Tuesday 19 September 2006 by Edward.

Selected recent internet partnering in tourism: Tourism Partnerships 2.0
Maryland, USA, Office of Tourism contracts Travelocity to handle bookings.

Spainexperience accesses Worldspan’s global distribution and e-pricing system.

Expedia’s platform and network supports eLong’s Chinese outbound travel bookings

Alitalia airline joins Worldspan to speed e-ticket connections.

Jet Airways signs interline e-ticketing agreement with KLM via GDS

Rule 2 “The Rule of Partnerships” in the book ‘The 25 Immutable Rules of Successful Tourism’ by Roger A. Brooks and Maury Forman states that ‘Relationships require more than one person.’ The most important rule in creating a successful tourism strategy is to establish partnerships writes Brooks. One the internet, these partnerships can leverage resources for all concerned.

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Saturday 16 September 2006 by Edward.

Preeti Kannan examines tech trends in the hospitality industry, reports ExpressHospitality. The three main areas of IT opportunity are: customer relations, marketing and property management.

Tech predictions include:
KIOSKS: Computer reception desks to receive guests.
INTERACTIVE TELEVISION: inbuilt food/drink menu and special services
COMPLAINT/REQUEST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: IT alerts
LOYALTY PROGRAMS: niche programs and cross-selling of programs
TRAVEL PORTALS: see travelguru.com
COMMENT/FEEDBACK KIOSKS: data stream to improve customer service
ONE-STOP HOTLINE: single point of contact for all guest inquiries
MOBILE ALERTS: mobile technology to connect all staff
REAL-TIME IT ACCESS: anywhere-record-access for key statistics

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Monday 11 September 2006 by Edward.

How has the tourism industry changed since the horrific events of 9/11? Donna Hogan of the East Valley Tribune nicely summarizes these changes.

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Tuesday 29 August 2006 by Edward.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. The encyclopedia’s content comes from registered and unregistered users, and can be added/changed/deleted at any time. It’s like a community journal based on an honour system. With such easy access to Wikipedia things can go wrong, as reported in Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel Online.

Two ferries, the S.S. Badger and the Lake Express, compete for business on Lake Michigan. According to the article, the S.S. Badger has been in operation 50+ years while the Lake Express is the new kid on the block. Wikipedia articles and websites posted about these ferries have become part of the turf wars. The web content has turned nasty, with posted articles being altered and/or deleted then later restored, only to be undermined again. Tracking the culprit(s) is not easy.

This type of activity does not help the tourist. My recommendation is to rely not just on Wikipedia when learning about a new destination, service or product, but to seek out other sources of information as well.

Do you have Wikipedia horror stories to share?

Posted in Report/Book, BEFORE the visit | No Comments »

Wednesday 12 July 2006 by Edward.

Here is an excerpt from a recent email I received from a contact I made in Ontario, Canada:

“Indeed, maybe I will come and say hello when I’m in Nova Scotia, a month or so from now. I already have a copy of the ‘Doers & Dreamer’s Guide’, and the bonus this year is that it is also in PDF format, and I’ll be travelling with a laptop computer.”

Sometimes a simple change can mean a lot to a tourist.

The Nova Scotia Tourism folks are moving to green, producing fewer hardcopies of their Travel Guide. This move, moreover, might change the way tourism marketing staff measure ‘tourism conversion rates’ (see p.9) — calculating number of tourists that decide to come to Nova Scotia, as a result of different advertising venues.

Roger A. Brooks‘ Rule 10 “The 365 and 24/7 rule” states that ‘Kiosks never sleep.’
Whether you kiosk is a physical structure or a website, information must be available to your visitors at all times, but they should also not be seen as a substitute for human contact. Nothing beats face-to-face commerce.

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Tuesday 11 July 2006 by Edward.

Hospitality.net reports
Progress in Tourism Marketing
By Luisa Andreu, Metin Kozak

This book evaluates the current progress of theoretical approaches to tourism marketing and shows how to further develop tourism marketing within tourist destinations and individual businesses. Four main parts include: IT marketing, destination competitiveness, image measurement, and consumer behaviour. The editors advocate both traditional and contemporary marketing tools in order to be more competitive within the international arena. This is part of the Elsevier Science ‘Advances in Tourism Series’.

You can place your order with The Inside Story. It is approximately Can$120.00 and can be shipped worldwide.

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