Blogging in the Tourism Industry.

Blogging in the Tourism Industry.

In a society where digitalization and social media are becoming omnipresent in our daily lives, blogging has become essential for tourism companies. “According to Social Media Examiner’s 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 68% of marketers identified blogging as the most important area to increase usage this year, topping YouTube (67%), Twitter (67%), LinkedIn (64%) and Facebook (64%).”

Indeed, blogs create shareable contents that increase the loyalty of a company’s clients. Moreover, they are very low cost compared to the revenue that they can generate. As it is evergreen contents - meaning that what is written in a blog will always be available - they can be shared as many times as needed. Therefore, the content should be first created on the blog, then being shared on social media, not the other way around. It will also encourage internauts to visit the website.
  Last but not least, a blog is very useful for Search Engine Optimization strategies, as it can help your website to rank higher when potential customers are looking for information on the Internet. For example, Google is attracted by fresh contents and keywords. Moreover, with the rise of the WEB 2.0, enabling a participative Internet, readers have now the possibility to engage by either giving their opinion, adding comments to the blog or by sharing the article with relatives or on their personal page.

In the tourism industry, blogs have become a “ MUST HAVE”. Most Destination Management Organizations have a blog. Indeed, storytelling is especially important when promoting a destination. ie : Inside Vancouver. They advise tourists about the best places to visit, where to eat or what to do in the city, by posting frequent updates on their blogs.



However, the most famous trend in the blog phenomenon is the Blog Travelers. Indeed, rankings about the best travel bloggers are published every year, and some of them are starting to gain some notoriety. Indeed, some well known blog travelers are paid by tourism companies to publish articles about them on their websites. Moreover, it is very frequent that tourism protagonist offers free activities to bloggers in exchange of an article (ie: Writing about a cruise with Royal Caribbean).

Blogs are getting more and more personalized and original. Their contents can be very diverse, gathering video, professional photos, or story telling by locals... They can give advice about hidden or unavoidable places, but their uniqueness is due to their loyalty towards the writer personality and writing.

Here are some of the travel blogs that have caught our intention.
- Jungle in Paris

- Nomadic Matt
- Two monkeys Travel group
- Lost with Purpose
- Miss Tourist

⇒ Is this phenomenon playing a big role in the French Tourism Industry?

The 4th edition of the “Salon des Blogueurs du Voyage Francophone” will take place from the 12th to the 14th of April in San Malo - last editions were held in Cannes, Ajaccio and Bruxelles. This trade fair is organized by the tourism blogger Xavier Berthier. This event is gaining in visibility and will gather this year all the protagonists of the blogger phenomenon. All the francophone professionals of E-tourism will answer present, as there will be 250 bloggers and 85 exhibitors. They will meet during 3 days, through conferences, workshops and afterworks. It is an essential event to build a wide network in the E-tourism Industry.

In parallel, a few months ago, Xavier Berthier launched a blog platform called “Blogueur Voyage” that gathers publications about travels all around the world. This website is totally free and bloggers can add articles about a place they have visited, share any advice on a particular trip etc. The articles are then placed in a world map, that makes it very attractive and easy to read for the internauts. The quality of the Blog is certified, as all the publications are verified before being published. Moreover, this platform will be officially presented at the “Salon Mondial du Tourisme” in 2018, in Paris.

Hugo Dumurgier, Lucile Garin.

Sources :

https://www.salonblogueursvoyage.fr/

http://tourismeschool.com/blogging-for-tourism-destinations/

https://www.blogueur.voyage/categoriearticles/astuces-conseils/

http://blog.lesroches.edu/alumni/the-importance-of-blogs-in-the-tourism-industry/

http://fredericgonzalo.com/en/2014/07/06/best-practices-in-travel-marketing-blogging/

https://twomonkeystravelgroup.com/ultimate-list-of-best-hostels-hotels-in-the-world/

A Blog about blogs

The blog writing industry has never been so flourishing: more than 3 million blogs are nowadays created per month in the world. In 2013, 56% of Internet-users in the world first went on a blog before consulting a formal website and 34% of French people trusted  a travel blog more than other traditional tourism websites. Blogs and bloggers are now everywhere and most of them are specialised (gastronomy, fitness, travel, fashion, dance, music etc.) and in consequence they reach a particular public that can interest commercial brands or firms.

