A recent article from eMarketer highlights some huge areas of opportunity for the travel industry when it comes to social media marketing. Notably, "72.7% of US social network users accessed the sites at least daily while they were traveling. Young adults ages 25 to 34 checked social sites most often, with nearly a third using them multiple times an hour."
Check it out here: How Travelers Use Social Media - eMarketer
This semester I was part of a McCombs Plus Project and our group was tasked with developing a revenue-driving social media strategy for the Four Seasons Hotel Austin. Last week we presented our recommendations, so I still have this topic on the brain. If there was one key take-away from our research, it's that social media can be a very powerful marketing tool for the travel industry; for hotels in particular, nearly 87% of review users reported that online hotel reviews had a significant influence on their purchase.
With the latest tools such as Google Hotpot, Foursquare, and Gowalla gaining endless popularity, it seems that the social media/travel marriage is a lasting one that cannot, and should not, be ignored by marketers.
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