Travel companies were told not to be afraid of putting critical comment online at the ABTA Convention.
Charles Starmer-Smith, head of travel at the Telegraph, told delegates that the travel industry should be "really radical" and actually have some elements of critique on their websites and other online content.
"It establishes credibility. Find a really good content provider, that people trust, so that when they say something is great, it has weight. It will pay huge dividends," he said.
Dean Harvey, digital development director at Designate, advised travel companies to re-use customers’ videos and also to get their own staff, for example reps in resort, to contribute content.
"It will have more personality and be more authentic," he said.
"You’ll need to re-invest in training and you will need a framework and an editorial process. We give our clients calendars so they know what’s being said, by whom and when it’s going live."
Gillian Cawley, Disney head of marketing communications for Disney Destinations UK and Ireland, said companies are naturally scared to use consumer content.
"But we take consumers content and use it on our website in our campaigns and it works well," she said.
She also advised companies to work with celebrities, who have their own online audiences.
"We work with One Direction and it has a phenomenal effect. They have something like 15 to 17 million followers on Twitter," she said.
"We also linked up with the X Factor last year and took final contestants to Disneyland Paris. The impact of that was the same as for our online spend for the whole year."
by Bev Fearis
