Google's Asia-Pacific Travel Dashboard reveals Singapore's interests

New data from Google's APAC Travel Dashboard reveals insights into the travel-planning behaviour of Singaporeans. Below, we present three of Google's findings, followed by recommendations flowing out of those findings.

Open to trying new brands

Travel-related searches increased by 5 percent in 2016, with searches peaking during the June and December holiday seasons. Search trends suggest that pricing plays a big role in determining a travel destination, with generic AdWord category words being used by two-thirds of the travel related queries. 

Campaign recommends: This means that marketers must invest more energy into paid keywords that resonate with pricing and experience. The data also show search terms turning to brands once choices have been exhausted through. Travel advertisers would do well to plan mass category keyword bidding, investing in content strategy around budget calculators and family bundles.

Shorter travels

Nine of the top 10 destinations searched by Singaporeans are in Asia. This suggests that Singaporeans are looking for a hassle-free journey, which is why Bangkok is the top attraction due to its delicious local fare and affordable shopping.

Campaign recommends: Travel advertisers would do well to invest in predictive content marketing that focuses on showing the route from the landed airport to their resort or perhaps repositioning a long drive to be a makeshift tour bus as well.

Prefer staycations

39 percent of searches by Singaporeans relate to 'staycations', a trend where people stay at a hotel or vacation rental in their own country. Travel advertisers with resorts around attractions such as Universal Studios Singapore would do well to naturally embed "staycation" into the keywords they bid for or on the meta tags within the title or descriptor of their sites. The data from Google suggest that staycation queries pour in on the Monday before a long weekend (like the upcoming Eid break, which means September 1 is off).

Campaign recommends: Travel advertisers should accept this consumer behaviour and offer last-minute deals and packages so every customer segment can experience a slice of the brand life.

Conclusion

The research findings prove that Singapore's ability to draw in its own citizens will remain a cash cow for the years to come. Now it remains to be seen how well "Passion Made Possible", the new joint brand of the Singapore Tourism Board and the country’s Economic Development Board will perform with attracting foreign tourists (see STB, EDB launch unified brand to market Singapore worldwide).

Travel advertisers interested in planning their marketing with respect to search are recommended to use the Google APAC Travel Dashboard as the baseline of data for paid online activities.