An independent travel agency has set up four fan club pages on Facebook that allow suppliers to load up their own offers in a bid to attract new business.
Travel Designers in Clapham, London, a member of the Global Travel Group, has launched a main fan club page for its business, as well as separate clubs for the Caribbean, Mauritius, and Club Med Ski product.
Facebook users who sign up as fans to the page are then alerted to the offers, which are updated every day. They can then contact Travel Designers for more information and to make a booking.
Managing director Nick McKay said: “There are offers on there and press releases. It also shows what we’re doing and encourages people to make comments. I’ve already had a booking from it, and it makes me think about which new offers to put up each day.”
Already the main Travel Designers page has 50 fan members within a fortnight of launch.
Key hotel partners have been given administration rights to load up offers, pictures and videos on the relevant Facebook pages.
To encourage interaction with fan members, the agency is posing questions on favourite resorts on the pages.
Already other agents, such as Sutton Travel in Birmingham and The Co-operative Travel, are starting to embrace social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook.