As I just tweeted, Philadelphia has a history of engaging bloggers. We've hosted an all-blogger press trip, invite bloggers on all of our press trips, we held BlogPhiladelphia and blogger meet-ups, and we'd be happy to help craft an appropriate itinerary for visiting bloggers. It's fun to see immediate results, too.
Amanda McCormick
· 1 year ago
In my last job, I recruited regular Brits to blog about the joys of their local areas for the official tourist board of Britain. Results can be seen at www.beabritdifferent.com.
Rick Wolff
· 1 year ago
Once my site (DutchNewYork.com) gathers some monetary steam, and/or to help that along, it will assist in a Hudson Valley tourism spike leading up to fall '09, the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's entrance into New York Harbor. Of the ideas I and a tourism-savvy brain trust will come up with, I must remember invitations to key bloggers who like to travel. Thanks for the notion!
Jason "Bnpositive" Bean
· 1 year ago
This is a great topic to be discussed and I think a huge opportunity for local tourism. Having just come back from BlogWorldExpo '08 in Vegas, I was able to take advantage of the local businesses working with Blog4Tix.com to get free passes to see a Blue Man Group show. All I had to do was write about my experience. I also visited The Hoover Dam while I was there and asked about discounts available if I wrote up a blog post or two about the visit. They weren't interested. I think with the economic challenges facing us, more and more people are going to be staying closer to home for their leisure trips and entertainment. What better way to be market and advertise local businesses and opportunities than to work with your local community of bloggers. Word of mouth advertising is still the most valuable right? The Venetian and Blue Man Group didn't "need" my help to get their name out there more, but they understand that any buzz about their location and attractions is going to help them in the long run.
Robert Rowe
· 1 year ago
What about inviting people to add their favorite locations in Google Earth or Google Maps? Some people already do this for themselves and their close networks, so it would make sense for the tourism industry to "borrow" it.
John Flynn
· 1 year ago
Setting up blogs, a twitter account, a Facebook account (and of course other social networking sites) geared to conference planers so you can show them the support and how easy you can make their conference happen in (lets say Boston because that is where I work).
These blogs would give conference planers resources such as great places to eat, event that are happening in the city around the time they are thinking about coming, the new and old happenings of the city.
This way you can build a social network of conference planers that you can use some traditional media (direct mail) and social networking. I would invite them on a free trip to my city so you can really show them the highlights.
Now I am not a conference planer so I am talking out of my...nose here.
Enjoy the long weekend!
Deb Kolaras
· 1 year ago
Cool post and my response to the question is: the tourism agencies need a better understanding of the blogging model on the whole. I'm sure if most knew that a fun read like this would be produced about their fair city and it's offerings, they'd leap at the chance to create that kind of relationship.
My suggestion would be to start from the end of the organizers of an event; reach out to the tourism agencies in the area and let them know of your event and ask them to put together an itinerary or map of the coolest hotspots, food, historical sites (maybe even offbeat ones) so your guests can really get a flavor of things. Let them know that you're people will be doing writeups and you'd love to mention them. Mutual good all the way around.
Again, great post,
Deb
Shannon
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris - I'm really glad that you bring this subject up. As you may already know, http://TravelingMamas.com is a blog written by four professional travel writers. As writers for print media, the four of us have made it our mission to school the travel industry on the importance of social media.
Many tourism bureaus and pr firms already see the value of introducing themselves to travel bloggers. On the otherhand, there ar many others in the industry that are old-school and resistant to change and still only value a magazine article, no matter how regional that magazine may be. They don't understand that through social media, they just might entice a new group of consumers to experience their destination.
Tourism provides jobs for so many people at various destinations. A drop in the number of travelers hurts entire communities. This is why we Boycotted the Staycation throughout the summer. If people stop traveling, entire cities will have serious economic problems in these trying times.
Kudos to such entities as VisitPittsburg, VisitFlorida, VisitPhilly, Oak Ridge CVB, and MWC-Anthology Group (as well as many others) for seeing the value in blogs. When the tourism industry as a whole starts to recognize blogs as "real" medium, then maybe things will start to change.
Also, when new media and social media begins to recognize Travel Bloggers the same way they recognize the sports bloggers, the mommy bloggers, and tech bloggers, then I will be doing a dance of joy.
Caroline - Philadelphia
· 1 year ago
John - interesting point. My office doesn't work specifically with conferences unless they are journalist conferences. But the one time we did in June, we made sure to provide conference attendees access to our twitter account, our official visitor site and our tourism blog, www.uwishunu.com, all before they got here to Philadelphia.
Kara
· 1 year ago
First I have to laugh about the Whoopie Pie = Maine reference, cause I completely agree. My grandmother, who has lived in Maine her whole life, is the whoopie pie queen. I would also suggest tourism bureaus engaging the resources they have in their local areas. Cities could invite area bloggers to special events and have them start a blog on their tourism website about what is so great about their particular city.
frances
· 1 year ago
I'd think tourism bureaus would start by engaging (and linking to) local bloggers -- those bloggers may not only feature local attractions and eateries on their own sites, but they likely have networks of out-of-town bloggers who do the same. Also, many local bloggers are sources of information for visiting guests; putting out the word on the local blogger network would probably net visiting bloggers.
