Facebook has launched a new service to help hotels gain direct bookings. This will help struggling hotels compete with the powerful OTAs according to Marco Benvenuti, Chief Marketing And Strategy Officer And Co-Founder
Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer and Co-Founder at Duetto
As co-founder and chief marketing and strategy officer for Duetto, Marco guides product vision, direction and implementation. Prior to Duetto, he was Executive Director at Wynn and Encore resorts in Las Vegas, where he founded and managed the Enterprise Strategy Group. Marco was also recently named the Entrepreneur in Residence at Cornell University’s School of Hospitality Administration, and can be seen speaking or lecturing at industry events and hotel schools worldwide.

I have posted this story to reinforce the benefits in empowering your FB page with testamonial of achievement that entering the business development program, Asia Pacific Tourism Awards by APACTO.
Enhancing social media, website, email, business cards etc with industry association memberships and bragging and boasting about industry awards is so easy and so cost effective, it should be a must in every marketers tool kit. 

I have been chatting over my 34 years in tourism to hundreds of tourism pros in many Apac countries including Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Canada USA, India, Indonesia and found the majority do not belong to a local, state, national or international association.
A couple of reasons were forthcoming and not surprisingly so.
The main detractor was cost vs perceived rewards for the spend. many who had the budget available stated that they felt they got little or no benefit from the association itself however by paying fees, they were able to use the association logo on their website and social media to create the prominent corporate image.
Does this work? You bet it does!
The problem is so many do not see the immediate advantages and so do not spend on this type of marketing...their loss! Others simply do not have the extra for this marketing straategy.
APACTO offers membership for free to allow all to have the benefits of a stronger brand image and be a valuable part of the strong one-voice in Tourism in 46+ countries.
This free membership also encourages operators to retain their affiliations with their intimate, local organizations. 

 Travel and tourism marketing professionals are overlooking the benefits of joining their available industry associations and in particular, missing the business development advantages that a well planned, authentic Tourism AWARDS program creates. 
There are numerous hotel marketing strategy professionals advising on essentials such as these below and I have added the compelling contribution that APACTO and Asia Pacific Tourism Awards have to many of these essentials.

1. GO LIVE WITH A GREAT WEBSITE: By the display of an industry association’s logo and a well-earned Tourism award will definitely attract the readers’ attention and enhances the brand prestige.
2. DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM THE REST: Once again, for any hotels displaying a legitimate Tourism and hospitality Award such as Asia Pacific Tourism Awards certainly achieves this goal.
3: GET RECOMMENDED BY A REAL AUTHORITY: What better recommendation can you get than from an industry organization such as APACTO which covers 46+ countries of the biggest tourism and economic region in the world?
4. APPOINT A SALES REP AND REAP THE REWARDS: Industsry association and Awards gives the rep strong and effective marketing tools for presentations.
5. GET SAVY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA; Organization logos and Awards announcements make great social media content. Particularly the Apac Tourism Awards which requires continuous inspection and judging which provides interesting boasting and bragging for fresh content.
6: KEEP AN EYE ON REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The Awards ratings and reviews are fantastic announcements for online reputation and appear on the main sites such as Tripadvisor, Facebook.

So there you are, it is so obvious that the smart tourism business managers will be overjoyed with the results of joining APACTO ( and it is free!) and then entering the Apac Tourism Awards.