Marketing and PR in the Travel Industry: Recent Artcles to Investigate

• Does Your Brand Have a Point of Difference or a Red Flag by Kevin Dugan – Dugan uses the example of a hotel he recently stayed in as an example for highlighting obscure facts that won’t resonate with target audiences.  He makes the excellent point that claiming to be “one of six best buildings in the world” will not have travelers flocking to your hotel.  Point: Even if you believe an obscure award or fact is important, try drawing attention to what sets you apart and will provide audiences with unique value or experiences.

• A Recession Summer Theme: Come On In, The Travel’s Cheap by Stuart Elliot – Elliot points out that many in the travel industry are spending on public relations campaigns rather than advertising in today’s tough economy.  He also looks at how these campaigns are capitalizing on the thrifty nature of today’s travelers with travel sites, CVBs, and hotels offering discounted rates, sales, and cash prizes to draw attention.  Point: A tough economic market means those in the industry should make use of innovative PR campaigns to draw attention to their locations while also providing incentive to travel when money might be scarce.

• Fortune 100 CEOs Should Be Social Media Slackers by Ryan Stephens – Stephens makes a valid point in this post: Social media is time consuming, and CEOs should be spending their time innovating, managing, and leading their businesses.  Point: If a CEO isn’t blogging, Tweeting, or Facebooking, this doesn’t mean the company doesn’t understand the value of social media! Companies can engage with consumers via these tools by tapping an employee who gets these channels and can use them effectively to build relationships on behalf of the brand, website, or location.

• Yemenia Airbus Crashes With 154 Passengers Onboard by Scott Carmichael – This news flooded my Twitter stream last night, and more and more people began questioning aviation safety in light of the recent crashes, malfunctions, and emergency landings.  On Facebook, one of my friends changed her status to read, “Seriously considering canceling my flight with all these deadly crashes.”  On Twitter, people asked “What’s going on with the airline industry?” and “Why so many problems lately?”  Point: People are starting to worry about how safe they will be during air travel.  Airlines should make a point to ease people’s fears, and I’m interested to see if any PR campaigns on this topic will launch, attempting to show how safe air travel is.

• Google Enters The Travel Market, Will Create Your Next Vacation For You by Omri – Google City Tours attemps to create several intineraries for travelrs.  According to Omri, “Type in the name of your city and City Tours will return a series of trips designed to take you around the area’s major landmarks. It displays locations, hours, and even the estimated time you should expect to spend at each site. The service uses Google Maps to figure out which landmarks are closest to each other and then plans your day accordingly.” This sounds like a useful application, but I still like to check out what other people think about different sites and I’ve found that Google’s ratings system doesn’t work as well as a site like Yelp.com.  I wonder if we’ll see a partnership between Google and another social review site to make this tool even more powerful.  Also, another interesting opportunity might arise as small businesses try to get on City Tour’s radar to attract new customers.  Point: City tours is a nifty little tool for travelers that has the potential to be huge with key partnerships.

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