That sounds so basic. But it's not happening in *this* tourist location.
Bonnie Cranmer
· 1 year ago
Regional tourism efforts are creating big $$$ for many communities suffering huge budget deficits. Utilizing new media networks is just good business and the sooner they begin to learn and utilize, the sooner they'll see a return on that investment. Bloggers as visitors or consumers are only one group that could prove lucrative for tourism efforts.
As budgets tighten, people able to travel for business or leisure want easy access to all resources, value for every dollar and best available experience. Creating a comfort zone for every traveler, blogs, maps, resource listings, COUPONS, events & business listings, this is a massive market ready for an upgrade!
pam
· 1 year ago
Random thoughts in response to a very good question:
The Hawaii tourism folks are on Twitter, blogging, having conversations with bloggers on a daily basis and I think a lot of other tourism/CVB organizations are starting to do the same.
It's possible tourism agencies still see bloggers as slackers in jammies and don't think we're worth their time. When they do try to reach us, I feel like they often fail with ill targeted press releases for places I'm nowhere near or have no interest in. They offer me nothing more than spam. Perhaps they're counting on the lazy blogger model, hoping that the press releases will be reposted to my blog?
The best relationships I have with tourism providers - or any others - are those that feel personal. The PR reps know what I do, what I write about, what my interests are, and they let me know about stuff that's relevant. This isn't an easy fix - they first have to find bloggers they think they want to talk to, then spend the time developing a relationship like they'd do (I think) with any other media person.
But maybe it starts by saying, as one of your previous commnenters mentions, understanding blogging. Call me crazy, I guess they could start by talking to bloggers.
Sheila Scarborough
· 1 year ago
Thanks so much for this post, Chris. I'm a writer specializing in travel, and one of my personal missions is to highlight the "small and unusual" places and events when I travel.
A blog is perfect for that, but as others have mentioned, the tourism industry as a whole is only now waking up to what we can do for their destination. I just returned from a major travel media conference (got to meet 3 of the 4 Traveling Mamas there, yay!) and you could count the bloggers in the room on, well, maybe a hand and a half. Most seem to know that "something" of value to them is "out there," but they're so worried about trolls and silliness that they don't engage.
One thing I've done for outreach is offer tourism bureaus a chance to write a guest post about their kid-friendly attractions for my Family Travel Logue on BootsnAll. I've had ONE office take me up on it - the Iowa Tourism Office - and Jessica O'Riley from there did a super job and really enjoyed interacting in the comments.
Crickets chirp as I wait on the rest, but kudos to the places like Philadelphia PA that are active and engaged all over the Web.
Angela
· 1 year ago
I am both a social media addict and, until recently, a Tourism Bureau media relations person at a Tier 1 city. The central issue was never that we didn't get the value of bloggers; the problem is that CVB communications staffs are TINY - tourism offices are primarly sales companies, with minimal funding and resources for PR. With a three person team, we personanlly hosted more than 350 media a year. That's 350 itineraries, thousands of meals, tours, interviews and endless weekends. We placed more than 100 articles a month. I fought for an additional person on our team to focus on emergine media, but it never happened. And in that environment, the media assistance requests from bloggers were almost universally from sites with no tracking, no google link-backs, no site traffic measurement...and the truth is, when someone hit me up for a free trip but didn't send any qualifier about thier audience, it meant that I had to do the research, and there was just never time. Proactive outreach was also a moot point.
This doesn't excuse all CVB's from not recognizing the value of bloggers - just pointing out that many do see value, but don't have resources. Until there are a few more case studies showing a proven ROI, things won't be changing. In the mean time, those of us who embrace it are moving to the private sector...
Chris Miller
· 1 year ago
mmmm, Gooey Butter Cake. That is all I can say about lunch that day.
Michael Slawin
· 1 year ago
Chris, you are right....and it just makes sense that tourism boards would reach out to influential visitors to their town.
I've found that people either love or hate where they live....not much in-between. Glad you hooked up with some of us that love St louis and all that it has to offer....
Chris, you can order the Gooey Butter cakes delivered to your door (or hotel room) at http://www.64Flavors.com
When is your next trip to St Louis? We need to talk toasted ravioli!
Luanne Mattson
· 1 year ago
One of the biggest issues about hosting bloggers is measurement. Traditional media has great metrics to show constituents. We can show them audited circulation numbers that speak volumes. Many metropolitan areas are reaching out to bloggers, and some more rural communities are also expanding their efforts (though it's more challenging) to engage bloggers. It will evolve, I believe, and bloggers will be more welcomed down the road. Thanks for the post.
