Benefits of TripAdvisor: How TripAdvisor listing and reviews help grow your hotel business?

When was the last time you searched a hotel and it didn’t appear on TripAdvisor review website?

Probably, 1 out of 10 hotels. (Because other 9 hotels are listed on TripAdvisor!)

Many of us have come across such search results. The point is to give you an idea of how TripAdvisor has penetrated in the travel and hospitality market in the last 18 years.

Launched in 2000, TripAdvisor review website’s journey is an interesting one.
With few years of struggle in the initial years and then a spiraling growth to become one of the biggest travel websites globally.

The travel giant’s 60 million+ reviews play a crucial role as a real friend to travelers. The leading global metasearch witnesses high web traffic and is sought after by many travelers.

Adding 200+ booking sites into its kitty, the travel giant compares the prices of hotels and F&Bs. It gives travelers an option to choose from 4.3 million restaurants and 9 million+ hotels worldwide, providing the best deal.

Now, you may be curious to know how you can get more bookings through TripAdvisor listing and reviews. Right?

Yeah, I’ve shared some tips that’ll help you to boost your hotel rankings or bookings on TripAdvisor and make you stand out from the competition:

Here’s what you need to do on TripAdvisor to achieve bigger results with TripAdvisor listing and reviews:Setup your Tripadvisor listing and review path

You already have your hotel listed on TripAdvisor. If not, initiating your hotel presence on the review website requires you to claim your business listing on Tripadvisor.

Once this is done, you need to add attractive images, a brief description of your hotel, room, and rent.
If you decide to spend a little, then you can opt for TripAdvisor Business Listing that offers extra features as mentioned below:

Link to your website and email addressPhone numberLink to special offers and special offer tagCustom photo slideshows

https://www.ezeeabsolute.com/blog/benefits-of-tripadvisor-listing-and-review/

TripAdvisor will launch social media component, hopes to help users 'plan and book' in one go

Just in case your Facebook and Instagram feeds aren’t already filled to the brim with friends’ photos of glamorous trips and picture-perfect meals, TripAdvisor would like you to satiate any leftover wanderlust with its own social media platform.

The travel site announced Monday that its all-new site and social media component will allow users to follow travel and hospitality brands, as well as social media influencers and travel buddies — with the hope being that users will be able to “plan and book all in one place.”

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/tripadvisor-will-launch-social-media-component-hopes-to-help-users-plan-and-book-in-one-go

Is TripAdvisor’s new social app the future of travel?

More than ever, we are seeing brands trying to provide a one-stop shop for all our needs in order to keep us within their website or app.

At Web Summit 2018, Stephen Kaufer, President and CEO of TripAdvisor, shared his vision for the future of travel and described how they are looking to do this via exciting new changes to their app, which launched earlier this month.

Consumers typically visit hundreds of travel sites in planning a trip, so TripAdvisor set out to bring all of that content together in one place. By bringing all of the social sharing that consumers do into the app, they created a “feed” of everything a user’s friends, family and people they follow have to say about a place.

https://econsultancy.com/tripadvisor-new-social-app-future-travel/

TripAdvisor’s new app brings information to help in the discovery and inspiration stage from all sorts of sources, brands and influencers travellers trust, together with insightful opinions on what to do and see.

Users have access to helpful and inspirational videos, photos, articles and guides from friends and family, as well as from over a thousand brands, publishers, and influencers. Brands and publishers featured within TripAdvisor’s new app experience include Condé Nast Traveler, GoPro, National Geographic, and Time Out magazine.

A more social travel experience

As travellers search for a specific destination on TripAdvisor’s new app, their travel feed automatically surfaces relevant content from the global TripAdvisor community.

For example, someone planning a trip to Paris might discover helpful information such as a food critic’s article on the best restaurant in the city, an influencer’s travel guide of must-do experiences, a friend’s review of a new hotel near the Louvre and more.

