Key Findings

Airlines lead the travel brands in the Index. They occupy the first three spots in the rankings and represent six of the top ten. Airlines are adept at leveraging social media to enhance the overall flying experience.

There is a direct relationship between the Digital IQ of hotels and growth in Average Daily Rate. In a recession that has led even high-end hotels to drastically cut prices, those that are excelling digitally are better poised to rebound and recover their rates.

Cruise companies lag in the digital arena with 11 of the 16 included in the study characterized as either Challenged or Feeble. May have poorly designed sites with limited capabilities and often no e-commerce.

There is significant low-hanging fruit online in the industry. At present, only 28 percent of travel brand sites incorporate social media sharing, only nine percent incorporate user reviews, and 60 percent utilize video.

There is a direct positive correlation between Digital IQ and the time consumers spend on a given website. Genius sites hold user attention for an average of 6.2 minutes, while Feeble sites average only 3.4 minutes.

Facebook is the new preferred platform of the travel industry. While traffic to brand sites in the study was down eight percent in March 2011 versus March 2010, travel industry Facebook pages grew 20 percent in the first quarter of 2011 and 78 percent of the brands registered Facebook as a top-eight source of referral traffic.

Average Digital IQ by category demonstrates a direct relationship to the amount of revenue airlines and hotels book online. Collectively, airlines have the highest Digital IQ (113) and register 48 percent of their revenues online.

The iPhone is the portable electronic device of choice. Fifty-six percent of brands in the Index host a mobile site, and 48 percent have an iPhone application.