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Tourism and Hospitality Industry: How to Retain Loyal Customers amidst Competition

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

According to the latest customer loyalty report, the tourism and hospitality industry is going through a better phase in comparison to the recession phase that was intense just a year back. However, two factors are exerting pressure on the hospitality industry, and these are:

1. Increased competition,                            and                                        2. Retaining loyal customers

Increased competition

As in any sector, increased number of players is creating increased competition among various segments of tourism and hospitality industry. To gain upper hand in the competition, players are offering attractive schemes and prices to the customers. This has opened various options for the customers and they are indeed trying to make the best of the money they spend. This is causing attrition of the loyal customers and they are willing to shift from old service providers to the new ones who are providing better options at the same or even less prices. The medium and small players may have to cut down on its profits in order to get the chunk of customers.

Retaining loyal customers

Increased competition has had its effect on the retention of old and loyal customers of hotel and tourism industry. It has become difficult for the medium and small operators to retain old customers. It is more difficult for them as their brand promotion and advertising budgets are often restricted and these will not guarantee effective return on investments. Though, retaining loyal customers require less effort than fetching new customers, it is equally easy to lose old customers if no proper strategies are implemented in this regard.

The solution is right here

Internet marketing is the solution that will address both of the problems, increased competition and retaining loyalty. Aggressive internet marketing strategies run with the help of experts can take the client ahead of other competitors.

Emails and newsletters are the best cost effective options to keep in touch with the old customers and keep them informed about various offers and schemes run by the client. These are also effective in reaching prospective clients and attracting them with the offers.

Internet is fast being utilized by the tourists as a medium to seek more information even before stepping out of the house. Prominent presence on the net by internet marketing and reaching out to the customers by newsletters is the solution.

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Posted in Business over Web, Digital Advertising, Internet marketing | No Comments »

Interactive Travel Consulting: Is Tourism Industry Ready For It?

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Travelers have the full globe open for exploration. Alaska to Australia, Siberia to Sri Lanka… A traveler, who rides on his hunch and has wanderlust, is unstoppable. A large number of travelers do not plan their itinerary and stroll down to some of the most unconventional places.

This is the genre of tourist who may need consulting at any given time and at unusual places. And here is where the interactive travel counseling takes birth. Internet and mobiles are the two powerful and effective medium that can be a handy tool for interactive travel consulting.

Travel and tourism service sector still need to evolve in this aspect of tourism. Most of the agencies and tour operators often end up in drawing the tour schedule and arranging for stay and food. However, actual help may be needed in dire straits when no other source of information and guidance is available.

  • Travel and tourism sector must consider setting up toll free numbers that can be reached from anywhere in the world and at any time irrespective of the time and zone a tourist is in. Providing around the clock direct contact with the agency from where the tourist started, that too in his / her native language will ease many troubles of the tourist roaming thousands of miles away.
  • Making customized tourist plans and information available for internet access; and / or providing it on any portable medium like CDs and flash drives shall be very handy. Tourists can inform the agency in advance about their likely area of operation and seek maximum information about the same.

  • Tourism must also collect the tourists who are willing to share their travelling experiences. Their information about the common problems faced at various areas they have recently visited may prove to be very useful interactive travel consulting source. Availability of contact numbers of previous visitors to the places where a tourist is planning to visit may be useful in seeking information in the need of the hour.
  • Tour operators must also plan to setup consultation centers for the incoming tourists. Locals who had visited various places previously shall be made available to guide foreign tourists in solving problems and providing crucial information that common tour operators fail to give.

As more and more tourists are willing to trade the unbeaten path, interactive travel consulting is what is going to help them immensely. Tourism industry must gear up to for efficient interactive tourism consulting in near future.

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Travel and Tourism Industry: Increasing Popularity of Niche Tourism Concepts

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Travel and tourism industry cannot remain unaffected by the human desire for change and novelty. The quest for newness is visible in every sphere of businesses, including production to packaging and promotion. Competition to outdo the other compels businesses to evolve and endeavor for something different, something better than what the competitors are doing.

