How to use influencers in Tourism Marketing

Of all the categories of blogs and social media posts online, it is safe to assume that a very high percentage is related to travel and tourism. Platforms like Instagram and Snapchat seem almost custom-built for travel, tourism and allied topics like food and fashion. Needless to mention, the ranks of social media influencers are swollen with followers of this niche. However, very little is common among these influencers. Take travel for instance. The spectrum ranges from shoestring budget travellers, to backpackers, through adventure travelers all the way to luxury and bespoke travelers. This becomes a challenge for tourism digital marketers who hope to reach out and recruit influencers to help with their tourism marketing campaigns.

This post deals with some tips to choose the right influencers and the things one can do to make the most of the symbiotic relationship. Specifically, how the right influencers can help grow the brand online.

Finding your influencers

Before you go about trying to locate the right influencer, it is important to know who your brand's current audience is. Where does your audience hang-out online? Whom do they follow in social media channels? Who influences them? What is the authority of these influencers? As you listen to online chatter and monitor social media, you will come up with a lot of insights. Not all thee insights will be in line with your planner positioning for your brand. All of them however will reflect the interesting ways in which your audience chooses to interact with your brand. Spend time finding and mapping these out.

Choosing the right influencer

It is important for a tourism brand to choose the right influencer. In order to do so, one needs to definitely look beyond the numbers. The questions you need to ask yourself before you shortlist influencers to help amplify your tourism or destination marketing efforts are as follows:

• Are they relevant to your category? - No point using a fashion blogger as your influencer if your niche is travel and tourism. Unless your destination has some fashion-association you need to amplify!
• Are they an authority? - Do they have a follower base that follows them for their unique style or insights? Do they have an original point of view about topics relevant to you?
• Are they regular and active? - Do they post consistently? Are all their social outposts updated regularly?
• Are they engaging? - What kind of traction do their posts on social channels get? How often are they shared or liked? Do they get comments? Do they respond to comments? What is the true reach they have?
• Is there a brand fit? - Is the prospective influencer a good fit for your brand? If you are focusing on luxury travel, a budget travel blogger might not be the direction you want to take, irrespective of the authority and numbers!

Do you have any personal travel and tourism bloggers you follow? Please send me your preferences.

Inviting your influencers

Today, a number of companies exist which claim to work with a set of social media influencers across verticals. However, my personal experience with such outfits has not been great. While it is true that they take the hassle out of managing an influencer campaign (think logistics, communication, emails, responses, clarifications, billing etc.) they often don't have the ability to give you a truly custom-built experience. As a tourism marketer, it is expected that you know your brand and its strengths & weaknesses better than any 3rd party agency. Hopefully you are also passionate about your destination or product. Spend some time trying to reach out to influencers to convey this passion across to them. Trust me - they will appreciate it.

What works best is a personal appeal to each identified influencer. When you get to know them, their style, their audience and their work, you will know exactly how they can add value to your brand. And when they see that you've taken the time to understand all of these aspects, their respect - and consequently engagement with your brand - will only grow. It also helps to follow them on social channels and to start sharing some of their relevant updates to your own audience/followers. Remember that you are not engaging with a vendor; you are actually trying to establish a relationship with an influential authority who can help your brand grow.

Getting the most out of your influencers

One of the biggest mistakes a brand can make is to treat influencers as an extension of their PR program. Any influencer worth her/his salt will never be comfortable with simply posting a press release issued by a brand on their channels. Remember that these influencers have spent an enormous amount of time and effort to cultivate an audience that trusts them and their opinion. A sure-fire way to disaster and audience loss is to 'plug' brand messages between their posts.

Invite your influencers to experience your brand. Let them savor everything that your product or destination has to offer. Allow them time to wallow in the experience. Let them write/blog/post about it in their own, inimitable way.

Most importantly, respect their beliefs and principles. Don't ask/force them to commit to anything they are not comfortable with. Provide them with the experience, the facts, the data and the information. Let them craft their own story. If you've done your homework, you will be pleasantly surprised!

In another post we will look at the ways in which your brand can specifically benefit from engaging with influencers.

