A recent study has shown that so-called rich media, like 360-degree views of hotel rooms, increases online bookings.
The results of the study confirm that viewing rich media significantly increases the likelihood of a booking. Overall, consumers who viewed an Omni hotel’s rich media were 67% more likely to book than those who did not. Importantly, the richer the media viewed by the consumer, the higher the impact on look-to-book conversion rates. The increase in conversion rate for consumers who viewed a hotel video was 2.9 times that for consumers who only viewed virtual tours. The increase was even greater (3.6 times) for consumers who viewed both virtual tours and video. Interestingly, there was no material difference in the effectiveness of full-motion videos and VFM’s more cost effective photomontage videos.

VFM is VFM Interactive, a company that specializes in producing rich media for hotels and which conducted the study. Given VFM's vested interests here, perhaps it is wise to take the results with a grain of salt. Yet, the results do make intuitive sense.

So what does this portend for home-based travel agents? Alarmists might think that all this means is more bookings slipping away to the dreaded Internet. But I see an opportunity as well.

Given the increased ease of "embedding" video in web sites (think YouTube) and the low cost of entry for home-based travel agents creating their own web sites, I see no reason why home-basers can't harness this new technology for thier own use.

For example, say you're promoting a cruise on Cruise Line X. Why not have a video tour of the ship on your site? Or a 360-degreee shot of the balcony suites you're pushing?

This video can come from two sources: you or the cruise line.

Cheap digital video technology and equally affordable video editing software has turned millions (or at least many thousands) of people into Steven Spielbergs). And it's easy to get your home-cooked video online. Again, think YouTube and similar services that are now mushrooming on the 'Net. And what a great reason to take another fam trip!

Video produced by the cruise line will have the advantage of being slicker. Creating those 360-degree views, for example.

I see no reason why a cruise line would not let one of its "partners" use this material. Talk to your RSM about how to make this happen.