CEO and Project Manager
December 22, 2015
We were struck by these interesting conclusions drawn from the ClubRural portal on data regarding the use of ICT and the tools offered by the Internet for the distribution and communication of this type of tourist accommodation.
The sector invests little in online advertising: 76.58 % of rural property owners spend less than €1,500 a year, although 44.37% of reservations come from specialised portals.
While the top 30 Spanish tourism companies (agencies, tour operators, cruise liners, destinations and hotel chains) invest more than 85 million euros a year in advertising (in 2014 they spent 87.8 million), rural tourism takes few risks with the Internet.
Although this sector does not have the same turnover, its commitment to online advertising, marketing and booking is still not the majority. According to the survey list of greece consumer email carried out by the rural accommodation portal www.clubrural.com , 76.8% of rural property owners invest less than €1,500 per year in online promotion: 9.51% up to €200; 23.59% from €201 to €500; 43.49% from €501 to €1,500; 18.49% from €1,501 to €3,000; 3.70% from €3,001 to €5,000; and only 1.23%, more than €5,000.
Online booking and social media are still a pending issue in rural tourism: only 43.66% of owners have online bookings; and 34.86% do not maintain any activity on social media.
This is despite the fact that 44.37% of professionals admit that their reservations come from specialised portals. They also make reservations by email (15.49%), OTAs (9.68%), own website (9.15%) and online booking (2.11%). In fact, telephone and recommendations from other clients do not even reach 20% of total reservations.
Data that speaks of the love/hate relationship between rural tourism and the Internet. Something that is also demonstrated by the fact that only 43.66% of rural owners have online booking, compared to 56.34% who have not implemented it.
However, professionals in the sector trust social networks a little more, although 34.86% do not have active profiles on them. 58.27% are present on Facebook, 2.11% on Twitter, 3.35% on Google+, 1.06% on Instagram and 0.35% on YouTube.
