DMOs should focus on web initiatives

I read a post today by Joe Buhler about the Caribbean Tourism Organization and the excellent job being done by Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace. The part of the post that resonated the most with me is the following quote:

“What I also applaud him for is the strong focus on web based initiatives to get the message out and stimulate market demand. It is today the most effective means of communications with any audience. Also, the tight integration of information with a direct online booking functionality for the entire region will only increase the effectiveness of effort and improve the ROI of any investment.”

I could not agree with Joe more. Although traditional marketing techniques are an important part of any overall marketing campaign, providing a multi-dimensional approach to online marketing provides something traditional marketing cannot, and that is interaction. Users crave interaction, discovery, and adventure. If Mr. Vanderpool-Wallace can focus the DMO on providing compelling content, exciting unique experiences, and the memories that will last a lifetime, then the travelers will come.

On a side note, the issues of using online marketing and technologies to stimulate interest in a destination, online booking, social media and user generated content are all subjects at the upcoming Canada-e-connect conference in Vancouver, BC on November 7-8th, 2007. I will be attending both the conference and the Canadian E-Tourism Awards. While on the judging committee for the awards I had the opportunity to review dozens of sites from across Canada and although many of them were compelling and well designed, we have only scratched the surface in terms of the potential opportunities for marketing destinations online.

I believe that online tourism has a long way to go to catch up with online travel. Thanks, however, to consumer driven trends like online research, peer reviews, and blogging, the distance between promoting tourism in a region to a traveler and that traveler purchasing travel commodities online is shrinking. If DMOs can continue to evolve their content strategies to become online destinations focused on experiences rather than travel, there will be a shift in distribution power from the intermediaries to the suppliers. Regional activity and accommodation suppliers will have the ability to partner directly with DMOs to market their niche products. These products will not be available through traditional channels.

Top 10 Search Engine Marketing Strategies for Travel Marketers

By Scott MacGregor
Director of Marketing and Client Services
Search Intelligence

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is now a serious marketing consideration for travel marketers with three-fifths of all online travel shoppers reporting that they rely on search engines as their research and planning resource (source: PhoCusWright). Clearly, search engine visibility can be a major determinant for online success.

There is a great deal of good information written on the subject of search marketing, however little focuses on some of the more unique characteristics of travel and even less specifically for Canadian travel companies and markets. Because of this I decided to share my ‘top 10’ travel search marketing strategies here and – while some are certainly true for other markets besides travel – many of these focus on specific aspects unique to online travel marketing in Canada.

1. Create unique, compelling and relevant content. Leverage your own travel expertise and knowledge to publish meaningful travel content that targets that much discussed long tail of travel search. Uniqueness is worth stressing, syndicated content available to hundreds of other websites may provide some value but know that Search Engines filter duplicate results and the SEO benefits may be little.

2. Become knowledgeable in SEM (or hire someone who is). This is not (entirely) a shameless plug for SEM firms or others. It just not as simple as it used to be and not all web developers, programmers or designers have the skills to compete in the hyper-competitive travel space. So whether you outsource or develop skills in-house, you need to work with people who have developed expertise working in competitive markets like travel.

3. Get quality links. Consider buying directory listings (like Yahoo!) and work on getting relevant links from local sites (if you are a local travel business), suppliers, partners, trade organizations and even your clients where appropriate. Avoid link-swapping schemes and focus instead on getting good links from high quality trusted sites in your locale, industry or vertical.

4. Avoid ‘tricks’ and shortcuts. The search engines are sophisticated and some of those tricks of the past like keyword stuffing and site cloaking don’t work and, worse yet, may get you in hot water. Protect your brand online (from penalties imposed by search engines) and don’t waste your time and energy.

5. Understand your Web Analytics. Google Analytics is free and provides customizable reports that allow you to set and report on Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) like Unique Monthly Visits, Search Engine Referred Visits, Conversions, etc. If you use a hosted reservation system be sure it allows you to track conversions. Whatever your analytics solution, set goals and KPI’s and diligently monitor them.

The next three points relate to more specifically to Paid Placement (or Pay-per-click) tools like Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing.

6. Employ best practices in Paid Placement. Be sure you understand how to use Paid Placement most effectively. Are you tracking conversions online? Do you really want Content Match traffic or is it just on by default? Are you using all the ‘best’ keywords and employing appropriate keyword matching options like negative, phrase or exact matching? Have you split your campaigns into thematic groups with relevant ads and landing pages?

7. Use Geotargetting to segment your message. The major search engines all now offer geographic targeting within Canada and given our huge regional differences in travel preferences across our great country (and beyond) we should be using this tool to segment our audiences. Selling vacation packages to sun destinations? Maybe you show Dominican and Cuba packages to Eastern Canadians, and Pacific destinations like Hawaii or Los Cabos to Western Canadians? A Whistler hotel may send Washington State visitors to a ‘Drive and Save’ promotion while Europeans see something else (with pricing in Euros)?

