Of course there are all of the traditional general reasons why I’m such an avid promoter of social media for business – an active Facebook fan page helps you appear higher in searches, it helps you reach a broad/new audience,  and the like. Here, however, are some of my top reasons for finding social media beneficial specifically for the above industries.

• Pictures and videos: You know the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”. This is especially true in the travel and tourism industry. Social media outlets make it incredibly easy (and affordable) to reach a wide number and range of people with images. It catches their eye, and can get them excited about a particular destination, inspire travel in general, or even just pique their interest in your company and make them want to learn more.

• Twitter travel/hospitality chats: Twitter chats are, in my opinion, one of the top ways to “meet” and interact with those in the same/related industries on social media. They allow you to share your knowledge and experiences in front of an expanded audience in a fun and casual manner.  I’m working on a blog post that focuses solely on chats within these industries, which I hope to post in the next week or so, so stay tuned.

• Keywords on twitter: Various twitter tools allow you to keep track of specific key words or sets of words. You may want to find those looking for certain services/products (honeymoon planning or a luxury hotel in Venice, for instance), or it may be someone specifically mentioning your brand (ie a hotel chain). This allows you to reach out to that person if applicable, learn what people are discussing/looking for on twitter and adjust your social media marketing strategy appropriately. People are constantly discussing travel, weddings/honeymoons, special events and other industry related topics, and these keywords help you keep track of and filter them.

• Direct mentions/hashtags/Facebook tagging: On twitter, it’s a direct mention of your twitter name or (for instance @chimeratravel) or a hashtag with your brand (ie #hotelname); on Facebook or Google+ it’s a tag of the company (or your personal) name. Either way, you can see when people are mentioning your specific company and can address their mention/question/concern appropriately and in a timely manner. Much better than having a competitor address it! Furthermore, people are often quite impressed when you reply to them quickly on social media – it shows a commitment to customer service and desire to meet their needs.

• Joint promotions: Facebook fan pages in particular make it easy to join forces with others in the industry. These promotions are offered on both parties’ fan pages, which puts your company in front of a whole additional group of people that you may not have had the opportunity to touch otherwise. For instance, a hotel and restaurant in the same area may want to partner for a weekend promotion that offers a discounted hotel rate and restaurant gift certificate. A travel planner and a tourism board might want to partner to promote an emerging destination.  If a company links their Facebook posts to twitter, this increases your reach further. Make sure to partner with companies with similar target audiences. If you solely sell luxury travel for instance, it doesn’t make much sense to partner with a budget motel, even if they have an impressive number of Facebook fans/twitter followers – this will actually confuse your audience and may create a negative result.

• Exclusive sales and discounts: Many companies provide exclusive offers or discounts to their social media fans and followers. These help to increase fan loyalty and reach those that you wouldn’t with an email campaign to current clients/prospects.  People also seem more accustomed to share or give feedback (in the form of a comment, “like”/”+1”, or retweet) when using social media, and ultimately end up helping you promote your company.

This is simply a list of my top reasons for loving social media for these industries. I could probably write a small book (or e-book) on the subject.  Social media continues to evolve, and surely there will be plenty of additions to the list this time next year, or maybe even next month. This just highlights some of my daily/weekly activity in social media, and why I love so highly recommend (effective) use of it in the travel/tourism/hospitality industries.

Let me start by saying that I was flying to California for my grandmother’s funeral. So my plans were in no way flexible and it was imperative that I get there on time. In addition, I couldn’t have planned my travel differently because obviously travel to a funeral is last minute and basically everything but the flights I was taking were already sold out.

My mom, dad and I got to the airport, sleepy, at 5 AM for a 6:50 flight – I’m quite anal retentive about getting to the airport early, even at this awful hour of the morning. The airline represetnative checking in our bag was talking on the phone the whole time, clearly not paying attention, and when we asked her a question she put her hand up to us to silence us and turned away. We weren’t happy, but our bag appeared to be checked. We boarded and pushed back from the gate on time – a virtual miracle, as anyone that’s every taken a flight from Philadelphia International knows. The only connection we could get was 55 minutes in Phoenix, which made me sweat a little, but I hoped that at this hour we wouldn’t have too much delay. My hopes were, to say the least, dashed.