Travel and tourism industry is no exception. It has judged human liking for unusual and unexplored, and has introduced many niche tourism concepts within the last few years. Niche tourism is growing as the fastest sector within the travel and tourism industry. Common travelers are looking for variety of niche tourism concepts as big cities, museums, beaches, hotels, et al are done to death and people are looking for travel and tourism that will not only relax them but also amuse their minds.

Home-stays: This concept is fast catching up to cater to the tourists who want to stay away from the hustle-bustle of the big hotels and spend an innocuous stay. Home-stays offer all the comforts of a hotel and allow you to be yourself without being bothered with the artificial mannerism. Moreover you get the real feel of the culture of the place you visit.

Camping: Hitherto, camping was the favorite of trekkers and mountaineers. Now it has donned a new avatar to provide complete comfort even for a family stay. Family camping at the mountain peaks and in deep jungles is turning out to be a perfect way to get you lost, for the better.

Sports tourism: This existed since quite a long time; however now it is complete with travel, stay and ticket package with additional tit-bits thrown in. It has done away with sports fans’ separate worries for arranging tours, compromising with stay and then fighting for tickets.

Agricultural tourism: Modern city life has left us deprived of real rural feel and understanding about how the food we eat is produced. To understand the agrarian and rural life on which the altar of modernism is erected, more people are exploring how a rural and agricultural life is.

Ancestry tourism: Global cultural conundrum has taken us away from our birthplace and culture. However, the urge to explore our roots lie dormant within us. Ancestral tourism helps us to explore our origins and get up-close with our own culture.

Hobby tourism: No hobby is localized. There is thread running underneath that connects you to other hobby-mates and places that will enrich you with deep understanding about your hobby. Tourism industry is glad to meet your needs.

Creating a craze

The industry is getting flooded with many innovative ideas to instigate tourists to experience what they wished for till now. These niche concepts are catching the fancy of tourists who travel with family and average budget. They prefer to let loose during the vacations instead of falling into the systematic stay at hotels. They are not willing to let the artificial facades of hospitality spoil their fun.

Most of these concepts are run by small or medium sized tour operators. The increasing popularity of niche tourism is projected to cause a dent in the earnings from leisure travelers of major operators. Either the big operators will have to divert efforts towards niche tourism or restricted themselves to business tourism.

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Posted in CopperBridge Corridor!, Internet marketing | No Comments »

Facebook going for the ‘Top Kill’

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Wardrobe malfunction is always a great PR tactic and let’s not call it a malfunction anymore – its a PRFunction. So, does the ‘Quit Facebook  day’ really bothers the Zuckerbergs? If you have the statistics in front of you, you would be surprised by the silent mileage extracted by FB. The overnight anti-FB count read at 26521.  Now if you want to count the kill after this ‘Quit facebook movement’, you can do that at your own risk – particularly if you are in the MySpace camp. The wardrobe malfunction does pay, even if you are the president.

A couple of things went right for Facebook at the same time – First it got a much needed facelift – Second it was splashed all across the TV channels that it was banned Pakistan and Bangladesh for hurting the national sentiments – Now that’s called the perfect recipe for a ‘Top kill’ PR campaign. Google would pay billions to be in FB’s shoes at this time…

Remember Starbucks – the maverick marketing team that changed the way cappuccino cups can be used as billboards… Lets get a glimpse of Starbuck-facebook tango –

So, now you know why the book has a new face…Its the new billboard. If Coffee can be sold here, then why not Ski rentals? Take a look for yourself…That’s economics for you and we know that it works, no matter how many people are after your ass…

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Posted in Business over Web, Internet marketing, Product promotion, Trends! | No Comments »

Green Conference: A Must For Responsible Business

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Conferences are an imperative part for effective facilitation of business. Effectively conveying and discussing KRAs, targets, methodology, plans, etc calls for a conference. These provide a perfect platform for exchange of ideas, brain storming and decision making.

