Twitter has become an important marketing tool for tourism companies, especially for hotels and large agencies. Twitter is a free micro-blogging service that defines itself as a social network that cross-connects thousands of people around the world. Each of them has a maximum space of 140 characters with which the messages must be very short and specific, which have as their original premise to answer the question "What are you doing?"Twitter also has a system of "followers" and "followed" to determine which users follow whom, also has an update counter. Although at first glance this tool may seem like a way to entertain yourself on the network in the manner of the very widespread Messenger or SMS, it has become an excellent ally in marketing for tourism companies.
In this regard, the tourism marketing professional, Nando Llorella, has published in the Hosteltour community a list of the companies in the sector that have a presence on Twitter. According to the expert, in this subject two opposite sides of the coin are evident: on the one hand are the hotels that have created their twit, but they have very few updates and few followers, which shows that they simply want to be present, without deciding to consider the tool as an ally of tourism marketing. On the other hand, international companies are located, such as the Marriot, which have become a benchmark in everything related to 2.0 and have no comparison of the use of the tool.
In the Spanish case, the way in which the large chains are practically absent from Twitter is particularly striking, although Llorella points out that most of them are also absent from 2.0 and what this implies in the presence in the world of blogs and direct contact with their customers through s of social networks.
According to the follow-up that Llorella has made to the companies in the sector that use Twitter, most do it to communicate their offers, although another common use is to answer questions from customers. Examples of Twitter's use of hotels are picot, Amic Hotels, Hostel Colonial and Eurostars. The tweets of these answer specific questions of offers, climate of the different destinations, in addition to the characteristics of the accommodations.
There are still many companies that are reluctant to use social tools because they do not see the benefits, nor obvious results. Llorella says that the benefit is evident, although in the medium and long term, because its results are based on "positioning, brand recognition and visibility", in addition to one of the objectives that hotel chains have recently set themselves: to sell through their website.
All of the above goes hand in hand with a survey revealed by Ypartnership and Phocuswright, according to which there is a new type of traveler, influenced largely by the Internet and its frequent use. This use is common for planning, shopping and exchanging travel experiences. Among the respondents (2,259 people), 37% say they have been influenced by comments on social networks and travel websites.
