WE are delighted to be back at World Travel Market to deliver seven world-class seminars on the best use of social media in today’s travel and tourism industry.
The pace of change has, if anything accelerated since we introduced the social media seminars to WTM back in 2011. But we stay abreast of developments and have another cracking line-up of speakers at this year’s show.
Here’s what to expect from us at WTM this year:
MONDAY NOVEMBER 5
10.45am-11.25am, The Global Stage, AS1350
Welcome to the Travel Perspective social media seminars
Introduction by Steve Keenan and Mark Frary
Face-to-face with Neasa Bannon, EMEA Travel lead, Instagram/Facebook
In 2018, photo and video-sharing social networking platform Instagram reached the billion user milestone. In many people’s eyes, the relevance and reach of the platform now outstrips that of its parent, Facebook.
The company’s head of travel industry for EMEA shares consumer insights on travel, the rise and rise of IG stories and the platform’s new long-form video service, IGTV, which allows video of up to an hour.
Interviewer: Mark Frary
11.35-12.15 The Global Stage, AS1350
How to get billions of video views
Adam Middleton, Head of Strategy, UNILAD
A handful of video content creators represent a huge proportion of the billions of views on Facebook. But networks like Unilad earn a fraction of the big social players.
How have they gained such a strong presence, what are their plans in travel and tourism and how can advertisers in the sector work with them?
And what’s the future for Unilad after it was bought last month – but will continue to operate as a separate company – by arch-rival LadBible?
Moderator: Mark Frary
2pm-2.45pm, Asia Inspiration Zone AS1070
Tapping into the China outbound market with social media
International travel spend from China has grown ten-fold in a decade, and shows no sign of relenting. Last week, the 11th are route between Heathrow and China opened, to Shenzen. The Chinese visitor is younger than most: 40% are under 34, and most are making their first visit to the UK. Hence social media is of prime importance in attracting the Chinese tourist and helping them to plan travel. Our panel of experts discuss the trends…
Panellists:
Gary Grieve, managing director, Capela China and board director UKInbound
Jennifer Cormack, chair, Lake District China Forum
Sienna Parulis-Cook, Communications manager, Dragon Tail Interactive
Moderator: Steve Keenan
2.55-3.30pm, Asia Inspiration Zone AS1070
Social media: Asia and the world
Damien Landesmann, VP EMEA, Socialbakers
Social media usage varies around the world and platforms such as WeChat and Line have huge numbers of users in China and Japan respectively. Yet in other countries global players such as Facebook are still number one. How does the region shape up and how should travel brands from outside get engaged with local audiences?
Moderator: Mark Frary
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6
Tuesday 6th November
12noon-1pm, UKI Inspiration Zone TA190
Social media and digital excellence in Brexit Britain
An overview of the issues facing the domestic tourism industry from The Tourism Alliance, followed by a panel discussion including a leading-edge destination marketing organisation, top tourist attraction group and an innovative Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty talk about how they have embraced social media and digital to attract visitors, and how they are facing up to the realities of Britain’s impending departure from the EU.
Kurt Janson, Director, Tourism Alliance
Lydia Rusling, Chief Executive, Visit Lincoln
Claire Lampon, Digital Media Manager, Historic Royal Palaces
Roger Goulding, Cranborne Chase, Dorset, AoNB VR project
Moderator: Steve Keenan
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 7
2pm-2.40pm, WTM Global Stage, AS1350
The changing face of images in travel marketing
Stunning imagery has always been used to sell holidays, whether in the form of brochures, photography in magazines and newspapers or on Instagram. Yet the world is changing. Photographers are finding it tough to make money while the web has made copyright theft endemic. Some people are still making the business of photography work in the new world of sharing, and different types of image use are providing new opportunities. We hear from a panel of experts on why travel photography is still so important in marketing, and how creative content and expert execution is now competing with AI and amateurs with a smartphone.
Benji Lanyado, CEO and Founder, Picfair
Ofri Ben Porat, CEO, Pixoneye
Chris Coe, founder, Travel Photographer of the Year
Hugh Pinney, former VP Editorial, EMEA, Getty Images
Moderator: Steve Keenan
2.50-3.30pm, WTM Global Stage, AS1350
Quality not quantity: using great content to sell the holiday dream
In recent years there has been a race in the travel industry for online content with little thought given to quality. However, changes in Google’s algorithms and other factors mean that quantity is finally giving way to quality. We hear from travel companies, influencers and content agencies on how they are converting great stories into bookings, and how they foresee the role of original and relevant content in the near future.
Joanna Duncan, Chief Marketing Officer, Insight Vacations
Kash Bhattacharya, Founder & Editor, Budget Traveller
Rich Kimber, Chief Writer, Melt Content
Moderator: Mark Frary
3.40-4.30pm, WTM Global Stage, AS1350
The best of social media, 2018
We again present our annual challenge to find the Awfully Entertaining Social Media (Awesomes) of the year. So far, all the creativity has come from Northern Europe – in 2015, the winner was Iceland with its brilliant Ask Gudmundur campaign, in 2016 it was Visit Finland and its Polar Night Magic campaign and last year, the brilliant Faroe Islands Translate Project. Will the accolade head north again in 2018? Come hear from the finalists, judges and join in the audience vote to find the Awesome Winner of 2018, the highest industry recognition!
Finalists:
Alex Renshaw, Social CRM & Content Manager, Icelolly/Visit Benidorm influencer campaign
Anna Tuomi, Helsinki Airport – East and West Side Story
#BoleynisBack, Tower of London
World’s most honest tourism ad, Madhya Pradesh Tourism
Alex Dalman, VCCP, easyjet Instagram search
Judges:
Kash Bhattacharya, blogger, The Budget Traveller
Benji Lanyado, founder, Picfair
Moderator: Steve Keenan