Mandy McFadden
· 1 year ago
Great post Chris. I was just talking with Justin last week about Visit Pittsburgh and their social media endeavors. I am the Social Media Specialist at BarkleyREI, an interactive agency in Pittsburgh. We service mostly tourism offices, and have just launched a blog for the Pennsylvania State Tourism Office. The purpose of the blog is to gather information for PA enthusiasts and put it all in one spot where everyone can see what everyone else loves about the state of PA. I serve as the Community Manager for the blog, so I conduct outreach to get the guest bloggers and manage the schedules, uploading etc... It is working out really well so far, as we just soft launched in June. We currently have over 15 guest bloggers, myself included. There is a way for tourism to be interacting in the social space and I think www.paadventure.com is a cool way to do so.
See you in Foxboro next week!
Bertil
· 1 year ago
Most people mentioned initiatives more relevant than what I wanted to talk about, so. . . but I couldn't possibly let it go without saying that I wanted to blog about my own personal experience: I live in front of the Louvre, in Paris — I can't go out without having crowds asking for direction. ;o)
Kimmie Smith
· 1 year ago
I think it comes down to how you pitch what it is your doing. I run the Kitten Lounge which is based in NYC and my food editor and I have been invited to go to the Poconos next weekend to write about their food oriented weekends, I am going to Atlantic City to cover the Tropicana's Halloween events and I am heading on to Philly for a few days after that to cover fashion, food, etc there. With upcoming trips in the Bahamas and Miami, I have found that people have reached out to me to attend and to get me familiar on the area. Other times I have pitched directly. I do think it would be nice to have more agencies/bureaus do this but it is definitely a work in progress and something that I am interested in cultivating on an individual basis.
Kyle
· 1 year ago
Folks, folks, you're missing the point...Gooey Butter Cake is absolutely the best. It may or may not be on my top five reasons why I married a girl from St. Louis!
OK, I guess there was more to this post than delicious references. I have seen very limited interaction from tourism bureaus/bloggers and you would think that you would hear from folks when you Twitter you are going to be in a certain city and need a recommendation. Seems like a goldmine to me, not only for tourism boards, but certainly hotels and restaurants. The latter is interesting since in many cities ownership groups have a bunch of restaurants in their stable and could do a really comprehensive job getting involved in the conversation.
/kff
Brett Tilford
· 1 year ago
Yeah I could see it being a good idea. For some of us who are the "world traveling" type when we go to a conference in another city it's not likely we've been there before or if we have we don't know what's cool about the place. So yeah, I like it.
Kat Gritzmacher
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris- I live in northern Minnesota and our tourism bureau has implemented a social media component to our traditional advertising. Focused on the activities tourists come 'up north' for, we launched several blogs featuring local people who are 'experts' in those activities. We had "Dave" our snowmobile guru, Larry, the local ATV enthusiast, and me, Kat, the local nightlife and entertainment goddess (LOL). I personally operate my own entertainment web site and blog for the Iron Range and guest blog on the tourism site. For our first year, we gained many 'friends' using the blog, MySpace and Facebook to connect with Minnesotans. We feel that when tourists come to the area, they can 'get to know' the people who live here and rely on them for tips, ideas and insight. We are continuing to develop our plans and ideas but we think people love it. You can see what we're up to at http://ironrange.org.
Lara Kretler
· 1 year ago
Chris, glad to hear they showed you a great time in St. Louis. When are you coming to Columbus, Ohio so we can shower you with chocolate and peanut butter buckeyes?
Several organizations are doing a great job with blogger relations here in Ohio - most notably Experience Columbus (www.experiencecolumbus.com and @ExpCols on Twitter) and the Ohio Tourism Division (www.discoverohio.com). In the interest of full disclosure, I help out with PR for both.
And in all seriousness, you're welcome anytime. We'd love to have you!
Douglas Lampi
· 1 year ago
It fantastic to see the entire Tourism Internet Marketing industry moving to blogging and Social Media!
While many of the Tourism Organizations are steaming ahead into building networks of Friends, Followers and Fans, there is a technology gap between the Baby Boomer Mom & Pop Tourism Camp owner - and these great new Relationship management tools.
Training and Support for business owners who are now forced to start Blogging and and participating in Facebook is a critical component in preparing your Tourism Business for the future.
And the two serve different functions and have very different slants and voices.
Blogs are immediate, even on the internet stories take time to appear. Blogs are (generally) shorter and more focused, articles take a more indepth approach.
I've been blogged about Door County Wisconsin as I took the trip. It will be at least another two months before the article is published. I talked about the experience of a fish boil, and about fresh lawyers (it's a fish). That probably won't make it into the article.
The viewpoint and voice is much more personal. It's kinda the story behind the article.
Number of months traveling: 19 Number of countries visited: 43 Number of tourism groups contacting me: 0
Young Che
· 1 year ago
Good stuff Chris. Every city should utilize bloggers. Especially since bloggers have a way of tapping into the latest happenings in whatever scene they operate in.
