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• Internet, Travel & Tourism

  A critical look at PhocusWright’s Travel Innovators

  11.17.08 | Permalink | 10 Comments

  I’m not at the conference but they’re always high tech at PhocusWright and the videos are posted on their website. Here are my impressions after the 10 minute demos:

  • Escapia: JABS (Just Another Booking System) – there must be 1,000 of them – this one is targeted for vacation rentals – and has a distribution network.
  • DealBase: Laundry lists of “travel deals” – not impressed at all – a meta search engine concept without a meta search because operators have to enter direct – problem: operators won’t enter deals if they don’t have significant traffic, and without deals they won’t retain traffic.
  • Rezgo: Yes, also JABS. But Stephen and Phill are friends of mine, and I’m a fan of Rezgo because it’s a great product. Great job guys. The barcode check-in is very cool.
  • Fogglight: System to build websites for small operators. Even though it builds a huge website, I doubt there will be a large pick-up.
  • TravelMuse: I was impressed. They would need great content. The bookmark widget and planning tool is smart. If consumers like it, they have potential.
  • TripJane: gimmick – search and book within Facebook
  • Adventurelink: JABS – for adventure travel – also with a distribution network
  • Worldmate: Manage your trip details – It’s like an assistant organizing and alerting you. Cool service, reminds me of TripIt, I think it’s only a matter of time before OLTA’s offer this as part of their service.
  • Vacationroost: JABS – again for vacation rentals – it’s does everything one would expect – and includes a distribution network
  • Your Tour: Complete itinerary building and booking. The technology is definitely impressive. Question is if people really want to use this type of tool to plan and book their trip. I’d like to play around with it
  • Travelbeen: meta search for travel information websites, sort off – it feels incomplete – I’ll stick with Google for now
  • TripIt: awesome – booking aggregation with added context – best thing is that you can take aggregate multiple booking sources automatically – should add the alert features from Worldmate.
  • Nile Guide terrible name – content aggregated with advanced filtering – some interesting features – problem with mass aggregation is accuracy. Vancouver includes some unfortunate recommendations.
  • Wandrian – global train tickets distribution system – definitely needed – booking train online is horrible – they should launch a consumer site
  • Triporati – travel discovery engine – recommendation based on your ‘travel DNA’ – like Pandora in music – lots of potential – needs work because discovery needs to inspire through an emotional connection – another problem is the subjectivity of the destination DNA determined by a single destination expert
  • eKit – keep a trip log – the twist is you can use your cell phone – auto geo-tagging, etc. – with a compatible plan or SIM card – they should take it out of travel and onto Facebook
  • Worklight – creates gadgets/widgets for travel providers – clearspring for travel? – book/check-in/etc – what’s with the ‘book from facebook?’ – is that really the future?
  • Cadabra – dynamic package generator for tour operators (like YourTour) – very flexible -do people want to plan their trip in this detail with one supplier – maybe a meta search version?
  • Tripchill – it’s like WorldMate but seems more robust – travel assistant including mobile – pretty cool
  • Farepool – JABS – for travel agents – sourcing from multiple systems
  • Sabre – Travelocity – JABS – puts the fragmentation of buying air (seat, bags, etc) back into a single price based on consumer option – consumer focused, thank you
  • Clairvoyix – Database marketing and Business Intelligence tools for hotels – nothing innovative but refreshing to see a hotel specific solution
  • TripTelevision – YouTube type video player with some added functionality – some of it pretty slick.
  • Yapta – travel meta search with new features – alert system and award miles
  • Interactive MOBILE @dvertising – JABS – on a mobile – includes a downloadable destination guide – ok it works on a mobile – but is the guide complete? – lot of focus on pushing ads

  I have a few more videos to go. So check back.

• Internet, Marketing, Travel & Tourism

  More about Tourism BC’s Online Video Strategy: Field Reporters

  10.26.08 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  A few weeks ago I posted about our call for video field reporters. I also promised more details. Here we go.

  Our video strategy is multi-faceted based on the opportunities that are currently available. Some are traditional and some are new. But they’ll all work together in a framework.
  Let’s first examine the types of tourism related videos out there.
  
  First, there’s the destination video. Emotional music, breathtaking scenery, friendly people, incredible experiences. The intent is to create a strong emotional connection with somebody. The content include all the core brand attributes and the target audience enjoying them. These videos are often used at consumer and/or tradeshows and most destinations have put these videos on their websites and video networks such as YouTube.
  
