Adventure Tour Operators Surveyed on Use of Social Media – ‘Travel, Tweets & Trends’ Reveals Potential, Challenges

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 29, 2010 – A newly released travel industry survey asks the questions; how important is social media to adventure travel tour operators and how are they using it?

“As the first study of this scale ever conducted with this specific market, we’ve discovered some very interesting findings,” said Brandon Lake, founder of Resmark Systems that with the 600-plus-member Adventure Travel Trade Association and Convince & Convert, a social media consultancy, recently released findings of a survey called Travel, Tweets & Trends.

Lake said the study revealed that 48% of North American travel tour operators participate in social media on a daily basis, and of those, 77% participate in social media at least weekly. However, finding showed that just 13 percent of the companies surveyed cited social media as generating 10 percent or more of their revenue.

“If we repeated this survey again next year, chances are we’d see these percentages substantially increase,” Lake said, adding that there seems to be a serious void in actually measuring effectiveness and thereby tracking resulting revenue. Consequently, companies aren’t sure how much time and labor to devote to social media efforts. Seventy percent of companies that use social media, effectively or not so, now spend only $5,000 or less annually and 10 hours per week or fewer to work the potential of social media.

The study also found that Facebook is the dominant social media tactic, with more adventure tour operators now using Facebook than email newsletters. Beyond Facebook usage, the study uncovered some specific cases of social media use that could provide greater business impact for many tour operators.

“The travel market has an incredible opportunity to see major impact from social media since travelers love nothing more than sharing their travels,” said Lake. “We found operators who had systems that automatically generated content from guests in blogs, Facebook and other social networks. Other companies have discovered ways to get reservations directly from twitter. We also found a few making excellent use of guest videos online.”

“This research represents the most current and comprehensive study yet conducted on the how, ways and whys of social media usage within the travel and tour operator community,” said Lake. Over 225 tour operators from 5 continents answered the 23-question survey exploring the subject of social media.

Anyone interested in the study may download a complimentary Exectutive Summary of Travel, Tweets and Trends. The complete, 41-page whitepaper is available for purchase ($50) at www.adventuretravel.biz.

About Resmark Systems
Founded in 2005, Resmark Systems offers comprehensive tour operator software created by tour operators with years of experience. Resmark Systems software is designed to manage all functions of the tour operator business from online reservations and marketing to finances and accounting. Resmark provides proven cost savings, comprehensive tracking and reporting and unparalleled lead conversion. For more information, visit www.resmarksystems.com.


Industry Contact:
Brandon Lake
brandon@resmarksystems.com
888.737.6275

Media Contact:
Widness & Wiggins PR:
Sara Widness: 802.234.6704 / sara@widnesspr.com
Dave Wiggins: 303.554.8821 / dave@travelnewssource.com
Website and portfolio of past releases: http://www.travelnewssource.com/

About Resmark Systems
Founded in 2005, Resmark Systems offers comprehensive tour operator software created by tour operators with years of experience. Resmark Systems software is designed to manage all functions of the tour operator business from online reservations and marketing to finances and accounting. Resmark provides proven cost savings, comprehensive tracking and reporting and unparalleled lead conversion. For more information, visit www.resmarksystems.com.

RESMARK Systems
7258 Racquet Club Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84121

This release was published on openPR.