Google Launches Free Tools For Travel Marketers

Google is launching free tools designed to help travel marketers make more informed decisions based on search data for destinations and hotels.

Global searches for “where to travel,” “can I travel” and “covid travel restrictions” are near all-time highs, Google reports.

To ensure travel businesses and tourism officials have the information they need to recover from the pandemic, Google has created a set of tools that provide insight into real-time travel demand.

Google began testing these travel insights tools last December in the Asia Pacific region. Now, Travel Insights with Google is being launched in the United States.

“Today we're launching Travel Insights with Google in the United States, in partnership with Destinations International and Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI). Together, we'll bring these tools to the travel industry in the U.S. and around the world with training materials customized specifically for destination organizations and hospitality marketing professionals.”

Travel Insights with Google includes four tools in total: following tools:

• Destination Insights
• Hotel Insights
• Focusing Facts
• Demand Sizing

Here's more about each of these tools and what they can do for marketers.

Destination Insights

Destination Insights provides a clear picture of top sources of demand per destination.

The tool allows you to input an original country, a destination country, and date range, and view data related to travel demand for that destination.

For example, if you set the origin country to “Worldwide” and the destination country to “United States” you can find out where demand is coming from and which cities they're looking to visit.

In this case, the greatest demand for US travel comes from searchers within North America, and the most in-demand cities include Las Vegas, New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.

This data can help marketers understand where potential travelers may be coming from and adjust
campaigns accordingly.

Focusing Facts

Focusing Facts is a tool nested within the Destination Insights tool that displays a set of quick insights such as “Fastest growing destination globally,” “Country with the most inbound interest” and “Top city in demand.”

Focusing Facts are based on the previous 84 days of data which provides a well-rounded vantage point.

This data appears at the top of the Destination Insights tool. Here's an example of what it looks like at the time of publishing:

Demand Sizing Tool

The Demand Sizing Tool is also found within Destination Insights. It allows you to apply distinct filters to compare inbound and outbound interest between one primary country and up to ten comparison countries.

Hotel Insights

Hotel Insights analyzes search trends to help travel marketers understand where interest is coming from and attract new guests by creating a stronger digital presence.

Simply input a destination and get an overview of recent search trends. Here's an example of the insights provided for Nevada, United States:

Since Google began piloting these tools last year, they've helped government tourism officials in places like Singapore and Indonesia answer critical questions as they make decisions about border reopenings.

As part of Google's ongoing global expansion, it recently launched localized versions of Travel Insights with Google in countries across Asia and Europe, including Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Croatia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Sources: Travel Insights with Google, Google Ads & Commerce Blog