

Prepared for Robin | Delivered July 30, 2019

Travel News Opportunity

Goals

Identify how large the opportunity is in terms of revenue in $USD and/or traffic for having a travel news section in news publications, in order to determine whether an existing publisher should start a travel section, as well. If this information is unavailable, an alternative would be to identify the top players in the travel publishing space, their respective market shares, and how much revenue they bring in from the travel section specifically compared to total revenue.

Early Findings

  • According to Travel Weekly's 2018 Travel Industry Survey, about 22% of travel agencies began focusing more on high-commission products in 2017 as a way to respond to their current business conditions. Another 9% cut their marketing expenses, 29% took care to watch their expenses on a company-wide scale, and 17% chose to put more weight on their higher-margin products to increase revenue.
  • From 2011 to 2018, the number of travel agents who were using social media as a way to attract new clients increased from 39% to 79%.
  • The top resources used by travel agents to gain the attention of new clients included email (76%), social media (70%), company websites (55%), newsletters (26%), and charities/community events (24%). Newspaper ads were used by only 11% of travel agencies, and internet ads were used by 19%.
  • Frommers indicates that the three largest competitors in travel search engines today are Expedia, Inc., The Priceline Group, and TripAdvisor. Each of these owns many popular and well-known subsidiaries, too, such as Hotwire, Orbitz, KAYAK, and BookingBuddy.
  • According to Edelman's 9 Trends Shaping the Travel Industry, "Fueled by a saturation of 'fake news,' more consumers and brands will re-examine their relationship with social influencers and increasingly turn to trusted sources for travel information and inspiration."
  • Approximately 65% of consumers trust traditional media sources in North America, but only 35% trust news from social media. Another 71% of the population is worried specifically about fake news, thus explaining the growth in trusting traditional resources such as newspaper publications.
  • Edelman's states that the future of women in travel is expected to boost opportunities for travel magazines and news section. Some of the top travel sections, as per Edelman's, include The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Denver Post. The travel sections for each of these newspapers are all led by women, which is why Edelman expects them to have an upper-hand for growing the market with this demographic.