Since the groundhog proclaimed that there will be six more weeks of winter this year, and residents of Southern California are even feeling the chill, it might not be such a bad idea to explore a warmer destination for the month of March. I’m thinking that somewhere tropical, probably in the Caribbean, would make an excellent travel spot for this time of year. The Caribbean is made up of the Caribbean Sea and its islands include Aruba, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Saint Vincent, Guadeloupe, and many more. These islands have terrain that ranges from flat lands to towering mountain ranges. The Caribbean Sea is home to a range of exotic marine life making it a great place to engage in water activities such as snorkeling and scuba diving. Being filled with various tourist attractions, many sites exist that provide travel tips and packages for the Caribbean. But which website is the most apt to attract people to purchase a vacation package through them? This is the question that needs to be explored in order to make an educated decision when booking a trip.An article written by Charis Atlas Heelan on Frommer’s Travel Guides outlines a few websites that offer bargain prices on trip packages. For example, Charis explains that his "inbox gets bombarded with discounted Caribbean trips" so he has supplied a list of a few bargains that "are hard to pass on no matter how tight your budget is this year." I have researched these websites along with others in search of which one has the best marketing plan. The first to be discussed is Caribbean.com, which prides itself on possessing destination guides for the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Mexico. They offer a little more than forty marketing promotions where some packages are all inclusive and some include everything except meals. The site is fairly easy to use and offers a tab specifically for Caribbean yellow pages. From a marketing standpoint, I noticed a vast amount of information available on Caribbean.com which makes the layout appear muddled and causes the site to be difficult to navigate. In addition, there are too many different colors present on this site which makes it distracting and less appealing to consumers. The home page is too wordy where it needs to be concise and more have a more open feeling. In terms of marketing techniques, Caribbean.com is not an appealing website to consumers and probably loses customers due to this fact. The deals and packages are not worth the trouble a viewer goes through when using the site. There are many trip planning websites that offer similar promotions and a broader scope of destinations than Caribbean.com, all while remaining aestically appealing.
Bookit.com provides deals for vacation spots varying from ski resorts to Las Vegas casinos to tropical getaways. The thing that I find most helpful about this site is the availability of user reviews posted below the hotel and location descriptions. This will definitely come in handy when narrowing down the package customers intend to purchase. The layout of the site is user-friendly and the searching aspect is helpful. For example, the visitor starts off by choosing a destination and from there he or she can search for information regarding trip packages, hotels and travel guides for that specific location, instead of digging through different tabs like Caribbean.com forces users to do. However, Caribbean.com offers more options for trips in the Caribbean. With this being said, I would still choose Bookit.com over the previous site because of how easy it is to navigate through the website. Furthermore, on Bookit.com the customer can book flights, hotels, rental cars, and cruises. From a marketing standpoint, the site's layout is professional and easy to use. The color scheme is also consistent which allows for a more appealing website. The prices displayed on this site for package deals are very reasonable; however, there are a few sites that claim to provide discounted rates.
Cheapcaribbean.com offers package deals for a lot of the same destinations as the previous discussed websites; however, the prices on this site are higher than on bookit.com. This is something that I would not have expected from an organization with “cheap” in their title. One aspect of Cheapcaribbean.com that is definitely annoying is how a popup asking the user to register with their site, but during my entire time exploring the site, I was only asked once. The site does, like bookit.com, offer customer reviews on locations. The drawback with Cheapcaribbean.com’s method is that they only use “Caribbean Jim’s” opinion on the locations which makes it less real and is probably written by someone who
works for the website, even the negative comments are twisted into a positive. For example, a negative comment posted by Caribbean Jim reads, “the beach here is a little rocky but the pool offers a great alternative”.
The site does not appear to be having any specific marketing promotions but they do seem to be targeting families and young couples. This can be seen in the pictures posted on the main page. One aspect that I really like about this website is the maps (see to the left) on the destinations tab. Depicted are colorful maps of the different regions/countries they offer as destinations. The maps show tourist attractions at the locations which is an easy way to figure out where to go when all you know is that you want a vacation. For example, if I wanted a vacation to see a beautiful lighthouse, from the maps, I would narrow my choices down to Aruba and Barbados. This site also offers interactive maps. From a marketing viewpoint, it becomes apparent that Cheapcaribbean.com strives to be user friendly and targets to a family oriented audience.
Although the economy is in a poor state, nevertheless, exceptional deals are available and as long as the reader knows how to navigate the site, a vacation is eagerly awaiting us. There are many positive and negative aspects to the differing travel booking websites. The user must decide what is most important to them; a user friendly model or the cheapest prices. Fortunately, with Bookit.com, pretty much everything is satisfied. On that one site you can rent a car, book a hotel, schedule a flight, and find entertaining things to do during your vacation. Cheapcaribbean.com is also a good website, however, I have a difficult time trusting their resort locations since they do not appear to allow users to comment on their stay. The concept of Caribbean Jim is helpful, but it does not provide as much honest insight as the comments available on Bookit.com. From my research, I have concluded that the travel sites offering a broad scope of destinations generally provide the best services, even if you are searching for a specific region such as the Caribbean. If you are planning to escape the cold and take a vacation to the Caribbean, I definitely recommend using Bookit.com.