Nathan Kam
· 1 year ago
McNeil Wilson Communications here in Hawaii - realizes the value of working with bloggers and engaging in social media. My client the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) is working with new media professionals on a regular basis and it is a core component of our public relations program. HVCB is also a sponsor of the upcoming Podcamp Hawaii and will be working with incoming bloggers to showcase various aspects of the destination.
I should also mention my other client The Wyland Waikiki hotel has fully embraced the social web as part of its PR strategy. Just this year we launched a blog - Drop In To The Wyland Waikiki , have the GM Robin Graf on Twitter , and are taking an active role in hosting bloggers, and sponsoring events like Podcamp Hawaii.
New media is an area we can't afford to ignore.
Michelle Evans
· 1 year ago
I assure you those of us in the Tourism industry who even know anything about social media are putting everything we have into educating those around us, those we work for, and those we associate with. It's taking time to learn. No one wants to go in and do it wrong, so we have a tendency to not do it at all.
For the record, Chris, next time you're in Vancouver, give me a call. I'd love to show you around.
Reinhard
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris, thank you for this post. The ideas and the reactions are very helpful for me - an Austrian (attention:No Kangaroos)DMO manager.
We set up a blog about 6 months ago, the idea is to involve local people and invite them to present their personal hotspots to our guest. One challenge is to find people who contribute to the blog, mostly because they do not find time for this.
We also thought about the question, "How can we invite our visitors to share their experiences online?". One idea was the creation of a bookmark. This is distributed through restaurants, hotels, etc... and asks people to share their fotos, videos and stories on flickr, youtube or tripadvisor.
It seems to me, that their is a short delay in the usgae of social web tools between America and Europe/Austria. So we are not very experienced in how to engage bloggers. Should they be treated like journalists? Should we organise fam trips for bloggers? How would they react if we invite them? Are there specials services we could provide in the destination which would be helpful for bloggers?
Donna Hull
· 1 year ago
Great post, Chris. I'm a freelance writer who also blogs. I agree that the folks in Florida are doing a good job in recognizing the value of social media. One of the CVB's saw my blog where I write about active travel for baby boomers, http://www.myitchytravelfeet.com. After reading my posts, she invited me for a visit that will provide plenty of blog material (plus I'll be pitching stories to print publications).
I agree that measuring the effectiveness is difficult for Tourism offices used to dealing in the printed way of thinking. But, when you stop and think about it, magazines and newspapers are read, then tossed. Articles on blogs and websites are on the internet forever. With so many travelers using the internet as a resource for travel planning, it just makes sense for the travel industry to develop relationships with bloggers.
Darren Cronian
· 1 year ago
Hi Chris,
My first comment on here but I've read your posts for a little while. I think the travel / tourism industry has only within the past six months really started to sit up and listen to bloggers.
The US is miles ahead of countries like the UK, where trying to contact a company online is a challenge. Tools like Twitter, and Facebook have meant that bloggers and consumers can communicate and interact.
There's still room for improvement but I think travel companies are starting to realise that people have a voice and blogs are part of that.
NancydBrown
· 1 year ago
This is a great post, Chris. As a freelance writer and Lodging Travel Blog Editor, I hope your blog post makes it into the e-mail box of every Tourism Bureau.
Thanks for the topic.
Scott
· 1 year ago
Chris, you have brought up a very hot topic within the CVB world right now and I'm glad to see this topic is open for debate.
We at Experience Columbus took baby steps in entering the social media realm over the past few months and held a blogger only event just two months ago to begin dialogue and engage the local blogging community. We have been hosting travel bloggers for years, but until recently had been more reactive than proactive in inviting them to our city.
Through our presence on local blogs and Twitter, along with our other social media outlets we have formed a great new relationship with the blogosphere that has carried over into the travel blogging community specifically. Actually, I am hosting writer/blogger Mary Gallagher this weekend, http://www.gallagherstravels.com/travelnotebook/
Scott Peacock Media Relations Manager Experience Columbus
Darren Cronian
· 1 year ago
I have to add another point which I didn't raise in an earlier comment.
What I would hate to see is tourist boards and the travel industry assume that bloggers are "easy picking" in that we aren't linked to a media outlet so we'll promote anything and everything for a few bucks.
You only have to look at the amount of press releases that bloggers now receive - companies are continously asking me to write a review about their company, even though I have never booked a holiday with them, or used their site to search.
I refuse to be bought, and I am sure they're many other bloggers who feel the same. I would hate to see bloggers being bought into free trips in return for righting nice and fluffy reviews about the destination.
pam
· 1 year ago
Wow, there's so much great commentary here that I had to stop in twice.
I wanted to respond to Darren, obliquely. I think that he brings up something that the PR/CVB folks probably find really hard to navigate - if they want genuinely critical commentary on what they're offering.
