In today’s fast paced way of life, who doesn’t want things to be easy?  Everyone is so busy, our schedules so hectic that anything that makes things easy is welcomed with open arms.  Staples, the office supply store, really nailed it with their “Easy Button” campaign.  Need toner for your printer?  Press the Easy Button.  Need your office supplies delivered on the double?  No problem – just press the Easy Button.  Staples recognized a consumer need in the marketplace, and developed a strategy to fill the void.  Genius.

The Earthquake in Haiti

I got to thinking about this strategy while following the news about the Haiti earthquake disaster on Twitter.  It was such a horrible situation.  Such incredible need.  The American Red Cross (and several other charitable organizations) responded to that need by making it easy for all of us to help.  Their method was astonishingly simple.  It’s something most of us do everyday without a second thought.  The answer?  Send a text message with “HAITI” as the subject to 90999.  The results were overwhelming.

As described in this CNN article on the fund-raising campaign, the American Red Cross raised $3 million in two days.  Then it went viral.  People posted messages on Facebook and Twitter, and by the third day, $8 million was raised.  Why?  Because they made it easy for people to help.  According to this article in TechCrunch, by the end of the third day over $10 million had been raised.  There’s no sign of this slowing down either.

I believe that people want to help others, given the opportunity to do so.  Sometimes, though, things get in the way.  Or we don’t know how to start.  The American Red Cross, Yele Haiti, and others responded by offering us a way to help by simply picking up our mobile phones.  Easy.

I’m proud to say that the travel industry also found a way to make it easy for people to help.  In addition to some of the airlines flying relief missions to Haiti, several of them are providing the opportunity for people to donate frequent flier miles to aid in the relief effort.  Some airlines are even rewarding members with bonus miles after making a monetary donation.  Hotel chains are also stepping up by giving loyalty club members the opportunity to donate loyalty points.  This article provides more detail on what some airlines are doing to help.

Make It Easy for Your Digital Visitors

There’s a message here for the travel industry in general and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) specifically.  Make it easy.

No one has the time or the inclination anymore to click through multiple web pages to find the travel information they’re looking for.  They need to know where to go and what to see in your destination before they can make any travel plans, so why not make it easy for them to find it?

There are lots of DMOs out there that are making it easy for visitors and potential visitors.  Columbia, South Carolina is one example.  Their easy to navigate website provides multiple ways for people to find out what’s going on in “Famously Hot” Columbia.

On their site you can:

• make hotel reservations
• order a visitor guide
• link to their social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for even more great information
• check out the hot travel deals
• view an interactive map, and
• view listings on things to see and do, restaurants, and events.

And you can do all of this on the website’s home page.  Columbia, SC makes it easy.

What About Mobile?

With the advent of the iPhone and other smart phones, people are increasingly getting their information on the go.  With a smart phone, you can browse the Internet or get information via any of the tens of thousands of smart phone applications.

Back in September of 2009, La Quinta launched an iPhone app that helps users find and book a room at the closest La Quinta property based on GPS coordinates.  It also provides mapping to help you find your way there.

Many cities and attractions are using iPhone apps to provide visitor information and even digital tour guides.  Charleston, SC has an app that is a guided walking tour of the city.  The Houston Zoo has an iPhone app that displays photos and videos of the animals, as well as daily “Meet the Keeper” talks and presentations.

The Portland Art Museum uses an iPhone app to “supply visitors with information, interactive maps, and rich museum walkthroughs featuring audio and video.

There are so many other excellent examples of DMOs, hotels, and attractions making it easy for their visitors.

What Can Your DMO Do?

Okay, now it’s your turn.  Sound off.  What are some other ways that the travel industry can make it easy?  What am I missing (a ton, I’m sure!)?  Do you have some examples from your destination you’d like to show off?

Let’s hear from you.  Ready, set, make it easy!

Photo courtesy of spackletoe.

School days.  School days.  Good ole golden rule days.  Now that Fall is in the air, many people are heading back to the classroom.  Whether it’s my own (soon to be) 8-year-old who is starting the second grade, or if you’re heading back to college yourself, September is synonymous with “back to school”.  That, and college football.  But that’s another blog post entirely.