How influencer marketing is changing tourism marketing

Contrary to popular belief, influencer marketing is not new. It has existed for as long as (or even before) marketing has been around. The very first influencer in the history of mankind was someone who recommended a way to do something or to try a new something. In principle, it stays true to that even today. Another misconception is that influencers have to be celebrities. That is good to have, but not a mandatory requirement. In fact, the more evolved the consumer, the less they are taken in by marketing-speak or brand endorsements. However, they are still open to recommendations from friends, peers and others they willingly follow on social media channels.

At the fundamental level, an influencer is someone who specializes in something of interest to you and has the social presence to distribute their message. They could offer knowledge, inspiration or even just entertainment in a specific niche. But what adds value is the manner in which they do it. Their specific tone of voice, sense of humor or eccentric mannerism that make it resonate with you. Which is why they command the clout they do and why brands - especially in the travel and tourism space are rapidly waking up to their potential.

Most online consumers have been through the entire marketing hype cycle. They are wise to the ways of brands and even wiser to the way advertising hopes to manipulate their feelings and emotions. Which is probably why conventional online channels like display media are slowly losing traction. They have literally become a blind spot for savvy consumers. Search is still very relevant, but the onus of initiating action lies with the consumer. All a brand or marketer can do is to lay out the groundwork and wait for the consumer to show up. Influencer marketing however makes use of the concept of peers - people like you who care about the things you care about too - to reach out to consumers.

Answer this. Would you much rather have a travel company stalk you with multiple messages online on every possible channel or would you seriously consider a vacation destination on the basis of the recommendation of a travel blogger you follow - and admire? Pretty elementary, right? That is in essence the thought behind using influencer marketing for the tourism industry.

In another post, we will look at what you need to do in order to identify the right kind of influencers and the advantages your destination marketing efforts can get by doing so in a planned manner.

Happy World Tourism Day!

Here's wishing all my readers a very happy World Tourism Day!

Worldwide Personal Security for travelers with Fonetrac

With increasing reports being published every day about global terror and terrorist activities, it is no wonder that travelers are usually concerned about their safety and security while travelling. Gone are the days when just some countries or regions were classified as terror prone. Today, domestic and international terrorists have proven that they can strike anywhere and everywhere with impunity.

Travelling abroad can be an enriching and enlightening experience. However, with no social network, family or friends within easy reach, or even familiarity with the local language, travelers can often be easily terrified. And if disaster happens to strike, not only will they find themselves in harm’s way, but their near and dear ones back home will be fraught with anxiety.

Which is why, it makes sense to invest in a good Personal Security App while on-the-move! One of the best such Apps in the market is Fonetrac. Fonetrac is pegged as a Travel Safety App that can double up as a Medical Travel Security App. Designed in consultation with IMG GlobalSecur – a leading global employee and executive travel security firm, it is power-packed with features that will help you breathe easier while travelling.

The main features that make Fonetrac compelling are it’s “Check-in” and “Panic Button” functions. Check-in is used to support secure journey management. It offers participants of the program to check-in at various times of the trip like at the airport, on arrival, at the hotel, at the meeting venue etc. 

The idea is not to monitor the employee’s every move but rather to ensure that schedules are maintained and that an alert is raised if the traveler well-being is compromised. The Check-in feature is further enhanced by a 24/7 global monitoring system coupled with a on-ground personal response team in case any physical assistance is required. The Panic Button is just one manifestation of the various kinds of scenarios that IMG GlobalSecur is prepared for.   

Fonetrac is available on iOS, Android and Blackberry (A Windows version is under development). It comes with a range of subscription packages to suit every need, whether you are a high-powered executive or a student studying abroad. Detailed information and a demo may be requested from the Developer Website.

AI-powered superhuman travel agents | The Lola way!

What do you get when you pair Artificial Intelligence with travel agents and customer service specialists? You get a more organic and convenient travel booking experience for both business and leisure travelers. Or Lola – the latest offering from Kayak co-founder Paul English’s stable.

Currently being touted as “an intelligent travel agent in your pocket” Lola is a Mobile-only application currently only available for iOS. An android version is planned soon. While it is only available in the USA as of now, forthcoming launches in 2016 include Australia, Canada and the UK. None of its features are available on the desktop.

