The influence of social media sites on travellers’ decisions is increasing, but agencies are failing to take advantage of the trend, new research reveals.
Amadeus surveyed its UK clients – a mix of travel providers, agencies and buyers – about the impact social media has had on the travel sector.
While the results were not broken down into separate business and leisure travel figures, they showed that a substantial number of agencies need to look at adapting to customer expectations around social media.
Some 52 per cent of agencies said they had dealt with customers who had obtained travel advice through social media before contacting them.
However, 40 per cent of the agencies surveyed said they have yet to integrate social media into their working practices.
Rob Golledge, Amadeus UK’s head of marketing and communications, said: “Many agents are still sceptical of the validity of information obtained from social media sites.”
He suggested one of the principal barriers is the sheer amount of data available online.
“Travel agents have a key role to play here in accessing this information and using it to provide specialist knowledge and insight,” said Golledge.