With some recession doom and gloom still lingering on the cusp of the summer travel season, the state of the travel industry continues to be a hot topic of conversation. For every good news story, five bad ones seem to always follow. But you should fear not. Travelers are still traveling – just rethinking their approach – and your avid deal hunters are feasting on the buffet of bargains oozing out from every direction. Good news is, those deals aren’t hard to find, thanks to some savvy marketers finding new ways to engage.
Over the past few months, an influx of travel industry entities have jumped on the Twitter train. Resorts, hotels, CVBs, airlines, and even travel mags. One great example is Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, a notable brand that recently launched a Twitter account – @HyattConcierge. It offers 24/7 assistance with any travel questions and requests before, during and after your stay. Smart. On the flipside, @DealsOnTravel is answering the call for what most travelers are looking for online right now.
In the meantime, Twitter has also become the premier forum for a little ethnographic experimentation. Quite a few travel entities are toggling their microblogs between deals, customer service and brand-building tweets – as they actively figure out how they want to/should use this tool. Why not? These are new, uncharted waters for some, and a little testing helps to distill social strategy. So as we continue the climb out of the deep, dark recession abyss, be watching as the travel industry’s finds even more footing with the use of social media.
In the meantime, though, keep those deals coming.
Emily G