Unlike social media sites, TripAdvisor makes inspirational content actionable by enabling the traveller to book their restaurant, hotel or experience without leaving the site or app.

Does TripAdvisor have any plans to formally integrate with social media platforms? When asked this question at Web Summit, Kaufer described how the new app gives brands and influencers the ability to republish content they have already created on TripAdvisor.

The beauty of doing this in a travel vertical is that they are creating content which is going to be there for a long time, while on other social platforms the content may fade away.

Another innovative feature of the new app is called “Trips”. It enables travellers to collaborate with others by saving, organising, sharing and creating lists or in-depth guides highlighting their favourite hotels, restaurants, experiences in a particular destination.

Trips can also be made public and shared with the community to inspire and help others. Suddenly, a would-be traveller has access to an itinerary written by someone else who has been there and experienced what they are interested in – allowing them to copy, annotate and share it with their travelling companions.

How to Prepare for Voice Search

How to Prepare for Voice Search - Voice search (Siri, Amazon Echo, Google Home) is changing the landscape of how people are and WILL search for everything.
#voicesearch #digitalmarketing #howto

First Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition Launched

The World Tourism Organization and Basque Culinary Center (BCC), have launched a pioneering initiative for the gastronomic tourism sector, with a global call for startups or companies, mature or emerging, technological and non-technological, with innovative ideas capable of revolutionizing and integrating gastronomy in tourism and inspiring tourists with new ways and reasons to travel.

The gastronomic tourism sector is moving towards innovation and the diversification of its offerings. UNWTO, in collaboration with its Affiliated Member, Basque Culinary Center (BCC), has launched the 1st UNWTO Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition, the first and largest initiative in the world dedicated to identifying new companies that will lead the transformation of the gastronomic tourism sector.

Intangible cultural heritage has become the decisive factor that attracts and captivates tourists. Gastronomy tourism, as a component and vehicle of culture and tradition, is an indispensable resource that adds value and provides solutions for destinations that seek to stand out through unique product offerings.

The Competition will make it possible to identify the best solutions and projects that contribute the most to the sector through pioneering proposals in the implementation of emerging and disruptive technologies, as well as emerging companies or startups. It aims to identify challenges and projects, and to catalyse innovations that can transform the Gastronomy Tourism sector in the near future.

“Innovation and tourism investments are not ends in themselves, but are means to promote better tourism products, improve tourism governance and harness its proven capability to foster sustainability, create jobs and generate opportunities,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili.

“Education and innovation are essential for the development of sustainable gastronomic tourism. At Basque Culinary Center, we support entrepreneurship and the development of new business projects to ensure the future of the sector. In this regard, we are proud to once again team up with our partners at UNWTO in order to continue fostering entrepreneurship and innovation linked to gastronomy tourism through this initiative,” said Joxe Mari Aizega, General Manager of Basque Culinary Center.

UNWTO and Basque Culinary Center have entrusted the process of finding startups to BCC Innovation through its Culinary Action! programme, which has accelerated nearly 50 startups by providing innovative, sustainable and high added value solutions to the gastronomy value chain.

Sustainability and technology

Startups are invited to pitch business models that are related to sustainability, respect the value chain, offer an authentic and coherent narrative, and add value to cultural and local heritage.

The winners of this competition will have the opportunity to present their projects at the 5th World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism (2-3 May 2019, San Sebastián, Spain), with the possibility of receiving personalized consulting and mentoring from the BCC experts  of project accelerator Culinary Action!

Full information on the terms and conditions are available at https://www.gastronomytourismventures.org/.

About UNWTO

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a United Nations specialized agency, is the leading international organization with the decisive and central role in promoting the development of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. It serves as a global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how. 

About Basque Culinary Center

Basque Culinary Center is a pioneering academic institution worldwide that comprises the Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences attached to Mondragon University and a Center for Innovation and Research, BCC Innovation. It is the first Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences in  Spain and the only one in the world with an R&D centre. Its board also features 11 of the world’s leading chefs. The aim of Basque Culinary Centre is higher education, research, innovation and promotion of gastronomy and food, and it is working to promote gastronomy as a lever for socio-economic development through its actions.

