Social networks : a new distribution channel for tourism products.

Just like Facebook and its 500 million users and 250 million daily users loging on facebook, social networks became a growing influence in travel booking, they have changed the way travelers determine where they will stay, particularly leisure travelers.

 A few years ago, the only way to book an airline ticket or a hotel room was on the website of the airline company or hotel or through an online agency. Nowadays it is possible to book a holiday via facebook for example. Delta was the first airline to allow online booking via Facebook. It is now the case with many airlines such as Air France.

Official Facebook page of the French airline Air France

It is also possible to login yourself on the website of your hotel and go through the pages with your Facebook or Twitter login, such as on the Four Seasons official website and thus share it with your friends.

Official home page of the luxurious Hotel Group Four Seasons

From the point of view of the tourism businesses, social media (one of which are social networks) represent a growing opportunity that they will need to exploit.

Source : World Travel Market 2010 Industry Report

According to this study, a fifth of the industry views social media as the single biggest opportunity over the next few years followed by technological advances.

Virtual Reality - The example of Expedia.ca

Virtual reality is a computer simulation that offers the user the opportunity to experience different kinds of pre-produced programs, as if on real time (Williams and Hobson, 1995). Virtual Reality enables the simulation of the physical environment of nearly any tourist destination or any hotel as it offers a three-dimensional perspective through the use of sound, sight, and touch technology. Virtual Reality gives people the possibility to to experience artificial tourism products and services at a low cost.

THE CASE OF EXPEDIA :

Expedia Canada has recently launched a new program called "Expedia Virtual Vacations. Making your dream vacation a virtual reality". It is a revolutionary travel experience ; thanks to a "vacation buddy" you can explore the Great Barrier Reef and still be home in time for dinner.

"With Expedia's Virtual Vacations, the world is virtually at your doorstep. You can climb mountains, explore caves, talk with local residents and take pictures for your own personal photo album, all from the comfort of your own home," said Craig Ruse, newly appointed Vice President, Expedia.ca Virtual Vacations . "And if you like their virtual vacation destination, you are just a few clicks away from booking a flight and accommodations."

Very smart innovation, Expedia found a way to make future travelllers pay for "trying the vacation" and at the same time they succeed to push them to buy it afterwards.

There are three easy steps to reach your "dream holiday" :

1. Pick a destination
2. Find a virtual vacation buddy 
3. Tell your vacation buddy where you want to go

The vacation buddy will wait for the user at the chosen destination with some sophisticated equipment (HD 2080p wide-angle, light weight panoramic video helmet). Thanks to a virtual reality head wear that has previously been sent to him after he signed up the virtual traveller can see and communicated with her/his travel buddy in real time.

Expedia offers at the moment only a limited choice of destinations :

Virtual Reality however raises the issue of authenticity. How can an artificial environment reflect exactly the reality? It is a bit scary in one way. It also raises the question of the border between virtual and real world.

M-tourism - The example of Paris transportation.

What is M-Tourism ? M-Tourism stands for Mobile Tourism. Year after year, the daily use of mobile phones has constantly evolved. M-tourism takes into account all kind of touristic use of mobile phones. Tourism destinations, as well tourism organizations or any company  linked to the field of tourism is developping new mobile applications or even mobile websites. M-tourism, after E-tourism is a very promising branch of tourism.

The example of the Paris transportation applications illustrates the development of this M-tourism.

• AUGMENTED REALITY : Metro Paris Subway Your New Eye is a augmented reality functionality that enables the traveller to locate the nearest subway station with iPhone's camera live view. The application displays elements located at maximum 1km away from where the person stands.  The iPhone user can display his phone in the horizontal position to get a list of all nearest stations. When a station is selected, a red arrow (compass) is displayed to show the direction and the distance to that point. He can also position his phone vertically to obtain a 360-degree view of all stations nearby your location, updated in real time as you walk in the streets.

• FLASHCODES : The RATP (the Paris transportation company) has been displaying more than      20 000 flashcodes over the past few months, that are 2D bar codes, on the overall tram and bus network. When scanning this bar code with a smartphone, it is possible to get all infomation about the network in real time. There is however one inconvenient : the application is compatible with few mobiles.

• POI (Point Of Interest database) : This application can be added to the Metro Paris Subway (receiving Subway alerts in real time). It allows the traveller to activate Food & Drink POI, Restaurants POI, Coffee, Pastry & Ice Cream POI, Leisure POI, and Accommodation POI in all over France.It enables to locate all nearby POI on Google Map.

 

The digital story of the nativity. (no official post!)

Use of New Technology within the Hospitality Industry

• Concierges at Intercontinental Hotels replaced by iPad

 The concierges of Intercontinental Hong Kong, Intercontinental London Park Lane, Intercontinental New York Barclay and Intercontinental Buckhead Atlanta use the iPad as a tool for providing information to the customers about :

• Enhanced maps and directions : the iPad  enables  to show interactive maps instead of paper maps,  also virtual tours with high-resolution satellite imagery, close-up street views and detailed walking routes.