As we got ready to take off, the pilot came over the loud speaker and said that there was a technical problem and we had to go back to the gate. We did, they “fixed” it, and we pulled back out. We got ready to take off and the pilot told us that it appeared the issue wasn’t fixed, and we went back to the gate again. The pilot actually came over the loud speaker and said, I quote, “looks like we got a lemon”. Just what you want to hear about your plane that is to spend the next four hours at 35,000 feet. After a wait, they told us to deplane. We knew that at this point, we’d missed our connection and I wipped out my iphone to start looking for the next potential flights to Santa Ana once we got to Phoenix. This, I’ll admit, was a mistake on my part – I thought we might still at least get to Phoenix.

We got back on the plane, assured that “this is a working plane” (phew). We sat there. And sat there. The pilot informed us that the mechanics were still there (I thought it was a working plane!) and that he thought actually it was a more serious issue than the mechanics believed it was (oh, goody). After a few more minutes wait we were told that the plane was going to be sent for servicing – basically, it was broken – and deplaned, again.

We waited in line at the gate counter to see what our options were, during which time I search on my phone for other flight options. Basically, everything was sold out. I finally found a Southwest flight (this was not our original airline) that would get my dad there by 6 PM – we needed to get him there for the viewing that night, as it was his mother who’d passed. I called Southwest directly and got him on that, and we sent him off to gate E  (all the way across the airport) for his flight. My mom and I continued to stand in a long line. There was one person assigned to help the 100+ people that were on this cancelled flight. Good emergency planning on the part of the airline, don’t you think? No one from the airline was in the area that was willing/able to answer any questions while we waited in line. They had one “customer service” representative milling around there to “help” us, but basically it seems the only phrases he knew were the un-helpful “no” and “I don’t know what to tell you”. We were then sent to another gate where we were assured there was no wait for service.

We got to that gate, and there are two people ahead of us. They took about 30 minutes. While waiting in line, we and everyone else waiting were told that the bags we’ve checked will be sent to our final destination – how, they didn’t specify. We were not able to go get them. Some people had to stay overnight in Philly, and would’ve like at least a change of underwear from their bags and to re-check their bags the next day. They were told no. Many people had to check their bags at the gate, so had things in there that weren’t supposed to be checked (ie medication). They were reprimanded for not keeping these items on their person and told more or less “tough luck”.  While I personally try to keep medications in my purse when traveling, these people had done what they thought was the right thing – put them in their carry-on, except that this carry on had to be checked… why we’re not sure since there was plenty of overhead room on the original flight. Upon requesting further details about our bags, we were told that our bags would either be sent along to the final location or be “dumped” in Philly (I don’t even know what this means) and if we didn’t get them, we’d have to write a complaint and hopefully they’d be shipped to us. Delightful!

We finally got to the front of the line and upon speaking to the representative, found out that basically there was nothing available, but we’re given phone number to call. While I called the phone number and finally got a flight on another airline, the representative we’d spoken with, Troy, did everything he could to figure out where our bags were.  Troy was the only person so far that was at all worthwhile to speak with, other than whoever I spoke to at Southwest that booked my dad’s flight. Still, he was unable to find our bags. Apparently, the dedicated check-in employee that was too busy on the phone with her friend to check our bag properly never actually inputted our bag into the computer, so our PNR showed no checked bags attached to any of us.  Our bag had basically disappeared into thin air as far as the airline was concerned.

We were now at least booked on a flight though, thanks to my phone call. We went down to baggage to try to get some further information on the fate of our checked luggage. We are told it couldn’t be pulled and re-checked on our new airline, but it would be sent to Santa Ana on the next flight so we should have it in California. We then went to check in for our new flight. We waited at least 20 minutes. We got up to the desk and were told that my mom’s ticket was all set but I was never ticketed – and I was the one that spoke with the rep on the phone! The nice representative at the counter pulls some strings and got me ticketed, thank goodness, because our flight was scheduled to take off in about 40 minutes at this point.

