What does this mean? Basically they will allow anyone to set up and publish content on the website based around what they are calling information “hubs”.  There will be “destination hubs” and “interest hubs” (e.g walking and hiking). They plan to moderate all content added to approve it being published (to check it is appropriate) but don’t intend on actively changing content. If you publish content then you are the owner of that page (forever) and can edit or add to it anytime.

This is quite a bold strategy, one that will no doubt have a lot of RTO’s, iSITEs, travel sellers and tourism operators in a mad rush to create and own content for their key destinations and areas of interest. They seem to be fairly open to the fact that some may misuse this for their own benefit but will no doubt watch on carefully with interest on how it will evolve.

The key strategy with this is to structure the site around topics of interest that will help sell New Zealand to travellers with content that shows rich New Zealand experiences and their vision is to create a “market place” to connect travellers with tourism experiences and products (although they aren’t going as far as providing a booking system).

Currently they have some hubs set up in a pilot test site and it sounds like they will roll this out on the live site within 6-8 weeks. So keep an eye out for it! What do you think about this concept?

Accommodation providers using the Bookit system and on Travelbug will be able to login to Bookit to set up their auction for any of their room products and the commission will be 10% (including credit card fees).

For the winner of the auction they will provided with a link to a normal Travelbug booking page to complete the booking details and make payment online within 24 hours of winning the auction, so the booking confirmation and payments will be handled as normal via Bookit.

As with any type of auction you can set a reserve price and a buy now price.  The key requirement to place an auction on Trade Me for an accommodation booking is that the room availability must be guaranteed by the operator – so be careful about the date range you set for the date of travel and note that the availability is manually allocated, it is not linked with your Bookit availability.

Given operators have to be certain about the room availability to ensure the success of the auction I’d expect only operators with large inventory levels to be confident with using this and can imagine some awkward situations if the room auction dates get sold out through other booking channels prior to the end of an auction, hmmmm.

The set up looks easy enough though so it will be interesting to see how this gets adopted by accommodation providers, they can also develop packages to auction. Trade Me Travel also intends to add flights, event tickets and activities to this auction section on Trade Me.

Tourism marketing is no exception and it’s something I often say to tourism businesses who are wondering about how to improve their bookings but want to do it without spending (investing) any more money into it – if they don’t bother then nothing will change, bookings won’t improve and they will still be wondering about it.

The trick is finding that something that will give you a good return on your investment. Here are some ideas to help you find that something:

• Have a look around at some of your competitors that you respect and appear to be doing well – what do they do differently from you? Can you learn from them?
• Find people to help you who do know what works through experience or because it’s their business to know and implement these things.
• Never stop learning. There is a wealth of information online, go to workshops, conferences and study.  Arm yourself with skills to make changes and evolve your business.
• You may already have some ideas and know what you are not doing, perhaps you feel you have barriers and restrictions but if you delve into it are these just excuses or are there real options you can take?
• Have you fully explored all the different tourism distribution and sales channels available yet? Online, Wholesale, Retail, inbound tour operators, Information Centres, Tourism partners…
• Look for support from tourism organisations – especially your local RTO. They will have a lot of resources and initiatives to help you get ahead.
• When did you last do a marketing plan? Have you ever done one? It may well be all in your head but the process of putting it onto paper can solidify your ideas and help get you started.

Many of you are probably already entrepreneurial and prepared to put in the hard yards – that’s why you are in business. But there are always times when you can get too comfortable and the energy levels slacken.  Remember, it’s your business and your life so it’s up to you to make things happen – if you do nothing, nothing will happen.

Got any other useful ideas? Add a comment to share.

With the new General Manager for Qualmark announced (see more about this on the Motella blog article), it’s timely to revisit what tourism operators around New Zealand think about Qualmark.

Let us know your thoughts by voting on the poll and leave a comment on the article for more detailed discussion. Your feedback will no doubt be appreciated by the new General Manager…

During the research phase it became very clear to Marc that most small businesses found Facebook a mix of confusing features and poor customer support. The classic mistake made by most small business was creating a business presence using a personal profile instead of the official Facebook Page.

This classic mistake not only risks you being banned from Facebook but also lacks the features you can use to promote your business. Another major mistake is trying to “sell” within Facebook. Direct selling in any social network is a no-no but for Facebook its doubly worse as most people understand Facebook to be a place for connecting with friends and family and having fun.

There is of course a move now from Facebook to welcome business with open arms (mainly due to the income they receive from Facebook ads which businesses use to promote themselves) but still the “community” feel is very much alive. The main reason he wrote the Facebook for Business eBook was to address the two classic mistakes but also help businesses reduce the effort and time within Facebook while at the same time increase their brand awareness and connect with their customers and prospects.

The eBook consists of 12 Chapters:

Chapter 1 – What is Social Media?

This chapter introduces the concepts of “social media” and expel the hype produced by “social media experts” to revel the real benefit’s to businesses.

Chapter 2 – Defining a Facebook Strategy

This chapter focuses on the most important task which is to define your overall strategy for using Facebook and other social networks. Just like building a house you must start with solid foundations.

Chapter 3 – Facebook – The Facts

This chapter provides some important facts and statistics about Facebook

Chapter 4 – Facebook Basics

In this chapter Marc covers the basics of Facebook including creating your personal Facebook profile. This chapter is a must for anyone who has no idea what Facebook is or has never been on Facebook.

Chapter 5 – Setting Up Your Facebook Page

This chapter covers the basics of creating your Facebook Page including an introduction to the “admin” section of your page and applying business branding to your Page.

