Carnival Sunshine to be heavily promoted in social media

Posted on 15 October, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival Sunshine to be heavily promoted in social media

By Tom Stieghorst

Carnival Cruise Lines will unleash social media in a concentrated promotion of the Carnival Sunshine on a cruise starting Oct. 11.

The “Nine Days of Sunshine” program will employ Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and cruise director John Heald’s blog to ramp up awareness of Sunshine before its repositioning to New Orleans in November.

Sunshine, which received a $155 million renovation earlier this year, is now sailing in the Mediterranean. The “social media takeover” of the ship include daily Instagram posts of the ship’s spaces and live “meet the crew” chats.

Heald will take viewers on a video tour of the ship’s spaces and post original content on his blog and Facebook page.

Viewers can help direct content for the promotion through daily Instagram polls.

And guests on the current cruise can post Instagram “video shout-outs” to friends and family back home, Carnival said.

Nexion enabling agents to ‘take control’ of social media efforts

Posted on 7 October, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Nexion enabling agents to ‘take control’ of social media efforts

By Laura Del Rosso

New social media tools for Nexion agents, unveiled at the host agency’s CoNexion conference in Las Vegas last month, are designed to help agents “take control of their own marketing efforts and grow their customer base,” said Nexion President Jackie Friedman.

Home-based agents who are part of Nexion can now subscribe to automated social media posts to engage with their clients on a regular basis and promote themselves and their travel products.

Friedman said that the new social media tools, part of Nexion’s OnTarget program, will be available to agents, allowing them to “opt in” to any or all of them.

“Nexion’s agents are entrepreneurs and business owners,” she said in a statement. “It’s important for us to continually provide them with the latest innovations.”

OnTarget was created by Passport Online, Nexion’s website and social media technology partner. The tools include message delivery through email, Twitter, Facebook and blogs; access to educational, informative and promotional content; the ability to promote Nexion supplier offers; and email marketing integrated with ClientBase profiles.

The email tool will enable agents to select supplier content and create emails to send to their clients along with videos, articles and other content.

The automated social media tool allows posts to be automatically “published” to agents’ Facebook pages on their behalf, with preapproval from Nexion agents.

Nexion also announced that is revamping its PowerUp training program with new and updated courses. New training will feature day-to-day tasks and communication to build relationships with clients, more preferred-supplier training programs and case study assignments which include qualifying clients, researching, closing the sale and following up.

In other news from CoNexion, the host agency honored Steve Lincoln from Bridgewater, Va., and Samantha Khalil from Palm Bay, Fla., with both Circle of Excellence and MillionAir awards, recognizing them as top producers for Nexion’s preferred suppliers and their achievement of more than $1 million in airline sales in the previous year.

Nexion is a subsidiary of Tzell Travel Group, a Travel Leaders Group company, and has been a host agency since 1995.

Social media not driving transactions, says Expedia chief

Posted on 19 September, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Social media not driving transactions, says Expedia chief

By Travolution

The world’s biggest online agency sees no sign of social media driving transactions, despite repeated assertions that Facebook has a big future in travel.

Expedia chief commercial officer Dhiren Fonseca told the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Asia Summit: “Not a lot of transactional volume is driven by social networks. Maybe it [booking travel] is not applicable [to social media]. Maybe people on social media just want to talk.

“There is a lot of experimentation, but no one has really cracked this.” At the same time, Fonseca described growth in mobile hotel bookings as dramatic. He said: “We have seen the booking window compressed dramatically - 98% of our mobile bookings come two days [or less] before arrival.

“The increase in mobile bookings is great for consumers but a challenge for hotels. Imagine running a 600-room hotel and having no idea how full you are going to be in two days’ time.” Fonseca argued Expedia is less a travel company than a tech company, and suggested consumers recognise that.

“At our core we’re a technology company that happens to be in travel,” he said. “Getting a cheap hotel room is more important than knowing you can call Expedia to get help.

“I can envisage a world where the device you have brings a virtual Expedia with you. It knows when you arrive at the airport. It directs you to the bus. It guides you to your hotel. It notifies the hotel of your arrival.”

Min Fan, chief executive of China’s leading online agency, Ctrip.com, agreed with Fonseca on the value of social media. Fan said: “You cannot anticipate you will get traffic from these channels.”

Carnival Sunshine to be heavily promoted in social media

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Nexion enabling agents to ‘take control’ of social media efforts

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Social media not driving transactions, says Expedia chief

The world’s biggest online agency sees no sign of social media driving transactions, despite repeated assertions that Facebook has a big future in travel.

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