Travel is one of the areas that has been hit the hardest by the recession. Consumers are abandoning their vacation plans in order to save money, which makes it extremely difficult for travel marketers. There are, however, some ways marketers can make the most of these hard times as Roger Wong of Bing Travel explains.

Based on research from third party research companies as well as Microsoft adCenter, Wong says the baby boomers are cutting back the most in the area of travel. On the contrary, the 18-34 crowd is spending more on travel, which gives marketers the opportunity to focus their message on that specific demographic.

Secondly, just as search behavior in general is evolving, traveler search behavior is changing as well. In past years, search travel queries were between 2-4 words. Currently, Bing is seeing 10-20 percent year-over-year increases in the number of words per query.

Lastly, the recession has popularized the idea of a “staycation.” In other words, people are traveling shorter distances and staying for shorter lengths of time.

All this information allows travel marketers to adapt their efforts to better meet the needs of consumers during these difficult times.