Furthermore, Basque Culinary Center has created a technological centre for gastronomy, BCC Innovation. Its objectives are to transform knowledge into wealth, drive innovation in companies and to participate actively in the creation of new businesses, thus guaranteeing the future of the sector. BCC Innovation supports entrepreneurs in the development of new business projects. 

Contacts:

UNWTO Communications Department

Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218 / comm@unwto.org

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Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST)

With the support of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), UNWTO has launched the Towards a Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST). 

The aim is to develop an international statistical framework for measuring tourism’s role in sustainable development, including economic, environmental and dimensions

By integrating tourism within economic, social and environmental measurement standards, the framework aims to provide a common language and organizing structure for exploiting the richness of data already available and for more effective data production, management and integration.

Such a standards-based framework can further support the credibility, comparability and outreach of various measurement and monitoring programmes pertaining to sustainable tourism, including the derivation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators and those of UNWTO’s International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories (INSTO).

Overall, the statistical framework from the MST will provide an integrated information base to better inform on sustainable tourism, to facilitate dialogue between different sectors and to encourage integrated, locally relevant decision making.

• Download the MST brochure
• Overview the initiative

 Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST) 

The World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) initiative Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST) received a boost last week when its working group met in Madrid (24-25 October). After successful pilot studies to produce credible and comparable data, the initiative is on track with its aim of getting the MST framework adopted as the third international standard on tourism statistics.

The group of experts creating a statistical framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism met to establish the MST initiative’s major goals for 2019. The initiative is creating a draft framework for a data standard for tourism’s impact on sustainability and plans to have it adopted as the third international standard on tourism statistics by the UN Statistics Commission (UNSC).

Among the areas of discussion during the group’s meeting on 24-25 October were summarizing the pilot studies done in Germany, Philippines and Saudi Arabia to test MST’s relevance, and which have shown feasibility of the proposed framework in three different national contexts. This means the MST framework is on track to be prepared for submission as an international standard.

For 2019 the MST working group has tasked itself with refining and documenting three statistically-based tourism indicators to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targets. UNWTO is the custodian agency of these three indicators, and coordinates the development of tourism-related indicators with countries and UN agencies. The next step will then be to present this draft framework in UNWTO’s 2019 meetings of its governing bodies.

http://cf.cdn.unwto.org/sites/all/files/docpdf/folderfactsheetweb.pdf 

Background to the MST framework

Statistical frameworks enable countries to produce data that is credible and comparable across countries, time periods and other standards. MST is a UNWTO-led initiative for a statistical framework for tourism, supported by UNSC since March 2017. Its roadmap was set in the 6th International Conference on Tourism Statistics, held in June 2017 in Manila, Philippines.

In order to develop tourism potential, better manage the sector, and support effective evidence-based policy decisions, there is a need to better measure tourism using high-quality official statistics covering economic, social, and environmental sustainability. MST aims to expand existing tourism measurement beyond its primarily economic dimension to also measure social and environmental dimensions.

It aims to link UNSC’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting with the Tourism Satellite Account framework, which is one of the two existing official frameworks for measuring tourism. The other is the International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics. Both were developed and proposed to UNSC by UNWTO. A similar process is planned for MST.

Best Practices for Improving Hotel Income even in Peak Season

Each hotel has a peak part of the season they look forward to. During this time, the bigger part of their yearly revenue is made. Most hotels these days strive to increase the number of direct bookings during the peak period. This is their most direct approach to increasing their overall revenue.

We are here to talk about a few practical things hoteliers can do to maximize their booking and raise occupancy to previously unseen levels. The global hotel industry was estimated to have made around 550 billion US dollars in 2016.

Still, these numbers are growing as global spending power increases and lifestyle priorities for people change.