It was 2 PM and we were boarding our flight finally. Oh but wait – no we weren’t! Our boarding passes weren’t valid and we were pulled out of line to get them “corrected”. After a few minutes, we finally got on our flight. Luckily, the rest of our flight went smoothly, other than the fact that boarding passes for our connecting flight also didn’t work, and again we had to get out of the boarding line to have them corrected. We landed in Santa Ana at 7 PM. Our bag was arriving at 8:15 PM on a flight from Phoenix. Miraculously, it actually did. We looked at the tag that the airline has put on our bag. It had big print that said “Rush! Expedited Bag!”. My mom and I burst out laughing. It took a mere 17 hours since we checked it. How long, exactly, does it take for the airline to send a bag that’s not expedited?

We missed my grandmother’s viewing all together (though luckily my dad, thanks to Southwest, was able to attend). I understand that planes break. I understand that when you’re trying to get a last minute flight, that there’s little availability and prices are at a premium. I understand sometimes you just can’t get there in time. What I mind is this:

1. We were told a plane was fixed when it wasn’t, and they knew that it wasn’t. This wasted valuable time, getting back on a broken plane to sit there only to be told it was in fact broken and deplaning again.

2. The “customer service rep” didn’t want to answer questions or help anyone out at all. Basically, it “wasn’t his job”.

3. The the check-in employee was too busy being social to do her job, and that basically no one cared about this.

4. Basically, only three people in this entire scenario were actually doing their jobs properly – Troy, the woman who helped us check-in on the second flight, by getting us properly ticketed when the original woman I’d spoken to on the phone had messed up, and the reservations agent from Southwest.

I’m not naming airlines, other than Southwest who did a wonderful job. I’m not writing this to badmouth a particular airline or several. I’m writing this as what I believe is an example of why people are so frustrated with the airline industry in general these days.  I now truly understand why people hate airlines.

In 32 years, I’d never had an alarm go off in a hotel, and three in the last month.  I realized the first time that it happened that I had absolutely no idea what to do. While I’m lucky in that there was no real fire nor did I have to evacuate, I have come to some conclusions about the how to handle the situation. Since I think a middle of the night fire alarm in a hotel would surprise and possibly fluster many travelers, here are some of my tips to stay on top of things if this should occur.

• As cliché as it sounds, don’t panic. Who has ever made a better decision in mid panic?  If you need to associate an emotion with it, get annoyed at it disturbing your travels.

• Listen to the person on the loud speaker.  Don’t run outside frantically in your pajamas until told.  It might have just been some kids playing a prank.

• While you’re waiting to do as you’re told, make sure you’re appropriately dressed in the event that you do have to evacuate.  You might be out there a while and you don’t want to be in a t-shirt if it’s 30 degrees outside. This also speeds up the evacuation process.

• Think about what you’d absolutely need if you did have to evacuate and there was an actual fire. They don’t generally let you bring large items with you, so put your ID, phone, cash/credit card and anything absolutely necessary (ie medication) in your pockets. If the hotel were to go ablaze, these are the basics you’d want to have in your position.

• If you have to evacuate, there is a reason for the “in a fire, take the stairs” signs – can get trapped in an elevator and die of smoke inhalation. Go down the stairs in an orderly fashion – it will slow down the process if people try to trample each other and no one will get anywhere.

• Come up with a plan before you travel. If you are traveling with a child or a pet, how are you to make sure they get out safely in the event of an evacuation? Don’t wait until the alarm is going off to figure this out. If it’s scaring you, it would certainly scare a little kid. This may sound silly, but it’s better than something going wrong because you don’t have a plan.

Resolution: I will start taking off my metal items before I get to the metal detectors at the airport so that I don’t slow down the whole line.

Result: I’m so quick that if they made us walk through security naked I could get through without delaying the line. I’ve learned to wear slip on shoes, take my jacket/outer layer off before I even get into security and have my laptop out as I approach the line.

Resolution: I will opt for either the pat down or the scanner, or not to fly. I will make my crusade against these at a time other than while at the security check point, once again delaying everyone.

Result: I might be the only person excited to go through the full body scanner. I love technology, and if they’re really going to try to stare, joke’s on them. Security looks at me funny when I say “yes, the scanner!”.

Resolution: I will plan my small trips at least two to three months in advance, and my large trips (think two weeks through Europe, honeymoon) at least five to six months in advance, so that I don’t give my travel planner a heart attack.

