Social media marketing becomes a hot topic in Travel industry.

“According to data available in the US, users are spending on average 30 minutes at social networking sites on a monthly basis” – EyeforTravel reports. And it is known that UGC can increase conversion to bookings.

But the situation is not the same for Asian people. They are not committed enough to such kind of communication:

“According to James Sundram, Head of Asia, Lonely Planet Publications, the presence of brands on sites such as YouTube, Second Life, Facebook etc is definitely worth the investment, but the Asians are generally not ready nor committed to use such community sites for their travel planning and arrangements”. Asians are still shy to participate.

So what is the way out?

LP, for example, suggests to overcome these limits by enhancing connectivity via mobile phone:

“These developments will benefit the Asian traveller much more because of the usage trends. Asians are not known to be avid readers but Asians love their mobile phones, and penetration in HK / Korea / Singapore / Philippines etc is more than one phone per person”.

Tags: Asia, Asian traveller, social media marketing