Social Media SpecialRecently, during EyeforTravel's social media conference in San Francisco, couple of comments were made regarding the role of travel 2.0 sites.

Published: 21 May 2008

Social Media Special

Recently, during EyeforTravel's social media conference in San Francisco, couple of comments were made regarding the role of travel 2.0 sites.

An online travel agent mentioned the independent UGC sites alone will never be able to provide the complete travel experience because they don't book it, have inventory or provide the customer service that OTAs provide throughout the entire trip.

Another executive made this comment: "If you create a MySpace page with little value other than cartoon characters and funny video snippets, you'll attract high school and college kids. But there are other UGC experiences online that older demographics are starting to engage with more frequency."

In order to assess the situation, EyeforTravel.com's Ritesh Gupta spoke to travel and lifestyle social networking community website WAYN.com's co-founders Peter Ward and Jerome Touze. This is what they had to say:

Peter Ward: The role of websites that contain user generated content (UGC) in the travel planning and buying process can vary depending on the site. It is worth remembering that many of the online travel agencies (OTA's) themselves now collect user generated content or partner with companies that do, as most of them recognize the fact that many prospective customers are interested in consuming UGC such as reviews, trip itineraries, photos, blogs, tips, videos and more, in relation to where they are planning to visit.

In fact, many studies have shown that UGC can increase the conversion to bookings, particularly when it comes to choosing hotel accommodation, which Trip Advisor has demonstrated to best effect in the way that it drives traffic and conversions from its hotel reviews to either its parent sites (Expedia and Hotels.com) and other travel sites such as eBookers.com (part of Orbitz). Lastminute.com also bought IgoUgo I believe for that very purpose.

The other benefit that UGC can provide is to increase dwell time on the site, which can lead to increased brand stickiness. To say that UGC sites will never be able to provide the complete travel experience is in our opinion a short sited view. UGC has the benefit of presenting an unbiased view, and coupled with syndicated industry / professional content and either a booking process or booking referrals, provides a much more compelling proposition that one that does not include UGC in the mix.

The real challenge though and opportunity that UGC sites have is in becoming the central hub or meeting place for users to plan and book their trips as many people start off their travel planning by looking for sources of inspiration and what better way of obtaining this than to check out recommendations from others who have been there and even chat and befriend the locals, those that have been and those others who are planning a trip to the same place as you.

WAYN is well positioned from this perspective as it combines the "friends" element, which you trust, and a way of bringing people that share the same interests as you together, so that you can learn from them also. We are already moving towards a more semantic approach whereby it is not simply the quantity of content that is important as there is a vast supply of that available, but the relevance of that content to you, so that in effect, you can tailor your travel plans based on those experiences of others that you share the most in common with.

Finally, UGC sites or other social media platforms like WAYN do have the inventory. In fact, we recently integrated over 200,000 points of interest, which include over 80,000 hotels, with third parties, whereby the fulfillment and customer support can be provided by our partners and we are paid by the inventory providers to promote their offerings and generate a healthy revenue share as a result. The benefit being that we can aggregate inventory from more than one supplier and to some extent let the users decide what is best. Social media sites like WAYN can also provide more of an aspirational element in that users can share what they have experienced with others by adding all their photos, videos, blogs and trip itineraries with other users and inspire the next set of travelers on where they should go next and perhaps more importantly – what they should do when they get there…

Jerome Touze: We believe that many OTAs and travel companies in general are still trying to work out how best to engage with social media platforms in general. Whether it be creating a Myspace or Facebook profile or adding videos to Youtube, the question remains – how does this drive traffic back to my site, increase brand awareness and ultimately, lead to more bookings.

I think that if companies are to add funny video snippets and cartoon characters to a profile, what do they expect to get back in return? Companies should simply engage with their customers and target market in a way that relates to them whilst also demonstrating why their brand or offerings is of value.

Here at WAYN, we've listened a lot to what companies in the travel industry are trying to achieve and focus purely on innovate and creative ways of using social media and viral marketing tools to achieve those objectives. Whether that involves building a profile, customizing a profile skin for users to adopt and advocate your brand, or to channel target based on news feeds, destination pages or during the trip planning process – there are loads of ways in which to effectively engage with customers.

WAYN is an over 18 site, so unlike many other social media platforms, we have focused on the demographics that matter to companies wanted to attract new customers. If the decision makers of some leading OTAs are not engaging with social media sites then they will be behind the curve on understanding how best to benefit from such opportunities. The same applied to search and search engine optimisation (SEO) when Google first brought out adwords and were showing certain websites at the top of pages simply because many sites learned how to benefit from SEO. Those that do not engage in social media right now will be behind the curve and first mover advantage applies. There will also be more opportunities for smaller and medium sized travel companies to engage with social media platforms such as WAYN in the future, as we open up the long tail of advertising.

Facebook has led the way in this regard by enabling companies to target users based on their interest and to pay for adverting using the debit or credit card but the users are not dwelling on such generalist sites due to their interests in travel in the large part. Sites such as Tripadvisor and WAYN however are much more focused on travel and in the case of WAYN, have a highly engaged user base that is looking for inspiration from others.