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.

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.

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.

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.

A sampling of tweets sent to the Metro Denver EDC during an aerospace trade show

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 the word out about your community.

But what can a city do that wants to add a little flavor to its trade show dish? It’s as simple as adding in a little social media to your efforts.

Below are two recent case studies from cities that found success using social media to promote their offerings at an industry trade show.

Social Media Marketing Campaign Helps Denver Get A Mile Closer to Followers

Last month , the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation developed a social media marketing campaign for National Space Symposium, the premier gathering of the global space community. The campaign included two tactics. The first was a cause marketing initiative – for every 25 retweets using the #milecloser hashtag or 25 likes on its Facebook page, the Metro Denver would donate $25 to the University of Colorado’s Boots to Suits program, which assists highly trained and well-educated veterans as they move from the classroom to a career.

The second was a mystery photo game the EDC implemented on Twitter using the show’s #NSS28 hashtag. The EDC sent out zoomed-in photos of key aerospace products developed by companies in Colorado and gave the first person to guess correctly each product a fun prize.

The Result: The Metro Denver’s EDC Facebook page increased likes by 51 percent and interactions by 3,600 percent. Out of the 243 people using the show’s hashtag, the Metro Denver EDC was second to only the show organizers. In addition, the cause marketing campaign raised $150 for the Boots to Suits program, which the EDC matched.

How Twitter Helped Chattanooga Increase Applications in Gig City at South by Southwest (SXSW)

With the deadline for Chattanooga’s GigTank, a summer program that works with entrepreneurs and students to imagine the future of the Internet when bandwidth is no longer a barrier, quickly approaching, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce wanted to create a social media campaign that would help increase GigTank applications.

To do this, the Chamber focused on engaging with from attendees at one of the most important technology events of the year, SXSW.

Attended by more than 19,000 people in 2011, SXSW attracts a target audience of “geeks” and tech enthusiasts. Because Twitter is the most widely used and convenient form of quick communication during the trade show, the Chattanooga Area Chamber wanted to enter the arena that everyone else was using. The overarching plan was to transform their @TheGigCity Twitter account into a balanced platform of self-promotion about Chattanooga and the Gig City, industry and event info, city love and nerdy speak.

The Result: Gig City representatives were able to schedule meetings and dinners with influencers and others in the startup community, there was an uptick in incoming applications and the @TheGigCity Twitter account saw an increase in followers.

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.

The program ConnectIreland is designed to boost job creation in wake of the financial crisis by asking individuals to reach out to their business contacts who are looking to expand in Europe. Their goal is to  set up an appointment between the business and IDA Ireland. If the company decides to expand in Ireland, the person who connected the business and the organization is eligible to receive a reward of $1,984 per job created. The cash is available for up to 100 new positions and will be paid over the course of two years.

“Ireland has one of the world’s largest diaspora communities with an estimated 70 million people claiming Irish ancestry,” said Orla Nolan, Marketing and Communications Manager at ConnectIreland. “Harnessing this great asset in a systematic way came about as a result of the current global economic climate.”

Nolan added that the ultimate goal is to create a minimum of 5,000 jobs over five years.

Actors Martin Sheen, Michael Flatly and Saoirse Ronan discuss the concept in a promotion video for ConnectIreland:

More than 5,000 people have liked the video and almost 15,000 have visited the website. Nolan says they “have received interest from all over the world including the US, Canada, Brazil and other countries. Since our launch date on March 8, as a result of introductions made by people in Ireland and overseas, ConnectIreland has built an impressive pipeline of potential projects including a number of final stage negotiations with companies planning on investing in Ireland.”

Ireland is no stranger to crowdsourcing. IDA Ireland crowdsourced economic solutions in 2009 through the Ideas Campaign.  Within the first 24 hours of the campaign, more than 450 people had submitted ideas on the site.

Crowdsourcing is often used in the b2c world to improve a product design, receive customer feedback or get innovative ideas. Ireland is proving that it shouldn’t be overlooked for economic development.

April Breakthrough Winners, Jordan Robinson and Debby Tempio dominated at the International Boston Seafood Show.

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, no DCIers were harmed in the making of this competition.)

Click here if you need a refresher on the guidelines for our breakthrough hits.

Tribute #1

As a part of team Jacobs, Wood and Griffiths’ efforts to promote the key message that California is the “land of food and wine,” they secured a segment on The Today Show for California celebrity chef Brian Malarkey. During this segment, which reached over 5 million viewers, Brian spoke about the advantages of fresh produce in California and cooked with wine from Sonoma to add additional flavor.

Tribute #2

Maureen Haley and Kristen Teufel teamed with the North Carolina Division of Tourism to capitalize on the March 23 release of the “Hunger Games,” which spent 84 days filming across the state, with a comprehensive PR plan. Tactics for the release included a four-day “Hunger Games” itinerary, a “12 Places to Experience ‘The Hunger Games’” release, east coast media missions to Atlanta, Charleston, DC and New York, and hosting key media to the state on a group press visit before the film’s release. The program resulted in the “Hunger Games” itinerary being downloaded 14,000+ times from the VisitNC.com website, over 260 feature placements in key broadcast, print and online outlets and two major segments on NBC’s “The Today Show.”

Tribute #3

In anticipation of the release of the monthly job numbers, Tara Morrill pitched a CNBC producer for their “Power Lunch” mid-day show on arranging a “mayor’s roundtable” to discuss how communities across the nation are faring in terms of jobs growth. Mayor Tommy Battle of Huntsville, Alabama, Mayor Michael Bell of Toledo, Ohio, and Mayor Joe Riley of Charleston, South Carolina conducted a live panel interview and highlighted recent investments in their communities and signs of economic growth.

Tribute #4

Adriana Meregalli worked with the Dubai Convention Bureau to secure the 2013 American Society of Travel Agent’s International Destination Expo. With 750 key travel agents expected to attend, Dubai now has the opportunity to ‘wow’ this audience of key, creating new sales ambassadors to boost future traffic.

And the Victor:

To boost Scotland’s presence at the International Boston Seafood Show, Jordan Robinson joined forces with Debby Tempio to deliver 19 meetings with seafood buyers, 8 media interviews, a press release picked up by more than 200 outlets and 40 distributed #IBSS12 Tweets. In addition, the team developed a unique direct marketing campaign that significantly boosted attendance to SDI’s annual reception to nearly 100 attendees.

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 week, Convince and Convert released a webiNINE, the firm’s 9-minute webinars for social media and online marketing practitioners, which reviewed e-mail sign-up process for three websites in the travel and tourism industry.

Check out their thoughts on how Visit Milwaukee, Visit Montana and Travel Oregon can tweak their e-mail sign up processes to work even better than before.

All of it is pretty sound advice: including that organizations with e-newsletters should consider posting a sample e-mail on websites so people know what they will receive, send thank you verification-emails and even incorporate the e-newsletter sign up on your Facebook page.

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.”  It’s the land of dreams — USA.

Check out the ad and let us know what you think.  Worth the 235 year wait?  More importantly… would you visit?