Consumer reviews play a major role in the online purchasing decisions of online shoppers.  According to a June study conducted by Opinion Research Corporation 61% of respondents said they checked online reviews, blogs and other online customer feedback before buying a new product or service.

A February study commissioned by PowerReviews also suggest that consumers need four to seven reviews before making a purchasing decision.

Read more on eMarketer.

TripAdvisor has grown tremendously over the past year.   Consumer written reviews continue to come in at a high rate, and several hundred thousand leads are delivered to TripAdvisor advertising partners monthly.

TripAdvisor is wielding more and more leverage in the online travel distribution with its continued growth, and many online travel agencies now depend upon the referrals generated by Trip Advisor.

Read more on Competeinc.

SA Tourism has joined forces with CNN in a three year user driven multimedia advertising campaign, “My South Africa”, which aims at attracting 10 million visitors to SA in 2010.

The R44,4 million campaign forms part of a global initiative between SA Tourism and CNN, along with BBC, National Geographic and Eurosport.

The “My South Africa” campaign will run through TV and print adverts, and viewers worldwide are encouraged to submit photographs, stories and images that sum up their experiences of SA via My South Africa.  The campaign kicks off this month and will run until the end of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in July.

Read the full story on The Media Online.

The travel industry is uncertain of the effect of Icann’s decision to open up domain names, even though changes aren’t expected to fall into place until April 2009.  It is reported that Icann only expects to sell between 15 to 20 names. 

Concerns that the Internet will fall victim to mass cyber-squatting has been pushed aside by experts who claim that it would be too expensive and that specific names will only be sold to their registered owners.

Read the full story on Travolution.

Other related stories:  Icann approves Internet overhaul and New domain names coming soon.

The latest online travel trend, “word of mouse”, is leading to a number of corporate travel companies setting up networking sites, with the hope of becoming the dominant player, the Facebook of corporate travel.

According to Cindy Estis Green, author of “Travel Marketers Guide to Social Media and Social Networks” the surge of interest in social networking is mainly due to the time savings it represents.

Social networking tools aimed at business travellers are in the very early stages of development and only time will reveal its value in the online travel industry.

Read the full story on the International Herald Tribune.

According to a recent report by Forrester Research, B-to-B blogging underperformed this year, because returns on corporate blogs did not match investment.

Forrester also reports that the number of new corporate blogs dropped sharply in the past 18 months.  In addition, a survey of 189 companies revealed that 38% rated blogging as “marginal” to their marketing strategies and 15% rated them “irrelevant”.

Forrester Analyst, Laura Ramos, recommends that corporate bloggers learn to be conversation starters by leaving comments on other blogs.  She also recommends that blogs be more entertaining and easy to read.  “Blogs build community faster when they combine information with entertainment,” said the report.

Blogs should also be connected with industry events, by writing about them, posting entries, and involving readers in the process.

Read more on Direct.

A recent survey conducted by Gomez, a website usability company, found that leading online travel companies are failing to make the most of their high rankings in search listings, since consumers find their websites are too slow and inefficient.

A third of companies surveyed were spending as much as 25% of their marketing budget on online advertising, but this could be a waste of money if usability is not enhanced.

Read more on TTG Live.

Hotels are enthusiastically upgrading their facilities to appeal to todays traveller - faster internet access or better beds - but seem to have forgotten to upgrade their ad campaigns. 

Hotel ads campaigns however, have become obsolete for a number of reasons, including the fact that consumers can easily compare hotel rates and find a good hotel at a great price. 

Read the full story on MSNBC.

Mozilla has set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours.  More than 8 million people downloaded Firefox 3 within 24 hours of its official launch.

Firefox 3 additions boost security and allow users to run websites when they are not connected to the Internet.

Read more on Reuters.

Africa has been lagging behind in the $800 billion a year online tourism industry, but will soon be able to reap the benefits of this lucrative market with the E-tourism initiative launched  on the 1st of July.  Africa’s first online-tourism conference will be taking place in September.

Africa tourism accounts for 4% of the global market, but less than 2% of online sales.

The Times has the full story.