If you’re in the tourism industry, you’re wrapping up the busy summer season and beginning your preparations for holiday celebrations.  Sure professional development is important, but who has time?  If we’re lucky, we can attend a seminar sponsored by the chamber of commerce.  Or we might make it to our state’s Governor’s Conference on tourism.  To top it all off, now there’s social media marketing to try to get a handle on.

There are plenty of conferences, seminars, and other learning opportunities that cover social media and marketing with social media.  There are few, however, that deal specifically with using social media in a destination marketing organization (DMO) setting.  Until now.

I’d like to introduce you to a couple of friends of mine who are developing a web-based learning resource specifically for tourism.  The modules will cover mainly social media tools and their application in tourism marketing, but there will be lots of other information as well.

First, here’s a little background on the two principles.

Becky McCray:

Becky McCray is a Twitter friend of mine.  Though we haven’t met in person yet, I count her among my trusted online friends.  If you need to know something about tourism, small business, entrepreneurship, or economic development, then Becky’s your “go to” person.  She has a knack for simplifying complicated issues and providing useful how-to information.

After reading any of her blog posts, you’ll walk away knowing exactly how to tackle a problem.  Becky hosts and co-authors a blog called Small Biz Survival that provides tips, success stories, resources, and more for doing business in small towns and rural America.  Knowing how important tourism is to small town economies, Becky focuses a lot on tools to help small communities better utilize their tourism resources.

Sheila Scarborough:

I first “met” Sheila Scarborough through Twitter.  I commented on one of her blog posts, and she commented on one of mine.  I quickly realized that Sheila and I live in the same town – Round Rock, TX – and that we had to meet.  Sheila organized a group called Jelly Co-Working in Round Rock, where people get together in a non-office environment to work for part of the day.  I found out about a meeting, attended, and finally met Sheila.

Since then – and a few Jellies later – Sheila and I have collaborated on some ideas, and she’s even going to speak about travel writing and travel blogging at a tourism seminar I’m hosting at my job.

Sheila is a writer and social media trainer/consultant.  She has her own blog called Sheila’s Guide to the  Good Stuff, which covers tourism and social media topics.  She has a blog on the BootsnAll network covering family travel – check it out at BootsnAll Family Travel Logue.  Sheila also writes frequent posts on a few other blogs, including the Perceptive Travel Blog.  Oh, and don’t forget her recent print article in the September 2009 issue of Texas Highways magazine.

Tourism Currents:

So together, Becky and Sheila have devised a way to share their vast knowledge of tourism and the social web with DMOs all over the country.  Their tool?  Tourism Currents.  Tourism Currents is an online learning community that provides social web learning resource specifically for tourism professionals.

Tourism Currents will launch with it’s first instructional module on September 9, 2009.  Until then, you can sign up for the E-mail notification system to get updates from Becky and Sheila. More information is posted on the website all the time, so check back periodically to see what’s new.

The site will tell you that “content will include downloadable training materials, a forum, regular members-only Q&A sessions, interviews, opportunities to discuss issues with the two instructors, and lots more.”

One distinguishing feature that sets apart Tourism Currents from other social media training (aside from being designed by and for tourism professionals) is that this training will equip you to DO something with your new knowledge.  While there will always be information on what these social media tools are, the Tourism Currents training will set itself apart from the rest of the pack by providing step-by-step instructions and “how-to” information on how to use these tools to promote your destination.

Sound good?  I thought so!  Stop by the Tourism Currents website and sign up for their E-mail notifications today.

Tourism Currents is designed to help you do your job and find new ways to promote your destination.  Do you have a social media learning need?  What tourism marketing questions do you have that social media could address?  Let’s hear from you now.

Photo courtesy of freeparking.

There are more and more tourism destinations every day on Twitter.  Ultimately, I think this is a good thing.  Social media, including Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc., are simply just another channel available for marketers, and are valuable tools to include as a part of  you marketing arsenal.  Yet, there are still too many destinations that haven’t embraced the concept of social media marketing.  In Texas at least, these tend to be the smaller towns.

As I’ve learned over the last few months, there are hundreds if not thousands of small to mid-sized tourism destinations that are out there and tweeting regularly.  Some are using Twitter in very clever ways.  Others are are doing the typical things that marketers do – and doing them quite well.

