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A simple flick through the various travel groups in Facebook and you will find questions like: What was the service like? Would you go there again? Do they provide free breakfast? Also, the answers are frank and to the point. "Breakfast sucked, never go there".

So with the web becoming increasingly important for the travel industry I am interested in knowing why more OTA's, Hotels, Airlines and the package operators are not spending more time, effort and energy into understanding the role that social media plays in the buying cycles of their potential clients.  Surely, many in the travel industry would intrinsically know the Internet is the best way to reach China’s increasingly affluent, increasingly independent travelers.

The use of social media marketing is not completely new to some in the travel sector. Some OTA's like Ctrip and Elong, as well as a select number of hotels (Accor Hotels China for example), airlines, and travel meta search sites; all kinds of companies effected by online travel research and booking have started to use social media to connect with travelers. There would not be many though that are using this in a significant way yet. (If you know of a travel firm that is using social media in a substantive way in China then please correct me).

While 2008 and 2009 were slow growth years for travel in China, the trend here continues toward a preference for researching and booking travel online. PhocusWright’s report, “Emerging Online Travel Marketplace in China,” estimated 19 percent growth for online travel in 2009. The same report estimates that, at $6.9 billion, online travel represents 11 percent of the travel market in China—and that proportion is expected to nearly double by 2011.

So, I just the point I am trying to make here is that with such a large increase in online travel bookings why is there so many in the travel industry still waiting to use social media or make the plunge into the digital marketing water?