WTM London’s Global Stage Deals with Social Media

The increasing importance of social media – particularly Instagram, the challenge of managing tourism in popular cities and social enterprise all formed topics on the Global Stage on Day One of WTM London, the global event where ideas arrive.

Travel lovers are one of the most active groups on Instagram and are twice as likely to watch video content on the social site compared to other users, according to Neasa Bannon, EMEA Travel Lead at Instagram and Facebook.

She told WTM London’s Global Stage keynote speech on Instagram and Travel that Instagram has over one billion active users, with 500 million using the site every day.

While many follow people they know, 50% follow non-reciprocal posts, making Instagram an important marketing medium for travel companies. Many users seek out hidden gems and there have been 290,000 uses of the hashtag #hiddengems, she said.

Successful marketing on social media means campaigns must be correctly tailored to audiences, according to Adam Middleton, Head of Strategy at social media publisher UNILAD, which is making great strides in the travel arena.

His point was echoed in a later session, Nation Branding in a Digital Economy, by speaker Jeremy Jauncey, founder and CEO of Beautiful Destinations.

During the session, Leah Chandler, Chief Marketing Officer at Discover Puerto Rico, described how the tourist board used social media to reach out to press, mainly from the US, after the island was hit by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

Tourism representatives from Barcelona, Amsterdam, London and New York City discussed how to deal with the growing influx of visitors in a thought-provoking session on the Global Stage entitled Coping with Success in Major Cities.

New York’s ‘Five Borough strategy’ and its initiative to encourage seasonal travel has helped spread visitor flow throughout New York, meaning there is ‘plenty of room at the inn’, according to NYC & Company Senior Vice President Global Communications Chris Heywood. The city attracts 13.5 international visitors and 65 million visitors worldwide in total.

Social enterprise is the key to making travel work for the people who live in the destinations that tourists visit, Bruce Poon-Tip, founder of G Adventures, told the audience.

In his session, entitled: How to Discover More Passion, Purpose and Happiness in Travel, Poon-Tip said that, for every $100 US spend abroad, only $5 US stays in the local economy.

G Adventures is expanding its Women on Wheels concept, which supports single mums in India by teaching them to drive then setting them up in jobs transporting G Adventure clients visiting the country. The scheme, one of many worldwide the company runs to support local people, will be extended in Nairobi and South Africa.