Are your adventure travellers socially invisible ?
The approximately 218,000 annual trekking visitors to Nepal are potentially connected to over 14 million social media friends (just on Facebook alone). The vast majority of these people are ‘like minded’ with similar interests to their adventurous friends and hence are ideal future prospects for Nepal travel operators. The problem is that once in Nepal (and certainly once they are …
Read MoreThe rise and rise of Social Media
Leading market research firm Nielsen conducts regular research into how people and organisations utilise social media. In late 2011 they released a new report on the sector – THE SOCIAL MEDIA REPORTSTATE OF THE MEDIA:Q3 2011. A PDF copy of the full report is available at http://bit.ly/onlu7Q Some of the key findings with implications for adventure travel marketers are: Social …
Read More“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted,…”
These famous words were spoken by John Wanamaker (1838-1922), a pioneering American retailer. His complete quote, with a real sting in its tail is: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” The statement has been pretty much true since the day it was first uttered. Here at TrekTraka we see lots of …
Read MoreeWOM
For decades travel marketers have relied upon generating Word-of-Mouth recommendations from past satisfied clients. This used to happen over a wad of 6×4 glossy “happy snaps”. Now it is all online and much harder to control. Marketing has moved from WOM to eWOM, and eWOM via social media sites in particular. Marketers now talk about the “90-9-1 principle”, also known …
Read MoreWhat travel marketers are up against
In an earlier blog we mentioned recent research conduct by Texas A&M University professor, Ulrike Gretzel, and others, (Role of social media in online travel information search, Tourism Management 31(2) 2010). One more interesting finding from this research is a list of the most frequently listed social media sites intending travellers may see in their Google travel search results. The …
Read MoreGoogle – paying extra attention to social media?
How does Google decide how to rank a search result? Every marketer would like the answer to that well protected secret. The leading social media sites addressing the travel industry are updated at a frenetic pace. Sites such as TripAdvisor.com are being continuously refreshed with new product reviews and customer feedback micro-blogs on their recent travel experiences. Google “crawls” frequently …
Read MoreThe rise of social media search results
Recent research conduct by Texas A&M University professor, Ulrike Gretzel, and others, (Role of social media in online travel information search, Tourism Management 31(2) 2010) indicates social media is playing an increasingly important role in online travel information searches. They conducted searches using Google for a number of common travel destinations in the United States. They searched for destination information …
Read MoreTravel Planning & Facebook
In 2011 the flight comparison website Skyscanner.com surveyed potential travellers on their interactions with Facebook and its influence on their travel planning http://bit.ly/fQeChU. The findings are tremendously significant for destination and travel-product marketers: 88% of respondents said they loved to nose through their friend’s holiday photos and posts on Facebook. Facebook is an excellent platform for travellers to share their …
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