How Facebook Has Changed Our Travel Lives

Facebook’s tenth birthday has arrived! and we can’t help but notice how this social network has revolutionized tourism for industries such as airlines, travel agencies, journalists and the traveler itself. Its impact in travel life has been outstanding. Facebook can be thought of as a beneficial influence but some people perceive it as an aggressor whose threat cannot be stopped. This communication channel has been so effective that it resembles a type of Trip Advisor.

So, how is Facebook beneficial? People are all now connected to an immense enabler that helps us find out all about airlines, hotels and locations. Facebook lets us know about facilities, accessibility, if it’s price worthy, what it lacks or if it’s the most convenient airline to use for certain places and why. Experiences and assessments are directly shared from your friend list. Those people who you trust more than any official website have the power to change your perception of any airline or destination in a second through a simple Facebook comment.

Contacting travel agents, cruise lines and suppliers becomes easier as Facebook enables you to get inside information from their interaction with travelers. Facebook displays opinions, reactions and destinations. As the article says, Facebook has become a type of vision board for users. Users see where their friends are going and incites them to plan a trip in that location and ask them, specifically, for advice. This responses will determine a traveler’s choice.

In addition, one can be tempted to book a trip anywhere now, not just a nearby place since now anybody can surpass their fear of unfamiliarity as they can now find out how to travel long distances just by asking simple questions through Facebook without need of professional help. There is no longer price restrictions, need to know the person or need to reveal your identity either.  

So, is there any professional benefits? The professional benefits are as extense as the social ones. This is not just a website to interact with your friends but also a way to attract and understand your potential clients needs and wants. This can be great for the airline industry if they know how to use it in their favor as they can detect what they need to improve, what they lack or what they need to leave unchanged in the service they provide. They can also see what destinations they are missing in their airlines and which ones can give them great profit.

For a journalist, life becomes even easier.  Time saving research and access has allowed them to contact companies and individuals directly. They are now able to view traveler’s photos, read about their experiences and gather data to design and publish graphic and emotional insight knowledge.

Threat or benefit? Facebook is a catch 22, where it can waste your time it can also provide you with so much information and advice from strangers and close friends but either way, it has altered all lives. The article’s author gives an analogy with a point. Car’s speed and power don’t add to “men’s minds or the beauty of their souls. But automobiles have come, and all outward things will be different because of their arrival” just like Facebook. Its true impact in society and journalism is immeasurable.

An ordinary person can be advised of locations, a journalist can get firsthand stories and information and a travel agent or airline can understand how to market their work. It’s a simple tool but more than effective way of instant communication which has changed so much that it has become an essential piece of our lives already.

Even though some wish to quit the network, we have become a society addicted to people’s feedback and reactions which makes it impossible. Curiosity has become our way of interaction and it has changed us in such a way that we do not know how to act without Facebook. It’s not just a vice, but a way of life. It is a part of our daily behavior and mindset that has spread like a disease. The only thing left for us is to wait for the next epidemic. 

About writing the blog:

We decided to write out blog about this phenomenon because it applies to people of all ages, professions and nationalities as everybody has been affected somehow by this social website even though some may not notice its profound impact in our daily lives. We believe it is interesting to point out the effect on tourism of a simple technology. Most of us travel or plan to do so, and it is useful to know what is happening behind our travel experiences, what is shaping them. We use Facebook and we are sure you do so as well so we might as well understand its relevance to this aspect of our lives.

Karen Madriga

Tina Stojanovic

Sources:

Thomaselli, R. (2014, February 06). How Facebook has changed our travel lives. Retrieved from http://www.travelpulse.com/news/travel-technology/editors-corner-how-facebook-has-changed-our-travel-lives.html 

Social medias : a key new tool for customers and hospitality companies

With the fast growth of new technologies, our habits have significantly changed during the last decades. Thanks to the Internet development, we now have a large amount of different source of information. In the tourism industry, social medias have proved that they have a real impact on customer decision-making process, but do also constitute a real opportunity for companies.

On a customer point of view, Social Medias has changed the way customers search for information and determine where they will stay. During the last decade, we observed a “phenomenal increase in travellers using customer reviews on social media websites such as Tripadvisor in their search for information about hotels” (Mc Carthy L., Stock D., Verma R., 2010).

A study conducted by these three authors allows us to determine different trends. First of all, it shows us that the leisure travellers are more likely to use that information than business travellers. Indeed, business travellers often follow the choice of their companies and keep using search engines or Online Travel Agents (OTAs). It is also relevant in this study that the word-of-mouth from friends or family has a strong impact on a hotel perception in customers’ mind (see table below). Social Medias posts can be considered as extension of this word-of-mouth which could explain the importance of these new tools, which represents key information sources for leisure travellers. (Mc Carthy L., Stock D., Verma R., 2010).

Source : How travellers use online and Social Media Channels
to make hotel-choice decisions 

On top of that, the study highlights the importance of Social Media by analysing the likelihood that customers will choose a hotel depending whether it has positive or negative reviews. The study results differentiate the diverse standings of the hotels but as the results are surprisingly similar, we decide not to do so. The likelihood of guests booking a hotel that have negative reviews is under 2.5 chances out of five whereas for a hotel which has positive comments, chances are between 3.5 and 4 out of five. This makes a huge difference in term of image and companies have to maintain their good online reputation.

Finally, at the opposite of the often-repeated factoid that unsatisfied guests are more likely to comment compare to satisfied ones, the study came to the conclusion that there are three chances out of five that a customer will post a comment after his stay whether his experience was positive or negative. It creates data about hotels that companies are not able to control and that can have a huge impact on their attractiveness for potential customers. Stuart Greif said: “social media constitute a focus group of millions of people who provide information without being prompted”.

The table above also demonstrates that OTAs, travel-related websites or search engines remains the main sources of information. This is linked to the fact that customers are not able to do their bookings directly via social medias. It influences a lot the late stage of the decision-making process where customers will gravitate towards a more tightly defined set of channels where they will have the opportunity to finalize their choice (Mc Carthy L., Stock D., Verma R., 2010). There is here a real challenge for companies to optimize their use of social medias by using them as distribution channels.

Customer relationship management is already a major aspect of social media as it allows companies to improve their customer services at a modest cost. (Wooden M.). This is extremely important to respond to customers’ post and some companies like McDonald’s, have a real work to do as “someone is posting or talking about the firm every seven seconds on average” (Mc Carthy L., Stock D., Verma R., 2010).

Companies also use social medias in order to promote themselves through online campaign. For example, RCI has created YouTube “webisodes” regarding its flag-ship Oasis of the Seas, which had received 700,000 hits as of his speech in October 2010.

Social medias have changed the relationship between companies and customers. Customers have now access to new relevant sources of information in their decision-making process, while companies have to deal with non-entire controlled tools of promotion. 

Bonetto Thomas & Bunoz Nicolas

2010: Mc Carthy L., Stock D., Verma R., 2010. How travellers use online and Social Media Channels to make hotel-choice decisions, Cornell Hospitality Report