Travel Marketing in the Age of Web 2.0 & Beyond

Google could be superseded by the semantic Web

according to Tim Berners-Lee in Outside the Lines - CNET News and although the article was published last year, it still contains great examples of some of the features the smart web will bring. TBL is a true visionary, and one with a great track record of delivering on his ideas so this is not just idle speculation.

The comments by Google's director of research are very revealing too. Will it really take 50 years for intelligent digital intermediaries to become a reality? Who knows, maybe less. What's clear, is that the implications for the travel industry will be significant and transforming as we slowly but surely move forward with new technology developments that will make it happen. Exciting stuff!

Collective Intelligence explained

Great post by Kevin Kelly on his blog The Technium: Two Strands of Connectionsim The chart visualizes in a compelling way the space we're in right now and the path forward which is often described as the semantic web or web 3.0 and what will happen beyond as the web continues to evolve. This has been the undercurrent to my blog and I'm curious and fascinated to discover how all this will affect the travel industry over the coming years, as it certainly will.

Which comes first, the product or the marketing?

is the title of a recent blog post by Seth Godin and as usual, when I read Godin, I start to think, I can't help it!

He talks about marketing not being the same as, but much more than, advertising, which I thought everyone would know by now but it seems some people apparently still don't. To get back to the question, the product obviously comes after marketing and he cites the example of the Prius.

Now, this gets me to the issue at hand, namely that destination marketing is one of the hardest disciplines in marketing! Why, you ask? Because in almost all cases - Dubai being one well known exception - the "product" is a given. The destination exists, often has for decades or centuries or more and can't be significantly changed to suit the marketer. You play the hand your dealt and that's why it's more challenging than the so often hyped packaged goods marketing for example, or vehicles or almost any product. If research shows that your soap has to smell a certain way, be a certain color and shape your product guys will produce and deliver it that way. Try that with your resort, well maybe you can add or improve some infrastructure but it essence you're still left with the given basics.

So, destination marketing experts should really be the ones who get the accolades and I wonder why they so often aren't. Just watch how many marketers from the DMO world cross over to other industries based on their track record and compare that with the reverse. You'll be surprised at the imbalance. What I've noticed over the years, is that a large number who face the challenge of destination marketing leave the industry after a few years.

What's this got to do with the web, you ask? Well, similar principles apply when you hire a web marketer or an interactive agency. It pays to check if they truly understand the particular challenges they face and whether they have the right experience or not.

The Technology is "Linked Data"

is how Tim Berners-Lee in an interview with Boing Boing at TED2009 describes what the semantic web is about and comments why many have a problem understanding this next stage of development on the web. Here's a key quote for me:

It's not the first time I've had this paradigm-shift problem. Early on, people really didn't understand why the Web was interesting. They saw it in the smaller scale, and it's not interesting in the smaller scale. Same thing with the Semantic Web.

Having followed this subject for some time now, I tend to agree with his description. Let's see how long it will take for this situation to improve and for more people to catch on to the facts that significant change will happen as this next phase becomes mainstream.

NYCgo - a welcome new approach by a DMO

as reported here and elsewhere, NYC & Company has launched a new site and it takes a fresh approach to market the Big Apple.
The site design is on the hip side and a departure from the norm which for a city like New York is understandable and valid.



The key elements for me are these:

NYCgo.com includes information in nine foreign languages and will feature user-generated content such as personal profiles, user ratings and reviews, and peer-to-peer recommendations.

In addition, thanks to partnerships with Travelocity and OpenTable, NYCgo.com will be transactional so that visitors can book hotels, flights, car rentals, vacation packages and restaurant reservations directly from the Web site, thereby facilitating travel bookings with convenience, according to city officials.

The site makes use of interactive tools to give the user a voice and it has integrated commercial partners to allow more of a one-stop functionality. For a major city the inclusion of restaurant reservations is for me a must.

I like where they are going with this. Others should move in the same direction and focus on the customer experience and convenience and not politically correct supplier relationships.