This article is part of an ongoing project about social media used within hospitality and travel industries. Purpose of this project is defining social media and looking for examples of companies which implemented social media in their marketing efforts.

Last week Air France KLM, European based airline holding company and one of the largest airline companies worldwide, launched what they claim to be the first social network launched by the airline industry. All usual social elements such as sharing, recommendations and reviews flights, hotels, restaurants and destinations are included. Next to that, customers are able to display flights booked through Air France KLM on their profiles, find other members on the same flight and find members at similar destinations.

Should Air France KLM instead of setting up their own branded social network have collaborated with existing full featured social travel networks such as dopplr and tripit? 

This article is part of an ingoing project about social media used within hospitality and travel industries.  Purpose of this project is defining social media and looking for examples of companies which successfully implemented social media in their marketing efforts.

One of the major cruise companies worldwide is Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines. Carnival Cruises is part of Carnival Corporation & PLC, the world’s largest cruise company with over 80.000 employees and about 13 billion U.S. Dollar revenue recorded in 2007. Carnival Cruises is operating 22 ships which are expected to carry over 2.6 million passengers this year.

Already following Carnival Cruises through microblogging service Twitter for quite some time, we already got a taste of how Carnival Cruises is implementing social media in its marketing activities. In this article we are elaborating on what specific social media Carnival is using and learning how Carnival is interacting with consumers through social media.

Nowadays many marketeers are still struggling with a huge challenge and opportunity for companies; implementing social media as a marketing channel and marketing instrument. Many marketeers do realize the importance of social media, however are struggling with successfully implementing social media as a part of the marketing campaigns and driving value from social media.

In an ingoing project about social media used within hospitality and travel industries we are defining what social media really is, looking for examples of companies having successfully implemented social media in their marketing efforts and determining whether social media really can no longer be ignored by travel and hospitality industry professionals.