Today's travelers are starting to expect a personalized experience throughout all stages of travel. As a matter of fact, 74% of consumers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized (Infosys.) This shows us that in the evolving world of travel marketing, big data must be utilized in order to please (and convert) our target audience.

Numerous companies are collecting consumer data – past searches, purchases, tracking cookies, loyalty programs, etc. – but the travel industry is still determining HOW, exactly, to use this data. In terms of hotel visuals, big data needs context. Rather than attempting to appeal to everyone, your visuals should be specifically targeted towards each particular consumer persona. Knowing who they are and what they are interested in can help you to streamline your content to pique their interest.

For example, if you've gathered data on a particular consumer (tracking cookies, reward profile, Facebook, etc.) that tells you that they have kids and are most likely searching for a family vacation, you wouldn't want to show them images of romantic dinners and honeymoon suites. You'd want to show this person images of your property's family activities or kids' club. If you know the age(s), you would even show different family friendly images – from toddlers to teens – there's a vast difference. Context can be added to images with relevant Meta-tags or tags. The more specific you get with tagging your images, the more specific of a consumer you will reach. This specific, personalized, content will help to convert more lookers to bookers because if done correctly, it should be exactly what they are looking for. Data from Evergage's, 2017 Trends in Personalization study tells us that 88% of marketers using personalization report a measurable lift in results.

In addition to the benefit of personalization, tags can improve your images' content score on various OTAs. A higher content score means a higher page ranking, increasing your visibility to travelers browsing for hotel rooms. With tagging on OTAs, however, comes the problem of standardization. As big data becomes more widely used, Meta tags will need to be standardized for the best results, just as the same Open Travel Alliance categories are used across the board.

Distribution technology that allows for Meta tagging of hotel visuals will give your property an advantage because more of the right type of travelers will be exposed to it online. If your property has a boosted ranking in OTA search results and is showing personalized images to consumers, expect to see increased bookings and engagement online.

Founded: Founded in 1997 as World Travelvision. Renamed ICE Portal in 2003.

Website: www.iceportal.com

Founder: Henry Woodman, President

Contact Information:

ICE Portal 


A: 3595 Sheridan St.

Suite 200

Hollywood, FL 33021

United States

P: +1-954-893-6778

F: +1-954-893-6779

E- US: [email protected]

Products and Services:

Rich Content Production, Management and Distribution

micro Traditional high & low resolution photography

micro Hi-Definition virtual tours - 360°panoramic imaging

micro Flash Web Show – a video-like montage of still photos

micro Digital Brochures

micro eBooks

¹ Video optimized for streaming on the Web

Content Management

ICE Portal's Content Management System (CMS) allows customers to easily view and manage their content and obtain a multitude of custom reports on content distribution. Other features include:

micro Updating photos

micro Property indexing by GoogleÔ

micro Turning seasonal images on and off

Content Distribution

ICE Portal enables travel suppliers to not only improve the rich media content on their own websites but also on the thousands of other travel sites, search engines, portals and GDS's that they may have distribution relationships with and/or strategic partner Leonardo. ICE Portal ensures that rich media content is delivered correctly for all of the following:

micro Formats

micro Size

micro Speed

micro Bandwidth

micro Language

micro Within specified SLA's for the worlds major travel websites

ICE Portal Supporting Data:

ICE Portal's Research indicates that hotel properties that effectively integrate rich media into their online marketing strategies, including distribution of their content to 3rd party intermediaries (TPI's), realize the following benefits:

micro Total Unique Visitors increase an average of 13%

micro Rich Media generates click-through rates up to 8% more than for static images.

micro Rich media generates post-impression activity rates twice those for non-rich media and 46% more sales for those activities compared to non-rich media.

micro The initial Abandonment Rate (Number of Unique Visitors abandoning the site before viewing hotels) improves by more than 5 percentage points.

Industry Findings:

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, more than 50% of the US population will watch video online next year.

Current research indicates that rich media, such as Virtual Tours, generate 46% (percent) more bookings than still images.

Rich media has a greater influence on purchasing decisions than do traveler reviews.

The PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey

When it comes to making travel-purchasing decisions, most American travelers would rather see the options for themselves than simply act on the recommendations of others. In fact, travelers want to view the options in detail via pictures, online maps and video.TravelDailyNews.com, 2008

2007 was the first year in which more travel was purchased online than off-line in the U.S., with 51% of U.S. travel being booked online. Online travel purchases are expected to increase to 56% in 2008 and 60% in 2009.PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey 2008