tourism | Tourism Tech

West Texas’ Social Media Rock Star – Shanna Smith Snyder

Posted on March 17, 2011 by pagetx

West Texas is known for a lot of things. Big skies, ranching, oil, rugged terrain … One thing it hasn’t always been known for is being a hotbed of social media activity. Until now. Enter Shanna Smith Snyder with the Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB).

Shanna and I first got acquainted on Twitter, where I became an instant fan of her work with the CVB in Abilene. After building our online relationship for a while, we finally got to meet at a Texas Travel Industry Association function. Shanna impressed me so much that I asked her to speak at a seminar series my organization hosted called “Social Media for Economic Development and Community Marketing”. As I expected, she did a fantastic job getting our attendees to realize that social media marketing was not out of reach.

I think her story will really resonate with a lot you out there. ACVB is a small- to mid-sized bureau that does all their social media marketing in-house. Yes, it’s possible and yes, it can be done. Shanna is living proof.

So here’s my one-on-one interview with Shanna Smith Snyder.

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Filed under: DMOs, Social Media Marketing | Tagged: #SoMeT, abilene convention and visitors bureau, marketing, Project 365, Shanna Smith Snyder, social media, Texas Social Media Awards, tourism, Travel Matters, Your24 | 11 Comments »

Don’t Mess With Texas … or our Tourism Advertising Budget

Posted on September 17, 2010 by pagetx

Texas tourism has enjoyed a fairly good ride over the last several years. We are the third most visited state in the nation – and have been for quite some time. So imagine my surprise when I read that Texas gubernatorial candidate Bill White wanted to zero out the Texas tourism advertising budget. I guess this should be a lesson to every DMO out there. Whether you are state or local. You will constantly and continually have to prove yourselves. Never rest. Never think that your advocacy efforts are enough.

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Filed under: DMOs, General Marketing/Advertising | Tagged: advertising, beaumartian, Bill White, budget, governor, LoriKPTexas, pagetx, Rick Perry, Texas, tourism, TTIA, Twitter | 2 Comments »

Go Behind the Scenes with Tourism Currents

Posted on June 26, 2010 by pagetx

There’s just nothing cooler than a behind the scenes tour. Getting to see something that most people don’t? Well, that’s the stuff that bragging rights are made for! Come on. Admit it. Going behind the scenes makes you feel a little special, doesn’t it? Well it should.

That’s just how I hope to make you feel with this post. Special. You’re going to get an insider’s look at Tourism Currents (affiliate link) – one of the best places to get social media training for tourism industry professionals around. I wrote about Tourism Currents in a previous post. Go ahead. Look for yourself. You’ll see – it’s good stuff!

So here is some Q&A with Sheila Scarborough, half of the Tourism Currents team. Becky McCray is the other half of the team. Together, they possess a treasure trove of knowledge and experience. They are the dynamic duo. Trust me. You’ll think so too.

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Filed under: Social Media Training, DMOs | Tagged: tourism, DMO, social media, Tourism Currents, Sheila Scarborough, Becky McCray, training | 3 Comments »

National Travel and Tourism Week Goes 2.0

Posted on May 9, 2010 by pagetx

National Travel and Tourism Week is here again (May 8-16, 2010). This year, as with every preceding year, I watch with great interest to see what destination marketing organizations (DMOs) around the country will be doing to extol the virtues of the tourism industry and promote their destinations.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of DMOs are participating in this year’s efforts to raise awareness of the economic benefits of our industry. The U.S. Travel Association heads up the marketing and public relations efforts for National Travel and Tourism Week, as well as U.S. Travel Rally Day. They’ve put together a very helpful toolkit that’s full of ideas, templates, logos, and more to help DMOs run a successful campaign.

There was one thing a bit different in the toolkit this year that caught my eye – it was a PDF with social media tips for National Travel and Tourism Week. Maybe they did it last year and I just missed it, but this (to me) was something new and fresh. They’re asking tourism industry people on Twitter to use #traveltuesday or #travelrally when you update your status on May 11 to help increase visibility and searchability of National Travel and Tourism Week in general and Travel Rally Day specifically. After seeing this, I started noticing that a few DMOs had gotten on the National Travel and Tourism Week social media bandwagon too.

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Filed under: DMOs, Social Media Marketing | Tagged: abilene convention and visitors bureau, Anne Hornyak, jacqueline simard, jeremy williams, las vegas convention and visitors authority, national travel and tourism week, promotions, social media, tourism, u.s. travel association, visit indiana, visit jacksonville | 14 Comments »

#tourismchat – Q&A with Its Creators Anne Hornyak and Betsy Decillis

Posted on May 6, 2010 by pagetx

Social media is a two-way street. It’s about the give and take. The conversation. It’s about sharing what you know, and knowing that others will reciprocate when they can.

In the tourism industry, I think this comes naturally. We’re all a pretty friendly bunch, with he sole goal of helping people have a good time in our destinations.