Result: I did about 70/30 on this. My trip to Peru for March 2012 is basically all planned and I started months ago. I’ve had a few business flights that I should possibly have planned earlier. But since I don’t book just flights for clients, I feel I’m in the clear on this when it comes to my expectations/guidelines for clients.  In my defense, the delay in booking was all for business travel, and most of the time I was waiting for organizational approval/details before I could book.

Resolution: I will not try to pass off items that really should be checked luggage as carry-ons, taking up all the room in the overhead bins and forcing others to check their bags that really shouldn’t need to be.

 Result: I never brought aboard something that should have been a checked item. I pushed the limit a time or two but they were all the appropriate size and I made sure one of my two bags could always fit under my seat.

Resolution: I will travel to a new destination, even if just for a long weekend (for pleasure – business trips don’t count!)

Result: Yes! I spent time in an area of Virginia this year that I’d never been to.  Relaxed, visited, boated and unplugged (literally, my email spontaneously erased my inbox so, ironically, I couldn’t have worked if I’d tried)

Resolution: I will try a new type of local food when traveling (ethnic food, not just something off the local chain menu that you’ve never ordered before).

Result: I definitely tried some Puerto Rican fare. Delicious.

Resolution:  I will budget for inflated prices, particularly on flights, and be flexible in adjusting my plans to fit these new prices. Varying from the norm might even make for a more enjoyable vacation!

Result: The only inflated fares I had were for business and I didn’t really have a choice but to budget for them, so I guess this is yes by default.

Resolution: I will take pictures and videos when traveling and more regularly share my thoughts and photos through my preferred social media outlets.

Result: You all know I love social media (if not follow me on twitter and like Chimera Travel on Facebook). I also got a new digital SLR this past fall and I took/shared so many pictures that I had to get more memory on my computer!

Resolution: I will make a new friend in a destination that I travel to and keep up with the friend after I return (again, this is where social media comes in handy).

Result: I met a lot of new people on my trip to Vancouver recently. Some American, some Canadian, but I am already friends with them on Facebook and we’re sharing pictures.

Resolution: I will take place in some type of immersion experience when I travel, and keep an open mind when doing so. This could be attending a local sporting or music event, a food and/or wine tasting, a non-traditional tour by a local guide, a lesson on creating a local craft, or any other type of activity that gets me off the beaten path and truly gets me involved with the culture.

Result: I did a market tasting tour in Vancouver, and I went snowshoeing on Cypress Mountain there, which I’d never done before. In Puerto Rico, I did a lot of local dining and participated in events that had true Puerto Rican flavor.  As I didn’t travel much outside of the US this year, this was a little harder to accomplish but I did the best I could!

I will admit that my plan will most likely change for several reasons – 1. Budget. This plan is based on a certain budget, and if this were to change (for better or worse – hopefully better) it might alter my plan; 2. Every year I attend an International Destination Expo put on by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA). I try to plan a vacation around that expo, as it serves as a good opportunity to explore the area.  I am not sure where this conference will be past 2012, so as I find out these destinations, I will add them in to my plan and adjust accordingly.

Here is what I have so far, rough draft form. In order to be at least somewhat realistic, I left a few holes where necessary:

March 2012: Peru. This trip is in the process of being booked. I’ll be attending the ASTA expo in Lima, then heading to Cusco/Valley of the Incas/Machu Picchu, and Puerto Maldonado for a taste of the Amazon/rainforest.

May 2012: Oahu, Hawaii. This is for an organization retreat. Believe it or not, I have never been to Hawaii despite having sent many travelers there, so I am quite excited about this!

 Spring 2013: River or Barge cruise through Europe (exact destination TBD, most likely Central, Eastern Europe)

Fall 2013: Istanbul/Turkey

Spring 2014: To be determined by ASTA Expo

Summer 2014: Iceland and Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark and possibly Norway)

Winter 2015: India (this timeline subject to change)

Fall 2015:  Galapagos Islands

As my schedule is subject to change due to business travel, I stopped my planning at 2105.  Otherwise it starts to become more of a wish list. However, other destinations I plan to fit in, either within this time frame or after include:

• Vietnam and Cambodia
• Southern/Eastern Africa: Destinations include but aren’t limited to Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia and get back to Botswana
• Re-visiting Australia and New Zealand
• Israel and Jordan (same trip)

This list certainly doesn’t exhaust desired destination options. It is simply those that I hope to visit in the next few years. I’m sure as happens in life these will change somewhat along the way – places may be added or shifted. For now, this is my travel plan. What’s yours? I’d love to see it – you never know, your suggestions might influence my plan!

