Managing your online reputation: advice and practical resources for tourism professionals

We are in a period of web 2.0 development. Every day, blogs are created and allow people to write comments on everything, their opinions but also their experiences and travels.

So, the surfer on the internet is no more a simple spectator of what is happening but can interact and produce on the web. It has many impacts on the notoriety and the reputation of the tourism businesses as they are very often named by surfers and criticized. This change in communicating and sharing its experience must be taken in account. Especially as tourism’s customers are very sensible to others’ opinions and testimonies.

This article gives tips,good practises and solutions for tourism professionals in order for them to build their company a good e-reputation on forums, blogs, social medias because it has a direct impact on their turnover and sales.

The first essential element is to continually monitor and interact with the critical comments submitted by customers online on the differents internet supports. For this, the institution may choose to acquire a specialized software that will help automate a number of tedious tasks such as harvesting advice from different sources, and to quantify the analyzed.

Difficult to measure, the e-reputation is nonetheless crucial for the success or failure of a company and even if reputation management in tourism is certainly not requiring millions of dollars, it is a major issue that needs minimal attention and time. It is therefore suitable for industry players to develop and protect their reputation. So, they must be aware of the consequences of a disinterest in this topic. It demands time, a minimum of IT competences and watch of trends. That’s why a specialized software would facilitate the work and centralize every sources.

Finally, for the author of the article, a good reputation is not only generating new customers, it also helps retain loyal customers. It is more likely to return to a hotel where the reception was warm.
As platforms for exchange of opinions as Tripadvisor.com allow customers to share their opinions and experiences about the hotels where they stayed, it’s also very important to have as many as possible good comments from previous customers. The customer satisfaction is an important factor in the development of trade, as the critics of former customers influence on the election that the traveler seeking a hotel.