There ARE bloggers who will simply reprint or revise and then post press releases. That's the easy pickings right there, eh? Then there are bloggers who are more conscientious and bother to ask questions, check things out, do their homework, and formulate an opinion before they post.
After some more thinking (and some input from other interested bloggers) I realize it must be very time consuming for PR/CVB folks to differentiate between those types of bloggers. (Before you flame, I realize there are many different kinds of bloggers, not just two.) From the PR/CVB side, it sure seems advantageous to reach the lazy ones, but a better investment in the long term to reach the more conscientious ones because it means building relationships, like some of the people on the PR/CVB side on this thread have bothered to do.
Darren Cronian
· 1 year ago
Good points Pam oh and Hi :)
There's one word TRUST.
It is not going to be in the interest of a tourism bureau, if no one trusts what the blogger writes about if they have a track record of writing fluffy paid reviews, or copying press releases word for word.
I would want to read a review or report that looks at the positive and negative sides of the destination. Blogs need to add value, not clutter the internet up even more.
From a social media perspective I love being able to communicate with companies and tourism boards on Facebook and Twitter, and as a consumer, I like that the internet has opened up communication channels.
I wrote about this earlier in the week, click on my name to read the post (disgraceful plug I know!)
Roxanne Darling
· 1 year ago
I am thrilled that we have huge participation of our tourism officials and vendors at next weekend's Podcamp + Wordcamp Hawaii. I can say easily we would not be doing such a first class event on such a grand scale without their support. I think it will be a powerful experience for all of us.
And to agree with TravelingMamas, the folks like Nate Kam and Michael Ni at MWC-Anthology get it.
Jessie V
· 1 year ago
We are always scoping places and sites for our travel site, and I am completely surprised by the lack of response from 90% of tourist offices I query. The exceptions have been Hawaii, Scotland, and any jazz or music festivals. You'd think promoters would be glad for any story angle, when a writer asks for more info. ?! Great topic!
Soultravelers3
· 1 year ago
Coming late to this, but I just wanted to say, excellent post and conversation!
As some of you here already know, I am a freelance writer specializing in family travel. We are going on our third year of an open ended tour around the world and blog about it at http://soultravelers3.com/ and we take disadvantaged kids with us through the award winning non-profit Reach The World.
I'm am glad to see the tide is turning, but have to agree that most are missing the tremendous value of travel bloggers.
The public does not seem to be missing it, our first Youtube video zoomed to almost a million view almost instantly.
There are some fantastic travel bloggers out there and it is time for more tourism bureaus and pr firms find them!
Beth Whitman
· 1 year ago
As someone with one foot in the blogging world and one in the print world, I see both sides.
I know the value of blogging and the fact that the more mentions a location/book/product receives online, the more potential for sales/visits. However, their is a higher perceived value placed on print reviews and recommendations than for those online.
It's no different with "selling" a destination for the CVB's/PR firms. They have limited resources (as mentioned earlier) and, for now, need to focus their resources on newspapers and magazines (both, sadly, dying industries).
But, they are slowly but surely coming around and will eventually figure out a way to reach high value bloggers (and by that I mean the ones for their potential customers). They SHOULD be careful about who they extend offers to - I've heard too many stories about so-called print writers taking fam trips with absolutely no intention of writing about their experiences. (Shame on the CVBs/PR companies for not choosing more wisely.)
With that said, travel (and write) on!
juliemarg
· 1 year ago
What an interesting article and thread!
How do the CVB people deal with the tendency of the internet to be hyper critical? A newspaper or magazine article is unlikely to say that a particular restaurant is completely awful, but bloggers are often snarky and snide. The CVB can't be using their members dues to host a bash fest.
Darren Cronian
· 1 year ago
@ Julie.
"bloggers are often snarky and snide"
Do you not mean that bloggers do not hide the truth whereas the media write fluffy reviews. Why is it so wrong to be critical about a destination, a trip, or vacation?
The internet has given consumers the voice, and thank god for that as they're too many people writing rubbish to get them a few bucks.
juliemarg
· 1 year ago
Hi Darren
It's not wrong to be critical - it's just crazy to think that a PR person would pay you to do so. The purpose of the CVB is to attract customers for their members. The members pay them dues to do their PR.
Roxanne Darling
· 1 year ago
There is often gold in them thar hills of criticism and as more people understand how to value this free market research I think they will be willing to pay for it. Many of us can think of situations where a business falls off because of poor WOM yet no one had the courage to inform the owner of the negative word on the street. Most businesses want to do their best - and having an accurate report (as compared to only looking at the positives) is incredibly important IMO.
Tourists feel taken advantage of on a regular basis (just like home buyers) because only the positive features are mentioned, not the negative ones.
In my experience, people can actually handle the so-called negative features just fine, if they know about them and can plan for them. It's when they feel hijacked that "the beautiful view" also comes with unmentioned "construction noise next door" that can backfire. If a blogger mentions both, and the buyer chooses to come anyway, then the blogger has just handled a customer service problem in advance, for free, for the hotel owner.