Here are some that really shine:

Coos Bay, Oregon

Coos Bay is located on the Oregon coast, about halfway between San Francisco and Seattle.  It’s known for its spectacular beaches, world-class fishing, sand dunes, and beautiful scenery.  Now, it’s also known for a great little campaign they did on Twitter.

Allan Jenkins and Lee Hopkins are bloggers and all-around social media gurus.  When planning a trip from Seattle to San Francisco, they turned to their friends on Twitter to suggest places to see and things to do along the way.  As all good tourism destinations should do, Coos Bay (@TravelCoosBay) was listening.  They not only responded with suggestions, they literally won they guys over with a series of smart, funny, and increasingly convincing tweets.

For the whole story, take a look at the post that Allan wrote about the whole experience.  Here’s a quick run down:

1. Responding to Allan’s initial tweet, @TravelCoosBay tweeted in reply about dropping in for a night during their trip.
2. When Allan (@allanjenkins) and Lee (@leehopkins) thanked them and made a little joke, @TravelCoosBay sent them a link to a Flickr group showing off the area’s spectacular scenery.
3. Being no stranger to beautiful surroundings, Allan and Lee asked if the people in Coos Bay were as nice as the scenery.
4. @TravelCoosBay responded with more pictures.  This time, the pictures were of signs and electronic marquees from local businesses inviting Allan and Lee – by name – to Coos Bay.  Local folks also starting tweeting Allan and Lee en masse.
5. Still Allan and Lee didn’t commit.  @TravelCoosBay kicked it up another notch by filming a series of “man-on-the-street” YouTube videos.  Featured in these videos were regular Joe’s and Jane’s who could be seen in Coos Bay any day of the week.  Each talked about a different feature of Coos Bay that Allan and Lee were sure to enjoy.

Well, after that, who wouldn’t go?

Hutchinson, Kansas

The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, located in Hutchinson Kansas, wanted to bring some PR attention to the town and the other tourist attractions located there.  Most small towns (and big cities, for that matter) would probably host a FAM tour to accomplish this.  A FAM – short for familiarization – is a short tour geared toward the press or travel trade to familiarize them with the attractions of a particular area.   The hope is that after the tour the press will write stories and articles about the area, and the travel trade will begin to book tours there.

Not content to do things the old-fashioned way, Hutchinson Kansas hosted a travel blogger tour in mid-April.  While the mechanics of the tour were much the same, this blogger tour differed distinctly from a typical FAM tour in the way word got out.

Nine travel bloggers went on the tour of the Hutchinson area.  They hailed from towns throughout the Midwest, and had a particular niche or specialty area they tend to write about.  Here’s a list of the bloggers on the tour along with links to their blogs and their Twitter profiles:

• Becky McCray – Blog: smallbizsurvival.com Twitter: @BeckyMcCray
• Sheila Scarborough – Blog: familytravellogue.com Twitter: @SheilaS
• Cindy Stanford – Twitter: @WichitaCindy
• Todd Vogts – Blog: toddvogts.com , Twitter: @ToddVogts
• Deb Brown – Blog: debworks.com Twitter: @DebWorks
• Naomi Shapiro – Blog:  superdumbsupervillain.blogspot.com Twitter: @superdumb
• Bill Genereux – Blog: billgx.edublogs.org Twitter: @BillGX
• Jeanne Cole – Twitter: @OkieJ
• Patsy Terrell – Blog: www.patsyterrell.com Twitter – @patsyterrell

Most of them wrote blog posts during the tour, and they all wrote posts an articles once the tour was completed.

Just to add another dimension, these bloggers were also on Twitter.  They gave their followers the opportunity to keep tabs on all the Hutchinson action with the #hutch hashtag.

Check out the blogs listed above and search for #hutch, and you’ll get a idea of the incredible amount of coverage and attention Hutchinson, Kansas got in return for a few days of hospitality.

Genius.

Have you heard of any other clever uses of tourism marketing using Twitter or other social media channels?  Are there any other small towns that deserve some attention for their ideas?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Photo courtesy of: deanna_

If you haven’t heard of HubSpot yet, you will.  This Boston-based company is filled with bright and creative people who live and breathe social media marketing – or “inbound marketing” as they call it there.  Much of what I’ve learned on the subject has been from the free resources they provide to their customers and the general public. 