• Video recommendations : it became easier to recommend a restaurant, a performances or any tourist attraction as it can be clearly illustrated with vibrant image and attractive text. The customer has the possibility to make a choice quicker and represent himself more easily the place where he wants to go.

• Instant booking confirmation : the iPad enables easy access to travel information and bookings may be made and confirmed instantly by e-mail.

The iPad is therefore a way to improve the interaction between the customer and the concierge. However in my opinion iPads cannot in any case replace concierges, but has to be a tool that help concierges. The iPad may be an interactive tool but the customer still needs a human interaction and not only be in front of an electronic device, alone.

• New hotel concepts resulting from the increasing use of new technologies : Andaz Hyatt and its new concept of check in and out processes

The new Andaz brand from the luxurious Hyatt Hotel Group has set up a new concept : they removed the traditional front desk of the lobby. With the growing demand of new technology and the development of a new young business class, Andaz decided to be the first brand to develop such a modern system.
New technology enable a personalized service. Indeed, thanks to it, guests skip the front-desk and use mobile tablets to check in with the hotel's floating 'hosts'. You can also check in in the lobby with a drink, you can check in while going to the elevator etc.
Andaz front office clerk goes around with his laptop wherever the guest wants to be while doing his check in.
Guests also just need to swipe their credit cards for a room key to be created.

I think this is a very innovative and interesting concept and has many chances to be developped in other hotels. Guest feel warmly welcomed sitting in a couch, more than queueing in front of the reception. But I think this system is not made for rush hours. The staff cannot be more efficient and quicker by running around looking for customers than by staying behind the front desk.

Success factors in social media marketing.

What is Social Media Marketing ?

Social media marketing is a marketing answer to the internet user's behaviour change who has become in a few years the first producer of content in front of professional editors.

Social media marketing leans on participative strategies which differ from traditional practices of recommandations or traditional forms of advertisement. These new strategies put the internet user and consumer in the heart of the process and try to respond to his need in a useful and sincere way in order to make him become afterwards a purchasing advisor of a brand in his social networks or blogs for example.

The thesis and study "success factors in social media marketing - state of the art" shows that DMOs and tourism organizations still have to work on their social media marketing strategy, as it become increasingly important.

At the question Are you satisfied with your social media performance? 6 destinations out of 14 replied no.

Furthermore 5 destinations out of the 14 asked are using an experimental strategy and do not follow pre-defined strategies, they basically learn by doing. This shows the inegal success of social media marketing among tourism organizations as there are 3 different levels depending on the time invested in SMO and in which extent they call for agencies to set up strategies.

Social media controlling framework underlines that 2 data influence its succes : manageable success and external data beyond control of the management. Some tourist organizations have more knowledge about what can affect internally or externally their social media marketing.

The main success factors of social media marketing mentionned were "like" on facebook and twitter followers. Facebook is actually the first SOM platform used in front of Twitter and Youtube.

However nowadays the voice of the customer has to be taken more and more into account and companies using a strategy of social media marketing cannot take only quantitative data into account (traffic for example) but should ask customers if they are satisfied with their visit of the website, blog or page on facebook.

Online videos as a travel marketing tool for tourism organizations.

Online advertising video about my hometown Angers (France)  :


Films for Angers Loire Tourism - August 2010 /  UK version

This video has been realized by the tourist office of Angers to promote business tourism in Angers.

In my opinion, it leaves a very good impression about the city. It is very eye-catching. I think someone who watches the video and does not know the city is likely to think Angers is very much business tourism orientated city and that it is moreover quite big.

The video uses very well the assets of Angers concerning its economy (manufacturing lorries, computers companies and research in horticulture and bio technologies) as well as sustainable development. However the offer of business tourism infrastructure (convention halls, hotels...) is not very well-developed as Angers is only the 16th french city.

This example shows that online videos are a growing marketing tool for any tourism organization to promote the assets of a product, service, company, brand or place. It is much more easier for a consumer to memorize images and music than a simple text.

But consumers have to be careful. It is easy for travel and tourism organizations to make a video communicate whatever message or atmosphere they want to.

Consumers can also upload their own videos based on their travel experience ( videos realized with digital cameras for examples). These amateur videos are called user-generated videos and can be found everywhere on the web but they are mostly are the YouTube platform.

Whereas online professionnal videos are a marketing tool for tourism and hospitality organizations, user-generated videos are also very useful for them as they encourage eWOM among socials networks or other travel websites. Consumers promote themselves the destination and this is more valuable for the other consumers than the promotion of the destination by the tourism or travel organization itself. This is called viral marketing and professionals of the tourism industry lean more and more on it.