Social networks are one of the common tools of online marketing in tourism.

World statistics indicate the following:

About 30% of the travel budget of tourism organizations is on Facebook and Instagram.

55% of marketers plan to increase their advertising budget on social networks

Up to 30% of marketers consider social networks effective for working with uninformed audience, i.e., for attracting new customers.

Read more about the trends in advertising of tourism organizations in social networks here: https://www.sojern.com/blog/facebook-instagram-travel-advertising-report-2019/

Why social networks are effective means of advertising tourism and related industries?

1. Communication in social networks is becoming standard for people. Almost everyone has accounts in various social networks, so maintaining pages and advertising in social networks are becoming very promising from the point of view of delivering information about your business. It is based on a simple principle: be where your customers are.
2. It is very promising for the tourism industry, because the potential customer is distant and decides to purchase or book something based on the opinions of other people, as well as on the experience of people who have already made a purchase. If there are positive reviews and comments on the business page at social network, of course, this makes the purchase more likely. If loyal subscribers who are interested and react to your publications are gathered on the page, then they will be the first to see all your offers and, accordingly, it is easiest to turn them from readers into buyers.
3. Many travelers set travel goals to tell their friends. The best way is social networks. There is even Instatourism, when tourist organizations specially select picturesque places where tourists can take wonderful photos and share them on social networks. The more people see these photos, the higher chance that someone else will want to visit this place, get this tour, settle in this hotel or eat in this restaurant.
4. Perhaps you should not be limited only to traditional social networks, and choose the advertising platform based on the numbers and presence of your target audience in a particular social network. For example, for Russian-speaking tourists, in addition to Facebook and Instagram, Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte are very popular, for the American – Pinterest. Moreover, the well-known Tripadvisor also becomes a semblance of a social network with its own feed and list of friends.
5. Advertising services of social networks are constantly being improved and allow you to configure targeted advertising very accurately – to show ads only to those who are interested. This is very important for optimizing the advertising budget, however, we should note that targeted advertising should be done after careful preparation. The advertising offices of all social networks have detailed guidelines for working with advertising and before, you should carefully study the rules and recommendations.

Links to textbooks and guides on advertising in social networks:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/business/

Instagram https://business.instagram.com/

Pinterest https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/topics/advertise-on-pinterest

In this lesson we tried to summarize the arguments and facts about social networks in tourism, however, if you did not find the answers – please write to us. We will definitely consider them in the next lessons.