Noise about the potential to apply social media tools in the
travel industry continues to increase, but new research from Business Travel News sister publication Procurement.travel suggests travel
managers and buyers have not yet embraced the technology.
Among 294 travel professionals polled in August and
September, 19 percent said they were directly involved in using social media in
managed travel programs and 24 percent said they were indirectly involved.
Another 27 percent indicated that they were not at all involved, while 30
percent said their companies did not offer social media tools for travelers.
Communicating with travelers was a high priority for the
poll's respondents, with 90 percent indicating involvement in that task. It
therefore may not be surprising to discover that among those buyers who said
they were not involved in social media for their organizations' travel
programs, more said they should become involved (34 percent) than said they
expected to become involved (22 percent). Similarly, there was an evident
disconnect for those respondents who noted their companies had no social media
programs: 31 percent said they expected their companies to develop one, while
59 percent said their companies should.
Travel Tech Consulting's Norm Rose noted, "The two main
uses of social media by suppliers and distributors are brand management and
promotions." Such promotions, he added, represent one way in which "social
media may impact managed travel programs, offering deals through Twitter or
Facebook that could circumvent corporate travel policy."
Therefore, on the customer side, Rose suggested travel
buyers "work with all internal social media efforts, as well as their TMC,
to develop a consistent social media travel strategy. Incorporating user
reviews into the vendor selection and negotiation process is a natural."
Randy Kane of Acquis Consulting suggested that travel
management professionals ignore social media's influence at their peril. "If
you don't do it, you're going to be gone," he cautioned. "A lot of
companies today are sort of dipping their toes in the water. Social media is
not a buzzword. It is moving light years ahead."
This report appears in
the Nov. 8 issue of Business Travel News.