In terms of its effects on individuals, social media has been perceived by many to have a generally negative connotation to the human minds. At this hour, I think it’s reasonable that we deviate a little from that thought as social media has another side. In a world of digital connectivity, these social media platforms have found a way to rock the tourism industry and travel businesses – that is through effective, extensive advertising and marketing.
The Rise Of Blogging And Picture-Sharing Platforms Means A Wider Audience Reach
Hotel, restaurants, and other tourist commercial destinations pay bloggers and social media personalities to try and post something good about their establishment or cause. This technique has been known to transfer the interest in the subject place from the said social media personality to his or her followers.
It does not necessarily have to be the personalities and high-paid bloggers capable of influencing the significantly broader audience in a single click to do the advertising. Everyone in these online platforms has their own social network. No matter how small this network can be, every group has interconnecting relations. It may take more time than that of the single click of the personality to reach a broader audience, but in the end, it will make a significant impact on the subject place/destination.
A simple share of photo of the place and a little description about the destination may and can spark the interest of a lot of first-time travelers, travel enthusiasts, and other individuals and families looking for a vacation. On a platform such as Facebook, you don’t have to click the ‘Share’ button for your friends to see the picture. A simple click of the Like button can, in fact, bring the said picture to your friends’ feed.
Online Travel Agencies Make Travel Planning Accessible To Those Interested
Advertising and destination marketing is not enough to serve the end goal of the tourism industry. What the end-user and consumers also need is a user-friendly and an easily-accessible outlet to turn these travel goals into reality.
Travel agencies have already partnered with group-buying sites and online hosting to provide the whole online community of a starting avenue to turn their interest to particular destination spot into reality. If one will notice, even travel agencies have their strategies of advertising (on their own online space) some destination spots around the world so interested people who will see them will automatically resort to their travel services right away.
The technique’s purpose is two-fold, that is to boost the tourism industry of the featured place and to turn these interested people into the agency’s paying customers.
Customer Service Of The Tourism Industry Has Improved Through Online Reviews
The vast reach of the social media has become a ‘strict boss’ in the customer service department of the tourism industry. A bad review posted online usually means a potential customer loss. With lots of excellent and intriguing tourist destinations in every corner of the world, a traveler now resorts to travel research.
Advertisements by bloggers and online personalities may be a good start, but a thoughtful researcher may give reviews of genuine people (or unpaid and unsponsored bloggers) on group-buying sites greater value. Establishments and tourism businesses, however, are not late when it comes to this news and fact. The constructive reviews became a way for them to improve these places especially the natural destinations.
Travel companies, commercial destination spots, and even tourism departments of different countries around the world have already resorted to social media as an effective advertising tool. Indeed, the internet not only provides advertising and marketing strategies for business purposes but also for economic purposes that will benefit even third world countries in the long run.