Tomeu Fiol (Hotelinking): “The tourism industry must evolve and see its customers as allies when it comes to promoting its brand.”

He previously worked as Marketing Manager in companies such as Hotetec and Aficine and was CEO of the Artifices web design studio. Throughout his professional career he has worked as a trainer in different areas such as Customer Services and Digital Marketing. He is the author of several books on the history of Palma’s cinemas and the paper guide Turisme Petit edited by Órbita Editorial.

What do you like most about tourism marketing?

It is a very satisfying type of marketing, as the general public perceives it as something that helps them to discover new places or destinations.

I think that more and more tourism companies are aware of this and are able to diversify and adapt their promotional campaigns to reach as many potential customers as possible.

What was the marketing industry like when you started working in it?

The simple answer is that it was 1.0 marketing, all one-way. Investment in advertising needed to improve and the resources that we had at our disposal were more limited. The impact needed to be global, designed to cover customers’ basic needs. There was little to no segmentation, and it was difficult to measure the results. In addition, each company produced, marketed and advertised its products.

Nowadays, the average customer has evolved significantly and can now be our brand’s specifier, generating their own content to influence other people. For better or for worse.

What do you think the trends in hotel digital marketing will look like?

It is difficult to say, not so much because of the lack of ideas but because of the constant market evolutions that force us to remain open to new trends at all times.

Let’s take the example of NFTs, which are now so fashionable. They are still too new to be perceived by the public as beneficial, especially since they are still a very complex concept to understand and explain.

On the other hand, there is a clear boom in ephemeral and audio-visual content. The tourism industry must evolve in this sense and see potential customers as allies when it comes to promoting its brand. Generating content adapted to the needs of each customer therefore leads us to a fundamental theme: segmentation and micro-segmentation.

Adapting our promotions more and more acutely, unlike 1.0 marketing, will allow us to boost conversion rates.

We have good examples in the rise of digital nomads looking for places to live with longer stays than a regular tourist, or a clear evolution of senior (or silver) tourism – guests looking for a different, more cultural and inspirational type of trip.

What are the essential technologies that a hotel must use to create effective digital marketing campaigns?

As I explained earlier, these tools allow us to segment our marketing campaigns as much as possible.

I would highlight, for example, those that allow us to obtain a verified customer database with as much information as possible, a term that we at Hotelinking have coined as Hotel Data.

On the other hand, a good CRM that allows us to automate campaigns and customise communications according to our customers’ tastes and needs.

It is important to understand which audience we are targeting and where they come from, so we must have quality information in any channel which is aimed at attracting customers. A powerful content manager and booking engine will be essential if we wish to maximise results.

But none of this makes sense unless it is accompanied by good results analysis. The information we get helps us improve and create better campaigns. Most tools incorporate that function, so there are no more excuses.

What do you like most about your job?

Above all, it forces me to keep up to date with trends. As it is such a large market, we have to understand everything that is going on in the sector, and then apply what fits our customers best.