Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts continues to expand its social media strategy with the launch of a new blog and a new online tool for travellers. The Have Family Will Travel blog is home to first-hand accounts of travels around the world with children, parents and extended families. The complimentary Memory Montage is a fun, easy-to-use tool that allows travellers to create their own holiday videos and share them with others.

Susan Helstab, executive vice president of marketing, notes that the two initiatives extend the brand’s relationship with travellers, and offer valuable services outside of its hotels and resorts. “With the new technologies available to us, we’re now able to extend the Four Seasons experience well beyond the brief period when guests are actually with us. With the family blog, travellers have access to trusted advice and perspectives to help plan their trips, while the Memory Montage is a fun tool that can capture that vacation feeling, to be enjoyed together and shared with others.”

Have Family Will Travel – A Modern Blog for the Modern Family

With contributions from top bloggers, travel journalists and even Four Seasons employees, Have Family Will Travel at family.fourseasons.com includes personal stories of places they’ve visited and things they’ve done, along with practical tips for enjoyable family adventures.

Current blog posts include a piece from the Momma’s Gone City blog about a recent family adventure in New York, and “7 Tips for Globetrotting with a Toddler” by Peter Pappas, an advertising copywriter and father of a two-year-old. In another story, Chef Brooke Vosika shares the fun of the annual Teddy Bear Teas at Four Seasons Hotel Boston – and offers ideas for creating a tea party at home (as he’s done for his daughter and her friends), along with his own recipe for gingerbread cookies.

Snap and Share with the Memory Montage

The new Memory Montage – accessible from the Have Family Will Travel site or the company’s Facebook page – is another way to capture memories and share with others. It’s an uncomplicated tool that allows anyone to upload travel images and videos, set them to music and create an on-line travel video to share with others. The Memory Montage uses Animoto technology, with easy-to-follow instructions, and is completely free.

Four Seasons Connects

As Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts continues to incorporate social media into its day to day business, the company sees real time interactions as a natural extension of its service model. From virtual wine tastings on Twitter to Facebook pages awash with visitor images and timely conversations, to active participation in location-based apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla, Four Seasons has its finger solidly on the pulse of the modern traveller.