2009 Indiana Tourism Summit Wrapup – TNS Research: Webtrends – John Packer

John Packer, from TNS Research, was the first presenter at the 2009 Indiana Tourism Summit. John brought his expertise in both web marketing and the tourism industry for his presentation and there are some absolutely fascinating statistics included. Here are some of the highlights of his presentation, followed by the PowerPoint itself.

Five Emerging Travel Marketing Trends:

1. Travelers are still traveling and can be influenced
   • 31% of visitors to VisitIndiana.com are extremely more likely to visit Indiana after seeing the site
   • 54% of visitors are very likely to visit Indiana after seeing the site (score of 7-10 out of 10)
2. Affordability is the watchword
   • 79% of respondents said that Affordability was very or extremely important when planning a trip
3. Search is still King
   • Many more people find out about VisitIndiana.com via search than any other medium
4. Travelers are shopaholics
   • 63% of visitors to VisitIndiana.com are shopping around for their vacation destination – many people are looking at several states within driving distance
5. Websites are money well spent
   • 48% of all visitors to VisitIndiana.com are potential travelers to Indiana 50% actually end up traveling to Indiana after visiting VisitIndiana.com
   • For every $1 spent on VisitIndiana.com and web advertising, the state of Indiana experiences $1,071 in visitor spending

Here is John Packer’s presentation:

John Packer is a vice president in the Travel & Leisure segment for TNS Research. He is a marketing research professional with over 15 years of client and supplier experience. His primary responsibilities at TNS are working with travel and tourism clients to fully understand their business issues an then working with team members to design and execute research programs that will help travel and tourism clients succeed. Previous marketing research postions with increasing responsibilities were MarketVision Research, D.K. Shifflet & Associates an SnowSports Industries America. he is the pas president of Travel and Tourism Research Association International, and he is affiliated with numerous professional societies. Educationally, he holds a BA (Physics) from the University of Connecticut and an MA (Tourism Administration) from George Washington University.