8/11/2010
The travel industry has survived the high unemployment, terrorism scares and economic uncertainty that came along with the global recession due to its growing online sector. Online travel booking showed surprising resilience through all of these obstacles and will continue to grow to an even larger percentage of the travel market in the recovering economy. Travelers are not only booking their flights, hotels and guided tours on the Internet, but they rely on the Internet to do the research that feeds their decision-making. In order to keep up with the shift, media relations specialists are also turning to internet public relations as their marketing outlet.
The shift to online travel planning creates an increasingly competitive market for firms in all corners of the travel industry. There are several key points that will distinguish the successful and the unsuccessful firms on this new playing field. Focusing on value and mobile access of information are two things for the up-to-date media relations specialist to focus on.
Travel PR firms, like Abelow PR, are turning to internet public relations as their outlet for publicity. With consumers spending their time online planning and booking their trips, they are now using websites rather than books and magazines to find the perfect destination and the best deals. After booking their flights on websites like Orbitz.com, or Expedia.com, they will navigate to websites like Forbes Traveler, or NY Times’ travel website, in order to find the right hotel and plan out their days on vacation. Having strong relations with these trusted travel websites will enable a PR firm to propel their clients to the top of the industry.
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are also becoming players in the industry. With so many people spending so much of their time on these sites, whether on their desktop computer or on their mobile phone, having advertisements and information on these sites will expand publicity to levels unavailable in the physical world. Maintaining a presence on these sites is important for clientele of a travel pr agency, and is a defining difference between successful and unsuccessful firms in the age of the Internet.
