Hotels are utilizing the social media channel of Twitter to reinforce their brand image and to communicate directly with their guests. While each hotel chain interacts differently with their following, here are the TOP TEN I think are doing the best job in providing customer service, building brand loyalty and engaging their followers with suite [...]

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What are the pros and cons of creating a link on the hotel website to the customer reviews page of the hotel on TripAdvisor and displaying TripAdvisor reviews directly on the hotel website via the TripAdvisor Review Widget.
We have always recommended against both of these options. Here is why:
1. Creating a [...]

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Spaniards and Italians are the most demanding touristsm while the Dutch and British, on the other hand, are more concerned about practical aspects and less about the details of their room.
Over 80% of European tourists think that a very important factor when booking a room is a shower or bath, and over 60% acknowledge that [...]

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City Tours is a new addition to Google Labs that puts Google squarely in the tourism business: Give it a city name, and Google not only suggests sites to see, but it also maps out a multi-day itinerary and proposes a minute-by-minute travel schedule for you to follow.
And what’s really impressive is that City Tours [...]

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Inflation-adjusted spending on travel and tourism in the U.S. declined at an annual rate of 5.9% in the first quarter after falling 6.9% in the first quarter, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said.
Weak demand is depressing travel and tourism prices, the agency added. They fell 10.9% in the first quarter on top of [...]

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Sure, it makes sense for most businesses to follow their customers into the world of social media. But before doing so, they must have a firm grasp on how to measure the ROI of those ventures.
For organizations, social media can serve as a private media channel that allows corporate control of the messaging. Social networks [...]

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Don’t be surprised if you get a phone call from a cheery-voiced, erudite lady or gent tipping you off that the genteel, 137-room Hotel Ritz in London, created by Cesar Ritz himself in 1906, has rooms for 30 percent off.
This is no scam, no boiler-room telemarketer reading from a script, no digital voice that sounds [...]

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The online hotel sector is proving more resilient than traditional channels in volume terms but not prices, acccording to hotels.com.
The Hotel Price Index, produced by hotels.com at the end of last year, showed global hotel prices were 12% down. “There is some fairly aggressive price cutting,” added Pocklington.
He maintained there continued to be a shift [...]

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Travelers visit search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN first (34%) when considering vacation destination alternatives. The Web sites of specific countries or destination boards are visited next (23%), followed by online travel agencies such as Expedia and Travelocity (22%).
While the percentage of leisure travelers who report making reservations online has grown more than [...]

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