Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 SpecialHow can an online travel agency make judicious use of social networking sites for building its profile and other opportunities?

Published: 08 Apr 2008

Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 Special

How can an online travel agency make judicious use of social networking sites for building its profile and other opportunities?

During the recently held Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 Conference in San Francisco, EyeforTravel's Ritesh Gupta explored the same and much more with Victoria Treyger, VP Online Marketing and Product Management, Travelocity. Here is what she had to share:

Victoria Treyger: The key opportunities for partnership include branding and research. On the branding side, the key areas I think are creating videos such as those you may post on Youtube, or creating a home page for your brand. We did this at Travelocity for our Gnome with his MySpace page, which saw strong results. Our Gnome has over 18000 friends. Videos are also an amazing way to give potential customers the travel bug and wet their appetites to visit your destination or add you to their Travel Wishlist. One of my favorites is this New Zealand video on Yotube. Watching it definitely makes New Zealand at the very top of the list of destinations I would want to go next http://www.youtube.com/user/PureNewZealand

The second opportunity is to think more about applications that really allow users to research travel destinations and daydream. These include products like my wish list, or opportunities to ask your friends where they have been so that you can get specific advice on travel destinations that you are considering.

In terms of integration between social media sites and travel providers, I do see opportunities in the transactional area. Facebook's Beacon project was the first effort to provide links from Facebook's feeds to retailers sites so that if I purchased a trip to the Bahamas, my friends can see that I purchased that trip on Travelocity and go to Travelocity to research this trip or similar trips they want to take. Beacon got off to a wrong start with privacy concerns, but they are continuing to modify the program, and I do think we will see other iterations of this concept in the near future.

Ritesh Gupta: What according to you are the limitations of travel 2.0 sites especially social networking sites?

Victoria Treyger: The key limitations today are proving financial benefit from pure social networking websites. The benefit is definitely there for user generated investment in the form of higher conversion and higher average order values. The benefit from social media sites today I believe is more concentrated in branding and engagement which are much harder to quantify.

Ritesh Gupta: Companies like Lonely Planet are integrating content and community so that travelers feel they are playing a meaningful part in the travel cycle. On the other hand, user-generated content sites are strengthening/ adding networking sites to their portfolio. How do you assess such developments?

Victoria Treyger: There are many types of travelers, many types of trips, and even more approaches to planning travel. Some customers may start with UGC, others may want to start with professional opinions. Each traveler wants a mix of UGC, expert guidance and the ability to talk with friends. You'll notice on our IGOUGO site, we offer travelers both UGC and opportunities to interact with others so that each traveler can identify the mix of information that she finds to be most relevant.

Ritesh Gupta: When it comes to negative publicity emanating via UGC, then some say instead of being frightened by UGC, companies should be harnessing its power in order to learn by their mistakes, improve quality control and ensure that in the future their own house is in order. How critical is negative publicity when it surfaces on social networking sites? Do you see the same impact on the brand and travel service provider?

Victoria Treyger: We believe UGC provides very powerful information that companies can and should use to improve their services and better satisfy travelers. While we do see our fair share of critical reviews, the majority are actually quite positive. At Travelocity, we encourage open, honest feedback, both positive and negative, so that future travelers and suppliers get an accurate picture of that person's experience. Additionally, our hotel reviews include ratings on things like cleanliness, bed comfort, and dining, providing suppliers an opportunity to see where they are strong, and where they have an opportunity to do more.

Ritesh Gupta: How do you foresee the role of social networking sites shaping up in travel industry in the time to come?

Victoria Treyger: I think they will become even more powerful vehicles as a key source for travel research and planning. We will increasingly see people turn to their friends networks online for help in deciding where to go on that big family vacation for 2009 in order to see if their friends with similar interests have been to the destinations that they are considering. Customers would then use this input to build more complex and possibly "riskier" trips than you would have taken in the past. For example, if you always go to Hawaii but want to branch out and try Bali, the existence of social networks provides you that vehicle to learn about Bali and take the plunge to visit the destination. It really provides the "preview" of the destination long before you travel so that you can make a good decision whether or not to go. So one potential impact of social networking sites is our favorite long tail – I think the level of information about travel destinations in social media sites can spur more travel to more remote destinations.

Second, I think you'll see more focus in user generated content in categorising the reviewers writing the reviews so that customers can more easily assess whether this reviewer is "like me". And then the next big area is I think about financial returns – I think social media sites will drive more traffic to the travel suppliers and therefore become a more important partner in referring qualified customers to the supplier and OTA sites.