It works the same way with fellow tourism industry professionals. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard one DMO person say to another, “I’m gonna steal that idea!” To me, that’s the highest form of flattery. Someone else thinks your idea is good enough to use in their own efforts. Why re-invent the wheel, right? If there’s an idea you can use, modify for your situation, and put to good use, then why the hell not?

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Filed under: DMOs, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Training, Twitter | Tagged: #tourismchat, Anne Hornyak, Beth Conway, Betsy Decillis, DMO, Katherine Hoppe, social media, tourism | 13 Comments »

5 Tourism Industry Tweeps You Should Follow in 2010

Posted on March 12, 2010 by pagetx

David Letterman gets it. His Top 10 list is usually the part of his show that everyone looks forward to. I know I do. I love lists. To me, they’re like when you’re at a presentation and the speaker says, “If you only remember <insert any number here> things from my speech today, remember these.” It catches your attention, right? Now, you’re really listening. Lists distill all the great content down into bite size pieces. Things that are relatively easy to remember. The good stuff.

I’ve seen several “Top 10″ lists since the start of 2010. You’ve got your top 10 predictions, top 10 trends in one industry or the other, top 10 reasons why something is the greatest thing ever, top 10 companies to watch, etc., etc. And the list goes on. Truthfully, I’ve probably read most of the ones I see.

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Filed under: Social Media Marketing, Social Media Training, Twitter | Tagged: @BeckyMcCray, @GammetGuy, @mosherifdeen, @SheilaS, @toddlucier, @WhosYourAnnie, social media, top 5, tourism, Twitter | 7 Comments »

The Easy Button: Does Your DMO Have One?

Posted on January 16, 2010 by pagetx

In today’s fast paced way of life, who doesn’t want things to be easy? Everyone is so busy, our schedules so hectic that anything that makes things easy is welcomed with open arms. Staples, the office supply store, really nailed it with their “Easy Button” campaign. Need toner for your printer? Press the Easy Button. Need your office supplies delivered on the double? No problem – just press the Easy Button. Staples recognized a consumer need in the marketplace, and developed a strategy to fill the void. Genius.

The Earthquake in Haiti

I got to thinking about this strategy while following the news about the Haiti earthquake disaster on Twitter. It was such a horrible situation. Such incredible need. The American Red Cross (and several other charitable organizations) responded to that need by making it easy for all of us to help. Their method was astonishingly simple. It’s something most of us do everyday without a second thought. The answer? Send a text message with “HAITI” as the subject to 90999. The results were overwhelming.

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Filed under: DMOs | Tagged: convention and visitor bureau, destination, DMO, easy button, facebook, Haiti, iPhone, marketing, technology, tourism, Twitter | 2 Comments »

Are the little guys in tourism using socia media?

Posted on March 13, 2009 by pagetx

The travel and tourism industry was one of the early front runners in social media applications for business. Dare I say even … an innovator? Think back to sites like TripAdvisor and Hotels.com. These were sites that really got people talking about where to go and what to avoid while traveling. After all, social media is supposed to be social, isn’t it? Now there are new ones on the scene like IgoUgo, and there’s no sign of this trend slowing.

Other forms of social media, like Facebook and Twitter, are now solidly in the business world. But does everyone really know that? It’s easy for those of us using these applications on a daily basis to think so. But I’m not so sure.

There are many examples of large attractions, destinations, and travel service providers making full use of social media like Facebook and Twitter. Just look at Southwest Airlines and Six Flags, to name just two. But how many small town chambers of commerce and convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs) do you think are doing this? In Texas at least, the answer is not near enough.

Am I wrong? If you know of any small to mid-sized Texas towns and cities that are using social media as a marketing strategy, please correct me. If I’m right, why do you think this is happening?

I think it’s a combination of things:

social media is the great unknown,
people marketing destinations are afraid they’ll get negative comments,
they don’t know how to respond to negative comments if they get them, and
they think it’s only for cities with a few more zeros on the end of their budget.

Chris Brogan had a great post today about a specific segment of the travel industry – hotels. Chris discusses several no-nonsense ways that hotels can succeed in this crazy economy by building relationships with business travelers. However, the reason why he wrote the post was sparked by a Twitter search he did on where people were staying for SXSW in Austin, TX.

Turns out, a lot of people were asking for lodging. Chris wondered why hotels weren’t monitoring the same Twitter search and sending out rate quotes directly to SXSW attendees via Twitter. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? What were those hotels with availability doing when they should have been listening and responding?

This is stuff the little guys can do. Easily. Think of all the ways a small CVB could use Twitter. Here are just a few: promotions, weekend packages, street closures, festival updates, new attractions … I could go on and on.

What are some other uses? Why aren’t we seeing more of this?

Filed under: Social Media Blogs | Tagged: chamber of commerce, convention and visitor bureau, facebook, hotels.com, igougo, small town, Social Media Blogs, tourism, tripadvisor, Twitter | 4 Comments »

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