Social media is highly influencing and it is on the path to revolutionize today’s travel and leisure industry. Nowadays, people who are planning a trip, conduct an online research to find more about exiting destinations, cultural characteristics and traditions, activities and entertainment, hotels and airlines.
A Place to Make a Research
More and more travelers turn to social media networks to find information about destinations and services. They browse hotel reviews and compare airfare prices. That is mainly due to the fact that most of the travel companies, hotels and airlines have established profiles within the social networks, where communications are more informal.
According to statistics, 62% of people who are planning a trip do a “background check” on their travel service providers. Most of them read posts from other travelers and browse through their trip photos and videos. A curious fact is that more than half of the people who did a research on the social networks decided to change their original travel plans.
No Other Choice
The travel and leisure industry is forced to integrate social media into its business, because of its growing popularity. Today, many travel companies offer direct bookings from social websites. Others give special discounts to their followers and fans.
Sneaky Business Tricks
A survey conducted by a group of travel agencies found that people don’t stop using social media while they are on a vacation. Moreover, some of them even post more when they are on a trip (70%). Many tourists like to document their experience through photos and video which they later publish online. Some hotels and travel companies are aware of that and they successfully use it to get an insight in their clients’ worlds. They follow their customers’ activity on the social networks and see what they like and dislike. There are even cases when hotel owners dismiss some of their employees after a few tourists complained from them on the social media.
Restaurants also tend to spy on their customers. In that way, they even pick the specialty of the house. For example, lots of people like to tweet photos of what they eat. Some restaurants check what their clients’ most popular choice is and that is how the new specialty is born.
The bottom line is that like every other business area today, the travel and leisure industry is trying to adapt to the social media tendencies and practices. Those who still haven’t done that will surely face a big challenge in the near future.
*By New Media Group – the most powerful independent content marketer and social media services provider in Dubai and the wider region. The firm publishes www.dubaichronicle.com, www.bride-wedding.info and it is preparing the launch of www.abudhabichronicle.com. For inquiries, please write to Info@newmediagroup.biz.
