In January this year, EyeforTravel featured an article titled Why 2012 is going to be ‘The Year of SoLoMo’. The three initiatives of SoLoMo (social, local, and mobile), are key components of the new always connected travel consumer’s behaviour.

Social is about sharing our travel experiences, mobile speaks to our ‘always on-the-go’ nature – and is supported by the technological advancements in smartphones - and local relates to our need for information from our immediate environment.   

The convergence of these three initiatives provides a new ‘sweet spot’ for travel brands to engage customers on the move.   The location-aware capabilities of smartphones enable brands to streamline search results as well as target the customer with highly relevant local offers.

The integration with social media provides an ideal opportunity to encourage on-site guest experience sharing.   A great example of this is that of Fiesta Hotel Groups’sUshuaia Beach Hotel Ibiza featured in a recent EyeforTravel article.

EyeforTravel’s Social Media & Mobile Strategies for Travel 2012 conference in San Francisco earlier this year in March saw an insightful presentation by Lise Struwing, Director, Web Strategy for luxury hotel group Loews Hotels.  Struwing teamed up with Margaret Mastrogiacomo, Manager, New Media & Creative Strategy at HeBS to demonstrate how they took an integrated approach to ‘SoLoMo’ designed for maximum return on investment.

The video presentation can be viewed here.