Adopting means other than conferences has many disadvantages like messages getting lost in transition, distortions in understanding motives, failure in direct feedback collection, etc. Above all, establishing contact individually with widely spread team members can become a cumbersome process. Conferences overcome all these disadvantages and saves time and energy by allowance of addressing concentrated congregation at one time.

Though business houses are preferring webinars and online conferences, the utility and importance of traditional conferences is not yet ruled out. However, with environmental awareness and corporate social responsibility coming to a mainstay, adoption of green conferences that are a saver on carbon footprint is the need of the hour and earth.

How to design a green conference?

  • Paperless invitations: Gone are the days of printed invitations. Printouts are finding their place in the pages of history. Lightening fast emails, newsletters and SMS are a norm. They save paper, consume less energy and utilize already existing mediums to travel across, thereby leaving no carbon footprints of their own.
  • Grouped gatherings: Instead of arranging a big conference at a place that demands delegates to travel all across; regrouping and arranging three to four regional conferences will save on carbon footprint in terms of fossil fuel consumption per head.
  • On site accommodation: If the conference period is long enough to require delegates to stay overnight or for a couple of days; then arrange accommodation as close as possible to the conference venue to avoid travelling by gas guzzling vehicles. Otherwise, arrange for mass transports like buses to covey to the venue.
  • Open venue: Conferences held outdoors in a daytime will do away with artificial illumination and ventilation, and incur minimal electricity consumption. In case indoors are a must, look out for a venue that has plenty of windows or glass panels to allow for natural light and ventilation.
  • Electronic material: Kill your urge to distribute printed booklets, leaflets, brochures, etc. Send them via email in advance or after the event. Do not distribute CDs either. They contribute to e-waste after loading onto PCs.
  • Platter matter: How about offering altogether vegan menu with organic ingredients cooked with bio-fuels? It may not please your guests but certainly will please our planet.
  • Don’t stick to plastic: Your conference should be a no plastic zone. Don’t supply water in plastic bottles, eatables wrapped in plastic or use-and-throw plastic plates. If you must, then ensure that these land up in recycle bin.

It’s the matter of getting started with the first conference. Initiate delegates to propose green ideas and soon it will be a norm greener than expected.

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Posted in CopperBridge Corridor!, Trends! | No Comments »

Can You Go To Hell For Unethical Affiliate Marketing?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

You have been a perfect husband, a good father and a decent provider for your family. In real life you have helped people, but still when you die, you are sent directly to hell. You ask God why? And he shows you the extent of damage and deaths that were done through your affiliate marketing.


Affiliate marketing is a premier automated internet business that is carried out by many reputed bloggers and reviewers. But most of the times, when people venture into affiliate marketing; they conveniently tend to ignore the ethics that is required to support it.

Before venturing into affiliate marketing there is a set of questions that you need to ask yourself.

  • Do the people, who on your trust would click on the link, would genuinely receive value to their money?
  • Do you know the depth of the product? Have you tested the product on yourself?
  • Would you give the suggestive medicine that you are marketing to your own children/family?
  • Would you feel happy seeing your testimony on the landing page?
  • Are you really sure of the product? Is there is any chance of it being harmful or a scam?

If any of the above questions represent a “no”, than you are doing unethical affiliate marketing. Ethics and business are cohesive factors for achieving success levels. If you have attained success due to unethical affiliate marketing, you would eventually fail; primarily due to two reasons, karma and loss of your brand name. The entire platform of trade is executed on the internet on just one word, and i.e. “trust”. If people who have been following you on your blogs and have been crediting your website as a good piece of work, then you are eventually demeaning yourself by being associated with unethical marketing.

Medicines are one of the prime examples that are being used in affiliate marketing in an unethical way. Drugs that have more side effects than curing the patient are being marketed aggressing by respected bloggers.  These drugs play with the consumer emotionally by promising them instant weight loss or overnight acne cures. Some drugs cause adverse side effects like seizures, nausea and loss of consciousness and in some cases even deaths.

