Paradise Island, Bahamas – The wisdom of friends and rich, fresh content are two key components in attracting tourists, says a top tourism professional.
“I have analysed small islands such as Cayman and one thing that I have noticed is that somewhere with both big and small hotels shows smaller hotels taking a bigger share of the voice,” Brian Payea, head of industry relations at TripAdvisor told the Compass. “At the outset, some tourism businesses came in with the expectation that travellers would only go online to complain, but that is really not the case.”
Mr. Payea noted that 5-star reviews actually made up 45 per cent of reviews and 27 per cent 4-star; the average review on TripAdvisor is 3.90 meaning a largely positive result.
Travellers, he said, are keen to participate in the conversation and were often drawn to hidden gems so it wasn’t necessary to be a ‘name’ hotel to be a sought after property.
“There are as many preferences as there are properties,” Mr. Payea said. “So the wisdom of friends remains vital.”
Master Class
In a presentation master class to delegates at the Caribbean Marketplace conference being held at Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas, the head of industry relations said that 83 per cent of people surveyed said they always consulted TripAdvisor before booking holidays. In the same survey, which was published by PhocusWright in July 2011, two of every three travellers cited reviews as influential when planning leisure travel, and that they were also looking for owner or manager contributions to the conversation.
In order to grow the market, he said, it was important to take customer feedback and use it to learn and make changes. The most frequently discussed topic on social media regarding the hospitality industry was customer service at 30 per cent, he said. “A good reputation is more valuable than money,” Mr. Payea said.
Daniel Edward Craig, author and hospitality consultant, said that it was vital to maintain a positive online reputation.
“Social media has transformed how travellers behave,” he advised, “It’s how we research trips, how we make decisions and how we share experiences before, during and after trips.”
Authenticity and transparency, building awareness and shape perception, using it as more than just a marketing function and managing the reputation in-house were all valuable ways to help reputation.
In the case of the Cayman Islands, concluded Mr. Payea, like any destination it came down to online content.
“In addition to property description and the rest there is also an unlimited amount of potential videos that can be uploaded,” he said. “As each video can have six tags in Cayman you are going to probably want one perhaps with diving and snorkelling. Each distinctive tag opens up the possibility of robust listings with content.
“It’s similar to search engine optimising in a regular search engine,” he said. “Try and be the definitive search result.”
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