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Travel industry aggressively tapping into social media

September 07, 2010 |

Booking a flight? Go on Facebook. Running late to the hotel? Send a tweet. Compared with other industries, the travel and hospitality sector is clearly ahead of the curve in engaging social media. Mainly because there are so many choices for hotels, and there is so much concern about consumer perception.

Airlines are maintaining a presence on YouTube and offering deals through social-mapping networks such as Loopt. Hotels are promoting their properties through bloggers, and they're using social-networking sites to gather feedback, monitor trends and provide concierge services.

"I definitely think that social media is about to change the way we do things entirely," says Jill Fletcher, social media and communications manager for Virgin America. "We're able to admit over social media if we've made a mistake or if there's a weather delay. So we're able to communicate much faster and more effectively."

Social media are being incorporated at a rapid rate into every part of a journey, from making the reservation to finding out where to eat. For instance:

- As of August, Delta passengers can buy tickets on Delta's Facebook page.

- Southwest has three staffers dedicated to monitoring and responding to queries made through social-media channels.

- Marriott is launching its Marriott Courtyard Facebook page Tuesday to issue messages about the chain and related information that might interest customers.

- Hyatt Hotels launched a Twitter account last year to serve as a virtual concierge. Staffers, based in Omaha, Australia and Mumbai, are instructed to respond to requests and questions within an hour, and are fielding queries ranging from where to find good sushi to alerts that a guest will be checking in late. The account has 12,000 followers. Hilton has a similar Twitter account.

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