September 2005

The Travel Bug - Issue 4

Launch of Vanuatu Hospitality Awards coming soon

The Vanuatu Hotels and Resorts Association (VHRA) in conjunction with the Yia Blong Turisim Committee is proud to announce the first Vanuatu Hospitality Awards to be held this year, ‘The Year of Tourism’. The Awards presentation, in November, will present prizes to the winner in each of four categories; Resort; Hotel/Bungalow Accommodation; Adventure/Cultural Tour and ni-Vanuatu Staff Member of the Year. The competition will be open to all facets of tourism participating in the above four categories.

Full details, and entry forms, will be available at the official launch at the end of June; regular updates will appear in this column, subject to space availability. The VHRA is proud to be associated with ‘The Year of Tourism’ initiative and hopes this first Awards presentation will become an annual event with, eventually, the number of entry categories being expanded to cover the vast, and varied, number of tourism products being offered in Vanuatu. (Source: VHRA)

Internet Travel Planning

The Internet: Consumers’ Favourite Travel Destination. Overwhelmingly, consumers are turning to the Internet for their summer travel planning and purchasing needs, according to independent research conducted by Feedback Research, a division of the Claria Corporation a leader in online behavioral marketing. By analyzing the actual online traffic and conducting a survey among a sample of Claria's tens of millions of software users, Feedback Research was able to gain insight into online travel research and purchasing habits. Data was analyzed from April 1 through July 1, 2005, in the months leading up to summer vacation travel. A survey was also conducted among users who viewed travel category sites in the prior 30 days and also had purchased travel in the prior 12 months.

Results indicated that consumers are still taking a trip to the Internet for their travel planning and purchasing needs, with 88% of survey respondents who went or are planning to go on summer vacation using or planning to use the Internet to research and/or purchase their summer vacation arrangements this year. 61% of respondents who went or were planning to go on summer vacation this year purchased or planned to purchase airline tickets online, +11 pts vs. those who went on a summer vacation last year. 52% purchased or planned to purchase hotel accommodations online, a +12 pt increase from last year.

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