This is the magic and the value of transparency in communication. PR has traditionally been all about spin, and putting the best foot forward, not putting the truth forward. They don't need to be mutually exclusive.
Lifecruiser
· 1 year ago
Great post. I welcome this new approach and have been wondering why it wasn't already here a long time ago. Been waiting for it.
I've never understood why companies are so afraid of negative reviews. It's a great way to grow, to get better in what they're doing. If they wanna be good, who is better to judge it than the customer/guests?
They would win lots of kudos from travelers if they did meet the criticism with a professional approach - meaning: admitting that something isn't as good as they wish, but that they're working hard on it and changing it. That's real good PR in my opinion!
All Comments
These blogs would give conference planers resources such as great places to eat, event that are happening in the city around the time they are thinking about coming, the new and old happenings of the city.
This way you can build a social network of conference planers that you can use some traditional media (direct mail) and social networking. I would invite them on a free trip to my city so you can really show them the highlights.
Now I am not a conference planer so I am talking out of my...nose here.
Enjoy the long weekend!
My suggestion would be to start from the end of the organizers of an event; reach out to the tourism agencies in the area and let them know of your event and ask them to put together an itinerary or map of the coolest hotspots, food, historical sites (maybe even offbeat ones) so your guests can really get a flavor of things. Let them know that you're people will be doing writeups and you'd love to mention them. Mutual good all the way around.
Again, great post,
Deb
Many tourism bureaus and pr firms already see the value of introducing themselves to travel bloggers. On the otherhand, there ar many others in the industry that are old-school and resistant to change and still only value a magazine article, no matter how regional that magazine may be. They don't understand that through social media, they just might entice a new group of consumers to experience their destination.
Tourism provides jobs for so many people at various destinations. A drop in the number of travelers hurts entire communities. This is why we Boycotted the Staycation throughout the summer. If people stop traveling, entire cities will have serious economic problems in these trying times.
Kudos to such entities as VisitPittsburg, VisitFlorida, VisitPhilly, Oak Ridge CVB, and MWC-Anthology Group (as well as many others) for seeing the value in blogs.
When the tourism industry as a whole starts to recognize blogs as "real" medium, then maybe things will start to change.
Also, when new media and social media begins to recognize Travel Bloggers the same way they recognize the sports bloggers, the mommy bloggers, and tech bloggers, then I will be doing a dance of joy.
That sounds so basic. But it's not happening in *this* tourist location.
As budgets tighten, people able to travel for business or leisure want easy access to all resources, value for every dollar and best available experience. Creating a comfort zone for every traveler, blogs, maps, resource listings, COUPONS, events & business listings, this is a massive market ready for an upgrade!
The Hawaii tourism folks are on Twitter, blogging, having conversations with bloggers on a daily basis and I think a lot of other tourism/CVB organizations are starting to do the same.
It's possible tourism agencies still see bloggers as slackers in jammies and don't think we're worth their time. When they do try to reach us, I feel like they often fail with ill targeted press releases for places I'm nowhere near or have no interest in. They offer me nothing more than spam. Perhaps they're counting on the lazy blogger model, hoping that the press releases will be reposted to my blog?
The best relationships I have with tourism providers - or any others - are those that feel personal. The PR reps know what I do, what I write about, what my interests are, and they let me know about stuff that's relevant. This isn't an easy fix - they first have to find bloggers they think they want to talk to, then spend the time developing a relationship like they'd do (I think) with any other media person.
But maybe it starts by saying, as one of your previous commnenters mentions, understanding blogging. Call me crazy, I guess they could start by talking to bloggers.
A blog is perfect for that, but as others have mentioned, the tourism industry as a whole is only now waking up to what we can do for their destination. I just returned from a major travel media conference (got to meet 3 of the 4 Traveling Mamas there, yay!) and you could count the bloggers in the room on, well, maybe a hand and a half. Most seem to know that "something" of value to them is "out there," but they're so worried about trolls and silliness that they don't engage.
One thing I've done for outreach is offer tourism bureaus a chance to write a guest post about their kid-friendly attractions for my Family Travel Logue on BootsnAll. I've had ONE office take me up on it - the Iowa Tourism Office - and Jessica O'Riley from there did a super job and really enjoyed interacting in the comments.
Crickets chirp as I wait on the rest, but kudos to the places like Philadelphia PA that are active and engaged all over the Web.
This doesn't excuse all CVB's from not recognizing the value of bloggers - just pointing out that many do see value, but don't have resources. Until there are a few more case studies showing a proven ROI, things won't be changing. In the mean time, those of us who embrace it are moving to the private sector...
I've found that people either love or hate where they live....not much in-between. Glad you hooked up with some of us that love St louis and all that it has to offer....
Chris, you can order the Gooey Butter cakes delivered to your door (or hotel room) at http://www.64Flavors.com
When is your next trip to St Louis? We need to talk toasted ravioli!