This makes perfect sense in a rather intuitive way. Most travel research by digitally-savvy audiences, as we’ve seen in earlier posts, starts on mobile devices. Now when you add artificial intelligence, natural language processing and a hand-picked team of 15 travel agents and customer service representatives to curate and present content to you, you simply cannot fail!

I haven’t had the opportunity to review the App personally. However a detailed review by Business Insider (available here) offers a screen-by-screen explanation. The App seems to use messaging and filtration to determine the most suitable choices for an individual customer and throws back bespoke, non-touristy options for restaurants and things to see and do.

The App is currently available only through invitation – meaning only current users can invite others to try it out. This will be the case through 2016. Hopefully next year it will be available publicly though the grapevine says it is likely to be membership-based. Stay tuned for more!

India Religious Tourism | New Blog!

In the past few days, I've been posting on Religious Tourism in the Indian context. A fair amount of research has revealed that this topic is pretty vast – enough to warrant a blog of its own! Else this blog, which was started with the intention of discussing Digital Marketing in the realm of Tourism, will soon be engulfed by one specific sub-topic!

Starting tomorrow, I will post all articles related to Religious Tourism in India here. If you are interested in Religious Tourism, especially in the Indian context, I urge you to visit the new blog. This here blog will continue to deal with more generic topics related to Tourism Marketing and specifically Digital Marketing for the Tourism Industry.

Thank you for your continued support!

3 Issues and Challenges with Religious Tourism in India

Jama Masjid By Nimitnigam - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

While it is heartening to note that the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India is taking some concrete steps to promote and develop Religious Tourism in India, the sector is beset with a host of problems that make it an ongoing challenge. Some of the top issues include:

3. Lack of a uniform code of religious etiquette

This is a crying need in a country that prides itself on its secular credentials. While many individuals are aware of the requirements and etiquette regarding their own religions, the same may not be the case with other religions. Also, considering that there is no centralized authority, opinions, half-truths and outright lies may easily present themselves as mandatory requirements. If this is the case with citizens of our country, you can very well imagine how foreigners would have difficulty!

It would help is the Government or an executive body comprising representatives from all religions could put together a document detailing the religious etiquette that visitors need to observe at various locations. This will ensure that religious sentiments of various communities are not played with and will help prevent misunderstandings.

2. Infrastructure… or the lack of it!

Infrastructure is a major concern with not only religious tourism, but with tourism development as a whole in India. First and foremost is the lack of suitable transportation. Most religious destinations have seasonality-based traffic. This tends to put a tremendous strain on the available transport options during peak season. To compound the misery, there are several religious destinations which don’t have last-mile connectivity. A part of the pilgrimage can be done through trains and buses, while a considerable portion (especially the case with places in hilly locations) will require foot or animal-based travel options. These need to be streamlined with some analytical demand-supply based planning.

Kumbh Mela  By Prateek1961 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Similarly there is a dearth of available accommodation. The little that exists suffers from hygiene and cleanliness issues, lack of proper waste management, lack of qualified service staff etc. All these factors come together to make typical religious travel a veritable trial-by-fire for most pilgrims. Unless these issues are sorted, the sector cannot grow and develop to its full potential.

1. Lack of transparency and credibility

Probably the number one challenge with religious tourism in India is the lack of credibility of religious trusts. Most religious trusts in India literally and figuratively operate beyond the scope of rule of law. They answer to their own self-appointed boards, determine their own fee structures, allocate their own concessions and licenses and even don’t declare the donations and assets held in a transparent manner.

Not only does this breed corruption, but given the global concerns about money laundering and financing terrorist operations, could prove to be a massive hole in our National Security apparatus! The Government of India should take concrete measures to ensure that everything connected with organizations involved in religious tourism is above board and that pilgrims can concentrate on their piety and the pilgrimage experience rather than worry about being fleeced.

While some recent developments have indicated that the Ministry is willing and able to take concrete steps to resolve these challenges, it will take time, concerted effort and willingness among all participants to actually make things better.