TIME has chosen “You” as the Person of the Year for ‘06 validating the power of the Internet user and social networking online as a popular trend. Gavin Tachibana writes on Google’s social networking site, Orkut: “Everyone can create a piece of media (print, Web, or video) that can be seen by anyone in the Internet-capable world. You and I are just a click away from seeing how we survive on opposite ends of the earth, of communicating the events that matter to the core of our being and of the way we live.” The way we live includes, among other choices, travel.
With the designation of “You” as the Person of the Year, hospitality leaders are once more confronted with the redirection of their industry into its user base: the customer. Visionary literates of finance, technology and development have seized the moment to specialize in the debut of social networking sites that embrace the world of travel. While MySpace.com is all the rage among the younger set but doesn’t have a dedicated travel channel within its structure, Friendster, Bebo and Lindekln are other internationally-recognized social networking/professional sites which currently have not incorporated the world of tourism within their featured services whether free or premium.
Social networking advertising is expected to top $1.8 billion by 2010. Juston Parker, President/CEO of Parker Hospitality and Executive Vice President of Gusto.com comments: “Social networking is not new. From the beginning of recorded history, man has left his mark on cave walls to share with others the best places for hunting, food, and other needs.” Granted, social networking enables people today to connect with one another at the stroke of a keyboard; however, issues of privacy, user control and authentication are paramount. Truste was conceived to address privacy issues, and Wayn.com (“Where Are You Now”) enlists Truste’s technology for its global-branded travel site tapped by international visitors principally 18-25 but strong in the 35-45 age bracket.
Popular in the U.K., Wayn.com recent $11 million investment will permit the site to expand international offices, fund new revenue streams, improve IT, develop a tailored trip planner and enhance its media content. Brent Hoberman cites Wayn.com’s “massive growth potential” as the inspiration behind the Series A funding. Unlike other free social networking sites, Wayn.com offers full membership services for a fee. 7 million users from 220 countries have profiles, upload photos and use its world map to unite with “travelers around the world”.
Gusto.com and Wayn.com’s user profiles enable members to contact one another directly, link to popular web sites, and share in their own personal networks of communications re: travel preferences. Gusto.com is singular in providing a service to link members directly back to suppliers’ sites. No third-party interaction occurs; no advertising or editorial slant interferes with the suppliers’ links. Gusto.com exists to celebrate, discover and permit members to explore the “travel playground”. Gusto’s subscriber base soared with the introduction of the The Gusto! Grabber feature in October. The Grabber is useful in planning itineraries, checking out recommendations, sharing tidbits with family and friends.
What started at Gusto.com is multiplied by the tried and true word of mouth recommendation. Juston Parker referenced the findings of Forester Research at HSMAI’s recent meeting in Florida: “Only 6% of people trust mainstream marketing. Greater than 50% prefer findings of friends, family or even a complete stranger!” Jupiter Research has verified that social networking users primarily are interested in venues to communicate with existing friends, thereby validating the fact that dating tied for one of the least popular site activities. Dana Boyd, online researcher at UC Berkeley, references young adult peer group pressure as the motivation behind the phenomenal growth of social networking sites. That original explosion has been tempered with the public’s current interest to share their profiles online with the international community. The college community, in particular, has unified under the debut of Facebook. This website now has over 13 million registered users across over 40,000 regional, work, college and high school networks. According to comScore, Facebook is the seventh-most trafficked site on the web and is the number one photo-sharing site.
YouTube has already grown to serve more than 100 million video views per day and is receiving more than 65,000 video uploads daily. Its user base is 18-49, spanning all geographies. With such a large and diverse user base, YouTube offers something for everyone. Primarily a video uploading site, YouTube offers a travel channel for broadcast of private or public videos. Supported by advertising, YouTube is a free service accessed by online registration and is in the midst of enhancing its features since it’s quickly grown into an entertainment destination with people watching more than 100 million videos daily.
What are the implications for the hospitality industry purveyor?
First, accept the reality of the power of the consumer to control the selection and purchase of all travel industry products.
Second, in the words of Joseph Buhler of The New York Times: accept, embrace, innovate, join. Those who do not take this position will probably not survive!
Third, become acquainted with the process; don’t defer management, knowledge and participation solely to the IT staff. A lexicon of basic navigational terminology follows:
• Blog: web log, a free-form area where members write about a destination. Significant for the quality and strength of content. Valued for statement of opinion.
• Podcast: principally for users to generate information in mini ipod format for home user or video blog. Some Gusto.com already have technology to receive these; Gusto.com will initiate within a 30-day format as a member feature.
• Social Networking: a term bantered about frequently today, with some negative connotations due to abuses on sites such as MySpace.com but identifying peoples’
ability to quickly communication with family, friends, the community or the larger social network to share their plans and dreams of travel, for example. Gusto.com provides this opportunity for members within a background of choice and privacy re: control of access. This interactive process of the online travel community will continue to grow as the consumer’s power of communicating conditions the offering of the travel product.
• RSS feed: (really simple syndication) for anything changed or updated on a frequent basis providing the opportunity for direct upload to the consumer’s home page rather than necessitating the user to research varied web sites.
• C2C: (consumer to consumer) extension of user information; user-generated content. Web content is no longer publisher directed but now consumer directed.
• Travel 2.0: interactive management of technological tools by the consumer for the when, where, why and how of the travel experience. According to PhoCusWright, technology is easy; management of it by the consumer has change the face and usage of the Internet to render the travel product a consumer-managed decision rather than a supplier-managed decision.
Although industry studies verify that the average family travels twice per year, that monetized expense is one aspect of the broader picture: dreaming, planning and sharing opinions about the potential destination.
“There is no turning back now. You are the person of the year. As our lives become less private, may we hope that the new Web leads to greater responsibility and better lives for us all.,”
concludes writer/filmmaker, Gavin Tachibana.