  Destination Marketing Organization’s TV commercials are often a mini version of the destination video. Sometimes, they include a touch of humour or clever creative, like this video from Utah. But they always include all the core brand tributes again. Watch the Utah commercial and you know what they market and who they market to. Often there’s a call to action to visit a website, a fulfillment piece (guide) or a price point (often through a trade partner).
  
  Then there are the travel host videos, as you will find on travel shows on TV. A host visits a destination and documents some of his or her experience in an informal documentary style. Usually all the “must sees” are covered. Sometimes, if it’s a special interest show, a specific experience is covered.
  
  New on the scene are DMO created documentaries. These highlight a specific iconic experience of a destination. Often, there’s also a host involved and it’s informative and specific to an iconic experience.
  
  And there are the user generated videos of course. Nothing is more credible than real experiences from real people. The amazing video above was the winner of the best user generated video at the eTourism awards last year.

  Each type of video has a specific purpose. From creating awareness through creating an emotional connection, to real and authentic experiences that makes somebody think “I can be part of this story”. We’re currently in the process of creating a new destination video, TV commercials and documentaries. We’re also encouraging consumers to share their videos with us on our blog section.

  But what’s interesting is that we believe there’s room for an additional category, a variation of the travel host, with a user generated content feel. We call these “field reporter” videos. Last year we experimented with this concept.
  
  The video above is one of our ski host video. The intent of the video was to create an authentic video but still hit on the core brand message. The result was positive. Chris did a great job and consumers responded positvice, but our key learning was that we created something that felt a bit off. It didn’t feel authentic, and it wasn’t a slick documentary either.

  Together for our agency (Cossette Communication Group) we re-defined the video host concept and renamed it to “field reporters”. The idea was to hire 6 people who with good personalities who can handle a video camera. We would send them out into all corners of BC and document their experiences. In order to make it authentic, they have to find somebody and ask for a recommendation. After the recommendation, they need to follow through and document their experience. Nothing planned, nothing staged. They had to be host, camera person and editor. We did add our logo at the beginning of each video to be transparent that we asked these people to create these videos.

  And that’s what we’ve done over the last month. We found 7 very talented individuals and send each one to each of our 6 tourism regions, and one on a circle tour on his motorbike. We did give each a list of “iconic” tourism products so they had an idea what was going on in the area. They all made 5-7 videos each. We will use these videos on HelloBC to complement our existing content.

  Below is a sample.
  
  Here’s Chris climbing the Squamish Chief.
  
  Ivan visited Bella Coola, and found a first nation person to take him to old Petroglyphs.
  
  Kelli visited the Thompson Okanagan and hiked the Kettle Valley trail.
  
  Mike visited the Kootenay Rockies and was told to visit Fort Steele and the Bull River Guest Ranch near Cranbrook.
  
  Ami was told to take a train ride from Prince Rupert to Prince George through Northern British Columbia.
  
  And Gary rode the Coast Cariboo Circle Tour his motor bike.
  We’re also encouraging our staff, communities and industry to create their own videos. It’s easy enough to do. All you need is a video camera and some video editing software.
  
  Some have already taken us up on the challenge. Clint from our Norther BC region create the video above.
  
  And here’s our online team member Mikala’s visit to a farmers market

  By posting these videos on our blog, hopefully we’ll even inspire some BC residents and our travelers to give our their tips and insider information. The intent is to get many video’s capturing the diverse range of tourism experiences throughout the province. We will still use the destination video and professionally produced documentaries to get people excited, and the videos created by field reporters, industry, communities, staff and user will capture the details.
  To watch all field reporter videos, keep an eye on Tourism BC’s YouTube channel and our Field Reporter playlist. Our field reporters are still editing some of their videos, so more will be added soon.

• Internet, Marketing, personal, social media, tourism bc, Travel & Tourism

  My interview for Online Revealed Caribbean

  10.14.08 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  I was supposed to present with Richard Kunz from T4G, our technology solutions provider, at Online Revealed Caribbean. I couldn’t go unfortunately but Richard interviewed me and incorporated some of the footage in his presentation. I received some good feedback so I decided to put the whole interview online.
  We discussed Web 2.0, user generated content, social networks and one-to-one marketing for Destination Marketing Organizations and the tourism industry. I shared some of the things we’re working with T4G on to provide more relevancy to individual consumers on a mass scale.
  
  Richard and I will hopefully be at the next Online Revealed Canada in Niagara Falls on April 13-15.

• Internet, Marketing, tourism bc

  Tourism BC’s blog widget

  09.30.08 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  Below you’ll find our Share the Excitement widget. We’re all very excited about here at Tourism BC.

