Today's Trends Require Total Tech Overhaul

Travel companies today have changing technology needs that require more than just a tweaking of their current platforms. According to Phocuswright's new Innovation Edition publication, Travel Innovation and Technology Trends: 2014 and Beyond, they need to throw out the old way of day-to-day thinking for a longer-term view with new investment and technology strategies.

One of the many trends disrupting the travel industry is social marketing – the business embodiment of social media. When social media first came onto the scene, the business community didn't readily jump on the bandwagon – and a lot of travel companies still don't see the value in it. However, social marketing is here to stay, and marketers must develop new ways to determine attribution, calculate ROI, and deliver and measure value.

"One great thing about social media is that it supports a two-way conversation," says Bob Offutt, Phocuswright's senior technology analyst and editorial director, Innovation Edition. "It is a forum for marketing to consumers as well as listening to their feedback. Social listening, which involves monitoring social media activity and extracting relevant information, can provide extremely valuable information to a company – like insights to improve marketing effectiveness, the ability to engage key brand influencers, and immediate identification of customer service issues."

There are many easily accessible tools for social listening – Google Analytics and Radian 6 among them – that give companies enormous opportunity to influence shopping and buying behavior. Travel companies must, however, make social marketing and listening an explicit part of their business strategy. They must include social media attributes on their websites, integrate social media with other marketing systems, perform case studies to extrapolate experiences in other industries to travel, and track and measure success.

Several travel companies are already extremely successful at social marketing. Four Seasons invites customers to create a Pinterest board for their vacations, to which the hotel then pins relevant photos to help them plan their stay. Etihad Airways customers take quizzes and play games that channel them to the company's website. Also, Tourism New Zealand's Facebook page is extremely popular, with over 1 million fans.

For more on all nine of Phocuswright's travel technology trends – including the innovations powering them, examples and next steps – purchase Travel Innovation and Technology Trends: 2014 and Beyond. Registration to the June 18 webinar is included with your publication purchase – CLICK HERE to learn more about the webinar.