The role of our website is a favourite topic among senior management at Tourism BC and has been for a long time. PhoCusWright’s Destination Marketing: Understanding the Role and Inpact on Destination Marketers flared up another round last summer. I’ll spare you those details but here are some of my thoughts.
PhoCusWright rightfully notes that almost every DMO is different they way they’re structured, funded and organized but that key issues and challenges are very similar. I’ve been talking to my peers around the world for 10 years now and that’s definely true.

And it’s becoming more challenging all the time. Online innovation continues are a rapid pace while a DMO website is now at the heart of all marketing activities. My perspective a user centered one. If you don’t meet your website user’s goals, there’s no hope you’ll ever meet any of your organizational or stakeholder objectives, because your visitors won’t stick around.
One place to start is to figure out where a person’s place is in the planning (or purchase) cycle.

Find out if somebody:

1. knows about the destination but is not considering a trip yet
2. is considering a trip but doesn’t have concrete plans yet
3. has decided to visit but hasn’t booked yet
4. has booked and it filling in the details
5. is in the middle of the trip, continuing planning

The answer to the question posed above could radically change the approach you should take. If most people are in the first group, they’re looking for a reason to visit. They need to be inspired. Big imagery, videos that connect on an emotional level and experiential stories work really well in this phase. Most DMO websites serve consumers in this phase very well.

But if somebody is in the third group, the role of the website is not to lose the sale. They’re already inspired and motivated. Most DMO websites don’t do very well here. When somebody visits a DMO website in this phase, it probably means there’s just a few nagging questions and they need answers. Details. How long does it take to drive there? How expensive is everything?Is the museum open on Mondays? Is there enough to do for the whole family?

Forget the emotional video and big images. The website can look like Craigslist. They just want detailed information (they could also be looking for a deal by the way, but that’s another poll to run).

PhoCusWright has polled consumers and their report includes valuable information about where consumers say they visit DMO websites in the process. We’ve polled our website visitors about this for a while now and our numbers are a bit different from PhoCusWright’s. This leads me to believe that it might vary based on the destination.

It’s super easy to find out where your visitors are in the process. Poll them. Find out. And use it internally as you discuss the role of your website. And get the PhoCusWight report, it’s worth the money.

One thing I observed with some (most) of the Phocuswright innovators is that a lot of the products demo-ed are (still) conceived and created by engineers. Engineers are brilliantly smart. But most suffer from the “because we can” syndrome. FAIL.

Good products are simple and useful. If you don’t meet these criteria, you will fail guaranteed. Meet them, and you have a shot. They are your minimum requirements.

Take Twitter. Turns out Twitter us useful to millions of people. Twitter is also extremely simple. Post and follow. That’s pretty much it.
Twitter could add categories, replies, forwards, tags, google maps and much, much more. Twitter could allow its users to add pictures, voice messages, video. But they have resisted. Because it would stop being simple. And that’s a big reason why Twitter is successful.

Take Kayak. Kayak is also useful. Kayak is also extremely simple in it’s essence. From->to->dates->search and you’re done. The result page focuses on the core task; find the best flight. Features are optional after the core task is completed. These features are useful in itself, but don’t stop the core task from being simple.

I suggest to all the innovators to hire a product manager who understands this, focuses on the core task that’s being satisfied, and strips everything else.

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.