Uwishunu.com (You wish you knew…)

Written by forty or so “in-the-know” contributors, this blog presents the contemporary, non-traditional side of Philadelphia. Real Philadelphians reveal their secrets about dining, nightlife, music, culture, fashion, outdoor activities, design, etc. The goal is to enable visitors to experience Philly like a local. Though created and maintained by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, the site is presented as a separate entity. Readers are invited to post feedback and comments about the articles.

The site makes full use of Web 2.0 and social media with blogging, podcasts, online networking, photo and video sharing and RSS feeds. The site’s administrators even use Twitter (a social network and microblogging tool) to promote certain events.

Uwishunu is also home to Illadates, a popular weekly series of video podcasts where two amateur filmmakers take viewers to the best places around town.

This very inspiring site can serve as a model for most destinations and help them create an inexpensive promotional tool that is more effective than many other Web strategies.

Holland.com

The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions recently launched a typical Web 2.0 site targeting the North American market. In addition to providing access to tourist information, the site also invites users to join its virtual community where they can share past trips and publish articles, videos and photos and thereby enable the site to constantly evolve. Using RSS feeds, the site also posts information from other sites like Google News, Yahoo Travel and YouTube.

Like many sites, Holland.com enables users to rate articles and add their comments, thereby highlighting the most relevant ones.

Site content is therefore generated by users, the Board of Tourism and by a few third parties. By using various news items, videos and comments to bring together past and potential visitors, the site has created a credible information source that offers visitors the best experience possible.

And that’s not all: the Board of Tourism has also opened the first national tourism board in Second Life, yet another example of using the virtual world to encourage real-world discussion about its destination. Most importantly, this move has created another opportunity to attract media attention!

VisitMyBaltimore

To enhance the city’s allure, VisitMyBaltimore.com invites Baltimore fans and residents to upload amateur videos highlighting their favourite places, must-see events, and well-kept secrets. To launch the project and encourage locals to publish their videos, the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitor’s Association (BACVA) organized a contest offering the creator of the best video a prize of US$2007. For small businesses, the contest was an excellent opportunity for self-promotion and a chance to win the prize! The site is planning future contests to maintain user interest.

VisitMyBaltimore also had another good idea that has proved very popular: invite celebrities to upload their own videos of the town!

Ifoundmymontreal.com

Montreal has also been busy, launching a blog where visitors, businesses and event organizers can publish their thoughts and comments and promote their site or event. IfoundmyMontreal.com is managed by Tourisme Montréal and aimed primarily at international travellers.

The blog appears as an extension of the Tourism Bureau’s FindyourMontreal.com site, which introduces visitors to Montreal’s festivals, cuisine, eclectic architecture, shopping, nightlife and cultural scene. Information is presented in the form of videos, images and podcasts.

Tourisme Montréal is currently doing a complete overhaul of the city’s official Internet portal, creating a major section for user-generated content (comments, photos, creating and sharing itineraries).

To recap

Web 2.0 destination sites with “insider” content clearly benefit from being seen as new and credible information sources. Whether content comes solely from locals or from a mixture of travel professionals and select contributors, the unofficial character of such sites, combined with their opportunities for user interaction, questions and comments, gives the impression of authenticity and a sense of being able to experience the destination just like a local.

The top tips from our examples:

• Provide a showcase for small businesses who can present themselves in an innovative way
• Involve some celebrities
• Organize a contest to encourage participation
• Attract the attention of the media
• Add content using RSS feeds, simply and freely

In addition to their relevant content, these sites have become popular thanks to significant media coverage. Their innovative, youthful, hip and off-the-beaten path character attracts users and creates a buzz. For locals, they offer an opportunity to introduce one’s favourites and experience 15 minutes of fame.>

Current Website development platforms make it relatively easy to include the functions needed for these new Web 2.0 sites (account creation, file sharing, comments, etc.) and, furthermore, are low-cost. However, be advised: despite the technological simplicity of such sites, their popularity is not guaranteed! Projects must still be well planned, well communicated and well managed. They must also be easily referenced by search engines.

Among other issues, it is difficult to accurately assess the impact of these new interfaces, but they do seem to enjoy good visibility. Also, these sites must strike a delicate balance between true user-generated content and that created by businesses, contributors and the tourism bureau. After all, a site’s very credibility is at stake. And although content is usually monitored, blogs are open to criticism and negative comments.

Is this a trend to monitor, or to try yourself? It is your decision, but once word-of-mouth gets going, you have no idea how far it can take you!

For more information on how customers can influence others, see:
- Today’s customers influence tomorrow’s choices

Sources:
- Sauer, Abram. “Uwishunu,” [www.BrandChannel.com], June 25, 2007.
- [www.uwishunu.com]
- [www.findyourmontreal.com]
- [www.ifoundmymontreal.com]
- [http://us.holland.com/]
- [www.visitmybaltimore.com]

According to the survey of 1,300 U.S. adults conducted in July 2001, 61% of travellers (or 82 million Americans) said they read articles about travel and destinations in the media, or watch or listen to travel shows on TV or the radio. This number is up from the 55% of travellers surveyed last year who said they had used such information sources. The survey asked only about unpaid travel coverage, not advertising.

