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Very few human activities are as fascinating as travelling. Perhaps this is the reason why travels have soon conquered the Net. And they have been among the pioneers which landed to the Web 2.0. On the Internet, travelers comment and vote tourist destinations, facilities and service providers. They share images, videos, and contents. They create real schools of opinions capable of influencing markets: it is called “travel 2.0”.
And Bit 2012, which is now deeply renewed in line with the new motto: New Bit, New Business, is increasing its presence on the social media. Both the Bit – Borsa Internazionale del Turismo Facebook page and the @bitmilano Twitter account – in particular this year’s hashtag, #bit2012 – are getting more and more popular; the LinkedIN group devoted to tourism professionals was activated some days ago.
Data, information, curiosities, and research on tourism coming from all over the world: Bit 2012 constantly updates its Facebook page and Twitter account, in order to fully showcase exhibitors’ new products.
“The attention given to social networking and cutting-edge technologies for the tourism industry in general" says Marco Serioli, Exhibitions Division Director at Fiera Milano "is part of the DNA of Bit, and we have always devoted much space to the most interesting proposals and trends. The 2012 exhibition mirrors an era of strong development, as for contents and strategy, which is increasingly aimed at supporting business; and such attention is further strengthened. A direct presence which is in line with the growing value of social media considered as tools to identify new opportunities and market segments”.
According to a survey promoted by Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, although investments are still lower than those made towards more traditional promotion channels, the tourism industry is giving increased attention to social media: 80% of the respondents said that they had organized at least one campaign via Twitter. According to the survey results, the most used social media were Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIN (in result order).
What about the new trends? Wikis, i.e. “shared encyclopedias” such as Wikitravel, are becoming more and more popular. And, the future of the tourism industry is of course mobile and geo-localized. Computer users can share their travel experiences with the rest of the world by localizing on a map their contents – including videos – related to their travel destinations.
Even more interesting is the potential of new generation mobile phones. Especially in Italy where, according to a recent study by Ipsos MediaCT, there are 20 million smartphones, i.e. +52% compared to 2010. Most importantly, Internet searches performed on a mobile device have increased by 224%; while 23% of the respondents has made at least one purchase via mobile phone. These data bring us closer to far more “technological” markets such as the U.S.A. (29%), the U.K. and Germany (both 28%). Of particular relevance for the tourism industry is the fact that 78% of the respondents perform local searches at least once a month, i.e. searches referring to the place they are staying in that very moment, by localizing it through the position of the mobile phone.
The Augmented Reality (AR) technology looks very promising. It allows to superimpose different information levels (virtual elements, multimedia contents, geo-localized data, information gathered on the Net) to the real scene we are looking at, by framing it with our smartphone: e.g. information about the historic building or monument we are admiring, our smartphones become true real-time interacting guides.
The Foursquare or Gowalla geo social networks, which allow to perform searches about the attractions of the place where one is located (public places, museums, restaurants, hotels, etc.) are witnessing a rapid growth.
Bit 2012, which can be found on all major social networks and on YouTube, awaits you at fieramilano in Rho (Milan) from Tuesday 16th through Sunday 19th February 2012.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
