Or to be precise …
Can social media save the reputation and shattered competitive advantage of the Mauritian hotel industry?
Facts first
Mauritius’s tourism sector suffered some declines in 2009 and early 2010, with severe international crises that shook the entire world economy. At first glance, the aftermath weren’t as bad as you might think at the time. We continued to benefit from positive growth rates, with an industry average of + 7.3% for the period from January to March 2010 compared to the same framework in 2009. And yet something is still wrong with paradise, even if we receive 249971 visitors. during the first three months of 2010. The luxury niche appears to have lost some of its luster. The best local hotel groups seem to be going through rough tides. Naiade Resorts, for example, reported losses in the order of MRU 50 million at the end of 2009, with gains of MUR 11 million. The same goes for the Rogers Group, which includes high-end resorts like Heritage and Le Telfair Golf & Spa. His earnings were reduced by 51%. Similar image for NMH (New Mauritius Hotels), with a 25.3% profit reduction. These figures could well explain the gloomy atmosphere at the top of Mauritius’s hotel industry. This negative mood is understandable. While the pool of luxury rooms (4 stars above) had grown 115% in 2009, occupancy rates dropped to 40%. That was enough to slow down the investment drive in the sector and in 2011 the recovery is still very slow.
Was there a rescue plan in play or were we waiting for the storm to cool down and get back to normal?
According to Minister Nando Bodha, in an interview with Jean Da Luz in May 2010, Mauricio must resist his position and not give in to the siren songs about the reduction of our rates and the degradation of our current Diamond Destination status. This also corresponds to 2011. His immediate action plan spoke of strengthening the brand’s positioning in the face of fast-growing competition from countries such as Sri Lanka or the Maldives. And the operators just had to go down that same line, up. They have to try to find out about this little detail that would give them leadership, or at least stabilize it, without overly intensive financial solutions. But the main question remains. What can Mauritius 4-star hotels offer to their target markets, in addition to the age-old promise of unparalleled hospitality and quality of service? What else, especially with the Harte tragedy at the Legends, the 5-star flagship of the Naiade luxury hotel group?
And the tragedy of Harte?
The murder of the recently married daughter of the prominent Irish soccer mogul, in her hotel room at Legends, adds to the misery of Mauritius’s hotel industry. The havoc on communication, attacks on the media and all the chaos caused by thousands of online comments have surely hampered the efforts of Mauritius’ second economic pillar to accelerate its recovery. Within a week, Mauricio lost most of the brilliant goodwill he had built over years of relentless market improvement. The heartbreak of losing even a microscopic market share is relevant and legitimate. At least now we know how fast and how deep it goes when the negative buzz begins its world tour.
Get into social media, community management, and e-reputation. Are they genuine solutions?
Can the social bubble help the real world to consolidate real leads and generate new ones? Can the social media trend fix broken images? The answer is definitely yes. Not as THE absolute keys, but as the basis for the development of new user-centered solutions towards the consolidation and updating of the acquired competitive advantage. The tourism industry itself generates behaviors that remind us of what is happening in cyberspace when it comes to social media and networks. At some point when I was going on vacation to Club Med, it felt really good to be a part of a community, even if it was only for a week or so. Once at Club Med, you were considered and felt like a member for life (the GM, a Gentil member), with that one desire to come back year after year. To get an idea of this environment, the French feature films “Les Bronzs” are the right example, but they are definitely not a reference for times and settings like ours today. Social networks and networks have become for millions of online users a lifestyle of their own. People without a Facebook account are increasingly viewed as “homeless,” atypical, or asocial. With the social media mode enabled, a person will take time to check blogs, Facebook groups, or their LinkedIn connections. You will ask questions via tweets, compare everything online, and make a decision based on messy information intake. That’s the same pattern when it comes to choosing a hotel destination today. The client follows the trend of bloggers. This is where Social Networking comes in, basically offering a consolidated and relevant alternative to a user’s search process. Integrating social networks into the hospitality sector is almost a natural procedure. The prominent place of managing relationships in the day-to-day business with tourists makes it easier for the tourism industry to analyze and understand the behaviors, needs and expectations of the target. Social media management will simply go online to translate all this data into useful information for the development of relevant interactive platforms. The most complex part of establishing such a strategy lies in the pre-operational routine that involves a thorough investigation of the target segments. The investigation of social behaviors and expectations are the fundamentals underlying the production of relevant tool sets. This part of the setup is time consuming and proactive human resources.
Deal with electronic reputation.
The Harte tragedy has highlighted, at least for Mauritius’s tourism sector, the extent of the damage that uncontrolled and untapped global rumors can cause. In less than a week it seemed that this first and isolated episode had bitten the competitive advantage that our Diamond destination had. I felt that a foul-mouthed tsunami had overwhelmed the country’s white shores and changed them forever. This is where and when electronic reputation goes astray. Not dealing with it amounts to letting the doors open to more havoc. When a hotel group, which has more than regional ambitions, sees its name in negative confusion, it needs to react in real time, at least to defend its brands in the very heart of the battle. If the Naiade Group has managed well to preserve the global image of the group, at the same time it has allowed the degradation of the image of its 5-star flagship, consequently due to the total absence from the social media scene. They just didn’t monitor what was being said on the net while exercising high-level damage control on the physical scene. Today both the physical and cyber scene must be treated in the same way, because they both feed off each other. Bad online advertising ruins the brand image and is immediately reflected in the day-to-day business in the real world. And this can be as silly as a benign accusation on a z series blog, like:
I loved it, but there wasn’t enough shrimp in my seafood cocktail!
gold
I loved the mix of materials in their rooms, but why do they have to put those old copper taps in the bathroom?
These may seem silly, but that’s enough to generate similar resentment, trigger a never-ending blog thread, and end up as a long-running negative rumor, if nothing is done to give minimal explanations or to talk about taking relevant action through social networks. That is obvious now! A successful brand, group, company and even an individual have an obligation to ensure that their names are not mentioned loudly without any control or monitoring. The goodwill of a company is never as before at the mercy of its virtual reputation, its electronic reputation. This electronic reputation should be monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a quick response to comments and tactful responses.
Bottom line
When built properly, social media toolkits allow for seamless and seamless integration with today’s traditional communication and marketing philosophy. The ingenious management of social media and its satellite activities can effectively help hotel groups acquire, expand and nurture new target markets through the development of community-based content and events, through effective interactive platforms. This set, when framed within an adequate strategic framework, will aim to give a more social and sociable global image to the hotel group and its brands.