Apps And ABTA

The ABTA convention. Having decided to give Tunisia a miss this year, the ABTA delegates relocated to Palma, thus making Mallorca even more of a beneficiary of the Arab spring. I say delegates. Looking down their number, there seemed to be more people from the media and consultants than there were actual travel people, but maybe it was a false impression.

Behind the stage, the screen which relayed the speakers and their presentations made constant reminders as to the addresses for the conference Twitter, text and Mobile App. Everyone seemed to be following this instruction religiously. Nowhere has there ever been such a collection of smartphones or notepads being tapped or scrolled away on, or maybe they were all just booking their holidays.

Alastair Stewart, ’twas he, “News At Ten”, boing! Ah, I remember the days. The mid-70s. Alastair never made it to the presidency of the National Union of Students, despite his having been bookies’ favourite at one point. Instead, he was agitator-in-chief behind the then bearded and still bearded Charles Clarke, “Two Pizzas”, who ate fewer pizzas back then. Alastair has not been as animated since. Until now. He was a thoroughly impressive moderator.

There was gloom from some chap from the “Telegraph” to set the tone. Might as well all pack up and go home now. Let’s get this convention off to a really uplifting start. Or maybe not. Then there was all sorts of stuff about social media, the internet, mobile apps and what have you. The delegates were all studiously examining their smartphones and downloading the latest app to be given a speaker’s mention. Whether anyone was really listening, who can tell? There were plenty of images of apps on phones for everyone to look at instead.

A showpiece presentation wasn’t a presentation as such. It was a conversation between Peter Long of TUI Travel and Miguel Fluxá who founded the Iberostar hotels. Despite an explanation as to who Sr. Fluxá was, it was still felt necessary to give him a rock-star musical accompaniment as he took to the stage, The Who’s “Who Are You?”. It seemed rather discourteous, but I doubt that Sr. Fluxá was aware of it or if he is a Who fan. Or perhaps he is. He has ageing rock-star hair, a lush silver mane over a face that reminds one somewhat of a tanned Tom Baker, as in Doctor Who. So, The Who was right after all.

There was stuff on the environment. Oh calamity. Hopefully, the loonies who disapprove of the climate-change theory were thin on the conference ground or were too busy charging their smartphones to have heard. Businesses, though, are setting targets for renewable energy and the like, and it’s going to change everyone’s lives. Something like that. One business has embarked on a wider sustainability assessment, that of an economic impact analysis that considers the value it as a business brings to areas in which it operates. I wondered if the chap from TUI was listening. Value to areas in it operates. All-inclusives. You get the picture.

And finally, as they say on “News At Ten”, or used to, there was Willie Walsh, boss of IAG, the British Airways-Iberia merged outfit (he was accompanied by ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky”; still, could have been cheesier, “Up, Up And Away” for example). He slagged off the British Government and the transport minister in particular and criticised the Air Passenger Duty, which you would expect him to. But he has good reason. There’s the UK trying to be all righteous and the Chinese are building 90 airports with up to eight runways each.

A fascinating day indeed, made more fascinating by meeting the British Consul who I asked if he might fancy heading off to Alcúdia for a trip down the Mile to see the effects of all-inclusives. If he were to be invited … . Maybe he should be. Decent chap, though, and he seems to know a lot about cricket, while nowhere about his person was there any evidence of a smartphone, let alone the use of an app.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Revolution Is Televised

The riots have claimed Mallorcan victims. Bar Brits. The cancellation of the international footy has deprived them of an important date in their calendars; those, that is, for whom the “season” revolves around the peaks of the football season and England internationals in particular.

Rather than cries of “England till I die”, Bar Brits reverberate to the calls of “shoot ’em” and not “shoot, come on Rooney, shoot”. These calls mix with demands that the army be brought in, that water cannons be used, that the birch be brought back along with National Service and, for good measure, hanging. Enoch is invoked, as Enoch tends to be invoked at such times.

There isn’t a whole load of sympathy as Sky plays over and over scenes of unrest, looting, burning cars, burning buildings and fights with police. The Bar Brit punter doesn’t want any of this; he wants to be able to watch the telly in order to vent his frustration at another dismal England performance and to shout abuse about Capello.

Sky though, along with the rest of the media, have played their own part. Social media may have been significant (why should anyone be surprised by this?), but rolling 24-hour news and constant images are also significant. They fuel greater disturbances as the hoody class seeks to find itself captured on camera.

This is, after all, the happy-slapping generation, one brought up on actual and personal depictions of unruliness and violence and on its self-aggrandising glorification. Being seen, albeit with a face masked or covered by a hood, is what counts. Being caught on digital film is the esteem maker for those without esteem. Attacks on reporters are not attacks to prevent filming, but attacks for attacks’ sake. To prevent filming would undermine the ethos of riot in 2011; these have been riots by media and not social media. They disprove Gil Scott-Heron’s poetry of  the revolution not being televised.

And in Bar Brits, as in bars in Britain, the public is served its media diet and only too willingly regurgitates it. Words on the lips of Bar Brit occupants are “pure” and “criminality”, a curious juxtaposition of adjective and noun, but one spouted as the on-message spin-bite by police, the Home Secretary and a Prime Minister forced to leave his tennis kit behind in Tuscany.