Their main line of business is their inbound marketing software.  From their web site:  “HubSpot is an inbound marketing system that helps your business get found on the Internet by the right prospects and convert more of those prospects into leads and paying customers.”

Here’s how I’m putting my lessons learned from HubSpot to good use.

I represent a tourism region in Texas called the Colorado River Trail (CRT).  The CRT consists of 11 counties – and the communities within them – that follow the Colorado River as it meanders its way through Central Texas and down to the Gulf Coast.  Part of my job is to help them promote all the great things to see and do there.  Basically, to let people know what’s unique about the area.  Another thing I try to do is to provide the region with current and relevant information about tourism and marketing to help them do their jobs more effectively.

Here’s one thing I’m doing to help in that effort.  For the second year in a row, the CRT is partnering with the Texas Leadership Institute (a statewide non-profit charged with providing training to elected officials and community leaders) to present a seminar about marketing a community or destination using social media tactics.

The seminar is entitled, “Social Media Marketing: Using Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs to Promote Your Community.”  It will be held in Austin, TX at LCRA’s Redbud Center on June 11, 2009.  The seminar is only $50 and includes all course materials and a tasty lunch.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the seminar  in a previous post as a way to begin creating some awareness about just how valuable a tool social media marketing can be.  Too few destination marketing organizations (DMOs), local governments, chambers of commerce, etc. in Texas are making use of these marketing tools.  Why that is, I don’t know.  But I’m going to do what I can to change it.

They need to know how to use social media to promote their community to visitors, keep residents informed and engaged, and participate in meaningful conversations with their customers.

Sessions and Speakers:

The seminar will feature some great sessions and speakers.  Here’s a quick peek at what’s in store:

• Introduction to Social Media – Learn what social media is and how it can be used to effectively market and promote a community.
• Facebook, Twitter, & Blogs: Tools to Try- Bring your laptop and learn how to set up a Facebook page, a blog, and a Twitter account during this hands-on session.
• Live Web Site Critiques – Get supportive input from the presenter and the audience.
• Case Studies – Hear from communities that are using social media now.
• Live Webinar- Learn how to promote an event with social media via a live webinar.

Speakers include Carla Pendergraft (@CarlaWaco) with Carla Pendergraft Associates, Ellie Mirman (@ellieeille) with HubSpot, Katie Cook (@katiecook) with the Austin Convention and Visitor Bureau, and Will Hampton ( @willhampton) with the City of Round Rock.

Using What I’ve Learned:

A few weeks ago, HubSpot featured a terrific blog post about promoting an event using social media marketing.  HubSpot graciously accepted my request to turn this post into one of their excellent webinars, and it will be broadcast live during our seminar.

Trying to apply what I learned from that post, I’ve begun my social media marketing campaign to promote the seminar.  I’ve developed a landing page for information about the seminar and helpful downloads, and I started tweeting about it.

My E-mail and mailing lists are fairly extensive, and those people have already heard from me.  Future tweets will include teasers about the speakers and topics, and possibly a free registration giveaway at some point.  And yes, I’m blogging about it here on Tourism Tech and on my Traveling on the Colorado River Trail blog about the CRT region.

Lastly, I’ve created a hashtag on Twitter that will help m and others interested parties follow the buzz on the seminar.  Want to follow along?  Simply search for #smseminar, and you’re there!

Would you like to attend?

To register, visit the Texas Leadership Institute’s web site and sign up for course number 1382.  If you have questions, you can find me on Twitter – @pagetx.  Be sure to use the #smseminar hashtag.

So, what do you think?  What else could I be doing to promote the seminar?

Social media has given us another platform for communication.  There are conversations going on out there right now.  Are you listening?  For tourism businesses, this means that there are travelers out there talking about us, our destinations, our customer service, and ultimately their experiences … both positive and negative.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know what they are saying?  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to respond to them?  It’s what we would do if they were standing right in front of us.  Why shouldn’t we do the same when we have conversations using social media?

Fortunately, there are as many ways to listen to social media conversations as there are to have social media conversations.  If not more. 

There are some excellent companies that offer fee-based social media monitoring solutions, such as radian6 and trackur.  There are also some very good free ways to monitor social media conversations if you’re willing to do a bit more legwork. 

Here are a few of the free tools available to monitor conversations on Twitter and blogs.

