CVB, DMO, Tourism & Destination Marketing - Online Marketing and SEO for Travel and Tourism Sites » tourism marketing

What You Can Learn From BP’s Mistakes

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:01:57 +0000

Of all the lessons learned from the BP debacle, the most important was the first one BP learned. The internet is a powerful PR tool that can crush you quickly. Bad news gushed across the internet like…well, like a broken pipe. In the days, and now weeks, following the initial report, BP continued to make one bumbling decision after the next. It didn’t take long for every move that that BP made (many of them sluggish and poorly executed) to be scrutinized and commented upon by everyone who had an internet connection. BP quickly learned that they weren’t just managing an environmental disaster, they were managing a PR disaster – one they still haven’t grasped.

It’ll be years before the victims of this disaster recover, if at all. But, as we can’t unring that bell (or in this case, put the oil back in the pipe), we have to focus on what we can do to facilitate recovery for the lovely coastal towns whose beaches and reputations were stained by this disaster.

If you’ve got marketing dollars, now is the time to spend them.

Your tourism, visitor’s bureau, local or regional website needs to be addressing all the wonderful features of your town and reminding vacationers that you’re still open for business. If you’ve got local photographers, invite them to submit new photos and then get those photos out through Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

Build a social media campaign, like this one run by the Jamestown Foundation that encourages past visitors to talk about their vacations and events. If you’ve got a YouTube channel, so much the better. Link to vacation videos that show your sparkling beaches, your lovely shops, your friendly locals and fantastic restaurants. Need some inspiration? Check out Currituck County, North Carolina. Now is an excellent time to invest in a pay-per-click campaign that helps users reconnect with your town or find you for the first time.

Family vacations, reunions, honeymoons and holidays are all still happening. Make sure these people know that good things are still happening at your place, too.

Melissa Baumann is a Search Marketing and Tourism Specialist as well as a seasoned world traveler.

Target Your Tourism Advertising To Golfers

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:13:31 +0000

For some travelers, golf is a perfect relaxation getaway. If your destination includes or is close to golf courses, country clubs or golf trails, don’t let your CVB or tourism bureau miss out on an important traveler coming to your neck of the woods: the golfer. Reach out to these tourists by adding a link to your CVB or tourism Web page to give golfers a reason to visit your destination. Here are a few bits of information the link can provide:

How to pack their gear. With constant updates in FAA regulations, it isn’t uncommon to get to the airport and realize you’ve done something wrong, or something needs to be rearranged. Information geared towards golfers would consist of letting them know: clubs must be checked and secured in a hard case (which can be purchased at most golf shops), golf balls may be carried on the plane, play it safe and check the golf tees, which clubs to bring to keep the checked bag weight light, etc. Links to different airlines and the FAA’s Web site would also be helpful resources.
What threads to pack. Different golf clubs have different dress codes. Hard spikes might need to be left at home, but collared shirts are almost always a must. Be sure to know what different clubs in your area require to cater to your golfing tourist’s needs.
Proximity to the greens. How close are your hotel and convention centers are to golf destinations? Be sure to list directions and maps to and from each of your lodging facilities.
Weather expectations. Golfers check the forecast dozens of times a day to make sure their tee times are sunny and clear. Make sure your golfer tourists know how light/heavy to pack, and if they should bring an umbrella.

Targeting your tourism destination towards different travelers is a simple, foolproof way of increasing traffic to your area. Even if your destination doesn’t have its own greens, giving golfer tourists a friendly place to lay their heads will keep them coming back.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites and professional SEO and Internet marketing services.

Travel Advertising and Destination Marketing Through Pictures

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:32:23 +0000

If pictures are truly worth a thousand words, tourists and travelers are singing songs in unison about destinations worldwide on photo sharing sites. Photo sharing is a genre of social media that often gets left out of discussions around the social media watercooler conversations about Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. This is something CVB and tourism bureaus alike need to become more familiar with.

One of the most popular photo sharing sites is Flickr. Available on iPhone and most smart phones as an application, people can browse by keyword search hundreds of thousands of photos submitted by users. Only registered users are allowed to submit pictures, but anyone is able to browse. A keyword search of “Boston” in Flickr results in over 2 million photos. You can sort the results by revelvance, most recently posted or the most interesting. Here, pictures of Fenway Park, Prudential Center/downtown district, sunsets and sunrises and Boston Harbor put site visitors in the city without ever leaving their computers.

How is this beneficial to your CVB or tourism bureau? Say you live in a much smaller town. We’ll use Hueytown, AL as an example. A simple keyword search of Hueytown on Flickr still yields 658 pictures, showcasing the high school football team, popular restaurants, local churches and various home pictures of snowdays (a rare occasion). If you are trying to promote tourism for Hueytown or any surrounding city, you can see what everyone else sees when they view your destination. If you like what you see, you can involve your residents in photo opportunities to showcase your tourism marketing plan. If not, setting up a Flickr account takes less than 5 minutes and you can post your own content to show off your destination.

Flickr isn’t the only photo sharing social networking tool out there. Photobucket, Shutterfly, Zooomr, Picasa and Facebook are all similar programs that meet the same goal.

Not sure where to begin with social media building your CVB or tourism bureau online brand? When you sign on with Simple Tourism for our social media optimization package, you have the option of customizing a social media presence as it suits your business or bureau. Want to attract a specific demographic? We will find the right platform for you. Contact us today for more information or a free quote.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites and professional SEO and Internet marketing services.

Social Networking Travel Applications Encourage Travel

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:40:24 +0000

Social networking and social media Web sites can give CVBs and tourism bureaus an opportunity to take advantage of marketing their destinations to the entire world. A simple keyword search of “travel” in Facebook search yields quite a few applications. Here is a brief description of the top five applications, organized by number of users.

Travel Brain. Boasting 82,431 Facebook users, this application allows people to place virtual pinpoints on each destination they’ve ever traveled to in the world. By doing this, users receive a personalized analysis of the kind of traveler they are. After receiving a travel personality anaylsis, Facebook users can then recommend restaurants, hotels and attractions to others.
Travel. This application is as straightforward as its name. Here, the 11,517 active users simply post travel tickets in discussion forums. Different travel deals are posted by users from all over the world. Here, CVB and tourism bureaus have the opportunity to market their destination by posting travel deals with links to their Web sites. Travel agencies can post their Web sites easily on this social networking site to generate more traffic.
Travel Calendar. This application allows Facebook users to post all of their travel dates and view everyone else’s who uses this application. That way, people can see where their friends are going and it may be easier to visit each other in different cities around the world. This app is also available on iPhone or smart phone by visiting www.travelbuddies.mobi.
Travel Blog. Have you ever wondered where the best bakery is in Paris? Well, this application allows you to read the blog of someone who has visited or is visiting there so you can read a daily account of where people visit, eat and sleep in different travel destinations across the world. The parent site, www.travelblog.com, allows everyone to be a journalist and photojournalist, giving them the opportunity to post a day-by-day account of tourist destinations they visit.
Travel Journal. When Facebook users add this application to their profiles, they notice that Facebook automatically updates Travel Journal on their profiles the second they post travel blogs. This application only works with a SIM card (Facebook recommends Passport Lite, Passport, Passport Plus or SIMple Calling), and when users make a journal entry, their location and timestamp is recorded via their cell phones.

When you sign on with Simple Tourism for our social media optimization package, you have the option of customizing a social media presence as it suits your business or bureau. Want to attract a specific demographic? We will find the right platform for you.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites and professional SEO and Internet marketing services.