I have been in the Hospitality and Tourism business as a travel consultant most of my adult life with various travel management companies. The industry is ever changing with endless possibilities. With a Masters in Internet Marketing those
I have been in the Hospitality and Tourism business as a travel consultant most of my adult life with various travel management companies. The industry is ever changing with endless possibilities. With a Masters in Internet Marketing those possibilities increase because the internet is not going anywhere. This is the industry that I wish to remain in after graduation. The company that I currently work for is Egencia-an Expedia Company. Egencia has an internal hiring process that will allow me to move up within the company. Once the positions are filled with internal applicants, then any remaining positions are opened up to outside job seekers. The majority of travel management companies hire in this manner giving loyal employees first chance to improve their position within the company. Adding a Masters degree to my travel industry credentials will make me a valuable asset to Egencia and I will easily obtain a position on their Brand Management Team. The internet has changed the travel industry in a good way and made the world accessible to more people. However, there were detractors who said the internet would put travel consultants out of business. My current company is no exception.
However, my company hasn’t perished and that is because they moved with the tide and expanded their marketing and advertising on the internet. The Brand Management Team looked for relevant ways to utilize online media such as You Tube, Twitter (@Expedia,@CruiseCritic,@SeatGuru,@airfarewatchdog,@Venere_Hotels,@hotels_com,@hotels_com_EU, @hotels_com_US ,@hotwire,@hotwire_deals,@eLongEnglish), and even creating their own informational search engine you all may be familiar with called Trip Advisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/). Consumers are becoming more and more internet savvy and want to find the information with very little effort. Companies can put themselves on top like the one I work for in helping consumers obtain that information by their target markets with sites such as MarketResearch.com (http://www.marketresearch.com/) or Forrester Research (http://www.forrester.com/rb/research) and figuring out what areas of travel hold the market share and how to harness that information into a marketing campaign or website to attract the consumers interested in those areas. One such company, Contiki Tours (http://contiki.com/), has developed a niche’ market using these techniques by offering the 18-35 year olds guided tours to Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. The internet isn’t going anywhere and therefore, companies have to utilize its resources to remain relevant to stay on top of their industries.