Facebook travel photos have business potential

Travel industry professionals are a key focus for Facebook as it tries to tap into its users' appetite for travel.

Christophe Hobeika, the marketing communications executive, Madinat Jumeirah at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai. Christopher Pike / The National
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The sights and sounds of visiting somewhere new are as exciting to Christophe Hobeika as uploading pictures of himself on his travels.

He always tries to post an image immediately and never after returning home.

During a holiday to France in September, the 25-year-old Lebanese-Frenchman posted pictures of the food he sampled and the landscapes encountered, especially forests and early morning mists, “just to make my friends in Dubai jealous”, he says.

“I either share as I go or don’t share as it loses the momentum,” adds Mr Hobeika, the marketing communications executive at Madinat Jumeirah. “I might post a picture before the big departure so I can have some recommendations from friends. I could only post a status, but pictures are more engaging and I know I will get my friends’ attention.”

His passion for keeping friends and business associates up to date with his travel exploits is not unusual. Facebook says its users post pictures of themselves during actual travels just as much as they do about their travel decisions, hotels and flights.

Travel is the most talked about category on the social circles of Facebook and the California company is now focusing on ways to maximise this potential.

Two Facebook executives were in Dubai this month, meeting travel industry professionals to stress why Facebook should be their go-to page.

“Facebook is the perfect platform to advertise for travel companies because you want to inspire new people, convert and retain customers,” says Andy Pang an executive at Facebook’s London office.

Since last year, Facebook has noticed increasing numbers of users either booking tickets or making reservations by clicking on advertisements on the site’s “right rail” (ads that appear on the right-hand side of a Facebook page) or from the news feed, he says.

Active Facebook pages rank highly in search engine results page and can become as important as a website, says Mr Hobeika. “It helps to add your Facebook page URL on all collaterals,” he says.

Facebook Exchange, Mobile App ad, custom audiences and lookalike audiences are some of the tools that the social media platform is pushing to drive users and paid advertisers.

What helps Facebook promote themselves to travel clients is that 95 per cent of the users post what holiday they are planning, and around 94 per cent post after booking, Mr Pang says.

And it certainly makes sense for Facebook to promote its platform here in the Middle East.

Twenty-eight million people log into Facebook daily in the Middle East and North Africa, and 15 million do so using their mobile, according to a company report in June.

But social media such as Facebook is an important component in the marketing of all industries, including hospitality, because consumers now have their voices heard across a wide audience.

“Hospitality brands can no longer use the power of media spending to drown out the truth about their products or services as customers’ voices go viral across borders,” says Manav Fernandez, the chief operating officer for Insignia, a branding agency.

“The integration of platforms like YouTube, Twitter and Instagram into Facebook make it a very powerful personal platform.”

Travel advertisers need to think out of the box to maximise the potential that Facebook presents, Mr Hobeika and others say.

Branding on social media has to be different to other channels as people are there to relax, Mr Hobeika says. At Madinat Jumeirah, where he works, there are three hotels – Mina A’Salam, Al Qasr and Dar Al Masyaf – and around 40 restaurants.

For him, discounts and offers should never be the focal point of a hotel’s social media strategy.

“To maximise customer acquisition, hotels should focus on content, engage with the customer, share what is relevant to the hotel audience and keep a strict balance between engagement and offers,” he says. “Moreover, Facebook algorithms are getting smarter and content will not be shown in your fans’ news feed if it’s categorised as irrelevant.”

He sees the platform as a venue where one is hanging out with friends. And being subtle here is the key.

“If you are ‘quiet’ and ‘look good’, people will probably notice you and engage with you,” Mr Hobeika says. “Then you have the opportunity to sell your room.”

ssahoo@thenational.ae