8. Test everything and measure results against your desired result. This media is immensely fluid and trackable so try different ads and landing pages in your Paid Placement campaigns. Use Analytics and Conversion tracking to evaluate performance and understand that website and campaign optimization is the art of continuous refinement.

9. Use Local Search when applicable. If your business is likely to be searched with a regional qualifier (‘Victoria BC Boutique Hotel’ for example) be sure you have done the work to make sure it can appear in Google Local or Yahoo! Local results. Is your geographic location clearly available to the search engines?

10. Retain your customers with Email, RSS, Blogs or other compelling reasons to return. Engage prospects and clients to return to your website so that you don’t have to re-acquire them later. Send email followups, leverage Web 2.0 or social media and consumer generated media to engage or share photos, stories and reviews.

Sustainable Tourism Starts with Communities

I’ve been asked recently how sustainability impacts local tourism and how local tour operators can benefit from the latest initiatives around economic and environmental sustainability. For many local tour operators, the questions surrounding sustainability usually focus on costs and impact on profits. For example, what can a tour operator do to be environmentally active and remain profitable? The answer depends on the operators geographic location and their market. In North Vancouver, for example, which is a rather affluent tourist destination there are a number of local van and bus tour operators who take tourists to local attractions like the Capilano Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain, or the Lonsdale Quay. All of them drive fifteen passenger (or larger) vans or mini-buses. One creative entrepreneur however, uses a Toyota SUV powered by vegetable oil. The company, called North Van Green Tours, provides a very similar service to the other tour companies, but has added an environmental spin that promotes the sustainability model. Obviously there are added costs to the conversion of buses and vans to run on vegetable oil, but in an already very competitive landscape, the added marketing benefit may be worth the expense.

In other less affluent communities, local tour operators can promote a sustainable model of tourism by focusing on non-motorized methods of transport. In Melaka, Malaysia, for example tourists can take a human powered rickshaw tour of templates, mosques, and unique homes. These types of tours are sometimes difficult to find because they are not mainstream and often off the beaten path, but they are low impact, carbon neutral, more interesting, and generally less costly then the motorized air conditioned equivalent. Encouraging and promoting this type of tourism is difficult to do on an operator by operator basis and requires the intervention of a DMO or regional tourism agency to help foster innovation and diversity in the tourism products delivered by small communities. The other role of the DMO is to ensure that these products make their way up the consumer food chain and become the norm rather than the exception when travelers search for local tour products. Travelers that have unique or interesting travel experiences tend to share those experiences and will use social networking or blogging tools to promote them.

In this age of the Long Tail of Travel and the shift in consumer buying patterns, small operators that provide unqiue experiential travel opportunities are discovering that social media, user generated content, and peer to peer reviews are providing them with marketing opportunities that many would not otherwise consider or afford. By helping to promote local tourism and the distribution of local products, we can all promote a model of sustainable tourism.

What in the World is the T-List?

I’ve had several people ask me about the T-List, primarily other bloggers who have heard about it but can’t find the most recent version of it. Quite simply,the T-List is an evolving list of travel related blogs from around the World. The concept was started by Matthieu at the Radar Blog back in March of 2007. Honestly, I have no idea where the most recent list is, and I suppose that is part of the fun of the list. It is moving, evolving, and growing independently in various places around the Web. Jens Thraenhart at the Canadian Tourism Commission started a group on Facebook to try and bring T-List bloggers together. As of today, there are 69 members.

If you would like to add yourself to the T-List and keep it growing, here is how to do it:

1. Add your blog to the list
2. Post the list to your blog
3. Tell your friends

General Travel Blogs

• A Long Ride
• A Luxury Travel Blog
• Adirondack Base Camp
• Apple Core Hotels
• Argentina’s Travel Guide
• BootBlog
• Brave New Traveler
• Brazil Travel Blog
• Buenos Aires Argentina Guide
• CampingCoop
• Chronicles of On The Road Travel
• Diane Clarkson
• Erin Julian
• Europe A La Carte Blog
• Family Travel
• FastenYourSeatbelts.at
• Fly Away Cafe
• Foreign Perspectives
• French Life-expat France
• Gadling
• Happy Hotelier
• HotelChatter
• Hotels of the Rich and Famous
• InFlightHQ
• jaunted
• Line of Sight
• Lonely Planet | Travel Blog
• Me-Go
• My Marrakesh
• My Travel Backpack
• National Geographic | Traveler
• New York Traveler
• NewYorkology
• Rezgo’s Amazing Tours
  
