Business Summer School in Sibiu, Romania

The fourth edition of Business Summer School will take place on 15-28 August 2010. in Sibiu, Romania. The Business Summer School (BSS) is an academic program for learning in an international context, and a forum for developing intercultural understanding. During two weeks of stay in Sibiu, the European Capital of Culture in 2007, both Romanian and foreign students will participate in debates, workshops and seminars. The academic and the practical approaches are combined in order to fully cover the learning span of the subject. Moreover, the Business Summer School is using the case study teaching method developed by Harvard Business School.

The theme of the Business Summer School is: “Emerging Markets After Crisis”. Romania is now one of the fastest growing markets in Europe and its accession to the European Union opened up a host for new trade and investment opportunities for both Romanian and EU companies. We at Business Summer School are looking forward to offering you again a platform for discussions and networking with outstanding students, academics and business professionals.

The cost of the program is 350 Euros, which includes accommodation and meals, welcoming package with study materials and most of the sightseeing activities. The participants will have to pay their travel costs to Sibiu, visa and travel insurance.

More details about academics and program dates, application to the program, tuition fee, courses, activities, and more is available on the website: www.businessschool.ro.

If you don’t find the information you are looking for, please feel free to contact us at office@businessschool.ro.

You can apply to the BSS online. The application deadline is July, 15 2010. Admission decisions are made on a rolling basis and students are advised to apply as early as possible. 

NATO International School in Azerbaijan

NATO International School of Azerbaijan is pleased to announce call for applications for its upcoming summer session of “Financial Security”. The NISA Summer Session will be held on 4-11 July, 2010 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Participants will be accommodated in the hotel where the Session will take place. Participants will have an opportunity of tour programs in Baku and surroundings. All successful participants will be awarded with a certificate.

Eligible participants: young politicians, researchers, NGO, government or mass media representatives and academicians working on security and related issues. Participants should be fluent in English, under the age of 35 and nationals of NATO member states, Partnership for Peace countries, Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative countries.

Financial procedures

NISA will provide scholarships to cover the expenses related to the local transportation, accommodation, meals as well as the social program during the event dates. Limited funds are also available to provide reimbursement of the travel expenses up to 60% of some qualified participants (provided that it does not exceed 300 USD for Eastern European, 400 USD for the Western European participants and 500 USD for the participants coming from the US and other parts of the world). Reimbursement will be made as a bank transfer after the end of the session. Therefore all selected participants should send their bank account details before traveling to Azerbaijan. If you are successfully selected then NISA will provide you with the needed official reimbursement document where all the needed information is listed.

There is no participation fee. Financial assistance requests for travel expenses will be considered individually. The request for the most economic travel expenses subsidization should be sent to NISA before the deadline by indicating the details of transportation reservation and price.

Application procedures

Application must include the application form, detailed CV and 1 page long paper on “Financial Security” and related topic.  The paper must reflect applicant’s own writing and original thinking and be sent to the following e-mail address: nisacourses@gmail.com with the subject line NAME SURNAME/ COUNTRY/ NISA WS, as appropriate.

The deadline for the application submission is June 3, 2010. Only short listed local candidates and selected foreign participants will be notified by e-mail. For more information regarding the selection information please visit www.nisa.az.

How will the World Cup affect Travel queries?

By Rashad Sharif

In order to estimate the likely impact of the 2010 World Cup on UK travel queries, we have taken a look at the trends we saw during the last World Cup in 2006.

The graph below demonstrates the month on month (MoM) change in travel query volumes from May – July, across a five year period (2005-2009).

Every year, travel queries increased month-on-month by 2-5 % from May to June. This is expected seasonality as we get closer to the peak of the summer.

The only year we saw an exception to this seasonality was in 2006, the year the last World Cup was held, where we saw a 6% decrease MoM. As this is the only noticeable exception over a five year period, it is highly likely that the MoM decrease was the result of consumers choosing to stay at home to follow the tournament on television rather than travel.

This trend becomes more apparent when we look at MoM query growth between June and July, where generally we see a 3-9% increase. 2006 saw an above average 13% MoM in July, which indicates that interest in travel picked up immediately after the tournament ended.

We then looked at indexed travel queries on a daily basis, to see when exactly travel queries increase from June into July. The chart below shows daily indexed travel queries from May – July for three years 2005-2007 for comparative purposes:

Indexed query volumes in June 2006 were lower than in 2005/2007 – indicates less travel activity in 2006 as consumers watch the tournament at home rather than booking their holidays.