Twitter:

• Twitter Search - Allows you to query Twitter about specific topics.  The advanced search function provides additional search features like searching by hashtag, people, places, dates, and attitudes.  Subscribe to search queries with RSS feeds.
• #hashtags - Tracks user-created hashtags in real time.
• TweetBeep- Works very similarly to Twitter Search, but more like a Google Alert.  Sends results to E-mail rather than via RSS feeds.
• Tweet Scan – Performs keyword searches.
• Twilert- Works almost exactly like Twitter Search itself, but sends E-mail alerts rather than an RSS feed.
• twitrratr – Displays results for searches on Twitter and rates them according to sentiment – positive, negative, and neutral.

Blogs:

• Technorati- One of the best tools for monitoring your brand on blogs.  Custom RSS feeds provide quick updates when your search term is mentioned.
• Google Blog Search- Provides either E-mail alerts or RSS feeds about search terms whether the blog is listed in Google or not.
• Blogpulse’ Conversation Tracker- Tracks which blogs are linking to your blog posts.
• Blogpulse’s Trends – Tracks whether or not specific keywords are getting increasing numbers of mentions.
• Backtype- Tracks search terms mentioned in the comments of a blog, as well as tracking comments made by specific people.

Are DMOs using these tools?  What are some other useful tools to monitor the conversations happening on Twitter and in blog content and comments? 

I’d love to know what you’re using and how you’re using it. 

Photo courtesy of Orange_Beard.

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately on market research.  It’s been a fun and very enlightening experience.  My quest was to find out which DMOs were using Twitter,  and how it was helping them promote their destinations.  The assumption I had going into this little project is that there would be hundreds (if not thousands) of state, regional, and local DMOs using Twitter … but that not very many of them would be from Texas.

So far, I’ve been right on both counts.  Now I’m on a mission.  We Texans tend to have rather high opinions of ourselves, but I find we are lacking in this department (trust me, that was hard for me to admit!).  I’d love to help change that.  Here’s one thing I’m doing about it.

For the last several weeks, I’ve been slowly putting together an agenda for a seminar I’m hosting in my region.  It’s called Social Media Marketing: Using Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs To Promote Your Community.  If you plan to be in Austin, TX area on June 11, 2009, give me a shout.

Since there aren’t many DMOs and attractions in my region that are using social media, we’ll be starting with an introduction and description of social media in general.  Then we’ll move on to using Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to help promote destinations.  Attendees will be encouraged to bring their laptops, actually set up accounts, and begin to implement these tools right away.

Another thing I’d like to show them is that social media can be the next “great equalizer” if done correctly.  In other words, it’s not just for the big guys with big budgets.  I want to show them that many small and mid-sized destinations are using these tools.  And using them effectively. 

Other than some of the big guys in Texas (i.e., Houston, San Antonio, and Austin), I found less than a dozen chambers of commerce or visitor bureaus on Twitter.  In other states, this simply isn’t the case.

A quick look at the Twitter followers (594 at the time of this posting) of the Southeast Tourism Society demonstrates that the size of the DMO is simply not an issue in using social media to market a destination.  Take a look and see.

Our own state tourism office doesn’t have a presence on Twitter yet,  when other states (i.e., Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, Idaho, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky … and that’s just the first page of results!) are tweeting regularly.

Is your DMO using Twitter to help market and promote your destination and its attractions and events?   If so, how are you using it?

Are you “listening” to the comments being made about your destination?  If so, how do you respond to those comments and questions?

What say you?

Photo courtesy of slporp.

Anyone who’s been in marketing for any length of time knows that your work produces results.  And results have to be measured.  And from those measurements, it is possible to determine your ROI.  Solid.  Factual.  Numbers that make your boss happy … hopefully.

Because this is what we know how to do, it’s a natural inclination to want to apply those standards to our social media marketing activities.  But is that the right way to do it?  What are the right questions to ask?

Social media is still a bit of an unknown to many in the tourism industry.   That, coupled with trying to determine how to measure it, is a source for additional grey hair for some of us. 

For those of you who work in the public sector for city, county or state government, it can be a pretty tough sell.  I believe that it’s partly because there are still too many decision-makers who adhere to old-school management and marketing philosophies.  I also think it’s because there haven’t been enough of us willing to stick our necks out and try to prove that it works, and that we’re not just wasting our days playing on Facebook. 