The survey also asked respondents to rank the usefulness of various travel media. The Internet was ranked first as the single most useful medium, as follows:

When it came to believability,however, the media users rated the travel information in same media quite differently:

Finally, the level of trust of respondents with regard to travel media varied depending on the planned activity. The following lists the percentage of media users who said YES when asked if something they read or heard caused them to:

Using television to promote a destination

Television coverage is often used to counteract the effects of a crisis or when a destination’s image has been tarnished due to a particular situation (war, epidemic, environmental accident, natural disaster, social crisis, etc.). It provides information about the destination and its products, while helping to market it to the public.

According to Thierry Baudier, Director General of Maison de la France and a participant at the First World Conference on Tourism Communications (TOURCOM), which was held in Madrid in January 2004, television targets the general public, and people likely to travel in particular. It is also aimed at the media, which, in his opinion, play a major role in building a destination’s image, shaping public perception and providing information.

For Gary Wardrope, Commercial Director at the Travel Channel, TV is ideal for this type of message:

• it is easy to use and simple to understand 
• it provides great detail, both visual and auditory 
• it appeals to the emotions 
• it reaches a very wide audience, especially if the show is rebroadcast on other regional, national or even international channels

Summer television in Quebec

In the wake of shows like “Partis pour l’été“, “La poudre d’escampette” and “La route des vacances“, Quebec’s TVA channel will broadcast “100 détours” this summer. This weekly series will invite sixty or so performers to take part in car rallies that will feature and promote some of the province’s principal tourist attractions. Shooting will begin in May and cover the regions of Montreal, Quebec City, the Montérégie, Outaouais, Laval, the Laurentians, the Saguenay, Charlevoix and Lanaudière.

Nothing new for the province

In March 2003, the Zoo de Saint-Félicien was featured in a special report on Canal Évasion. The show’s host spent the night in a tent, under the stars, with all the animals roaming free around her. According to zoo officials, the show was an excellent way to “sell” the zoo to tourists.

Last year, Canal Évasion also broadcast a new series entitled “La détente est dans le spa,” which visited Quebec’s various spas and health resorts. Although the show focussed primarily on spas, hotel complexes and the desire to be waited on hand and foot, it also presented general information about nearby tourist spots and the surrounding area.

Promotional TV used around the world

The Korea National Tourism Organization is also planning a spate of travel shows to sing the praises of Korea on regional TV channels. It has developed two different shows, one for Southeast Asia and one for China. A third show, targeting the Japanese market, is in production.

Great Britain is also counting on two TV advertising campaigns to boost tourism. The officials behind the VisitBritain promotional campaign hope to increase the number of visitors by 30% by the year 2010.

Sources:
- Wardrope, Gary. “The Power of TV in Tourism Communications,” First World Conference on Tourism Communications, Madrid, January 29-30, 2004.
- Rogers, Daniel. “VisitBritain aims for 30% growth in English tourism,” Marketing, London, November 27, 2003, p. 6.
- ”Korea battles visitor dip with TV plan,” Media, Hong Kong, February 27, 2004, p. 7.
- ”Annie Brocoli animera une émission touristique,” Le Quotidien, April 3, 2004, p. 43. 
- “Évasion… au Zoo !,” Progrès-dimanche, March 7, 2004, p. A10.
-  Travel Industry Association of America. “How Americans Use the Travel Media,” April 2004.

Commentary from Frédéric Dimanche

The question “Which medium should I use to plan a vacation?” in fact involves two different themes for discussion: firstly, what role do the media play in the consumer decision-making process and, secondly, to what extent do the media influence such decisions?

We must begin by defining which use of media we are discussing. Are we talking about strictly commercial uses, that is, advertising or, more specifically, messages controlled and paid for by advertisers, or are we talking about informative lead articles, written by journalists who are not beholden to the destination or attraction’s marketing team? Feature articles and personal accounts, which consumers consider more impartial, are no doubt more influential than advertising.

Media advertising is only one factor among many that can influence consumer decisions: prior experience, referrals from friends, family and co-workers, information from the competition and basic constraints like budget and available vacation time all play a part. The key is to make the destination one of the options that the consumer considers before deciding. The role of media advertising can vary: the goal can be to build the destination’s reputation or communicate its image, or it can use a specific promotion to prompt a decision and subsequent purchase.Increasingly, advertising appeals to the emotions and the senses by creating situations that inspire the target market. Although TV certainly has a large part to play, advertisers are also learning to use events as experiential marketing tools. Television alone is not enough to make someone select a destination; for this reason, one wonders what VisitBritain is going to do after two TV advertising campaigns.

The TIA survey confirms, if that was needed, the growing importance of the Internet as an information source. Surfers can quickly locate all sorts of information, both unbiased (reviews, travel guidebooks, etc.) and biased (sales and promotional information directly linked to the destination, attractions or available lodging). It is no longer enough to simply recognize the importance of the Internet; one must now understand what consumers read online. The Internet is first and foremost a source of information, and consumers are looking for credible information like that found in consumer travel magazines. It is this type of information/recommendations that will direct travellers to a destination’s service providers.

Media communications are important, whether they are controlled by the destination or not. However, they are not the only tools available. In fact, long-term efforts to ensure service quality and the satisfaction of visitors and intermediaries can sometimes be a much better marketing investment.

Frédéric Dimanche

Professor and Director,
Centre de management du tourisme
CERAM Sophia Antipolis European School of Management