A new poll from hotel e-commerce and marketing company TravelClick shows that hotels are planning on investing more in mobile and social media marketing.
The poll, conducted among participants of a webinar titled “2011 Second Quarter Global Hotel Industry Update” showed that 43% of hotels are planning to increase overall marketing budgets for 2012. Of those surveyed, 34% expect to keep their marketing budgets the same as 2011, and only 3% plan to decrease their marketing spend.
“According to Nielsen, 40% of the Western Europe and 38% of the U.S. cell phone markets are dominated by smartphones. Given these rising numbers, it is essential that hoteliers optimize their websites for mobile use to increase direct bookings from travelers that are using their mobile devices to select rooms,” said Jason Ewell, TravelClick’s senior vice president of e-commerce.
The poll also showed that 95.3% of the attendees polled plan to either increase their workforce (50%) or keep their workforce the same (45.3%). Of the respondents planning to increase their workforce, 30% plan to hire staff specifically for social media.
“Not only are hoteliers increasing budgets for mobile websites and marketing, but they are also increasing staff in areas such as social media. Hoteliers are recognizing how important mobile and social media are to guests, and they have begun to put more resources towards creating and maintaining these channels through staff additions and marketing increases,” continued Ewell.