Tourism has taken the world by storm. There are thousands of travel-bloggers posting daily on social media, with an immense follower base. It is almost a universal fact that people love traveling, especially millennials. Being tech-savvy, this generation is self-sufficient when it comes to planning a trip. At For The Love Of Travel, a platform hosted by Millennials, founder Tara Cappel says “Millennials don’t just see travel as something we do, we identify with it”. For the current generation, traveling is one of the top searches. Stats show that 95% of travelers read travel reviews online before booking. 85% of travelers read around 10 reviews before they can trust a brand, and 40% of bookings are made online. What does this tell you about the future of your company in the tourism and travel industry? When your target audience is so invested in social media, it could serve the purpose of a database for consumer insights. So how does social media listening come to your rescue?
How do Tourism Companies attract Millennials?
According to the founder of ‘For The Love Of Travel’, it is good to have a great story, be socially conscious and have a lot of good reviews. Millennials do rely on their peers and count on these reviews. So naturally, the first step that follows would be to initiate the following:
Set-up Your Social Media Account and Monitor Your Brand
The basics of social media marketing require you to interact with your audience through your social media accounts. Setting up and updating your social media accounts is the number one priority which is followed by your ability to engage with your audience. You will need to keep tabs on what your audience is interested in and what it is they are talking about. It is also vital to track your social media account to know what your followers are talking about you. Tracking your online presence helps you stay alert and respond to negative reviews quickly to ensure a reputation that is intact. People rely on the Internet and online reviews to choose where to spend their money. One bad review can cost you your business and with the steep competition within the tourism and travel industry, you don’t want that.
Monitor Social Interests and Adapt
In 2018, Hanoi in Vietnam and Bournemouth in the UK were among the top trending travel destinations. In 2019, however, Xiamen in China and Normandy in France are topping the charts. Who decides what is trending? That would be the public on social media, the influencers, and the travel bloggers! User-generated content becomes the top inspiration for travelers these days. 87% of millennials on Facebook say they use social media for travel inspiration. Tracking these trends is the primary task for your business development and marketing teams.
Social Listening helps You Track the Big Players in the Tourism Industry
Social media is a rage when it comes to travel posts and numerous travel agencies and tourism companies are already capitalizing on this. According to an Adweek Survey, millennials love to have a desirable experience over a desirable item. They enjoy talking about it over social media and would use hashtags to get their posts trending. Companies are taking advantage of this by encouraging these youngsters to use branded hashtags. An eminent example is the branded hashtag put out by Texas tourism – #TexasToDo.
Tracking these hashtags is the easiest way to know about the big brands in the industry, the ones whose branded hashtags are trending. Analyzing their strategies and exploring further becomes easier once you know the names of these big players who are essentially your competitors.
Social Listening for New Leads
A very popular benefit of social listening is that it helps you identify new leads. And with a topic like travel and tourism, social media is the gold mine for you to find new leads. People get inspired by just looking at travel photos.
For most of the millennials, the planning starts right when seeing a social post. Maybe a travel blogger has posted a pic and most of the comments would start inquiring about the location, the route, the expenses, hotels, etc. This is your target audience. Start advertising to them. If not directly, research this age group, their interests and target your paid advertisements more towards them to gain more visibility and quality leads.
Since time immemorial, people have loved traveling and exploring. Sea routes and planes have been discovered in man’s quest to travel to different places and know more about this world around us. The tourism and travel industry is one that is ever booming and with the right social listening tools and other social media tactics, your business can too.