Change in seasonality at start of July 2006 - queries rose rapidly as soon as England dropped out of World Cup, whereas in 2005/2007 queries were falling during this time. This is a clear indication that consumers start looking for holidays once they lose interest in the tournament.

Easter Insights 2010 Whitepaper released March 2010

Our Industry Analyst, Rashad Sharif, has summarised the 2010 January and Easter trends. His key findings can be found in the summary below. You can download the full version of the whitepaper at this link: Easter Insights 2010

2010: The beginning of the road to recovery? Travel query and click growth is much stronger than this time last year. CPCs have fallen across travel products year on year. Monitor your budgets to allow for increased Search activity this year. It is more affordable to increase bids to drive traffic than it was last year.

Query trends in the run up to Easter: Travel queries peak two weeks before Easter Car Hire has the most positive and prolonged query growth over Easter Flight queries peak earliest - indicating primary purchase consideration when booking a holiday Monitor your bids and budgets in the context of rising demand and competition.

Use Easter modified keywords. Easter keywords see high query volumes in the run up to the holiday. Last year we saw CPCs drop as demand increased on these keywords- an opportunity exists to gain cheaper traffic. Top Easter Destinations Recovery of city break destinations YoY suggests a strengthening in the short breaks market. Turkey, Spain and Egypt, New York and Paris among the most popular Easter destinations. Demand for holidays to US and Eurozone destinations has seen large YoY increases.

Sun, Snow and Search In January whitepaper

January 2010 Whitepaper by Michael Wicks, Industry Analyst.

Blazing a trail in Q1 2010.

Last year, travel queries were slower to pick up than usual, due to New Year’s Day falling on a Thursday

· Queries peaked later than normal last year, due to New Year’s Day falling on a Thursday and many people not returning to work until the following Monday 5^th January

· Average cost per click fell immediately after Christmas Day, and click through rate rose during the same period

· Queries peaked on a Monday late in January last year

· Hotel and accommodation queries have the highest relative growth over the New Year and January

Recommendations

· Be prepared to take advantage of an increase in traffic immediately after Christmas

· Ensure adequate budgets are available in the run up to - and beyond - Christmas to avoid missing out on your ads appearing against relevant search queries

· Ensure you have a value based offering to encourage consumers to book early and not wait until the lates market

· Keep your budgets turned on throughout January to take advantage of another potential sustained peak

Consumers are slowly moving back to Eurozone and US Dollar destinations

· Growth for Eurozone city break destination queries has increased as the pound has strengthened against the Euro

· Short haul sun has seen a resurgence, driven by queries for Spain and Portugal

· Although some US destinations have seen an improvement in query growth, non US dollar destinations are still outperforming them

Recommendations

· Promote destinations which have seen an improvement in query growth, as well as those which performed well in the early part of the year

· Use the Insights for Search tool to keep on top of the changing destination patterns most relevant to your business

Average query length is increasing year on year

· The length of travel queries is increasing, as people search for more specific queries. This is a trend across all sub-sectors within Travel

Recommendations

· Ensure you have a coherent match type strategy which allows for identification of changes in search behaviour

· Granularity of accounts to ensure that they are delivering more relevant search terms

· As consumers are getting more demanding, it is important to match landing pages to appropriate ad text

There has been a resurgence for ‘premium’ type queries

· Premium type queries are now growing at the same rate as budget queries, which represents a shift from earlier in the year

Recommendations

· Push both premium and economy product as the market for both is growing at over 10%

· Ensure that you have strong value-led creatives, aligned to premium terms

To download the full report, please click here: Sun, Snow and Search.

Unwrapping Christmas Travel Trends Whitepaper Nov 2009

November 2009: Here is the next instalment of our Travel research papers. Michael Wicks, our Industry Analyst, looks at the festive season ahead and provides key recommendations which will hopefully enable you to maximise your traffic. For full details, find the paper here: Unwrapping Christmas Travel Trends.

Online insights for the festive period

December is becoming increasingly important for travel consumers. In our latest in-depth look at the search trends within the travel sector we look for opportunities for advertisers to capture a share of the Christmas market and get in pole position for Q1 2010.

