It would seem that Facebook likes and TripAdvisor reviews are still KING in the Luxury travel market! Here is a great article by  Karthick Prabu- Wilna 

TripAdvisor contributes about 61% of all reviews on luxury hotels in the US and 53% of all reviews on luxury hotels globally, reveals a survey by Brand Karma and International Luxury Travel Market.

The study was conducted among luxury travellers and their opinions on about 2,000+ hotels around the world.

Luxury is now defined as “Instagram-able”

For millennials, the ability to share a travel experience instantly via photos and videos has become an important requirement when selecting an experience. As Millennials become older and more affluent, they will seek luxury experiences that are so unique and visual that it is guaranteed to generate buzz amongst their social network.

Future of luxury hotspot

Luxury hotspots are shifting to the southern and eastern part of the world, particularly the Middle East, APAC and Latin America regions.

In the social media world, luxury travel hotspots are cities or destinations with an above-average quantity of luxury hotel reviews. While the well-known luxury hotspots like Paris or Las Vegas are still attracting travellers, newer and trendier destinations such as Abu Dhabi, Da nang, and Lima are attracting more attention, as indicated by sharp increases in luxury social postings.

Secret formula for a luxury hotel in social media

The study says that almost all luxury hotels at the top of its rankings had a common social presence pattern among them:

• Luxury hotels to have at least 5,000 Facebook Likes, a TripAdvisor average rating of at least 4.5, and a strong presence on one of the major photo or video sites like Instagram, YouTube, or Pinterest.

The study says above parameters are minimum essentials for luxury hotels to have an effective social media presence.

Opportunities in Latin America

In 2013, there will be 278 million internet users in Latin America, exceeding the number of internet users in both north America and Europe.

In June 2012, about 33% of internet users in some of the largest Latin American countries used online travel sites.

World’s top five socially engaged users are from Latin America: Argentina leads with 10.7 hours per month per visitor, followed by Chile (9.5 hours), Peru (8.7 hours), Colombia (7.6 hours) and Mexico (7.1 hours).

Latin American hotels have not leveraged media websites like YouTube and Pinterest. But, LATAM luxury hotels are starting to focus on photo and video-oriented apps like Vine and Instagram video, which have high engagement rates with consumers.

Difference between a North American and Latin American luxury traveller

• North American travellers seek experiential travel; whereas, Latin American travellers prioritise the functional product, namely a stunning room product and top-notch restaurants.
  
• North Americans are more verbose – their hotel reviews were nearly double the length of their Latin American counterparts.
  
• North Americans posted most often on Mondays, while Latin Americans posted most often on Tuesdays. Apart from below differences, Facebook and TripAdvisor are still the top social travel sites in both markets.
  
• Between January 2011 and June 2013, social postings by north American luxury travellers increased 130%, while social postings by Latin American luxury travellers increased 304%.
  
• However, the satisfaction levels among these travellers also steadily increased. Brand Karma’s Social Satisfaction metric saw an increase of 43% among travellers posting in Portuguese, an increase of 14% among travellers posting in Spanish, and an increase of 4% among travellers posting in English.
  

TripAdvisor leads in luxury hotel review segment, but Chinese travel sites catchup

TripAdvisor produces about 61% of all reviews on luxury hotels in the US and 53% of all reviews on luxury hotels globally. The site also continues to be the largest review site for luxury hotels. For hotels within the US, 
Hotels. com, Expedia and Orbitz remain as the key channels for online reviews.

However, several major Chinese booking and review web sites like Ctrip, Qunar and Dian Ping now encompass over 15% of all reviews on luxury hotels globally.

Though the Chinese sites share of hotel reviews in the US is small, it is expected that this will increase in the next 18 months given the fact that China is now the largest outbound tourism market globally.

Online reviews and social media engagement

According to the study, the social media health of a luxury travel brand is best indicated by the positivity and share- of-voice it attracts from two major sources: online review sites like TripAdvisor and social networking sites like Facebook.

And, when it comes to social networking sites, the average number of Facebook Likes for a luxury hotel is highest in the Middle East with 12,062 Likes. Higher review contribution in the US and Europe doesn’t really mean higher engagement in social channels.

Study methodology

• The study is based on Brand Karma’s research on comments, photos, and videos posted by luxury travellers both in the Americas and globally on social media and travel review sites between January 2010 and June 2013.
• Data in this report has been analysed from about 550K reviews written for more than 2,000 luxury hotels worldwide

Read the full article on Tnooz. See more ...

I was fortunate to spend a few days with Damian Cook - learning about maximizing online tools for the travel industry. Insightful and inspiring! - Wilna 

This article was taken from Tourism Update, 16 Sept: 

Tour operators globally have been hit hard by a combination of the recession of the past few years and soaring online travel sales that are expected to double this year, exceeding US$350bn (R3.4 trillion), says Damian Cook, CEO of E-Tourism Frontiers.

 Speaking at the recent E-Tourism Africa Summit in Cape Town, he said the traditional tour operator model was diminishing. “KPMG lists 49% of tour operators as in decline and 24 major tour operators bankrupted in 20011-12, including Thomas Cook. Online is regarded as the motivating factor, as well a lack of customised and dynamic travel bookings.”

 However, SA Tourism (SAT) Chief Marketing Officer, Jan Hutton, believes the rapid growth of e-tourism and online travel agents will not damage or replace the role of traditional tour operators, many of whom are getting involved in the digital environment. 

“It certainly is not a case of TripAdvisor and Expedia eating our lunch,” she said. “We can see a strong trend of most tour operators becoming quite digital in the way they market themselves, engage and communicate with their consumers. It is rather a case of the fast versus the slow. There are some leading tour operators that are taking the market by storm digitally and they are making a bigger dent and are getting a bigger piece of the market share because they are being proactive. The rest are in an adoption process.”

Cook agrees: “We live in an environment of constant change, which means the industry needs to adapt.” It faces the following challenges: 

- 59% of all travel is now researched, booked, bought and sold online. 
- 98% of people start their travel research online. 
- More than 200 000 people booked trips to South Africa through online booking engines last year.
- The number of flights booked to South Africa on Expedia grew by 32% to more than 109 000 in the six months ending June 2013.
- Reviews and referrals are the number-one driver behind people’s choice of destination.

 “For tourism businesses,” says Cook, “this means they need real-time bookability and e-commerce; have a strong social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; must manage online relationships; manage and optimise conversion points; and know what they are selling and who they are selling to,” said Cook.” The online market is too crowded and too loud to be making bland generic statements. Your message needs to be unique and stand out. Sell an experience. Sell a story.”

He said customers and social media networks were driving travel, which is shaking up the industry. According to Google, only 18% of consumers use travel agents before they travel, whereas 66% consult family and friends, mostly on social media networks. Over 50% of all time online is spent on social networks; YouTube viewers consume over 3bn hours of video monthly; and Twitter gets 308 000 tweets per minute.

He said 70% of travellers posted photos while travelling, communicating to an average 200 people who know them, creating a great opportunity for the trade to reach an active audience that is constantly engaging, commenting and recommending. “Travel suppliers now need to be part of this constant engagement. The single most stupid thing you can do in the travel trade is to charge your customers for using the Internet! If it’s too expensive, put up your rates to include it!”

 With 4.8bn mobile users worldwide, he said future trends focused on mobile and location-based tools, apps and sites that find information and contacts around you, post, report and relate to your content.  In addition, the first wearable watch phone, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, was launched recently, while Google is developing the first wearable spectacles with usable content.