All aboard for our Travel Social Summit

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From VR headsets in hotel rooms to direct booking through Instagram, new technology is offering a vast array of opportunities for the travel and tourism industry. On Thursday, June 30th, We Are Social will host our first Travel Social Summit at our London HQ, with guest speakers Skyscanner, VisitBritain and On The Beach giving the lowdown on the latest travel innovations, along with practical tips on how to get the most out of social and digital.

With 80 million travel-related tweets and 78 million holiday Instagram pics shared in the last year alone, it’s no surprise social media is the key place for consumers to find travel inspiration. Sadly for brands, this engagement is not a golden ticket to new, easy marketing wins. 84% of Millennials claim that user-generated content (i.e. their mates’ or their favourite celebrities’ #instatravel #hotdogsorlegs #takemeback posts) influences their decisions more than any branded advertisements.

Clever brands are thinking differently and finding new ways to engage with travel-happy consumers. From dreaming of the perfect destination, to booking the best deal, through to getting on the plane and chilling on the beach, there are endless opportunities for brands to offer value and help make the travel experience as smooth, stress-free and fun as possible. At the end of last year, Marriott Hotels launched the world’s first in-room Virtual Reality travel experience, allowing customers to experience different world destinations through a VR headset in their hotel room.

vr hotel

Another hotel brand, Starwood, has explored a new interesting way to convert its audience’s wanderlust into purchase. In April, the company allowed users to make hotel reservation directly from its Instagram posts. Meanwhile, Skyscanner has introduced a messaging bot to make the soul-sapping flight experience of finding cheap flights a bit easier.
Skyscanner’s newly launched flight search chat bot

With endless technologies to explore and a hyper-saturated marketplace, travel brands need to ensure they get their strategy right and reach their audience at the right place and the right time. On the 30th of June, a rich panel of industry speakers will unlock precious travel knowledge, practical tips and marketing inspiration.

Our special guest speakers include:

We Are Social’s Travel Social Summit will take place on Thursday, 30 June 2016 from 17:30 to 19:30 at We Are Social – Alphabeta 14-18 Finsbury Square, London, EC2A 1BR – View Map

To sign up, follow this link to We Are Social’s eventbrite page and to find out about all of our future events in London, subscribe to our Facebook events page.