Keeping up with industry growth isn’t easy but it can be done if hotels manage to keep up with their season peak.

1. Online Reviews

These days, there is less and less work for travel agencies as the modern, tech-savvy traveler takes care of most things him/herself. Modern tourists want to create their own experience and are not afraid to do hard research to make it happen.

When it comes to hotels they tend to rely more on the personal experience of people who already visited the hotel than advertisement, brand story and so on. Because of this, they will usually check various review sites, any existing testimonials, blogs or even personal videos and photos of other people who stayed at a particular hotel.

The only way to ensure great online reviews is to be active in the online environment. Keeping online reviews positive and ratings close to five stars (nobody gets a perfect score in the long term) requires a lot of work and genuine care for the experience your visitors have.

2. IT Improvement

IT has become a big factor in hospitality industry but most hotels are stills struggling to implement all the technology needed to manage multiple online channels they aim to cover. Their work can be manual and repetitive without necessary automation and, therefore, prone to mistakes, issues with systems that don’t integrate well with each other.

Pinpointing the right software solutions and making a timely investment before the peak season starts can help identify and convert more leads, raising revenue.

A cloud based hotel management software might be a perfect solution to help hotel staff keep up with booking coming in from different channels (OTAs, Brand Website, Google Hotel Ads). The goal is to unify all data and communication so as to avoid booking overlaps, vacancy issues and so on.

Picking the right online hotel software is by no means an easy feat but once you find something that fits things get a lot easier.

3. Pricing

While peak seasons don’t fit within the same time span for all hotels, each hotel is facing fierce competition regardless of this.

Most customer choices are oriented around the price they need to pay to get a certain level of accommodation quality. They will usually compare price of more than a few hotels that provide a similar quality of service and go for the most affordable one.

Hotel revenue management is a big factor here. This part of management predicts consumer behavior, optimizes availability and prices to attract as many customers as possible. Their goal is to reduce the amount of time rooms remain vacant but also to keep prices competitive.

4. Direct Booking Incentivization

We’ve already mentioned that direct booking is the most desirable booking outcome. The most direct way to improve the number of direct bookings is to offer customer benefits for doing this.

This can be achieved through discounts on various things (food, beverages, discounts on future reservations, etc), complimentary things (dinners, spa treatments, experiences, etc.) or some other benefit that suits your business model.

Through these incentives you are not only reaching your goal of raising the number of direct bookings, you are also improving customer loyalty.

Summary

These are by no means all the strategies you can use to optimize peak season revenue. Still, these four things will help you both reach new potential leads, manage them properly, optimize your vacancy/occupancy ratio and improve your brands image.

I hope you have a lucrative season!

UNWTO World Tourism Barometer October 2018 - International Tourism Maintains Strong Momentum

Madrid, Spain, 10 October 2018 – According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)’s latest barometer, international tourist arrivals grew 6% in the first six months of 2018 after a record year of growth in 2017.

All world regions enjoyed robust growth in tourist arrivals in January-June 2018. The increase was fuelled by strong demand from major source markets, supported by an upswing in the global economy. It comes after record year-round growth of 7% in 2017.

“Today’s release of international tourism data for the first half of 2018 serves as further proof of the sector’s resilience and relentless growth trajectory. We continue to work with our many partners to translate this growth into better jobs, more benefits to societies, and more opportunities for sustainable livelihoods and destinations”, said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili.

By region, Europe and Asia and the Pacific led growth with a 7% increase in arrivals each. Southern Mediterranean Europe and South-East Asia had the strongest results in these regions, both welcoming 9% more international tourists.

The Middle East and Africa also recorded sound results with arrivals growing at 5% and 4%, respectively, according to still-limited information available for destinations in these regions. The Americas saw 3% growth in arrivals over the six-month period, driven by South America (+7%) and North America (+5%). The United States continued to fuel much growth in the region and beyond.