See you in Foxboro next week!
OK, I guess there was more to this post than delicious references. I have seen very limited interaction from tourism bureaus/bloggers and you would think that you would hear from folks when you Twitter you are going to be in a certain city and need a recommendation. Seems like a goldmine to me, not only for tourism boards, but certainly hotels and restaurants. The latter is interesting since in many cities ownership groups have a bunch of restaurants in their stable and could do a really comprehensive job getting involved in the conversation.
/kff
I live in northern Minnesota and our tourism bureau has implemented a social media component to our traditional advertising. Focused on the activities tourists come 'up north' for, we launched several blogs featuring local people who are 'experts' in those activities. We had "Dave" our snowmobile guru, Larry, the local ATV enthusiast, and me, Kat, the local nightlife and entertainment goddess (LOL). I personally operate my own entertainment web site and blog for the Iron Range and guest blog on the tourism site. For our first year, we gained many 'friends' using the blog, MySpace and Facebook to connect with Minnesotans. We feel that when tourists come to the area, they can 'get to know' the people who live here and rely on them for tips, ideas and insight. We are continuing to develop our plans and ideas but we think people love it. You can see what we're up to at http://ironrange.org.
Several organizations are doing a great job with blogger relations here in Ohio - most notably Experience Columbus (www.experiencecolumbus.com and @ExpCols on Twitter) and the Ohio Tourism Division (www.discoverohio.com). In the interest of full disclosure, I help out with PR for both.
And in all seriousness, you're welcome anytime. We'd love to have you!
While many of the Tourism Organizations are steaming ahead into building networks of Friends, Followers and Fans, there is a technology gap between the Baby Boomer Mom & Pop Tourism Camp owner - and these great new Relationship management tools.
Training and Support for business owners who are now forced to start Blogging and and participating in Facebook is a critical component in preparing your Tourism Business for the future.
And the two serve different functions and have very different slants and voices.
Blogs are immediate, even on the internet stories take time to appear. Blogs are (generally) shorter and more focused, articles take a more indepth approach.
I've been blogged about Door County Wisconsin as I took the trip. It will be at least another two months before the article is published. I talked about the experience of a fish boil, and about fresh lawyers (it's a fish). That probably won't make it into the article.
The viewpoint and voice is much more personal. It's kinda the story behind the article.
Neala
OffbeatTravel Blog and OffbeatTravel.com
My bad...
Neala
Number of countries visited: 43
Number of tourism groups contacting me: 0
I should also mention my other client The Wyland Waikiki hotel has fully embraced the social web as part of its PR strategy. Just this year we launched a blog - Drop In To The Wyland Waikiki , have the GM Robin Graf on Twitter , and are taking an active role in hosting bloggers, and sponsoring events like Podcamp Hawaii.
New media is an area we can't afford to ignore.
For the record, Chris, next time you're in Vancouver, give me a call. I'd love to show you around.
We set up a blog about 6 months ago, the idea is to involve local people and invite them to present their personal hotspots to our guest. One challenge is to find people who contribute to the blog, mostly because they do not find time for this.
We also thought about the question, "How can we invite our visitors to share their experiences online?". One idea was the creation of a bookmark. This is distributed through restaurants, hotels, etc... and asks people to share their fotos, videos and stories on flickr, youtube or tripadvisor.
It seems to me, that their is a short delay in the usgae of social web tools between America and Europe/Austria.
So we are not very experienced in how to engage bloggers.
Should they be treated like journalists? Should we organise fam trips for bloggers? How would they react if we invite them? Are there specials services we could provide in the destination which would be helpful for bloggers?
I agree that measuring the effectiveness is difficult for Tourism offices used to dealing in the printed way of thinking. But, when you stop and think about it, magazines and newspapers are read, then tossed. Articles on blogs and websites are on the internet forever. With so many travelers using the internet as a resource for travel planning, it just makes sense for the travel industry to develop relationships with bloggers.
My first comment on here but I've read your posts for a little while. I think the travel / tourism industry has only within the past six months really started to sit up and listen to bloggers.
The US is miles ahead of countries like the UK, where trying to contact a company online is a challenge. Tools like Twitter, and Facebook have meant that bloggers and consumers can communicate and interact.
There's still room for improvement but I think travel companies are starting to realise that people have a voice and blogs are part of that.
Thanks for the topic.
We at Experience Columbus took baby steps in entering the social media realm over the past few months and held a blogger only event just two months ago to begin dialogue and engage the local blogging community. We have been hosting travel bloggers for years, but until recently had been more reactive than proactive in inviting them to our city.
Through our presence on local blogs and Twitter, along with our other social media outlets we have formed a great new relationship with the blogosphere that has carried over into the travel blogging community specifically. Actually, I am hosting writer/blogger Mary Gallagher this weekend, http://www.gallagherstravels.com/travelnotebook/
Scott Peacock
Media Relations Manager
Experience Columbus
What I would hate to see is tourist boards and the travel industry assume that bloggers are "easy picking" in that we aren't linked to a media outlet so we'll promote anything and everything for a few bucks.
