For the people who haven’t heard about this particular branch of social media, Pinterest was been created in 2010, and allows users to share photos and classifiy them within different themes and groups (food, hobbies, fashion, etc). You may wonder how this social media could be advantageous for the tourism industry, so let us take a closer look... To get a better idea here are some numbers :
Pinterest, has 70 million users (Last updated 10/07/13)
Only 8% of European internet users have a Pinterest account (19/01/14)
Pinterest’s growth in international traffic in 2013 : 125% (24/10/13)
These numbers highlight the fact that even if European users have not adopted this social media yet, Pinterest is growing at such a fast rate that the Tourism & Hospitality industry should rapidly consider it’s advantages !
Pinterest for DMO’s
Destination marketing organizations (DMO’s) represent the entire city and can advise on hotels, restaurants, and activities. Some destinations have already successfully adopted Pinterest to communicate with users, we can take the example of Visit Savannah with already 12,000 followers after only three months. The destination organized on Pinterest about 50 boards sharing various photos such as «Savannah St. Patrick’s Day», «Savannah Dining» or «Savannah Events & Things to do». By choosing to communicate with visual content DMO’s can observe a real infatuation from Pinterest users, visitors can already picture themselves and pin the places they want to visit, where they might want to stay or where they would like to eat. It is a real attractive way to discover and plan holidays or events.
Pinterest for Hotels
Like DMOs hotels can enjoy Pinterest as a new e-marketing strategy, they can communicate about their facilities, catering options, meeting space or event sector. As an example we can mention the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin who created a Pinterest page with various ideas of day trips, travel tips and upcoming events which allows visitors to organize their trips almost by only visiting this page. We can also comment on the initiative taken by the Austrian Hotel Klausnerhof who decided to communicate about their glacier-hotel in Tyrol and the beautiful places that surround it through magical photos. Finally The Ritz-Carlton Chicago decided to create their Pinterest page with a specific focus on weddings, their board includes various information regarding the wedding packaging and facilities that the hotel can offer. By pinning and sharing hotels pictures, the Pinterest users allow the hotel to benefit from a wider network and strengthen their web spread.
Similar to Facebook, restaurants can create on Pinterest different sub-categories to communicate their menus, cocktails or event packages. This new tool represents a real opportunity for restaurants to attract customers, what could be better than pictures to communicate about food ? Sharing photos of your new food menu, your specials and your event set up can really be a new and easy way to market a restaurant.
Even if Pinterest is still not a major social media, the hospitality and tourism industry should follow the movement and take advantage of all this new possibilities to market, share and communicate with users.
Sources :
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/pinterest-stats/#.UxcA4F4rLfQ
http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/hospitality-industry-pinterest-6246/
http://www.sheilasguide.com/2012/01/18/pinterest-and-tourism-visual-inspiration-for-your-visitors/
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