The power of social media cannot be ignored by agents or cruise lines – not only as a way of communicating with customers, but also as a potential source of revenue, the UK Cruise Convention was told.
Norwegian Cruise Line global sales and passenger services executive vice-president Andy Stuart told delegates on Columbus Day that more commerce is being conducted via the medium with at least one cruise company having a booking engine on Facebook.
Outlining his own and NCL’s use of sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Stuart declined to be drawn into disclosing how much income his company generates through online social media.
“It’s in every possible conversation we have but it’s hard to put a dollar figure on the return,” he said, confirming only that the business benefits are “getting easier”.
Stuart urged agents to be part of the phenomenon or risk being irrelevant in five years’ time, stressing that 78% users use social networks for reviews, 81% say it affects their purchasing decision, and 20% of tweets contain a brand mention.
There are also 28 million Britons involved in social gaming online, representing 67% of all internet users.
Stuart pointed to the 600 million global users on Facebook and 150 million using mico-messaging site Twitter and said: “This is not a passing phase, this is reality.
“There is a whole generation for which this is the norm and it is going to get more important,” he told delegates, pointing out that the fasted growing segment on Twitter is the over-55 age group.
Stuart admitted that the 24/7 nature of social networking meant that company time required can be a “royal pain”.
But by the same token the immediacy allows companies to immediately respond to customers’ tweets and resolve any problems.
He used examples of travel companies making successful use of social media such as Expedia with a $100,000 holiday give-away, Southwest Airlines employing 30 people to blog about what the airline does and KLM for promoting new route and services.