For professionals, the resumption of domestic and international travel continues with full force, but at the same time it shows the importance of the transformations that tourism is experiencing both in the desires of consumers, in services, transport, accommodation, as well as in sales and distribution.
Social media, and all the “new technologies”, actors of the expected revolutions, are also dramatically changing their actions in tourism. If a lot of news will still emerge after the resumption, when the sector will return to its normal growth, experts have already identified some of these post-Covid trends.
E-commerce accelerated , the pandemic was an accelerator, forcing consumers to buy online products or services that were bought in stores or consumed in restaurants. While social media were fabulous promotional tools before the crisis, but where sales were still negligible (with the exception of some platforms like Etsy), online sales have exploded not only on Instagram and Facebook, but also on TikTok or on Pinterest. In the United States alone, growth this year will exceed 25.2% with 80 million buyers and 100 million are being projected for the end of next year.
Facebook remains in the lead, even if younger people tend to favor Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok. But without needing to remember that Messenger, Instagram and Oculus are part of the same ecosystem, Facebook still monopolizes 58 of the 145 daily minutes that almost 2 billion Internet users spend on social media. For all companies, it offers not only exceptional marketing tools but also job offers, consumer services, market research or event promotion. Many of these features are not found in its competitors Twitter or LinkedIn, consolidating, as criticized as it may be, its de facto monopoly.
Tiktok became a priority platform . Since October 2021, TikTok has shown its interest in convincing small and medium businesses as well as content creators. With almost a billion monthly users, TikTok is now part of the 5 biggest players in the industry (after Facebook, Instagram, WeChat and YouTube), with a very fast growth along with those over 35 years old. The Chinese company announced a series of new functions that will increase its competitiveness: advertising platform, content remuneration, integration of stories, or a large offer of filters for publishing images, taking advantage of augmented reality opportunities – a technology whose demand has increased by 81 % in the last 5 years.
Short videos will multiply. Even if the number of impressions or interactions is globally declining, short videos still get the best results on the web and social media today. This is the case with posts from 15 to 60 seconds on TikTok, on Instagram reels and now on Facebook. And the case of stories now publishable on all platforms, from Snapchat to Twitter, or from Instagram to Facebook, the only exception being LinkedIn whose experience failed. It is thus likely that brands and companies will now invest more and more in short videos, or at least in longer videos, which can be divided into several publications.
User-generated content is on the rise . This last trend already existed in previous years, but it was accelerated during the pandemic. Travelers rely more on content shared by relatives, friends, colleagues, opinion leaders or influencers. Based on statistics from Facebook, Instagram, Google Review and TripAdvisor, “neuromarketing” analysts measured that this type of content increases the number of visitors by 20%, the time spent on the site by 90% and conversion rates by 81% . Liking, commenting, sharing and replying on social media accounts is, more than ever, the best way to reach your traveler communities.