On the demand side, France, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation all reported double-digit increases in outbound spending in Europe. India and the Republic of Korea drove growth in Asia and the Pacific, while the world’s top source market China reported similar spending as in the same period last year.

Looking ahead

The first half of the year accounts for about 45% of annual international tourist arrivals. The second half represents 55% as it is three days longer and includes the Northern Hemisphere high-season months of July and August.

Against a strong first semester, growth prospects for the remainder of 2018 remain positive overall, though at a slower pace, according to the latest UNWTO Confidence Index survey. The Index value for May-August and expectations for September-December are somewhat lower than the Index value for January-April.

International Tourism 2017 - Market share by region of tourist arrivals and tourism receipts

International Tourism Arrivals

News release - International Tourism Maintains Strong Momentum Comunicado de prensa - El turismo internacional mantiene un fuerte impulso en 2018 Communiqué de presse - La croissance du tourisme international reste vigoureuse Excerpt

Useful links:

UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, October 2018 Edition (Excerpt)

UNWTO World Tourism Barometer Homepage

UNWTO World Tourism Highlights

Infographics

Contacts:

UNWTO Communications Department

Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218 / comm@unwto.org

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Flickr.

A letter about Fraud Law Suit from TripAdvisor CEO

I'm writing to update you on a landmark development in our continued fight against review fraud, and to let you know how you can help. 

Recently, in one of the first legal cases of its kind, the owner of an illegal business that was selling fake reviews in Italy was sentenced to nine months in prison and fined approximately 8,000 Euros in costs and damages.

Paid review fraud is a violation of the law in many countries, but this is one of the first cases resulting in a criminal conviction. We're proud to have supported the prosecution of this illegal business by sharing evidence from our in-house fraud team, and through support from our Italian legal counsel.
Protecting our community from fraud is a fundamental part of everything we stand for at TripAdvisor. As a company we're fully invested, with advanced tracking technology and a dedicated team of investigators working tirelessly to catch paid review companies and keep them from operating on our site. 

But we can't do it alone – and I want to thank you, our business community, for playing such a vital role in our ongoing fight against paid review fraud. You've kept your eyes open, you've reported suspicious activity – and since 2015, our fraud investigations have stopped the activities of more than 60 paid review companies worldwide with your help. 

This is an issue we all face as an industry, and we can do even more together. If you're contacted by a paid review company, please do not engage with them – instead share their information with our Content Integrity team directly at paidreviews@tripadvisor.com. All reports made will be investigated, and every piece of information, no matter how minor, can help.

In the meantime, you can learn more about the Italian fraud investigation – as well as how we moderate reviews and protect our content – here.

In this fight against paid review fraud, we're beyond grateful to have partners like you. Thanks again for all of your help – and here's to more wins like this one! 

Kind regards,

Steve Kaufer
CEO, TripAdvisor

8 Hotel Marketing Trends for 2018

It’s that time of year again and business planning is in full swing here at THAT Agency. Every year around this time we like to take a step back, take inventory of what we’ve learned, and identify trends for the upcoming year. So what trends can we expect to see in the hospitality industry for 2018? The trends for 2017 lived up to the hype, but here’s what’s changed and what you can expect to encounter as the calendar flips yet again.

MOBILE IS A NECESSITY

Just as we saw in 2017, guests are turning to their mobile devices to research the specifics on hotels and other specifics for their travels. Interestingly enough, Google reports that people are researching more on mobile, but turning to a desktop to actually book their stay. Even though 90% of bookings occur on desktop, showing up during the research process will keep you as an option when they switch devices.

This trend goes past the booking process as well. When guests arrive at their destination, they’re turning to their mobile devices to find activities to do around town. In fact, 85% of leisure travelers decide on activities only after they’ve arrived at their destination.

Empower your guests to have a great experience while they’re in town by sending them updates about what’s happening around town during their stay. For instance, a good morning email with a highlight of local attractions and events can create a better experience for your guests.

8 Hotel Marketing Trends for 2018