I find it helps to have a plan. Of course, being a planner, I might be a little biased, but I believe can assist in diffusing what can sometimes be an almost overwhelming decision. I’m not gearing this article towards those who plan to buy a Eurail multi-country pass and see where it takes them. The appeal of those types of trips is spontaneity, and a precise plan would, quite frankly, ruin that.  That being said, if you are looking to take that type of vacation, you can add that in to your overall travel plan to make sure you do, in fact, get to take that trip.

So how do you make a travel plan? Here are some steps to at least narrowing down your options. A travel professional can certainly help you in this process, especially since they are familiar with up-to-date destination information (exchange rates, destination news, travel trends, etc), which might affect your decisions.

• Make a rough draft list of your desired destinations. If there are too many to count, pick the top 10, or even 20 (depending on how often you plan to travel each year and how far out you want to plan).

• Examine this list and arrange them in order of “priority” – where you’re dying to see versus where you’d like to get to if you can.

• Look at this list again and arrange with respect to time and budget. If you’d like to spend a month exploring Australia but know that won’t be a possibility this year, move it down a few places on the list.

Once you’re here, it’s time to start formulating a more precise plan. This is where a travel planner can particularly be helpful, as the next steps allow you to create a more concrete, yet flexible, timeline and it’s important to know which times of year are best to visit which destinations, visa requirements (which can affect timing), and other factors that may influence your plan.

• Take your list reorganized list and divide it into years (if you’re lucky enough to travel more than 4 times per year, divide it into seasons or months as applicable).

• Look at the countries in each year (quarter) starting with year one and proceed chronologically. Discuss features such as climate, time desired at the destination, price points, and overall feasibility. Rearrange the destinations/trips as needed according to these factors adding potential time frams (month, seasons) to each.

• You should now have a solid, yet flexible plan. Take one final look. Is there anything that slipped through the cracks – a destination on your must see list that should be of highest priority yet somehow isn’t? Adjust as needed.

• If you have trips you plan to take in the next quarter, or even the next six months, it’s time to start planning.

• Your plan should be a living document that can be rearranged as needed. If you get the opportunity for travel that you weren’t expecting, rearrange the list as needed/desired. The plan should be a guideline to help make your travels more of a reality instead of a lofty goal. A travel plan that ties you down, however, would pretty much defeat the purpose.

Your plan may, and most likely will, change slightly as you go, but you now have a solid idea of your travels.  Of course, you should adjust for major life events that come along the way. Still, this makes the destination decision more manageable, and allows you the excitement of looking forward to future travels without the anxiousness that can often come during the early stages of the planning process. Need help creating your travel plan? Send me an email!

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We’re going to Paris – and we’d like you to come with us. Seriously. For the first time ever Chimera Travel is leading a very small group trip, and we’ve chosen to head to Paris. Here’s the unique part though – it’s not a “group tour” in the traditional sense (ie “If it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium”). It’s still a highly personalized, customizable trip. We’re simply starting with a place and date, adding in a few options for activities that you can participate in if you choose, and helping you plan the rest to fit your specific interests.

Why are we doing this? Have you ever looked at a friend’s pictures from their most recent trip and though, “I would love to do something like that” or “I can’t wait until my next trip… whenever that is”? Sometimes I find that my clients (and people in general) want to travel, but need a little inspiration – maybe they’re wondering if it’s the right time, or they don’t speak the language of a desired destination and are nervous about getting around. Or perhaps it’s just that with everything else going on in their day-to-day lives they don’t have the chance to think about their travels. This small group trip offers potential vacationers a specific travel goal (they don’t have to come up with the plans on their own), the comfort of having a professional travel planner right there in the destination and the freedom to still customize their trip.

