Title: Public Relations in the Tourism Industry: Obsolete Instrument Due to Blogs, Facebook & Co.?
Abstract: They seem to be in a never-ending free fall: every month, in an almost dramatic way, the traditional print media in Germany and nearly every western industrial nation are losing circulation and, most of all, influence on their readers. Over decades, the consumers in the country of the world travel champions have learned, lived and loved the traditional media – this attitude is changing. With an unprecedented consistency, consumers are turning away from the print media, leaving front row seats to Facebook, YouTube and other social networks. New forms of communication are infiltrating areas to which nobody had access before and are becoming a part of our everyday life, replacing daily newspapers and magazines. The challenge for the travel industry is that only news and messages with an explicit access authorisation are admitted to this intimate zone. The reshuffled cards in the world of information confront an industry which has not yet shown a particular willingness to innovate with one of the most urgent questions ever: how can we reach the customers of today – and especially the customers of tomorrow – when the old media cannot address them anymore and readers trust recommendations on the internet more than their newspaper? In 2010, it will not take a lot of foresight or even courage to predict reliably who will win the race, online or print media. When it comes to the purchase decision for a vacation, the prize of information superiority goes extensively to the electronic media on the internet already today. However, we still do not know how long this process of change will take. How much longer can the industry rely on the “young seniors” and their familiar consumer behaviour? What course needs to be set today to win the consumer’s favour in order to be successful tomorrow? Where in the web do dangers lurk? In times when journalism becomes “partially weaker”, as the German journalist Peter Voß stated, public relations is facing numerous new tasks. It is true that PR experts will have to reposition themselves to persist in the altered marketing mix. One thing is beyond question: the new democratic form of communication in every direction is a one-way street – there is definitely no going back to the old rules of the game!
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
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