 Before I discuss some of the ways that social media marketing really can be measured, I want you to know this.  I believe that the main goal of social media should be to develop long and lasting relationships with our customers – whether your industry is tourism or any other.  Relationships that are built on trust and mutual respect.  And while social media doesn’t allow us to communicate face-to-face with our customers, communicate we can.  And yes, even the value of these relationships can be measured.  Read more about the value of relationships in a great post by Jay Deragon.

Here are a few measurement tidbits I picked up from respected professionals in the social media field. 

Amber Naslund’s great blog, Altitude Branding, is chock full of extremely useful social media information.  In this post, she offers enough concrete ways to measure social media to make any boss swoon.  Of note are shorter customer service/issue resolution time, share of conversation/voice (used mainly in Twitter), number and frequency of mentions in media, subscribers to blog or E-mail newsletter, number of fans, inbound links to main website, and interaction with posted content (tone and number of comments, e-book downloads etc.).

Amber goes on to give us some additional resources on  measuring social media by providing her delicious bookmarks.  Lots of great stuff here, so please check it out.

The measurement tools described above are quantitative.  There are also qualitative ways to measure our social media effectiveness.  In a great post on Mashable by Aaron Uhrmacher, he says that the qualitative methods are more for measuring corporate reputation, conversations, engagement, and customer relationships.

Consider the following questions that Uhrmacher poses:

• Are we currently a part of the conversation about our product/industry?
• What is being said about us versus our competition?
• Are we able to build a better relationship with our customers?
• Can we participate in conversations where we hadn’t previously had a voice?

I would only add one thing to his list, and that is this: Can we reach audiences who aren’t interested in or who don’t respond to traditional methods of advertising and marketing?

Well, what say you?  Do any of these methods make sense for the tourism industry?  How can we convince our head-in-the-sand management that social media has value?

Photo courtesy of Darren Hester.

Is anyone using Flickr to promote their destination or attraction?  If you’re not, wake up and smell the photography!  Flickr can be used in several different ways to help promote tourism locales.  I’ll talk about just two of them in this post.

Search for Photos of Your Destination
The first way is the simplest.  Flickr makes it very easy to search for photos using various keywords.  Pick any keyword that represents your destination: city name, attraction name, a natural resource, etc.  The sky’s the limit here.  You’ll be surprised at how many really great photos are returned to you in the results of your search.

If you plan to use any of these photos in marketing your destination, it is important to get permission from the photographer first.  Some professional photographers post their work on Flickr and much of it is copyrighted material.  Be very careful here. 

If you see a photo you like, simple send a message to the owner and request permission to use it on your website or blog.  Nine times out of ten, they’ll say yes as long as you credit the photo appropriately.  Some also like it if you hyperlink the photo back to their Flickr photostream or to their own blog.  It’s a fair request and a very simple thing to do on your end.  Always give credit where credit is due.

Another way to do this is to use Flickr’s Creative Commons area of their website.  People post photos to the Creative Commons with the hope that you will use it.  There are no license issues – just the common courtesy of crediting the photographer.  Your choices here will be a bit more limited, but there are often some real gems here.  Under the advanced search link next to the search window, click on Creative Commons, and enter your keywords.  It’s as easy as that.

Create a Group
Another great way to obtain photos of your area is to create a group on Flickr.  Click on “Groups” from the menu at the top of the Flickr homepage.  Once on the Groups page, you’re presented with the option to create your own group.  I have a growing little group for the region that I represent – the Colorado River Trail in Texas. 

I started by uploading a handful of shots I had from my area.  I then began a search on keywords related to my region.  I did not use Creative Commons here because I wanted my options to be wide open.  When I saw a photo I liked, I messaged the owner and invited him/her to join my group.  At the same time, I asked permission to use this and other photos they submit on a blog I write about the same region.  I also use this opportunity to ask how they’d like me to credit their photos.  In just a few weeks, I have over 120 photos as my disposal.

I now have several amateur and professional photographers as members of my groups – many of whom submit photos to me on a regular basis.  This frees up my time for other things, as I don’t have to go out and search for great photography as often.

