Social Media and Destination Marketing
Jan 28, 2010 | Filed Under Destinations, Marketing
Over the last ten years the travel industry has witnessed how the Internet has revolutionized business practices. Now, the majority of travel-related business transactions occur over the Internet, reducing the demand for offline information resources and travel agents substantially.
Travelers use online resources to learn about travel destinations, service providers, and pricing options to inform and make their purchases. They generate their own content and exchange information via blogs, social networks, Twitter, and other modes of interactive social media. They are continually discovering new ways to find consumer products across all industries and now we find product information flowing from friend to friend across an expanding universe of contacts, allowing consumers to use trusted personal relationships to navigate the vast amount of information.
Social Networking has been the global consumer phenomenon of 2008. Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 10% of all Internet time.
A study conducted by comScore Marketing Solutions, for example, found that of the 2,000 Internet users surveyed in October 2007, more than 75% of review users in nearly every category of service said that they made a purchase based on the online review. Jupiter Research’s Travel Consumer Survey (2007) found that 32% of online travel researchers who used UGC (user generated content) did so early in their research process (when important destination decisions are made) and 56% used user-generated content to verify their hotel choices prior to booking.
In addition, travel writers, an important audience for destination marketing, also emphasize online social media in their research. A survey of 70 travel writers conducted in April, 2008, for example found that “Over half of the reporters surveyed said they spent more than an hour per day with online news sources and blogs.” (http://www.brodeurmediasurvey.com/).
If you are a tour operator or destination marketer, understanding social media and taking advantage of it should be on your “to do” list for 2010. I excerpted some interesting ideas from Natashaingreenland.com, the blog of Xola consultant and George Washington University graduate student, Natasha Martin.
“I’m thinking about what would be a good social media campaign for Greenland. Consider this:
- 96% of Americans between 18-29 are on a social network
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest (China’s Qzone social network is bigger than Facebook)
- 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 brands are links to user-generated content
- 78% of Americans trust peer reviews (Only14% trust traditional advertising)
Effective use of social media (by definition: media that is spread by social interaction) is probably the best tool destinations have for raising awareness about their destination: it’s cheap and effective. But it requires time, planning, good strategy and innovation. A Facebook page isn’t going to catch anyone’s attention anymore, (unless you get really serious: Pure Michigan recently hired Fluency Media to develop a strategy for their Facebook page!).
But beyond Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Knols, and Squeedoos (actually I just counted 67 “share” icons on Mashable)– what really gets peoples attention are elaborately planned campaigns.
Here are some other notable and recent examples of innovative social media campaigns by tourism destinations (thanks @Shalin for a good article on this)
- Visit Colorado invited people who had never seen snow before to participate in their Snow At First Sight contest. Three winners get to travel around the state for 90 days and blog like mad about their first experiences with snow.
- Ultimate Thailand Explorers launched by the Thailand Tourism Authority gave teams of two the chance to win six expense paid days exploring Thailand. To apply you had to submit a video and people around the world voted with clicks.
- Not a campaign but I like Austria’s approach to networking for travelers. Cool Austria is a site for travelers AND locals to find attractions/activities in Austria.
- Philadelphia has done a similar thing with www.uwishunu.com (You wish you knew) – a guide to going local.”
Read Natasha’s full post at Natashaingreenland.com.
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Your comment that “the majority of travel-related business transactions occur over the Internet,” is highly applicable for independent travel, but my perception is that this applies in a much more limited way with escorted/adventure travel. Thoughts?