In 1981 the revolution was televised, too. A difference, however, was that there wasn’t the cachet attached to being at the end of a lens. It was a televised revolution which gave an incomplete and at times false picture. Ealing, where I lived then, was caught up but not to anything like the way the trouble was represented. Unlike this time.

The revolution is televised not only on Sky and the BBC but also on Spanish TV. Riot by media is a global event, and the whole world can have its say. Spanish telly and press are lapping it all up, as are the chatterers on news sites. Spanish explanations for the riots cover easy access to benefits, Muslims, British imperialism, Conservative governments, a British mob mentality dating back to the Mods and Rockers, and the absence of a middle class in Britain. Some will be the same explanations of Brits themselves; others will make no sense, like the belief that there is no middle class and only rich and poor.

The Mods and Rockers one initially seems odd, but may not be as the riots are only partially a race thing. Whitey is engaged as well, finally finding a cause about which he can riot, one that The Clash called for as long ago as 1977. And the cause is a pair of Nike trainers.

Buried among the Spanish prescriptions on the internet, which have expanded into a free-for-all aimed at Magalluf and Benidorm tourists and demands for Gibraltar and the Malvinas to be returned, are the occasional voices who wonder if the same thing might happen in Spain. But as Spain has a middle class, and Britain doesn’t have, then presumably it won’t. You do get some pretty weird and distorted views, as you do from the Brits themselves.

Everyone knows what the causes of the riots are; or rather, they reckon they know. I have my own views as to the causes, but why should you be interested in knowing them? They might be right, they might be wrong. However, unlike 1981, when I lived in a part of London that was caught up in the riots, albeit to nothing like the extent that the media suggested, and lived in a city where I knew well enough the issues in Brent, Brixton, Southall, what do I know now?

Perhaps I know far more, however, because these are riots by media and the revolution is very clearly televised.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Henry The Seventh: Social media success

Do you “like”? Do you “tweet”? Do you tube? Does your business do any or all of these things and, if so, does it really know what it is doing with them?

Social media. Social networks. Once upon a time, social networks were just networks of people, doing what people do, i.e. being social, being friends, being business acquaintances. Whatever the type of network, the purpose is the same: to make contact and connections.

And that’s what it’s about. “Making connections.” The words of Seamus Cullen at No Frills Excursions when I told him I was going to be talking to his business partner, Toni Alenyar, about social media.

No Frills is a small business, but it is a successful one, and one reason why it is successful is that it goes about its business in a purposeful fashion. It plans. And among its plans is one for the use of social media. I have a copy: all fourteen pages of it.

Not every business can devote significant time and resources to social media, but most have come to appreciate that they are, as Toni says, “essential tools”. Many businesses have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and the like, but do they really appreciate what they are doing with them?

No Frills is guided by a seven-step strategy. It is one that is partly specific to it as an excursions’ operator, but most of the steps can be applied to or adapted by any business. How the company uses social media is geared to meeting one or more of these seven steps. Crucially, they are not the company’s, they are the customer’s.

From the customer’s seeking of holiday inspiration and information to his planning and decision-making, to his taking action (making a booking and travelling) and to his sharing of his experiences, social media accompany each step along the way.

No Frills tests out any social media going. With some it is a case of learning what they offer and which may assume greater importance in the future. But with all its social media activity, there is a wish for the business to be visible, to enhance its reputation and to be seen as innovative.

Of the different networks, the most important to the company are Facebook, You Tube and Trip Advisor. The glowing reviews that No Frills attracts on Trip Advisor come quite obviously as a result of good experiences and good service, but the company actively encourages customers to review what it does, whether good or not so good, and spends time in responding to reviews which are posted.

The sharing of experiences by customers on Trip Advisor is the seventh step in the company’s strategic approach, but it can just as easily be seen as the first step. As Toni points out, Trip Advisor is that significant now that a majority of travellers consult it as part of their initial planning.

The attention given to the traveller’s information-gathering process is one that has led No Frills to be highly proactive and innovative. For example, it now makes short videos about hotels and posts them on You Tube. Why? Because someone interested in coming on holiday searches for information about specific hotels. No Frills videos give a short tour of the hotel and other relevant information about the resort, and relevance is a keyword in Toni’s vocabulary.

But how does this benefit the business? It’s not about selling as such. Of course, selling is the outcome that is sought, but it comes back to making connections. Someone sees a video about a hotel, it comes from No Frills, there will be some means of connecting to more No Frills information and the result … There may be a sale either online or in-resort. Critically though, trust and credibility are being created.

Actually quantifying the benefits of the company’s social media activity is nigh on impossible. Toni freely admits this. But then much promotional activity is hard or impossible to quantify. It is hard to place a value on the benefits derived from visibility, reputation and innovation, but social media, used well and planned well, will bring such benefits, and the importance attached to social media by No Frills is reflected by the fact that there is now a full-time member of staff who concentrates on the company’s internet presence.

There is way more to the No Frills internet story. I’ve not mentioned how Google search enquiries have helped to create a whole separate website, I’ve not mentioned that each of the four No Frills offices (three in Puerto Alcúdia and one in Puerto Pollensa) has its own You Tube channel, and I’ve not mentioned Henry the elephant. You might guess though that Henry has his own Facebook page.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.