Social media working but mobile needs attention
A new survey by TripAdvisor has indicated that United States hoteliers are expecting to be able to charge higher rates.
According to Kevin Carter of the popular website, this could be good news for the Cayman Islands, whose tourism market has strong links with its neighbour to the north.
“When we looked at the global landscape we found that accommodations located in North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America were twice as likely to have reported profit in the last six months compared to other regions. To some degree, what we are seeing in the US is a reflection of some macro-economic trends. It bodes well for the US and the Caribbean,” Mr. Carter said.
“To take advantage of this, Cayman has shown that it is already making significant gains as regards its marketing presence in social media but can still strive to put its best foot forward online, respond to both positive and negative traveller awards and make sure that their details, photos and showcase videos are up to date online,” Mr. Carter added.
Social up, mobile not
The TripAdvisor Industry Index, he said, shows that the Caribbean is great at social marketing, but is lagging with its mobile implementation.
“That is a huge opportunity for Caribbean businesses to take on that form of marketing to the degree that they can roll out programmes that engage with the growing number of consumers that is using mobile devices to research and book their trips.
“The more you can post special offers to those using mobile devices, the quicker, the better. The Caribbean is known for its attractions so for example if someone is visiting and looking for a place to go scuba diving what better way to reach them than on their phone with a place near where they are?,” Mr. Carter said.
He said that one question to the 25,000-person survey of global hoteliers was to ask what have been the biggest surprises of 2012.
“Respondents in the Caribbean said anecdotally various interesting things. One person said that one of the best surprises thus far was that guests are responding to improvements and changes to accommodation.
“Another was that bookings from the US market was up; another said guest satisfaction was up and one said that despite the economic crisis people were still booking. All that is good feedback,” Mr. Carter said.
Eco-tourism across the region is varied, with beaches, rainforests and places of natural beauty paramount to many travellers. But hoteliers are not necessarily utilising their information effectively.
“One of the key takeaways from our survey is that many Caribbean accommodation owners have eco-friendly practices in place. There are quite a few hotel owners who are not promoting what they are doing; in the survey 30 per cent in the Caribbean did not.
“But travellers say they find these practices really important. It is therefore important that this is communicated to travellers,” he said.
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