Frederic Gonzalo’s Blog

Social Media & Mobile in Travel Industry [VIDEO]

The folks at Eye for Travel together with Digital Visitor recently produced this great video highlighting the present state of social media and mobile in the travel marketing industry. Great up-to-date statistics and a nice, dynamic presentation. Check it out! (If you scroll below, I have summarized some of the key nuggets of information from the video)

Social Media stats

  • Facebook accounts for 75% of worldwide time spent on social networks, or 3 out of every 4 minutes;
  • 100% of travel brands surveyed globally have a Facebook brand profile vs. 82% in 2011;
  • 75% of travel brands surveyed globally have a Twitter profile vs. 62% in 2011;
  • 50% of travel brands surveyed agreed that direct bookings were generated from social media;
  • 1 out of 5 travel brands surveyed cited social media as their most successful marketing format. In Brazil, it’s 1 out of 3 travel brands;
  • Travel marketers surveyed found that social media reduces PR costs by up to 24%;
  • Airline respondents highlighted company profiles on social media: 85% are on Facebook, 79% are on Twitter, 44% on Youtube, 35% on LinkedIn, and 21% on Flickr;

Mobile stats

  • 20% of travel brands use mobile for direct sales;
  • 25% of travel brands use mobile to build brand awareness;
  • The cruise sector has seen the biggest increase in mobile bookings via mobile devices in the past six months;
  • 65% of travel industry respondents revealed the allocate 25% of their marketing budgets to their mobile distribution strategy;

For companies looking to preserve or improve their search rankings,  social marketing activities will no longer be optional. They will be a necessary element of traffic driving success.

  • In Q3 2011, 51% of travel brands cited an increase in traffic from Facebook to their web site;
  • In Q3 2011, 39% of travel brands cited an increase in traffic from Twitter to their web site;
  • The most popular marketing channels for travel brands? Search Engine Marketing (SEM) 29%, Email Marketing 28% and Social Media Marketing 20%.

Was there any particular finding or statistic in the video that surprised you? I personally wonder how Pinterest and Google+ will score on this next travel marketing survey when conducted by the end of 2012…

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