·
Travel buyers advised to win customers
‘one-by-one’ and focus on only 3 – 5 ‘buzzworthy’ elements in their
communications
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New social media micro-targeting
technology shows key early returns
ILTM Americas, 22 - 25 September 2014
Riviera Maya, Mexico
@ILTM_events / #ILTMAmericas
ILTM
Americas 2014 (www.iltm.com/americas),
the leading event for luxury travel in the Americas region, will reveal the
second edition of ‘The Luxury Traveller
& Social Media: The Americas’, a special report commissioned to analyse
the online activities and opinions of luxury travellers across North and Latin
America. The report exposes the extent of recent digital advances and advises
luxury travel marketers to focus on creativity to reach the right audience and
ensure their messages are seen, loved and ultimately shared.
The
report analyses nearly two million online reviews posted by luxury travellers
from the Americas region about more than 2,000 luxury hotels worldwide, researched between January 2012 and June
2014. Building on new industry standards of creativity, key
findings include impressive data about new micro-targeting technology, which is
showing promising results among luxury travel brands, with ROIs reaching 50:1
in some cases. ‘The Luxury Traveller
& Social Media: The Americas’ was produced by Brand Karma, global leaders
in hospitality industry digital analysis and management. The company’s COO and Co-Founder, Mario Jobbe
will present the full report at ILTM Americas on Monday 22 September at the
Fairmont Mayakoba in Riviera Maya, Mexico.
Personal
Facebook accounts are confirmed as credible sources of new business for luxury
travel buyers and agents are advised that the key to success is winning
customers ‘one by one’. Becoming ‘community leaders’ in forums on any
destination or travel topic is known to deliver significant levels of new
business, and the report suggests some digital platforms remain a largely
untapped opportunity for travel advisors to showcase their expertise and meet
new potential clients. The report also advises that luxury travel buyers should
focus on marketing the 3-5 most buzzworthy elements of
the hotels they are selling and use ‘micro-messaging’ techniques to
communicate concisely and effectively.
‘Instagram-mable’ experiences continue to drive luxury traveller
decisions – as of March 2014, over 200 million monthly active users share 60
million photos a day on Instagram. In
addition, Tripadvisor still accounts for just under half of all luxury hotel
reviews worldwide at 46.2%, with 50.8% of all luxury reviews in the Americas. Latin American luxury travellers care most
about bedrooms and breakfasts while North American luxury travellers
concentrate on service concepts such as attitude and cleanliness. In 2013,
Latin America increased its appeal to luxury travellers, generating 5% more
luxury travel reviews than in 2012, but as the world gets smaller,
luxury travel brands across Canada, Mexico and the US will need to be creative
in 2014 to stay competitive in the luxury travel market.
Simon
Mayle, Head of Marketing for the ILTM Portfolio comments:
“Short,
personalised digital communications are one of the most effective solutions in
reaching the high net worth Americas traveller today – small really is big in
the world of social media. We are
delighted to welcome Mario Jobbe of Brand Karma to reveal the full extent of
the 2nd edition of the excellent ‘The Luxury Traveller & Social
Media: The Americas’ at ILTM Americas 2014 and also several pioneers of luxury
travel social media to highlight their success stories to our audience.”
The
Luxury Traveller and Social Media: The Americas will be presented in a
dedicated seminar entitled ‘Contagious
Content: How Luxury Brands Win in Digital’ at ILTM
Americas at 3.30pm on Monday 22 September. Two of Americas leading digital
storytellers will also address the audience: Travel + Leisure’s New Media
Editor, Sarah Spagnolo will highlight video, the changing patterns of
consumers, and the importance of understanding new habits and desires, and
lessons learned along the way. National
Geographic Traveler Contributing Editor and Urban Insider, Annie
Fitzsimmons will also discuss how to make people care about your content.
For further information regarding taking part in ILTM Americas,
please contact Simon Mayle at simon.mayle@reedexpo.co.uk or visit www.iltm.com/americas.
