Hotel News Resource - eMarketer Hotel Industry News

In 2010, mobile shopping activity began to have a noticeable influence on ecommerce sales. The momentum culminated in a coming out party during the holiday season. Consumers discovered that mobile phones helped them to stay within their budget and be more efficient in checking-off the items on their holiday shopping list. According to a survey by SapientNitro, a marketing and technology services company, smartphone owners integrated their devices into their shopping routine by using them to find deals, research products, solicit opinions from friends and family on products of interest, share information about a shopping experience with friends on a social network and, of course, buy products.

After years of healthy growth, a perfect storm of global recession, high unemployment, terrorism scares, flu-pandemic fears and continued economic uncertainty took a devastating toll on the US travel industry in 2009. But usage of the Internet for researching, discussing and booking leisure and unmanaged business travel has shown surprising resilience.

Text messaging may pose greater challenge

Nearly one-quarter of hoteliers will create an app in 2010

A September 2009 MarketingProfs survey of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers found that the marketing tactics most often used on social sites are not necessarily the best ones.

The staycation still rules as most US Internet users opt not to travel for the holidays this year. While 52% told About.com that, like in 2008, they would not travel this holiday season, another 24% said they were even less likely to travel this year than last.

To prove the success of their campaigns, marketers need analytics. But many report frustration with understanding and using the Web analytics tools necessary to prove their success to management, according to 'The Web Analytics War Reader Survey' by Unica.

Most Americans are still making their travel plans offline, according to the 'Travel and Vacation Services Summer 2009' report from Ad-ology Research.

What is the purpose of Twitter? Social media marketers have been trying to answer that question as they use the microblogging service to promote their brands and products.

The Future of Digital Marketing conference, presented by Econsultancy, is an annual fixture on the London marketing calendar. This year's gathering again boasted a number of stimulating presentations, as well as heated discussion.