Governor Christie and Mayor Booker Have a Bit of Video Fun

by on May 16, 2012 in Digital

Leave it to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker to come together to create a refreshingly witty video that parodies the mayor’s heroics and Christie’s vice presidential potential. The short clip, which was unveiled at the New Jersey Press Association’s Legislative Correspondents Club and has close to 18,000 views, is a great example of how cities and states can leverage their politicians and have a bit of fun while they do it too.

And not to mention, after watching this clip, I would totally watch a reality TV series featuring these two.

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Required Reading: Top Ten Books for Destination Marketing Professionals

by on May 15, 2012 in Best Practices, Marketing, Tourism

Destination marketing is an industry chock-full of “old pros.” While some CVB president’s stay in leadership positions at a single DMO for 20+ years – others move from city to city to tackle a significant challenge – the building of a new convention center, the procurement of new 5-star hotels or the landing of a Super Bowl or Olympics – before moving on.

It’s no wonder that I often hear from those new to tourism, “what books can I read to help me better understand this business.”

So I took the liberty of asking some of the industry’s leaders what they recommend – and compiled my “top ten recommendations,” (because let’s face it… who has the time to read more than ten books in rapid succession.) The books are listed below in alphabetical order by title. Click on each book cover for more information on what makes this book relevant to the tourism industry. All are in print and available on Amazon or specialty retailers as noted.

 

Special thanks to Roland Aedo, Bill Baker, Peggy Bendel, Malcolm Griffiths, Bob Schultz, Bill Siegel, Greg Staley and Deborah Wakefield for their suggestions.

Got other suggestions to add to the list? Please share your selections by posting a comment.

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Tomato, Tamahto: Escorted Tours v. Guided Vacations

by on May 9, 2012 in Marketing, Tourism

As Shakespeare eloquently wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  Tour operators Trafalgar (formerly Trafalgar Tours) and Globus are counting on this in very sentiment, but in completely different ways.

Escorted tours are increasingly perceived in a negative manner by consumers. The perception, however, is belied by the continued success of major tour companies in providing escorted tours. To move past preconceived notions, Trafalgar and Globus each developed marketing strategies based on the connotation of the words ‘Escorted Tours’.

Trafalgar decided to eliminate all use of the words ‘tour’ and ‘escorted’ from its marketing materials, in exchange for words like ‘vacation’ and ‘experiences’. Globus has set out to incentivize agents to change the image of the escorted tour, not rebrand it, through their Misconceptions campaign.

Earlier this year, Travel Weekly interviewed the two tour giants in order to understand their approach to revolutionizing consumer perception of escorted tours. Paul Wiseman, President, Trafalgar said, “…travelers who have not undertaken an escorted tour, [have] strong negative connotations… We believe that by changing the conversation, talking about our insider highlights and experiences, talking about the experiences within a guided vacation, these terms are so much more positive and effective.”

On the other hand, Scott Nisbet, President and CEO of Globus noted that “Escorted touring, if you take a long view of it, is segmenting. One of the fastest-growing areas in our company is custom tours. So there are just so many interests people have, and they’re realizing they can fulfill those interests through a tour.”

 

Source: Travel Weekly.com

 Whether you call it a “guided vacation” or an “escorted tour,” in order for the industry to continue on a path of growth, leading tour operators will need to adapt products to serve to a new style of traveler. Travel planners will need to present experiences that “are not your grandmother’s” tours. Working with destination marketing representatives and leveraging their expertise in identifying the insider experiences that today’s consumers crave will help speed the evolution of tour programming.

Click here to read more on the marketing rivalry between two tour giant company presidents.

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Six Takeaways on how to Digitally Promote Your City During a Trade Show

by on May 9, 2012 in Best Practices, Digital Marketing, Economic Development, Events

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog about how two cities leveraged trade shows online to generate awareness and conversation about their community.

If you’re currently in the planning stage of how to market your organization at an upcoming trade show (that’s you folks going to BIO!), I hope you take some inspiration from what these cities did.

To help with your planning, here are just a few key takeaways to consider:

  1. Do the Research: Is the audience headed to the show active on social mediums? If yes, which one? Is there a LinkedIn Group for the conference? Is there a conference hashtag on Twitter you can use to monitor the conversation? For reference, BIO’s hashtag is #bio2012.
  2. Determine Goal: Do you want to increase followers, schedule additional meetings or dinners, increase awareness of your region? Having a goal will focus your efforts.
  3. Develop a Plan: Pretty simple, but this is critical. The plan should include the tactics needed to help you reach your goal.
  4. Schedule Tweets: We use Hootsuite to schedule tweets. It’s extremely useful in advance of the show so you can still work the show floor. Monitor the conversation throughout the day during the show to see if there’s an opportunity for engagement.
  5. Have Fun: Trade shows are about relationship building and social media is another tool you can use to develop those relationships, especially if you bring out your awesome personality.
  6. Measure and Report Back your Success: The most important takeaway! Did you get an increase in engagement, schedule meetings, did people sign up for your promotion? What behavior did your marketing help influence? That’s what you’ll want to measure and report back to your stakeholders.
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How Cities Are Using Social Media During Trade Shows

by on May 7, 2012 in Best Practices, Digital Marketing, Economic Development

Tweet We all know the recipe for a trade show: You start with a booth, then you add in a cool giveaway, next you bring the people to staff it and finally you walk the show to meet with prospects or media. For the most part, this recipe works and satiates your hunger for getting [...]

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Ireland turns to the World to Solve Country’s High Unemployment Problem

by on May 2, 2012 in Digital, Economic Development, Marketing

Tweet Like the rest of the world, Ireland is suffering from the recession with a 14.8% unemployment rate (January 2012, Eurostat). But unlike the rest of the world, officials with ConnectIreland and Industrial Development Agency Ireland (IDA Ireland) have decided to turn to their vast network outside the country to help them answer the problem. [...]

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Forbes reports “The Best Cities for Jobs”

by on May 1, 2012 in Economic Development, This Just In

Tweet Forbes.com has just posted its annual “Best Cities for Jobs” rankings for big, medium and small cities, along with interesting commentary by Joel Kotkin and Michael Shires. The writers highlight a “significant and welcome shift in the weak U.S. economic recovery: employment growth has moved away from the public sector to private businesses,” noting [...]

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April Breakthrough Results: Fierce Competition, But Only One Can Win

by on May 1, 2012 in Uncategorized

Tweet DCI’s Breakthrough of the Month competition might not be as popular as Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” Trilogy, but our tributes are just as fierce. Following are the five tributes who fought to win the title of April “Breakthrough of the Month” at DCI. May the odds, be ever in your favor. (Have no fear, [...]

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How Three Travel Websites Can Tweak E-mail Sign Up Process for Better Results

by on April 30, 2012 in Digital Marketing, Tourism

Tweet Recently, DCI has partnered with Jay Baer, founder of Convince and Convert, a consulting firm that works with leading corporations and agencies to harness the power of social media. We really love the insight and counsel that Jay and his team provide us and our clients on a daily basis. One such example: last [...]

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At Last…Brand USA Launches Its First International Marketing Campaign

by on April 24, 2012 in Marketing, Tourism

Tweet We couldn’t say it better than Travel Weekly’s Arnie Weissman. “If you’d been told that on April 23, 2012, a country would be revealing its first-ever comprehensive destination marketing campaign, no one could fault you for assuming the country in question was a developing or newly independent nation. But no, it’s not South Sudan.”  [...]

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