How can Social Media make money for the travel industry?
The debate about the ROI in implementing Social
Media in a business has been going on for quite a long time now. While experts and not so experts struggle to
prove that Social Media can make money the different industry leaders do not
seen so convinced.
I have been intensively working in the world of
Social Media in the travel industry for the last two years and I can assure you
that it is a very hard job to prove the profitability of Social Media. The
reason is not because is not possible to increase sales “going social” but due
to the traditional business practices that have never included Customer Service
(offline) to the traditional sales funnel.
Travel stakeholders prefer to go ahead pay per
click campaigns and SEO that bring them direct traffic to their sites instead
of implementing a time consuming strategy that will eventually give them online
reputation, especially when it comes to intermediates that get their money from
mass production of room nights and air tickets. Visiblity in he Social Media
sphere is indirect and subtle, peer to peer means lost of control and this
creates panic to the boards of directors of the big tour operators.
Now, six years after the internet went social
tour operators realise that they need to change, they need to change fast and
catch their customers they need to focus
on customer care before, during and after the sale. Simple email follow-up and
reviews are not enough anymore. The end user wants to be pampered and bombarded;
the end user demands specialization and destination insights. Openness and
authenticity are the most valued content components from the end user,
therefore email shots and maniac Twitting is controversial.
The only valid path for the travel industry is to
recreate its brand strategy around social media and its components, aggregate
users’ content and via conversations and engagement convert them into
advocates. This can only be achieved with professional help and domination of insights.
If we now look at destinations like Cyprus,
where tourism is the steam engine of the economy and where the global financial
crisis has crashed travel traffic dramatically, the local travel stakeholders need
to make the move quickly. The “fear” of digital is present but I can assure you
that “risky” travel business men and women are getting professional coaching and
they are convinced that they can achieve sales growth even now in the most abyss depths
of crisis.
The ball has started to roll 2 years ago during the E-Tourism Forum Cyprus.