Google have launched Destinations on Google – a feature that helps you to plan your next holiday on your mobile directly from the search results.
The feature works by integrating a deep understanding of all the places in the world with data from Google Flights and Google Hotels to bring you flight and hotel prices instantly.
To explore Destinations on Google, you can simply search for a continent, country or state you would like to travel in and add the word “destination” in your search query.
Once you click on the destination, you can then explore further using filters including interests, dates and price. Selecting a city then allows you to again explore further information about that city. This includes reading about the city, suggested itineraries, the top sights in the city, the best time to visit by weather and videos as well as other places to explore.
You also have the option to ‘plan your trip’. This shows you hotel and flight prices, with a total price for both. You are shown a visual column graph showing you the dates when prices are high or low. There is a filter allowing you to specify specific requirements and the ability to explore the hotel which takes you to the hotel’s Google Places listing.
Google is capitalising on rising search queries around planning a trip. According to Google they ‘saw a whopping 50 percent increase in travel-related questions on mobile phones’.
It is interesting this feature is shown right at the top of the search results above the paid listings, advertisers should expect reduced traffic from their paid marketing on Google.
It comes as Google has made a number of significant other changes to their search results recently including launching AMP pages, increasing the number paid ads to four and removing the side ads, opting to stop their product comparison service to name a few.
