Online Travel Company Journeys Forward With Social Media

I discovered this ingenious site when I was working and living in Japan last year. For me, it was the perfect tool. The site promised to help me plan my multi-stop trip around Asia and would automatically search for flights that matched my ideal itinerary. It meant I could go to Korea for a week, then head right to Micronesia without coming back to Japan in between—perfect!

Here’s an excerpt from the site:

“AirTreks.com is the worldwide leader in providing affordable, customized and efficient international air tickets through advanced technologies for complex multi-stop international journeys.

AirTreks.com enables travelers and travel agents to create customized itineraries -- with an unlimited number of destinations -- and receive instant online price estimates with one click.”

Today was the first day in a long time that I’d visited AirTreks.com and it had undergone some major changes. The company has been keeping up with the time and within the last year, embraced social media tactics. They now have a travel blog and an e-newsletter that people can subscribe to.

While these are good initial efforts to incorporate social media into every day business, I think the company could benefit from a higher dose of social media. Let me elaborate.

I was reading a travel blog by Edward Hasbrouck called The Practical Nomad and he writes that advertisers use social media as a vehicle to push a company’s marketing message. While I agree with this, I think that social media benefits the communications department and the company as a whole. How? It pushes messages to the widest audience and, on the positive side, it’s budget-friendly for companies during this economic downturn. Additionally, it helps companies with their public relations and marketing efforts by increasing awareness and leveraging their brand(s). Take the example of the Disney World Moms Panel in one of my previous posts.

Social media may appear to be great, but where’s the proof?

There’s a great post about social media statistics on a blog called Social Media Today. Author and WebProNews Blog partner Michael Stelzner surveyed approximately 900 marketers and developed a report about social media use. Here are some interesting statistics from the report (taken from the blog post):

• 88 per cent indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes
• 72 per cent have only been using social media marketing for a few months
• 64 per cent of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week
• 39 per cent are using it for 10 hours a week
• 81 per cent say the number-one benefit is generating exposure, followed by increasing traffic and building new business relationships
• Over half saw a rise in search engine rankings
• Out of social media tools marketers most wanted to learn about, social bookmarking sites, such as Delicious ranked highest followed by Twitter

His post also examines what business owners want to know about social media and marketing. Most of them expressed an interest in measuring social media’s effectiveness and what tactics are the most successful.

The travel industry is definitely jumping on the social media bandwagon. Travel USA 2009 dedicated a whole conference to social media. The conference promises to give companies the tools to develop a social media strategy, generate leads, drive traffic and boost sales.

Social media is obviously still evolving and AirTreks.com has taken some preliminary efforts to incorporate it (the blog and e-newsletter). The blog discusses common travel topics such as airline travel, documenting your trip, etc. and website visitors can comment and engage in an active online discussion. While this is a great first step, I think they should sign up for a Twitter account to make the company’s online presence even more apparent. An online discussion board would also help them with customer service, as they could listen to and learn from their customers and make appropriate changes. The company could also benefit from social bookmarking.

While social has appeared to work for AirTreks.com thus far, it’s important to realize that not every company is going to find success through social media. As blogger Michael Stelzner writes, “That's one of the greatest appeals of the medium though. There are so many possibilities.”

Do you think AirTreks.com is taking the right approach to social media? What are some other companies that have been successful in their social media efforts?

This is What Vegas is Like During a Recession

What’s it like going to one of the most popular tourist destinations in a recession? Fun, affordable and absolutely vacant.

Although this was my first time in Las Vegas, it wasn’t hard for me to tell just how badly the economy was affecting its tourism. The hotel check-in lines were completely empty as were the shows and casinos. The Strip was also undergoing a large construction project that will most likely delayed. Did I mention I went on Super Bowl Weekend—supposedly one of the busiest weekends in Vegas?

During one of my numerous cab rides up and down The Strip, I asked the driver “So, has it been busy?” The cab driver, who had moved from New York City ten years ago to support the city’s booming tourism, pithily replied, “When you can drive up and down The Strip this fast, things aren’t good.” According to her, some hotels are going bankrupt and the only person she thinks will keep afloat in the sea of economic uncertainty is Steve Wynn.

Wynn, a multi-billionaire casino developer who has slowly taken over Las Vegas, recently opened his newest hotel, Encore, on Dec. 22, 2008. However, given the economy, the opening was much more subdued than previous ones. I took a stroll through Encore and if I could sum it up in one word it would be “palatial.” Encore houses some of the world’s most lavish restaurants, shops and entertainment. Although the lack of tourism isn’t great for the local economy, it sure is for the tourists.

Even though I was only in Vegas for the weekend, I attended the private Miller Lite Super Bowl party with some friends who had been there in previous years. Like the opening of Wynn’s newest hotel and resort, the party (according to them) was much more modest. It had all the free food and drinks anyone could ever dream of, but was much more intimate in terms of how many people were actually there. Miller Lite also scaled back on swag. Tough times call for tough measures.

After getting back from my trip, I did some research about how Vegas brands itself as a tourist destination and came across this. In response to the economic downturn, Las Vegas trashed its “What Happens in Vegas” campaign for a new one—“Vegas Bound.” This new campaign features real people from Cranfills Gap, Texas who venture to Vegas for a funfilled vacation.

Blogger Grant Johnson ponders if a tagline can really make a difference in terms of generating business. He writes: “Why not ditch the ‘Vegas Bound’ tag and really drive home the value people can get. “Vegas: The best vacation bargain around!” Sexy, heck no. Effective? With the right subhead and testimonials and pricing packages featured it sure would be.” Maybe Vegas just needs to hear what prospective tourists want and create some new key messages.

After being in this downwards slump for a few months, maybe Vegas tourism has decided to shuffle things around. I was speaking to a friend today who is going there in a few weeks and for two people, a roundtrip flight and accommodations at a 4.5 star hotel for a week, it’s slightly over $1,000 CDN.

So, what is the best solution for popular tourist destinations, like Las Vegas, in this economy? Or is there one? Or is it just a big waiting game?

Venturing to Vegas

In the words of Elvis Presley, “Viva Las Vegas!” On Thursday night I’ll be flying there for the weekend. It’ll be my first time.

I mentioned in my previous post that I’ve done more traveling this year than ever before—partly because it’s so affordable. The current economic state has presented many challenges, especially for the travel and tourism industry.

Every morning while I’m perusing the paper, I see countless ads for discount travel companies like itravel2000. My inbox is also flooded with e-mails from Air Canada coaxing me to see the latest discounts. And I do. From a consumer standpoint, their strategies and tactics have worked. I visited the Bahamas in December and will be going to New York City in February.

During my recent trip to the Bahamas, I really noticed how much the economy was hurting. This popular Caribbean destination, normally oozing with families during the holidays, was more like a ghost town.

Vegas is, no doubt, a hot travel destination and the cost to visit is at an all time low. While doing research for my trip, I came across this. The site, which is the largest of its kind in the world, is embracing social media to keep up with the “pace of change” and is probably reaching more consumers than ever before. Vegas.com is “always open” for potential visitors and has Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flikr and MySpace. Site visitors can now feel like they’re in Vegas without leaving their desk chairs. Talk about being connected.

So, this is my question: Does social media contribute to increased tourism in a plunging economy? I’ll have to report back with my findings and let you know if Elvis’s words are still true.