People have debated that if every sales person would try the product they sell, than there would be no salespersons. Well if their assumption is true that there should be official salespersons for guns and dope as well. There is no harm in affiliate marketing as long as you are ethically comfortable with the product. You would not like to get associated with murderers and scam artists in real life, than why affiliate yourself to such products online. Work ethically for your affiliate marketing, and you will have a sure shot success as your product would be genuine and would definitely help your consumer, thus increasing your sales and reputation.

In the end I can only tell this “Ensure ethical marketing and save yourself from going to hell.”

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Buck Up B2B Marketers!

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Digital technology and social media has opened up the market scenarios and have enabled marketers to succeed at high levels. On one front where the B2C marketers are achieving never attained success levels; on the other, B2B marketers are failing to optimize online efforts.

When a survey was taken for researching on B2B success, it was analyzed that 50% of them never blogged. Social media like Twitter and Facebook was not touched by 42%, and about 25% did not utilize Linkedln. Many of these B2B marketers did use of Adwords and other marketing and SEO related resources.

B2B marketers are somehow loosing the ploy of optimizing the web for generation of leads and enhancing their presence for prospective clients. The reason why most B2B marketers are struggling to find success is because of their one track ideology of revenue generation. 40% of B2B marketers have indicated generating sales opportunities as a major strategy, while 39% of survey participants were keen on traditional lead generation. Somehow B2B marketers are comparing their success with B2C marketers but are failing to gain the right momentum in online marketing.

It has been evaluated that B2B marketers are encountering problems while incorporating change in online marketing strategies. The difference between successful B2B marketers and their failing compatriot is the amount of involvement in implementation. In the survey the failing patterns of B2B marketers were evaluated and it was analyzed that 41% of B2B marketers felt that their need ended on generation of leads. Over 58% of B2B marketers met their sales team just only once during a month. Also, surprisingly there was 8% segmented B2B marketers who never met their online sales teams yet expected results.

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Facebook Vs Google Advertisements: Which is apt for your business?

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Advertising on Facebook seem to be catching attention of internet marketers. Some predict it to give a real tough competition to Google’s advertisings. A lot more companies are reserving a part of their budget for Facebook ads. This trend has significantly started showing up ever since Microsoft announced its $240 million investment in Facebook.

Already there are many businesses who are trying to engage their consumers and potential customers by setting up fan pages on Facebook. The advertising on Facebook seems to be the next new big ‘IN’ thing.

But honestly are Facebook advertisements really worth all the hype they have created?
Here you can find both positive and negative arguments and enough data to support both the views. So instead of condemning one or the other, the best approach for a business would be to use both for targeting different specifics.

When to use Google and when to use Facebook advertisements?
If click-through is really important to your website, and you can see that more people are likely to reach your site by search engines or your business belongs to a certain niche, going for a Google ad campaign would be a better option. Facebook advertisements have not been successful for pulling in the traffic as yet. Also, many people have observed the irrelevancy factor in the ad placing of Facebook e.g. an advertisement to date singles in an area was shown on many married peoples profiles. This is sheer waste of the advertising money.

The USP of Facebook advertisements is the idea of “Engagement ads”. This means that the advertisement here is not just for display and getting clicks. These ads will allow the people to make comments, become a fan of the company’s fan page and also see how many from the friends list made comments on the page etc. The feature of thumbs up and thumbs down will also be available.

According to Facebook these advertisements will be better targeted e.g. a person whose status message mentions something about a burger may find ad of a local eatery selling pizzas and burgers. So this will be like a widget and help you collect business intelligence.

Traditionally the advertisements on social media site have had poor click-through rate but a better conversion ratio. So businesses should carefully strategize their goals and seek out a campaign that best serves to fulfill it.

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Posted in Business over Web, Digital Advertising, Googling | No Comments »