  
  This widget allows anybody to publish our blog entries on their own website. Every time a new entry is added to HelloBC, the content on the widget will also be updated,
  We get a lot of questions from communities and operators in BC about consumer blogs. They ask if they should start their own. But without some significant website traffic, it would be very hard for smaller destinations and businesses to create critical mass. By collaborating on generating the right User Generated Content for all of British Columbia, we can all benefit through this widget.
  The entries can be filtered by a British Columbia community so you can only show entries from a particular part of BC. Our Share the Excitement mark also contains our connection with the 2010 games.
  The widget is available for download on HelloBC. It’s available in 3 sizes and 3 colours. It should be extremely easy for a webmaster to include it in any website.
  We’re in the process of developing some new initiatives around HelloBC blogs. Stay tuned for more.

• Internet, Marketing, tourism bc

  Tourism British Columbia’s approach to international market websites

  09.25.08 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  Last week was a Milestone week for us. We launched 3 new Asian websites:

  • Korea: HelloBC.co.kr
  • Taiwan: HelloBC.tw
  • Japan: HelloBC.jp

  We stay true to our user centered approach while supporting a growing number of websites. Our decisions are driven by research; we try not to guess. Turning research results into sounds decisions regarding technology, content and acquisition strategies is where the fun is at.
  Our approach to our Asian was no different from our other websites. We worked with in-market specialists, including our staff, who where instrumental at turning this project into a success. Here are some details about our approach to international websites.
  Technology
  Our core technology platform now support websites for our North American, UK, Australian, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese markets. Our websites are integrated with our Destination Management System that serves as the core of our content management. Product information collected through TourismBC.net is included on all 6 websites.
  Information Architecture
  We have conducted focus groups, phone interviews, card sorts and/or usability tests to find the best way to organize the content on each website. We start with research about how our target audience in a particular market approach their trip planning; their mental model.
  We adjust our taxonomy where needed. For example, in North America a farm accommodation is called a ‘guest ranch‘. In the UK it’s called a ‘cowboy ranch‘ and in Australia a farmstay.
  Templates & design
  We’ve re-used our templates for HelloBC.com for our other market websites. This is partly because of economic reasons. We don’t have unlimited people and budget. By keeping things consistent, we also make it easier to maintain the templates over time. Content makes a website appropriate for a market. Changing a picture around can have a significant impact. We keep a close eye on things and might migrate into more a distinct look and feel for certain markets if our research tell us to do so.
  Content
  As I mentioned earlier, all tourism operators who have enrolled in our HelloBC Listing Program are automatically published on all 6 websites.
  We also support a large volume of destination information on each website. In order to make this more efficient, we have connected certain pages on our market websites with HelloBC. Even though they might fit someplace different in the Information Architecture, the copy and images are the same as HelloBC. If anything changes on HelloBC, so does the copy on the other websites. There are still areas on each page to publish market specific content. Each website also has disconnected pages. These pages are either unique for that market, or need different copy from HelloBC (the getting to British Columbia page for example)
  This is “easy” on our UK and Australian market websites because they are in English. But it’s different for our websites in a foreign language. For these websites we are using the services of a translation partner. Pages can still be connected. But when a page on HelloBC is updated, our content specialist has to option to send a work order to our translation partner. A translator who’s located in the respective country will translate the new or updated content. One of our in-market staff members will approve the copy and publish the new content. It’s fully automated with a work-flow system.
  There’s no time to sit still. The 2010 games are just 500 days away and we need to be ready. We kicked off our German website project last week. But that’s not the only things we’re working on. More about other activities soon.

• Internet, Marketing, Travel & Tourism

  Hotel ‘behind the scenes’ blog

  09.12.08 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  I’ve started to incorporate 5 e-marketing tips for tourism operators in my presentations for a while. They were the inspiration for the “Marketing your small tourism business in the 21th century” were based on.
  One of my tips is to start a blog. I always envision this blog were an operator can provide some ‘behind the scenes’ info about their property. Introduce the staff, the experience, guest comments, etc. I’m sure every business deals with hilareous moments as well that would be fun (and appropriate) to share.
  The Opus Hotel here in Vancouver has an awesome blog, but I’m always looking for something a little less corporate. And I could never find one, until today. The Hawtorne Hotel is a 3 star hotel in Salem, MA. They’ve posted stories about the hotel, its gardens, the town, their staff, guest comments, special menu items from their restaurant since March 2005. In the 3.5 year, they’ve accumulated almost 2000 postings.
  I think it’s a great example of using a blog to create a connection with potential visitors. I would suggest to share more stories instead of making announcements. Where people travel, stories happen.Where people work, stories happen. Somebody with a bit of wit can create a great blog that can create a following like a soap opera. People will want to visit the real deal and be part of the story.
  Marketing your small tourism business in the 21th century:

