Content Marketing and Tourism: The power of other travelers experience

Web 2.0 has empowered users to generate content, and they have not wanted to miss the opportunity to take advantage of it, they have not slowed down in becoming an active audience, partly motivated by the fact that human beings feel the need to relate.

The tourism sector is especially sensitive in this sense, when you are thinking of planning a trip, you comment with your friends, who are happy to tell you their experiences and recommend places to go, which hotels to stay in and of course, where to eat. Instinctively you follow their comments and indications, they influence your final decision.

When you return from your trip, it is you who get excited sharing with others your experiences right and left, teaching the thousands of photos you have done … acknowledge it, you like it, you enjoy transmitting everything you have lived in that place, you want everything The world finds out you’ve been there. Well, if you add to this that you have social networks at your disposal to reach more people, then you dedicate yourself to filling the network with your comments.

Social networks in this case are just a tool that allows you the possibility of extending the reach of your message to the entire virtual community, and with it its influence. From the point of view of content marketing we ask ourselves: what consequences do these comments have on our audience that are poured into the web every day? If they are positive opinions, to what extent can they favor the place, hotel or restaurant they mention? And if they are negative, will they affect my online reputation? It is a very tricky subject that must be taken into account, given that:

The users search the tourism blogs and social networks related to the sector their source of inspiration. They are the “2.0 friends”, whose lived experiences will be taken into account when planning a trip
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The opinions of consumers have a high reliability index. Indeed, the comments of users influence, and much; the tourism sector is especially sensitive to this type of content, since the user does not have prior experience on the product, will follow the indications of their environment, considers the comments of their peers as reliable sources.

Favorable opinions exponentially increase the likelihood of purchase, create a predisposition of the user to hire the service. According to Mariano Pérez Claver, president of the NH Hoteles hotel chain, “customers are willing to pay almost 40% more for products with positive comments in the opinion portals.”

Negative criticism has a devastating effect on the online reputation of the company they fall back on, the consequences can be dire.

How to act?

First, perform an analysis of your online reputation, crawl the network thoroughly until you find everything related to your brand. Rate it based on the valuation given to your service and the scope that that comment may have, it is not the same if you are in Tripadvisor that in the touristic portal of Villaseca de ve you to know where.

After making an objective assessment of the situation, draw up a plan to counteract the negative effects of the existing comments and, more important if possible, encourage the proliferation of positive comments in favor of our brand. For this, there are multiple options, a good method is to use digital word of mouth; What content marketing strategy do you follow for your brand? What is the general assessment of your users towards your service? Have you found it difficult to counteract the negative comments?