Successful online marketing and booking is critical for today’s competitive travel, tourism and hospitality businesses.   Consumers prefer the web for investigating travel products, destinations and experiences, so a simple, usable process throughout is critical to gain trust and improve conversion rates.  Many travel, tourism and hospitality businesses do not achieve their potential due to websites that:

•     Fail to meet the needs of prospective customers
•     Are difficult to navigate
•     Provide content that is not persuasive
•     Present barriers during the booking or registration process
•     Make it difficult for existing customers to manage their bookings

A good online user experience will significantly improve your brand loyalty and business revenues.  This intensive all day course provides a solid practical foundation for travel, tourism or hospitality companies aiming to improve their site user experience.  It covers the usability principles for all parts of the online customer journey including:

• Marketing and promotion pages –presenting your travel product, destination or service persuasively, answering the questions your customers want to know
• Selection –helping customers research and find the best travel products for them so they can proceed to purchase with confidence
• Purchase and booking - removing barriers to online purchase, reduce basket abandonment and maximize conversion rates as a result
• Managing bookings –allowing your customers to self serve and manage their booking including the mobile service channel

This full day course includes case studies and examples taken from various ecommerce travel, tourism and hospitality websites and practical hands-on experience through workshops.

What will I learn?

Attendees will understand the user experience principles for travel, tourism and hospitality websites including:

• Search and Navigation – designing your site to let users easily find what they are looking for through logical grouping and labelling of content.
• Product pages –presenting your key content pages to show your travel, tourism & hospitality product persuasively, applying clear calls to action
• Online registration and booking– allowing your customers to quickly and easily provide the necessary information for online purchase. The principles of usable online form design will be explained and demonstrated
• Booking management – allowing customers to revise their booking and potentially integrate their plans with social networking and mobile channels

Who should attend?

• Anyone involved in hospitality, travel and tourism websites who wants to gain a better understanding of user experience principles and learn how to apply best practice.
• Website and Ecommerce managers aiming to increase online conversion rates
• Digital Marketing and Brand managers aiming to improve the persuasiveness of their destination or travel product online
• Web designers aiming to deliver better, more usable sites for their clients in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector
• Heads of IT teams aiming to improve site usability and reduce development time
• Project managers responsible for ensuring sites comply with usability best practice

About the trainer

Chris Rourke is the Founder and Managing Director for User Vision, a leading user experience and user-centred design (UCD) consultancy working with clients in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.  He has worked with leading companies in the sector including Emirates Airline, Jumeirah, Hertz, Visit Scotland, and other leaders in the travel and tourism sector.

Chris has worked in usability, accessibility and user centred design for over 20 years.  He established User Vision in 2000 and quickly developed an enviable client list and a reputation for practical thorough and affordable user centred design services to help clients gain a competitive advantage through improved usability.  He and the User Vision team offer user experience services across all digital platforms including interactive TV, software and mobile, and increasingly are involved in cross-channel user experience projects. 

Chris has worked with clients across all sectors including financial services, public sector, retail e-commerce, travel & tourism, charity, media, telecoms pharmaceuticals and others.  Clients include RBS, Emirates Airline, Cabinet Office, BBC, HSBC, IKEA, Pfizer, Orange, O2, Nokia, NCR, HP, the Scottish Government and Houses of Parliament among others.

If you have any questions regarding the course, please contact Jameel Is’haq on Jameel@uservision.co.uk or call on 0131 240 1491

*Please note that a venue will be confirmed nearer the date*