Last week I was presenting about social media for the tourism industry at a Failte Ireland seminar in Athlone. I was the last person to present on the second day, straight after lunch (lucky me!!). This was probably the most challenging time to present and the concern was that a lot of people may not want to stay around after lunch on the last day just for one more presentation. 135 people out of 150 showed up which was a fantastic turn out. It just goes to show the level of interest there is in social media and I think it’s ideal for this type of industry.
The participants were all from the tourism sector in Ireland – Hotels, Adventure Centres, Heritage Centres, Guesthouses, B&Bs and so on. I tailored the presentation to ensure that it contained a lot of practical examples of how other companies in this sector were benefiting from the use of social media. The more research I did the more I realised the potential there is for social media in this industry.
There were many cases of both large and small companies turning social media into a very effective channel for expanding their business and using social media as a cost effective way of letting people know about their services. The one big advantage to the tourism industry is that they generally have plenty of interesting content to share and people love to share out interesting content.
As a case study I picked an adventure centre in Tyrone that started business less than 9 months ago, but in that short amount of time their revenue has way exceeded their expectations. This was mostly due to social media which they weren’t expecting to be so successful. Over 40% of their business now comes directly through social media channels. Now that they see the potential they will invest more time and energy in this area as they see it as a very cost effective way of promoting and increasing their business. They were even lucky enough to be spotted online by BBC who were looking for an adventure centre as part of their BBC travel program where Gary Lineker and his girlfriend travelled around the North of Ireland.
For Facebook they provide information on any activities they have run in the centre. This includes pictures, videos and text. When they take group pictures they ‘tag’ (pick out) participants in the pictures. Anybody they tag will see these pictures when they login to Facebook. Also some of their friends will also see these pictures so it’s a great way of letting a lot of people know about interesting events you are running.
Stephen Brown, who runs the centre, pointed out that one week he put up information about coasteering, which is basically jumping off cliffs into water and adventure swimming, and after putting up the information 18 people arrived at the centre the next week. The promotion of this event was only done through Facebook and there was no cost involved.
Although Facebook is the main platform the adventure centre uses, they also use LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Pictures from events are put in Flickr and videos are put on YouTube but these are also placed on Facebook. They use Twitter to communicate about activities they are currently running and provide links to interesting material such as videos. Overall they have a clear social media strategy and I’ve no doubt that they will go from strength to strength.
Presenting at the Failte Ireland was an enjoyable event and I met lots of interesting people. What made it particularly enjoyable was passing out a lot of information on how they could take advantage of social media to help promote their business. There’s certainly huge potential benefits to the tourism industry. Consider reducing your advertising budget and investing some time and energy into social media. It will be worth it!