Travel agencies are facing a serious conundrum. The rise of social media gatekeepers and fierce competition from large corporations such as Google and Amazon have decreased the amount of traffic to traditional booking sites.
Why is this happening?
Convenience.
Many search engines and certain social networking sites such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook are not only accessible, but they have the ability to spring up certain advertisements, posts, and links to book travel based on your previous likes
and search histories.This almost eliminates the “middle man” needed in traditional travel booking, which is why the travel industry needs to undergo a serious makeover in terms of social marketing.
A path to change:
An article from ClickZ describes how transport apps such as Uber have already partnered with Amazon’sAlexa so that individuals can now book a ride with a simple voice command.
This acts as a model for how travel agencies should begin to reorganize their interfaces for easier user interaction, to promote their apps, provide online bookings, and perhaps even partner with certain social networks to bookmark hot destinations.
“Ditch the Brochures, use Pinterest”
Traveling agencies should be utilizing bookmarking sites like Pinterest and creating user accounts on these websites to generate online followers and provide
them with stunning images from around the globe and link them to exclusive online travel deals with a simple click of a button.
This might just be the key to navigating through the millions of “gatekeepers” and taking advantage of the algorithms that these new applications offer.
To better business, travel agencies should ultimately be the ones that tell us where it is we want to go, whether we know it or not.