Promote your brand over Christmas

· December is becoming an important month for travel consumers as their search activity increases relative to other months

· Query growth is beginning to accelerate

Recommendations:

· Ensure adequate budgets are available in the run up to Christmas to avoid missing on customers either in December or in January

· Do not ignore the peaking traffic in week 52 of the year

The mix of queries changes over the Christmas and New Year period

· The long tail grows in importance in December; consumers are searching across a broader range of queries with additional modifiers

Recommendations:

· Set up more granular Ad Groups that capture more specific requests from customers

· Test different creative strategies to convince the consumer to book ahead of the traditional booking window

· Ensure ad text has a clear call to action

Opportunities arise from drops in Ad Coverage and Ad Depth

· December offers advertisers an opportunity to acquire traffic in a less competitive auction

· Advertisers who do maintain their investment over December will be in a stronger position in January as their Quality Score will not have been negatively impacted

Recommendations:

· Focus on capturing long tail traffic

· Fully understand the value of a pre-Christmas communication with consumers who will book in the New Year

· Query volumes are indicative of interest, so to take advantage of this evaluate value propositions in copy to ensure maximum commercial return

Surfing this Summer Whitepaper June 2009

June 2009: The aim of this research paper written by Industry Analyst, Jonny Cranmer, is to provide data on travel search trends to help in planning for 2009. Our methodology was simple. We looked back over last Summer and analysed travel query trends. We split the period into three sections: Pre-school Summer holidays, Summer holidays & Back to school.

Our findings are referenced against factors we believe had some effect on people's travel related behaviour. We looked at how major sporting events, public holidays, macroeconomic conditions and weather influenced people's online travel research.

The results are interesting, highlighting opportunities where advertiser exposure to online traffic could be increased. For example the adverse weather in August and September 2008 lead to high travel query volumes throughout September, possibly because people were motivated to find some late sun. As our ad depth study shows, advertisers failed to fully capitalize on these searches. You can download the white paper here: Surfing this Summer.

Spring into Summer: April 2009 White paper.

April 2009 Whitepaper. Rashad Sharif, our Industry Analyst, assesses the seasonal trends this Easter and looks ahead to the summer months. Capitalise on seasonal opportunities by downloading the full report here: Spring into Summer.

New Year Revelations White paper December 2008

December 2008: New Year Revelations Whitepaper by Michael Wicks

Insights and opportunities from the online frontier

January is becoming increasingly important to online travel businesses and after the highest ever month in terms of online traffic last year, advertisers are gearing up for the 2009 Q1 peak. In our latest in-depth look at the search trends within the travel sector we look for opportunities for advertisers to capture a share of the Q1 market. To download the paper, please click here: New Year Revelations.

Consumers booking travel are increasingly going online in January

· 12% YoY growth

· 71% MoM growth up from 66% in previous year

· 34% growth in last week of December against previous week

· Correlation with offline spend

Recommendations:

· Modify budgets to accommodate seasonal and daily peaks

· Allocate budgets accordingly over the year, and allow flexibility during peak periods

· Align offline and online investment

Exploring Q1 activity in depth

· Impressions decline more sharply than clicks in the post Christmas period

· High traffic volume is sustained throughout Q1

· Queries rise but clicks fall pre-Christmas as consumers research their holiday purchases

Recommendations:

· Expand keyword lists to cover increasing number of unique search terms

· Keep budgets uncapped throughout Q1 – not just January – to capture the entire opportunity

· Make sure keywords cover research-led queries and that landing page content is relevant

High growth exists in value led keywords

· Customers are increasingly seeking value through their searches

· Auction intensity is increasing for value-led keywords

Recommendations:

· Include 'budget' keywords in key Q1 campaigns

· Emphasise price and value for money in ad text

· Ensure CPCs are competitive in order to show more frequently against 'budget' keywords

Shifting destination patterns: slowing demand for secondary holidays like city breaks

· Travel queries still growing at 20% YoY

· Slowing demand especially for city break and short haul destinations

· Increased demand for domestic holidays

Recommendations:

· Ensure maximum keyword coverage for high demand destinations

Consumers are increasingly engaging longer and more specific searches

· 3 to 5 worded queries growing twice as fast as shorter terms

· "Tail" category now growing fastest

Recommendations:

· Build coverage on longer, niche keywords

· Create specific ad texts tailored to niche searches

Consumers are increasingly researching and purchasing travel products online

· 70% of consumers have researched and purchased a travel product online

· Only 27% research online and purchase offline

· Only 38% of consumers do any form of research offline

Recommendations:

· Run online campaigns in conjunction with offline campaigns to reinforce message during consumer research phase

· Direct traffic to educational sections of websites