  • #1 Be Remarkable
  • #2 Get your website in order
  • #3 Monitor and Respect Tripadvisor
  • #4 Encourage Your Customer to Share their Experiences
  • #5 Find your target audience and join the conversation
  • #6: Be found in Search Engines

• Internet, Marketing, tourism bc

  Thanks John from Terrace

  08.30.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  I don’t know John from Terrace. But on April 4, 2007 he posted a blog post about the Seven Sisters Mountain Range on HelloBC’s blog. It’s a short paragraph, but contains perfect information and he added a beautiful photo as well. Great for us, great for our website users.
  Google indexed the entry and the last month, the term “Seven Sisters Mountain Range” was the 14th most popular keyword driving organic traffic to HelloBC. There are 25 other variations of the keyword driving traffic to the website as well.
  Thanks John, and all other HelloBC bloggers. You’re helping us market, and helping travelers plan.

• Internet, Travel & Tourism

  Congratulations VisitSweden

  08.28.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  
  VisitSweden launched its new website this last Tuesday. Besides that is looks very nice, provides great content and a nice Google map, it is also integrating the content it has generated from it CommunityOfSweden social network.
  I like this approach. It compliments the official content with user generated content (we do the same). I also like that they take small steps and evolve. They experimented with the social network, and now feel comfortable to start tying it closer to the flagship.
  Well done Sweden!

• Internet, personal

  Two Shout Outs

  05.31.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  Two friends of mine recently launched some pretty cool websites.
  
  First, Michael Chang, who worked on HelloBC for many years. He is now the owner and operator of El Chango Media launched the new design for Vancouver Trails. This website not only looks gorgeous, it also provides users with tons of information about the plethora of hiking trails around Vancouver.
  
  And second, Dave Wight, who spend many hours cataloging, selecting and manipulating images for HelloBC launched a redesigned website for the Calgary Stampede. I had coffee with him in Calgary a couple of weeks ago when I was there for Online Revealed and I’m happy to hear he’s enjoying his new position and the result shows.
  Congratulations guys.

• Internet, Travel & Tourism

  What Google is really going to do in the travel space

  05.27.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  A blog posting on the Travolution blog about Google and Travel made me think. Is there going to be some big product launch, or will they simply keep connecting the dots?
  This BusinessWeek article called “Google’s Travel Plans” is referenced in the posting. Google’s managing director for travel Rob Torres was interviewed. Torres says “the goal of Google’s travel division is to give users a destination where they can research travel plans, read user reviews, and see user uploaded videos and photos.”
  The article also states “It’s worth noting one thing that any future Google offering won’t have—airline fares or hotel bookings.” But vertical search is the new disrupter in travel. Kayak.com will perform 45M queries this month according to its CEO, with 5M uniques in April and climbing (compete.com). Microsoft bought Farecast.com to enter into this space.
  There’s no way Google will sit back and watch from the sideline. This is search, their core business. They have to make a move into vertical travel search. They won’t need to book anything. They can stay true to their advertising based revenue model, maybe complimented with a Pay-Per-Action model and they won’t alienate their customers or cannibalize their ad based revenue on their main search product.
  Torres says in Businessweek “We are already so highly searched for travel. Why not give them a one-stop shop for travel information?”. Vertical Search offers a perfect possibilities to compliment travel information opportunities. The New Zealand campaign on YouTube has been widely covered, but Google Maps is probably even more relevant. Tim Armstrong, Google’s VP of advertising told us at Phocuswright in Orlando last November that “depending on the day, there could be 40% of the traffic to that goes to that service that’s travel related”. That’s huge.
  Google is already starting to connect the dots. Google Maps recently integrated photos through Paronamio (a small company it acquired last year), Wikipedia content and YouTube videos. Businesses can also provide Google with their info for display on Google Maps. And the user generated maps cover a lot of tourism content.
  A few months ago, Google announced Knol, a Wikipedia for experts. “A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.” Here’s Google’s opportunity to create credible travel content, written by an expert.
  Now think about Google’s massive user base of Google accounts, YouTube, Gmail and Orkut. Think about OpenID, Open Social. Think about Friend Connect. Here’s the User Generated Content piece, combined with a social network.
  All Google needs to do is keep connecting dots and a strong travel product will evolve and emerge. It might not happen through a big bang approach, but simply as an organic evolution of their existing products. I’m sure there are plenty of Google engineers using their 20% pet-project time to connect dots and creating innovative travel related products.

William Bakker's Destination Marketing blog