Best of all, it’s free!
How much does all this great photography cost?  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.  In other words, not one shiny dime!  I have the use of professional photography – with the permission of the photographer – for absolutely nothing.

Sold yet?  When was the last time you priced a professional photo shoot?

Better yet, many of the photos in my group are candid shots.  They’re of people.  On vacation.  Enjoying my region.  What better way to market a tourism destination?

What are some other creative uses of Flickr for marketing tourism destinations?

My family and I are leaving tomorrow on a little trip for Spring Break.  Because of the economy, we feel the need to stay a bit closer to home than in years past.  But we still wanted to get our fix of “Go, See, Do” without breaking the bank.

I don’t plan to list the details of our itinerary, but I did want to describe to you why our Spring Break trip is off to a great start … and how La Quinta has helped us out with that.

I am a member of La Quinta’s rewards program, La Quinta Returns.  However, I haven’t stayed in a La Quinta hotel in some time now.  This time, though, they had hotels in the locations we planned to visit AND they had the best room rates.  A great win-win situation for us.

So as a dutiful hotel patron and traveler, I printed out my reservation confirmations to take with us on the trip in case there were any problems.  As it turns out, I didn’t need to do this after all.  This morning as I was checking my E-mail on my iPhone, I saw a confirmation/reminder E-mail from La Quinta.  Everything I needed to know and more was in that E-mail.  It’s a great example of how customer service and technology can be used to make the customer’s experience just a little bit better.  But wait, there’s more.

Here’s a breakdown of what La Quinta included in the E-mail:

• Reservation details- confirmation number, dates, check-in/check-out times, cancelation policy, etc.
• Map with driving directions – also included is a link that will provide driving directions from a specific location
• 5-day weather forecast – icons depicting weather conditions (i.e., sunny, rain) with highs and lows
• Links – links for discounts from their corporate partners, link to their rewards program, and links to my specific hotels
• Special note – this note encouraged me to contact their general manager with any questions, comments, or concerns about or during our stay

This E-mail was not only helpful, it literally shouts confidence.  La Quinta is showing me that they are confident we will enjoy our stay at their properties, and are making every effort to ensure that happens. 

Having that E-mail on my iPhone will give us seamless integration of information and technology.  Do you know of any other great examples of customer service that makes use of technology?

The travel and tourism industry was one of the early front runners in social media applications for business.  Dare I say even … an innovator?  Think back to sites like TripAdvisor and Hotels.com.  These were sites that really got people talking about where to go and what to avoid while traveling.  After all, social media is supposed to be social, isn’t it?  Now there are new ones on the scene like IgoUgo, and there’s no sign of this trend slowing. 

Other forms of social media, like Facebook and Twitter, are now solidly in the business world.  But does everyone really know that?  It’s easy for those of us using these applications on a daily basis to think so.  But I’m not so sure.

There are many examples of large attractions, destinations, and travel service providers making full use of social media like Facebook and Twitter.  Just look at Southwest Airlines and Six Flags, to name just two.  But how many small town chambers of commerce and convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs) do you think are doing this?  In Texas at least, the answer is not near enough.

Am I wrong?  If you know of any small to mid-sized Texas towns and cities that are using social media as a marketing strategy, please correct me.  If I’m right, why do you think this is happening?

I think it’s a combination of things:

1. social media is the great unknown, 
2. people marketing destinations are afraid they’ll get negative comments, 
3. they don’t know how to respond to negative comments if they get them, and 
4. they think it’s only for cities with a few more zeros on the end of their budget.

Chris Brogan had a great post today about a specific segment of the travel industry – hotels.  Chris discusses several no-nonsense ways that hotels can succeed in this crazy economy by building relationships with business travelers.  However, the reason why he wrote the post was sparked by a Twitter search he did on where people were staying for SXSW in Austin, TX.

Turns out, a lot of people were asking for lodging.  Chris wondered why hotels weren’t monitoring the same Twitter search and sending out rate quotes directly to SXSW attendees via Twitter.  Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?  What were those hotels with availability doing when they should have been listening and responding?

This is stuff the little guys can do.  Easily.  Think of all the ways a small CVB could use Twitter.  Here are just a few: promotions, weekend packages, street closures, festival updates, new attractions … I could go on and on.

What are some other uses?  Why aren’t we seeing more of this?