You only have to look at the amount of press releases that bloggers now receive - companies are continously asking me to write a review about their company, even though I have never booked a holiday with them, or used their site to search.
I refuse to be bought, and I am sure they're many other bloggers who feel the same. I would hate to see bloggers being bought into free trips in return for righting nice and fluffy reviews about the destination.
I wanted to respond to Darren, obliquely. I think that he brings up something that the PR/CVB folks probably find really hard to navigate - if they want genuinely critical commentary on what they're offering.
There ARE bloggers who will simply reprint or revise and then post press releases. That's the easy pickings right there, eh? Then there are bloggers who are more conscientious and bother to ask questions, check things out, do their homework, and formulate an opinion before they post.
After some more thinking (and some input from other interested bloggers) I realize it must be very time consuming for PR/CVB folks to differentiate between those types of bloggers. (Before you flame, I realize there are many different kinds of bloggers, not just two.) From the PR/CVB side, it sure seems advantageous to reach the lazy ones, but a better investment in the long term to reach the more conscientious ones because it means building relationships, like some of the people on the PR/CVB side on this thread have bothered to do.
There's one word TRUST.
It is not going to be in the interest of a tourism bureau, if no one trusts what the blogger writes about if they have a track record of writing fluffy paid reviews, or copying press releases word for word.
I would want to read a review or report that looks at the positive and negative sides of the destination. Blogs need to add value, not clutter the internet up even more.
From a social media perspective I love being able to communicate with companies and tourism boards on Facebook and Twitter, and as a consumer, I like that the internet has opened up communication channels.
I wrote about this earlier in the week, click on my name to read the post (disgraceful plug I know!)
And to agree with TravelingMamas, the folks like Nate Kam and Michael Ni at MWC-Anthology get it.
As some of you here already know, I am a freelance writer specializing in family travel. We are going on our third year of an open ended tour around the world and blog about it at http://soultravelers3.com/ and we take disadvantaged kids with us through the award winning non-profit Reach The World.
I'm am glad to see the tide is turning, but have to agree that most are missing the tremendous value of travel bloggers.
The public does not seem to be missing it, our first Youtube video zoomed to almost a million view almost instantly.
There are some fantastic travel bloggers out there and it is time for more tourism bureaus and pr firms find them!
I blog on my own site (http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/about-beth/blog/) and write a series of guide books for women travelers (the Wanderlust and Lipstick guides).
I know the value of blogging and the fact that the more mentions a location/book/product receives online, the more potential for sales/visits. However, their is a higher perceived value placed on print reviews and recommendations than for those online.
It's no different with "selling" a destination for the CVB's/PR firms. They have limited resources (as mentioned earlier) and, for now, need to focus their resources on newspapers and magazines (both, sadly, dying industries).
But, they are slowly but surely coming around and will eventually figure out a way to reach high value bloggers (and by that I mean the ones for their potential customers). They SHOULD be careful about who they extend offers to - I've heard too many stories about so-called print writers taking fam trips with absolutely no intention of writing about their experiences. (Shame on the CVBs/PR companies for not choosing more wisely.)
With that said, travel (and write) on!
How do the CVB people deal with the tendency of the internet to be hyper critical? A newspaper or magazine article is unlikely to say that a particular restaurant is completely awful, but bloggers are often snarky and snide. The CVB can't be using their members dues to host a bash fest.
"bloggers are often snarky and snide"
Do you not mean that bloggers do not hide the truth whereas the media write fluffy reviews. Why is it so wrong to be critical about a destination, a trip, or vacation?
The internet has given consumers the voice, and thank god for that as they're too many people writing rubbish to get them a few bucks.
It's not wrong to be critical - it's just crazy to think that a PR person would pay you to do so. The purpose of the CVB is to attract customers for their members. The members pay them dues to do their PR.
Tourists feel taken advantage of on a regular basis (just like home buyers) because only the positive features are mentioned, not the negative ones.
In my experience, people can actually handle the so-called negative features just fine, if they know about them and can plan for them. It's when they feel hijacked that "the beautiful view" also comes with unmentioned "construction noise next door" that can backfire. If a blogger mentions both, and the buyer chooses to come anyway, then the blogger has just handled a customer service problem in advance, for free, for the hotel owner.
This is the magic and the value of transparency in communication. PR has traditionally been all about spin, and putting the best foot forward, not putting the truth forward. They don't need to be mutually exclusive.
I've never understood why companies are so afraid of negative reviews. It's a great way to grow, to get better in what they're doing. If they wanna be good, who is better to judge it than the customer/guests?
They would win lots of kudos from travelers if they did meet the criticism with a professional approach - meaning: admitting that something isn't as good as they wish, but that they're working hard on it and changing it. That's real good PR in my opinion!