Gathering numerous people around their passion and stories and being web-experts, they use a new and particular story-telling way: more authentic, they use “I”, a personalised tone and different tools for expressing their personality and stories (words, pictures, videos, testimonies etc.). In their story-telling, they publish articles before, during and after the journey or the event on different channels (multi-channel strategy): Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and their blog. But we should bear in mind their difference with journalists - who face conflicts of interests for example and who should remain as objective as possible. Indeed, bloggers benefit from their freedom. They interact a lot with their readers, have real relationships and dialogues with them, according to Marie-Julie Gagnon (writer, columnist and blogger).

According to a study ran by Marmara, most of bloggers spend more than 10 hours a week on their blog, 1 out of 5 spends more than 30 hours on it and more than 50% of respondents do not consider themselves as professional bloggers. Amateur or professional, young or older, at work or not, because of their huge and confident audience, the travel-bloggers are more and more needed and contacted by firms and brands to promote them on Internet and social media.

Source: Marmara, http://veilletourisme.ca/2015/11/23/comment-travailler-avec-les-blogueurs

The tourism industry starts being deeply interested by these bloggers as this sector is strongly linked to the Web. ITB fair in Berlin has organised for 2 years “speed-datings” to make bloggers and tourism professionals meet. Last September, the first “Travel Bloggers Fair” was held in Cannes. In a world where information is omnipresent, it is difficult to find some around; bloggers offer a new alternative than peers’ opinion. They are trust-worthy, have a large public of readers and their words count. As they are considered as ambassadors and opinion leaders, they obviously represent strategic allies for firms to extend their reputation or positioning. Indeed, they know how to create buzz, one easily follows them on social networks, one can simply interact with them and they make their followers loyal. In consequence, blogs become more and more a part of marketing strategies. They represent a great tool to understand trends of customers, their expectations and needs; it is also useful for improving the SEO of a place (hotel, restaurant, club, bar) as the search engine will take the place more into consideration.

Examples of brands using bloggers:

·         Voyages-sncf.com caught this wave and based its strategy on social media and blogs: from September 2014 to March 2015, 6 female bloggers visited 6 French cities in order to find good tips, the must-sees, must-dos and activities in partnership with My Little Paris, a website broadcasting trendy tips in Paris.

·      In 2013, Radisson Blu ran a first blog campaign, #MyMauritius, and gathered 13 bloggers during a week. This resulted into 54 published articles, 964 published pictures on Internet and reached 800 000 fans on Facebook.

Different financing possibilities can be proposed on these blogs:

•         Ads on the blogs, pay per click or according to the website traffic
•         Sponsored articles promoting a product
•       Affiliated links to commercial websites
•        Special actions or partnerships when the bloggers collaborate with the brand to create content

According to Abbi Agency, 70% of bloggers received a remuneration for an article. For example, Alexandre – CEO - who launched a blog in New York to supplement his pay, finally earned €200 000 in 2013. “For a blog, to be influent, it needs 1 000 unique visitors per day”.

Examples of the different uses of a blog:

http://www.nomadicmatt.com/

It is one of the most famous travel blogs; its motto is “Tips and advices on how you can travel better, cheaper and smarter”. For example, some articles are entitled “The ultimate guide to travelling when you have no money”, “How to find a cheap flight”, “How to buy good travel insurance”, “Why travel makes you awesome”. We have the feeling that the blogger talks to us individually; he moves us with his own words, he is close to us, understands our concerns and uses an informal tone with regular jokes. He talks about his experience, feelings, adventures, and meetings, what he liked in such city or on such trip and shares some must-dos and tips with his readers. For instance, in his article about Melbourne, he strongly recommends taking a jacket during the moonlight movies sessions in the Royal Botanic Gardens and points out that food and drinks are allowed.

https://lesjoiesevenementiel.wordpress.com/

« The joys of event management» is a popular French blog about the life of a junior event planner and about news in the industry. Through this blog, Gwendoline shares her passion and what she constantly learns, discovers about event planning. In one of her latest articles, she talked about her experience organizing a show for an amateur singer association. She explained that this project had taught her how to control herself and become mature. She encouraged her readers to live a similar experience with a lot of challenges, as it is how you learn the most and you feel the most satisfied about the final result.

By Camille COURTIAL-SPIROUX & Manon GATTEGNO

Sources

http://fr.labs.teads.tv/top-blogs/tourisme

http://www.tourmag.com/Les-blogueurs-voyage-des-influenceurs-convoites-par-le-tourisme_a70179.html

http://veilletourisme.ca/2015/11/23/comment-travailler-avec-les-blogueurs/

http://blog.lesroches.edu/alumni/the-importance-of-blogs-in-the-tourism-industry/