• Rolling Rains Report
• southernbyways
• The Cranky Flier
• The Lobby
• the lost girls
• The Sydney Morning Herald Blog
• They Let Her Travel
• Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations
• Travel Horizons
• Travel Post.com Insider
• Travel Rants
• Travel Stuff
• TravelerWire
  
• Travelvice
• TripAdvisor: We Are Not Making This Up
• TripCart :: The Travel Blog
• Two Dog Zoo Travel
• Upgrade: Travel Better
• Vagablond
• Vagabonding
• World Hum

Travel Industry Blogs

• Back of House in DXB
• Bed Jump
• Blog on travel
• Blog Rydges
• The Brand Canada Blog
• BuhlerWorks
• Bull City Mutterings
• dot tourism
• E-hotel
• Farecast Blog
• Hawthorne Hotel
• Hotel Blogs 2.0
• Hotelmarketing.com
• Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog
• localhoteldirectory.com
• m-Travel.com and Travel Distribution News
• Marriott on the move
• New York Hospitality
• Online Travel Review
• radar
• Randy’s Journal
• realtravel
• Relactions Blog
• 
  
• The McCluskey Blog
• The Tourism and Hospitality Diaries
• The Travel Cooler
• The Travel PR Blog
• Tourism INTERNET Marketing Blog
• Travel and Web 2.0
• Travel Start-ups
• Travel Weekly
• Travolution
• travel & tourism technology trends
• Tourism Tide
  
• UK airports information blog
• Viator Travel Blog
• web 2.0 travel tools
• Zeitgeist

Foreign Language Travel Blogs

French Travel Blogs

• Entreprendre dans le e-Tourisme
• Les Explorers

Italian Travel Blogs

• ADV Italia

Dutch Travel Blogs

• weekendhotel weblog

German Travel Blogs

• eTurismus.info
• FastenYourSeatbelts.at
• Tourismus Zukunft - Technologie
• Kulinarisch Reisen - Blog
• Touristikblog.de
• Touristikblog hokat.de

Spanish Travel Blogs

• AbsolutBCN
• Air France Mexico
• Albert Barra
• Aquela Passagem!
• Aviacion Digital
• Bitacora De Viajes
• Blog de gestion turistica
• Blog de Viajes
• Brief Blog
• Comercializacion hotelera?
• de viaje a Brasil
• De Viajero.com
• Desde el Rio Parana a Tierra del Fuego
• Despegar
• Diario del viajero
• DondeViajar
• …en transicion…
• Entornao
• escapadas europa
• eurotrip
• Explorando Peru
• Guia de Viajes
• HotelBlog.es
• Hoteles
• Hotel, Friends and more…
• Intermundial
• Kiwi Viajero
• Locura Viajes
• Los viajes de Jota
• Marketing Turistico
• megustaelturismo.es
• Mochileros
• Nos vamos de turismo!
• Notas do Turismo
• Primera Clase
• Rumboperdido
• Toni Mascaro
• topviajeros
• Trabber
• Turistiko
• viajar asiaviaje ne viagem
• Voy de viaje
• Vuelos Baratos en Internet
• ZuHause

84% Of Travellers Will Consider Offsetting Emissions

I just received my latest newsletter from STI (Sustainable Travel International). In the newsletter was a really interesting article about a new global survey by Lonely Planet. The survey shows that travelers world wide are concerned about their travel impacts on the climate and will support neutralizing their travel related emissions through legitimate offset programs. The survey, which polled over 24,500 people worldwide, “showed 84 percent of respondents said they would consider offsetting their emissions in the future, where only 31 percent had done so in the past. Seventy percent of travellers said they had purposefully travelled in a low-impact way in the past, (for example, catching a bus rather than flying) and over 90 percent of people said they would or might do so in the future.”

I think there is a definite advantage for grassroots tourism providers to add value to their products by maintaining a green focus. As the impact of climate change initiatives are felt in the travel marketplace, organizations who do not show a green conscience will be a disadvantage. The ultimate step, of course, will be to add carbon offset directly into the booking process. Ofcourse, the industry is having a hard enough time coming up with standards that will support dynamic packaging, so adding another variable to the equation won’t make things move any faster.

The bottom line is that regardless of whether or not the science is valid, the public perception is that climate change is a very real issue and consumers are beginning to take notice of organizations that make a concerted effort to be environmentally sensitive.

You can read the original posting at Environmental Leader.

Top 10 Errors of International SEO

Here is an excellent post from the Travolution Blog about the top 10 errors of International SEO. The article is very informative and covers some excellent points. I have experienced many of these same issues working with English and Japanese clients over the years, so it is nice to see that the lesson learned were not solitary.

You can read the original post here.