The basics:

• Date: May 17, 2012 (evening departure, arrive May 18) through May 21, 2012
• Group Size: Maximum of 12 people, but trip will run with 8 or more

What’s included:

• 3 nights at a 4-star hotel in the heart of Paris (breakfast included)
• One ticket to the Louvre per person (can be used at any time during the trip)
• One hop-on-hop-off bus ticket per person (good for two days)
• Half day tour to Versailles – this is the only “group” activity, and it is optional.

Chimera Travel will work with each traveler individually to plan their airfare. We can also arrange for additional activities on an individual basis if requested. Finally, we can provide customized trip extensions outside of the city, either before or after the small group trip. Here are just a few suggestions:

• Provence and the French wine regions
• French Riviera
• Chunnel to Belgium or London for several days (did you know you can reach either in under two hours by train?)

Sound like something you might be interested in? We’d love for you to join us! If you are interested, please email us and we will happily answer any questions that you have and keep you informed of trip updates (there’s no obligation in contacting us for details). We look forward to helping you explore this fantastic city!

Most of my readers know that I love social media and blogging. All of you, I presume, know that I love to travel and plan travel. Fewer of you probably know that I have a M.S. in International Marketing from St. Joseph’s, which I received five years ago (unless you read my long overdue profile blog an remembered this fact, which would impress me). While Chimera has certainly involved all three of the above, I have been looking to truly combine these skills for a while, and some business planning over the summer allowed me to begin turning this into a reality.

When people ask me how I conduct research for my clients, my number one response is social media. (There’s a connection here – no pun intended – I promise). I have built up a network of followers, fans and truly new friends in the industry through my social media outlets – twitter, linkedin, facebook and now Google+. I have learned who has the most experience in various destinations, regions, and niches (i.e biking tours, culinary travel, etc). I have also made friends and connections located around the world. If I want to know the restaurant that serves the best gnocchi in a certain town in Italy, I know who to contact that’s right at the source. I find these connections invaluable.

One place that I’ve found a hole, however, is stand-alone hotels, often smaller ones. I have never had much trouble get a social media response from someone at a major, or even smaller, hotel chain.  On the other hand, when I tweet out that I’m looking for a luxury, stand-alone hotel for a client at “x” destination, I may get a response from someone who’s been or booked clients there, but rarely receive a response from the hotel directly. This means one of two things – either the hotel doesn’t have a twitter account, or they do but don’t have someone watching over it regularly to respond when queries like mine come through. I suspect, the answer for this gap is a combination of the two. These stand-alone hotels are the type of accommodation I work with most, and yet are the trickiest for me to interact with on social media. I realized that this type of hotel is under-represented in social media – most likely because of resource restraints, both human and/or budgetary. It’s tough for a smaller hotel to pull someone from their marketing team to do social media (I’m not sure this is a good idea anyways) and just as tough sometimes to hire someone full time for the task. These hotels may lack consistent blogging for the same reason. I want to help these hotels. I would like them to be as much in the “playing field” as the chain hotels, as they’re some of my favorites.

I decided to combine my love of travel, social media, marketing and hotels (yes, I truly love hotels) to begin doing social media marketing and blog consulting for stand-alone hotels.  I help create and oversee their social media accounts, create and work on their blogs and can include additional tasks such as website copy, email marketing and e-newsletters/e-publications. Because I believe in being very honest up front, a few things that I can’t do include website design, coding and anything of the like. I can take a look at a website and from the perspective of both the travel professional and traveler give my input on the appeal and the usefulness, as well as my thoughts on the design from a top level. I do not, however, actually create the new design unless you want to go with a blog on WordPress, Blogger or similar templates. However, I have some very contacts contacts that can do this, and am happy to work with them on these tasks if the need arises.

I’m incredibly excited about this new business development. However, as I’m sure you’re not quite as excited as I am – unless you’re a stand alone hotel that needs social media marketing, in which case please contact me! – I’ll end this rather long blog. All kidding aside, if you are in the hotel industry and are interested in my services, or know a property that may be, you may contact me by email at maya@chimera-travel.com or by phone at 856-266-8898.

Finally, I want to add that no means does the lack of social media and blogging apply to all stand-alone hotels. To those that are active in blogging and social media, I thank you for setting an example for others and would love to hear your success stories.

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