The Ritz-Carlton Facebook page has grown by 118% in terms of followers. The Ritz-Carlton Facebook page has grown by 118% in terms of followers.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has gone digital at this year’s ATM with a fully integrated social media campaign that promises to offer visitors a unique interactive experience.

 

The move is said to be in line with Ritz-Carlton’s growing awareness of its user-base which spends increasing amounts of time online.

As part of the luxury hotel company’s social media outreach during the Middle East’s largest travel trade show, The Ritz-Carlton has members of its social media engagement team present on its stand at ATM. Through the @RitzCarlton twitter handle, the team will provide live content and updates from the event.

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The introduction of a dedicated ‘Tweet Bar’ on The Ritz-Carlton stand HC5240 located in the Arena Hall, will give the brand’s global Twitter following access to news from the event as it unfolds in Dubai, including highlights from exclusive talks and seminars.

The Ritz-Carlton also uses Foursquare and The Ritz-Carlton Mobile App to tailor local content and provide engaging information relevant to their guests. This will be brought to life at ATM where a series of QR codes can be used to download property insights, including recipes from chefs and guided tours of hotels.

“We want to enrich the experience at the show for visitors, in addition to being a great luxury travel information resource for our Twitter followers by providing news as it is happening from the show,” said Chris Gabaldon, chief sales and marketing officer for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

“Each of The Ritz-Carlton social media channels grow in importance to us year-over-year as our guests live more and more of their lives in the digital space. Use of Facebook alone already stands at 40% of time spent online in the UAE, 30% in Kuwait and 21% in Saudi Arabia making Facebook an increasingly important channel for us to converse with our Middle East guests.”

The effectiveness of The Ritz-Carlton social media direction and content has led to significant year-on-year increases across all leading platforms, including Facebook which has jumped 118% to more than one million fans across the company’s brand page and 48 hotel Facebook pages. In addition, the brand Facebook Page’s year-over-year growth in “People Talking About This” went up 746%.

“The Ritz-Carlton philosophy is built around the concept of providing unique experiences for our guests that will leave indelible memories they take away from every visit to one of our hotels. With the continued growth and influence of social media – on both a local and global scale – we are seeing this amplified online more than ever before. It is therefore essential for us to remain relevant to the consumer and be strategic and sensitive about the ways in which we engage in the space,” said Gabaldon.