Being there is ALL the fun

I just read an interesting post on Tim Hughe’s blog about some comments from Rob Cuthbert at Viator about how hard it is for consumers to travel . In the last sentence, Tim writes something that I think is vitally important to the travel purchase experience and that is “the need to keep the purchase and consumption process simple for consumers.” The travel industry, especially the airfare and hotel sides of the industry are rampant with overly complicated pricing models, rates, discounts, commissions, and such. In the end, I think that everyone loses out because the traveler doesn’t get a true understanding of the value they are receiving, the intermediaries are fighting over percentage points in commission, and the suppliers are constantly finding ways to cut out the middle-man. The thrust of the article is that travel now competes with other forms of consumer spending because it has become harder for everyday travelers to travel. If this is true, I think that what we will see is more focus on local, regional, and national tourism. A greater emphasis on tourism at home, and more small tour operators providing experiences in their own backyards. Tour operators will need to focus on keeping their pricing simple, focusing on providing a unique and interesting experience, and take online bookings.

The bottom line for experiential tour operators is that the old saying of “getting there is half the fun” is no longer true. The experience a traveler has once they are at a destination is key and promoting experiences during the research phase of the travel booking process will only have a greater impact on offsetting the drudgery and mundane of long airport lineups.

The TripAdvisor Cities I’ve Visited

So it certainly didn’t take long for TripAdvisor to rebrand their latest million dollar purchase. The “Where I’ve Been” app is now the TripAdvisor Cities I’ve Visited application on Facebook. Although the application is pretty much the same, it has been rebranded with TripAdvisor branding and now includes a less than smooth integration with the TripAdvisor website. The overall feedback from users has been positive although the forum shows quite a bit of dissappointment with adding cities. I can see why TripAdvisor would want to buy the application. They have just guaranteed exposure to over 1.4 Million Facebook users as well as all their friends who regularly check out these profiles. It will be interesting to see just how TA tries to monetize the application.

Canada’s First E-Tourism Strategy Conference

I am so excited to promote the first Canada-e-connect conference to be held in Vancouver. The goal of the conference is to profile Canada’s tourism industry and to highlight innovations in online marketing and technology that support tourism. This is especially exciting because this conference would normally have been in Ottawa or Toronto prior to the CTC’s move to Vancouver.

This conference marks a milestone in the development of online marketing and tourism technologies because it is an acknowledgment and an acceptance that internet distribution, marketing, social media, and new technologies has an effect on the tourism industry as a whole. Kudos to Jens Thraenhart, Founder & Chair of Canada-e-connect for putting the conference together. I can’t wait to attend.

I encourage all those who are interested in Travel, Tourism, and Technology in Canada to attend the conference.

November 7-9, 2007
Fairmont Waterfront Hotel
Vancouver, BC
http://www.canadaeconnect.com

Why Banks Consider Travel a Risky Business

Over the years I’ve worked with dozens of travel agencies and tour operators who have tried and been unsuccessful at getting a merchant account which allows them to accept credit cards for payments. In this credit driven world, it can be difficult to do business if you can’t accept credit cards for payments, especially on large travel related purchases. Some have come back to us in frustration to try and determine why they are being singled out by the banks and merchant processing companies. Many processors categorize travel with gambling, pornography, and online lotteries. For any tour operator or travel agent, this is equivalent to categorizing their business as illegitimate. So why is travel considered a prohibited business?

Travel is considered high risk because of several factors. Risk is based on the likelihood of a chargeback, the size of the charges, the business history, and the method in which payments are accepted. In the case of travel, cancellations and therefore chargebacks are a routine part of doing business. The problem is that when you combine the probability of a chargeback with the average size of a travel transaction, you can have a serious liability. For example, a travel agent sells a block of one hundred packages to Mexico, each one valued at $1000. The agent accepts credit card payments for all one hundred packages about three months in advance of the trip. During the trip, the plane has a mechanical failure and all one hundred passengers have to cancel. The agent must now issue refunds totalling $100,000 three months after receiving the money and paying the tour operator for the block. Given the number of passengers that travel every single day, this type of scenario is not all together unusual.

So how can you get a merchant account if you are tour operator or a travel agent? If you are a small travel agency or an independent travel agent you may want to consider going through a host agency or partnering with an agency that has established a merchant account with a bank. If this is not an option then you may still be able to get a merchant account, however you will most likely need to put down a fairly large deposit to protect against chargebacks.

If you are a tour operator, then you are in luck. As long as you don’t sell airline tickets or hotel rooms from other providers, then you are considered to be a lower risk merchant. There are a few merchant providers that are even specializing in the vacation property, small accommodations, and tour operators. One such provider is Payment Processing Inc. (PPI) which offers a merchant account package specifically for small tourism companies. Other options that may work include using Paypal, Cronopay, or Beanstream.

When it comes down to it, there are options that available to just about everyone interested in accepting credit cards. Your best chance of finding a good rate and a strong long term partner is to contact a recommended provider and do your homework.

Links of Interest:
Credit Card 101
Request for more information from PayPros