News Analysis: Influencing Hospitality

Social media “influencers” in the GCC are on the rise. All people need to do is take a look at either their personal Instagram page or at a specific brand to see how fashion and lifestyle bloggers are increasing posts about hotels, restaurants or airlines, which some believe boost bookings.

Visit Dubai — the emirate’s official tourism Instagram account — is no stranger to reposting popular Dubai content from influencers. It has collaborated with Jetman Dubai (164K followers), the world famous Russian #FollowMeTo duo Nataly (1m followers) and Murad Osmann (4.5m followers), and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan (5.4m followers). A growing number of hotel brands are also heavily relying on the major marketing potential of social media influencers and are diversifying their efforts across a slew of platforms.

However, tapping into social media influencers isn’t a particularly new trend.

Marriott International’s Tribute Portfolio brand, for example, partnered with shopping platform LiketoKnow.it in 2016, and allowed travellers to browse social media influencers’ curated content on Instagram, tap a photo and receive a link via email to book a stay at a featured property.

In an interview with Hotelier Middle East, Fairmont The Palm director of marketing and communications Katerina Dixon said: “Hotels decide to team up with influencers as, based on our previous experience, the influencers’ campaign is a lot more effective due to genuine and content flexibility on social media via text posts, images, video content, with a better 360-degree immersion of the experience.”

“The trend has taken on exponentially and is very similar to celebrity marketing and endorsements in the past. In the public space anyone these days can be a mini celebrity — giving the power to engage, influence and recommend,” she added.

Taj Dubai is another property that recently collaborated with Instagrammer Rosemin Manji (@RoseMinsWorld). According to director of sales and marketing Sahiti Gaddam: “Teaming up with influencers is a powerful way to connect with audiences in the digital age, where sharing of experiences has global appeal. Endorsements are made with a single social media post. Influencers have their own unique database of followers who aren’t restricted geographically. And platforms like Instagram and Snapchat lend themselves to a strong level of engagement too.

“Having said this, the selection of the right influencer and ROI needs to be taken into account to produce the best results for the hotel.”

Some of the questions that often arise are: why do hotels and tourist boards team up with influencers rather than traditional methods of advertising? Fairmont the Palm recently teamed up with Nadine du Toit and Kelly Lundberg, and Dixon explained further: “Both ladies are real experts in their own fields. Nadine Du Toit (@glorygirlfit) is a highly reputable fitness instructor and nutritional advisor and Kelly Lundberg (@kellylundbergofficial) is a celebrity stylist and a fashion icon within and outside the UAE region. These two ladies complement each other so well and their following and engagement on their respective social media channel is very high. Both became role models for the UAE community as the pioneers of the social media trend for active lifestyle and inspiring their fans to make them look and feel better.”

However Taj Dubai has a two-pronged approach. “We typically don’t compare traditional advertising versus influencers as both medium have their strengths. We work with both depending on the message and/or opportunity. Our agency sources the right profile of influencers to associate with based on brand values, positioning and common purpose. That way it’s a win-win for all involved,” Gaddam added.

So why are more hotels collaborating with social media stars and how do they calculate a tangible return on investment? According to Dixon, Fairmont The Palm has a number of measuring tools in place including the count of hashtags, engagement, sharing, reposting, and percentage increase in traffic that comes back to the site, as well as an increase in number of followers on its own social media channels. “Although, most of our campaigns so far have been to strengthen our brand awareness and to showcase our product,” Dixon noted.

It’s not just hotels who are increasingly collaborating with influencers. Budget airline FlyDubai also recently worked with Instagram influencers, including du Toit. A Flydubai spokesperson told Hotelier Middle East: “Alongside our traditional methods of communication, Flydubai works with a number of social media influencers that share our brand values and the diversity of our network. Our social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube provide engaging content for our fans and the social media influencers we work with contribute to this.

“In addition to reviewing the alignment of our brand values to the social media influencers, we also review their content to drive conversation, reach and level of interaction with their own followers who are our target audience,” the spokesperson told Hotelier.

“Our aim is to continue to grow the number of followers while maintaining our high engagement levels. Our social media channels provide a two-way dialogue, giving our fans the opportunity to interact and connect with us on a regular basis.”

Both Taj Dubai and Fly Dubai asserted they do not hire influencers to just collaborate with them on projects.

So, how do hotels and airlines select the right influencer for their brand from a sea of choice? “It is very difficult these days as everyone can become an influencer. Follower count does not necessarily translate to influence anymore.

“Everyone with an opinion about your product or service that posts on social media has the power to influence their friends, family and co-workers. We tend to partner up with ambassadors of medium-size follower counts but with higher engagement, relevance, substance and creativity to their posts,” Dixon said.

On the influencer side of things, Nadine Du Toit told Hotelier Middle East, "I need to identify with the brand to collaborate with them. It's been an amazing journey working with brands that people can identify with." 

But not everyone is keen to join the influencer bandwagon. At sister title Caterer Middle East’s advisory panel for its upcoming Food & Business Conference 2017, there were dissenting voices.

Jumeirah Restaurant Group general manager Emma Banks said: “Most of us, when we launch menus or you do something, you invite them all in and you hope they have a positive experience, talk nicely about you and post nicely about you.

“Do we have a budget for them and do we physically pay them? No. And I have been approached by people charging AED 15,000 (US $4,084.41) or whatever and it’s just at the moment an absolute ‘no’. And I hope we all hold the line on this because it’s the thin edge of the wedge.”

M Management Company managing director Alex Economides launched Mythos Kouzina & Grill and Nola Eatery & Social House said he remained unconvinced about using social media influencers.

At the advisory panel, he commented: “I think you’re fooling yourself [if you work with influencers]. If you pay to get good comments and to get likes, and position yourself to look as if you’re great and maybe you’re not really that great.

“Getting the real raw feedback from the customer is so important in driving your success —­­ if you don’t have raw feedback, you’re not going to be successful. You could be doing badly and yet you have nice, rosy comments — it’s like you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

“All you’re doing is damaging your business by lying to yourself.”

Rüya Dubai executive chef Colin Clague commented: “We had a table last week who came for a free meal and they were social media influencers, and they were posting pictures saying ‘here we are at Rüya’ — they didn’t post a single picture of the food.”

Despite the varied opinion on social media influencers, the fact is that they seem to play a significant part in the future of the industry.

According to a statistics report from Salesforce, 70% of brands are increasing their social media spend this coming year. That’s not all — according to The Social Media Revolution, user generated social posts account for 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 brands. And the more people mention your brand on social media, the more popular and relevant, that brand will be on Google’s search engines.