Hotel Website Marketing
Online social media opportunities for the hospitality and tourism industry
June 30, 2009

What are people looking for?
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES BEING RESEARCHED ONLINE
SOURCE: eMarketer 2008

If I build it will they come?
NUMBER OF TRAVEL SITES VISITED ON AVERAGE
SOURCE: PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey 2007

“Irish holidaymakers are showing a growing
interest in Ireland… Hotels.com has
revealed there has been an increase in
domestic searches by
40% ”
Hotels.com 2009

OK then, fine, what about Ireland?
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES BEING USED ONLINE
SOURCE: Joint National Internet Research (JNIR) July - December 2008

Why social media?
AGES 43-52 AGES 53-63
REGULAR USERS OF ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA
SOURCE: Forrester Research The Social Technographics® Profile Of European Baby Boomers 2009

No seriously, why social media?
EUROPEAN USERS OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
SOURCE: Datamonitor Online Social Networking 2009

Enough with the charts already!

TRANSLATION:
“By relying on the latest technology and shifting to
100% Web-based advertising, Tourisme Montréal
WE CAN MEASURE
can, as opposed to more traditional style
advertising, accurately assess campaign impact
STUFF REAL GOOD ON
with target audiences and maximize investments in
this regard.”
THE INTERWEBS
Charles Lapointe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tourisme Montréal

“The internet has roughly the influence
of the second strongest medium - television -
2x
and roughly
printed media”
8x
the influence of traditional
Digital Influence Index, Fleishman-Hillard International Communications/Harris Interactive, 2008

What does social media take?
BUDGET TIME
(I hope they don’t realize this is another chart.)

Twitter: the stupidest thing I ever heard of
GLOBAL TWITTER ADOPTION
(Sorry. Absolutely the last chart. I promise.)
SOURCE: comScore 2009

Blogging: what’s it good for?
PERCENTAGE OF BLOG READERS WHO READ TRAVEL BLOGS
(Wait! Don’t leave. This isn’t a chart. It’s an… illustration?)
SOURCE: PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey 2007

LinkedIn: don’t be left out (get it?)
PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO ARE HAPPY
THERE IS NO CHART ON THIS PAGE

Always close on something cool

Did it work?
• Original goal: 400K visitors for the whole campaign
• 200K visitors in the first day
• 2 month campaign had over 2.5M visitors
• 11K video submissions from interested job applicants
• Over 5K independent blog mentions
• $1.7M global marketing campaign generated $70M worth of
publicity
• 2009 Cannes Lions Grand Prix

Great. So what do I do now smartguy?
• Listen and engage (grow big ears)
• Target the influencers (and make them evangelists)
• Empower your friends (read: customers)
• Encourage people to speak their minds (then thank or fix)
• Start small (scale smart)
• Be yourself (your usual charming, witty, interesting self)
• Don’t just stand there (learn something new every day!)

Reading List
• Internet Marketing for Travel & Tourism http://www.tourismkeys.ca/blog/
• Dot Tourism http://dottourism.com/blog/
• The Tourism Research Blog http://blog.highlandbusinessresearch.co.uk/
• up take Travel Industry Blog http://travel-industry.uptake.com/blog/
• Tourism Internet Marketing http://tourisminternetmarketing.com/
• Travel & Tourism Technology Trends http://tourismtechnology.rezgo.com/
• http://www.suite101.com/travel/
• http://travel.alltop.com/

Homework
http://www.tourism-intelligence.co.uk/listeningtoourvisitors.aspx
http://www.highlandbusinessresearch.com/downloads/tipsfromthetlist.pdf

Thank You!
mark.co@iiproximity.com
http://www.twitter.com/IrishIntl