Mixed Reviews on the Value of Social Networking Service for the Chinese Travel Industry

China’s travel industry players are experimenting using social media networking sites to attract and engage travelers, but where the best ways to leverage those sites monetarily are still unclear. This uncertainty was indeed a major topic of discussion and debate at the recent China Travel Innovation Summit in Beijing that sought to outline strategies particularly involving online social networking for the travel industry. With China’s leisure travel market growing at the same time as its online usership mushrooms, it is no surprise that a number of players are looking to capture the attention of travel consumers through social media.

From travel booking sites like eLong and Ctrip to airlines and hotel review sites, China’s travel industry players are indeed attempting at using social media profitably. Despite anxiety on the attributes of this new phenomenon, travel gurus, like William Bao Bean, a partner with Softbank China and India Holdings, warn that barriers are quite high for creating a standalone social network. The warning comes amid a backdrop of Lufthansa Airlines experiment with creating its own social network for the U.S. market, Genflylounge.com, which failed to generate the interest that the airline company had hoped for.

Currently, Lufthansa’s social media tactics in China are now anchored by a partnership with Xiaonei.com, the so-called “Facebook of China, where the Company is using its presence at Lufthansa.xiaonei.com to interact with young consumers at the same place where the latter interact with each other. The choice of Xiaonei was based on it being the biggest network for students, with 22 million active users who are generally well-educated, between the ages of 18 and 25, and come from more than 3,000 universities. Indeed, Lufthansa’s 1,000-plus “friends” on Xiaonei.com share travel tips and have access to special deals and contests.

Social Networking Service (SNS) is foreseen as the new medium for tourism development. Despite being a relatively new phenomenon, media tools such as networking sites, bulletin board systems, and microblogging are gaining popularity. However, Jason Xie, eLong’s vice president of web and business development, is not so positive on the use of online social networking for travel industry players. The VP cautions that it is hard to have success with SNS in tourism while outlining three deficiencies: firstly that the ‘stickiness’ is not enough in that people travel maybe twice a year for tourism; secondly, travel itself does not generate sufficient content; and thirdly, travel information is destination-based. These deficiencies, the VP notes, bring SNS in conflict with travel information.

Mark Inkster, chairman of Yiqilai, a travel review site that relies heavily on user-generated content, disagre with Xie justifying sustained use of social media for fun and greater engagement with people as they seek to dream, plan, book, travel, and share their experiences. Despite eLong’s VP’s rather low perception on the use of SNS for tourism purposes, the company has a Yiqifei (”Fly Together”) program, which allows travelers to connect online with people who will be on their flight.

Ctrip, on the other hand, had tried and scrapped a similar program in the past, as have several companies like the now-defunct Intown2.com. Xie seems confident that Yiqifei will appeal to eLong’s customers. Yiqilai allows users on its own site to contribute content through wikis, BBSes, and interactive games. Its “Where I’ve Been” map app, which lets users place virtual pins on cities they have visited, is available on four different social networking sites including Facebook and Xiaonei, and is a top-rated app on 51.com.

Indeed, China presents an interesting set of challenges and opportunities to travel providers when it comes to social media. Its rapidly emerging leisure travel segment does relatively little online booking, but is otherwise very active online, where the country ranks higher in online social engagement than the United States and Europe. Forty percent of China’s online users are categorized as “creators”, compared to 14 percent in the United States, with the former’s online population deemed to be critics or commentators, compared to 16 percent of United States’ internet users. Strategists are however hard pressed at spinning that engagement into air ticket purchases and hotel bookings with questions persistently arising on measuring return on investment for social media projects during the summit. Indeed, Lufthansa’s use of SNS is yet to yield returns in terms of translating information exchange with product purchase through the use of its site, Lufthansa.com. Only time will tell.

Source: TravelMole at www.travelmole.com