Chapter 6 – Making Your Page Exciting

This chapter looks at sprucing up your “shop front” window so it looks attractive to your prospects and customers.

Chapter 7 – Advanced Topics for Editing Your Facebook Page

This chapter covers more advanced topics to add more features to your Page including adding an email newsletter subscription form to your Page.

Chapter 8 – Attracting Fans to Your Page for Free

This chapter looks the “no-cost” courses of action you can take to attract people to your Page.

Chapter 9 – Paid Options for Attracting Fans

This chapter looks at Facebook Ads and a third party application to help drive visitors to your Page.

Chapter 10 – Monitoring Your Page

In this chapter it looks at Facebook Insights to measure your Page statistics.

Chapter 11 – Case Studies

In this chapter Marc reviews existing Facebook Pages to see what works and what needs improvement.

Chapter 12 – Resources

This chapter provides some helpful resources including a couple of fantastic sites that you can subscribe to so you are always up-to-date with changes in Facebook.

The eBook took Marc 2 months to research and write, and is an easy to read resource in PDF format purely designed for helping small business. The feedback has been great so far, here’s a sample:

“Hi Marc, Just finished reading your e-book, Facebook For Business, and found it an excellent resource for a relative Facebook novice such as myself. As a business advisor to the owners of independent businesses in Auckland, I can see this book being of great use to me, both in helping my clients make better use of social media in their marketing activity and also for my own business development. It is hard to find the right level of help in better understanding social networking devices for business. Your e-book covered it off better than anything else I have seen recently. Well done.” Andy Burrows Icon Business Solutions Albany

“I thought I had taught myself a reasonable amount about Facebook Pages for businesses. However, not only did Marc’s e-Book on Facebook for Business clarify some points I was not sure about, but also helped me to extend that knowledge. I found the format not only helpful, but also clearly laid out and easy to understand. This is an excellent reference manual, and I would highly recommend it to any business looking at developing a Facebook page to extend the visibility of their business.” Dean Stewart, Christchurch

“A comprehensive guide for business owners who want an easy to follow, step by step guide to using Facebook for their business. Tells you everything you need to know to get started” Sandra Newton, Essentee Web Consulting

Click Here to Buy the Facebook for Business Ultimate Guide eBook

The price of the eBook is $47.00 USD which is considered cheap by many people who have read it. For example some web designers will charge you $100 – $200 USD just to setup a basic Facebook Page!

So if you want to DIY with Facebook for your business to gain the most out of what it can offer and bring clarity to your strategy then this is a great buy.

Simply put, a channel manager is Internet-based software that allows accommodation providers to manage availability and rates across a multitude of online channels from a single easy-to-use web page. The real benefits to the accommodation business are many and significantly outweigh the investment requirements to get up and running on this vital piece of software. As an accommodation provider, the major business benefits accruing to you include:

• More accurate availability and price parity on online booking channels – by making a single change, your staff can update multitudes of websites immediately. This means availability and pricing across sites will be current, accurate and require minimal staff training to maintain.
• The capability to list on many more online booking channels with little or no additional effort for each channel you add. The result is increased distribution without increased cost and you are able to put your rooms in front of millions of consumers around the globe.
• Free and easy marketing for your property – the major booking site players have the money and the will to market your property effectively online, so let them!
• Increased accuracy with your availability and rates, coupled with increased exposure to local and international online booking channels means increased bookings revenue and more dollars on your bottom line.
• Elimination of double bookings. Any channel manager worth its salt will automatically adjust inventory across all sites when a booking occurs on any site. This means you can have all your availability on all sites all the time and feel secure. This is known as the Pooled Inventory Model and it means you can maximise your chance of being booked without being overbooked.

So, we’ve established that a channel manager will increase your online bookings but what should an accommodation provider look for when selecting among the multitude of offerings on the market? Look for:

• A product that is based on the pooled inventory model, where the tool automatically adjusts inventory across all sites as soon as a booking occurs on any site – this will maximise your inventory and reduce double bookings.
• A product with no transaction fees. Channel managers that work on a flat monthly fee are the best value for money
• A product that allows you to manage inventory on your own website’s booking engine as well as on the third party booking sites.
• A product without lock-in contracts. A channel manager with no lock-in contracts has confidence in their ability to service your business and backs their own product – this is a good sign. Rapid changes in technology you could be left behind if you are locked in to a sub par product.
• A product that does all their own product development in-house – they are more likely to be able to respond to the changes your business needs and adapt their product to a changing online distribution landscape.
• Ensure that you select a channel manager that is backed by a significant support team that can ensure all your needs are taken care of under one roof.
• Ensure your channel manager updates all the major international bookings sites. The local sites are not enough and the international majors are spending up big on marketing your property to the world. Remember, you have to be in it to win it!
• Last but not least, it is advisable to pay your channel manager a visit and view their operation first hand. Many accommodation businesses are doing more than 40% of their business online. You cannot afford to put this business with a fly-by-night company. Remember, you are choosing a long term business partner, not just a product.

So what does the future hold for channel management?

Channel managers are rapidly evolving as the one-stop shop for all your online distribution needs, dis-intermediating some of the more traditional electronic distribution channels.

Channel managers are already connecting to online booking sites, wholesalers, traditional travel agents, GDS and inbound tour operators. Many additional channel options will be connected in the future and booking channels not connected to a reputable channel manager risk being left out in the cold.

The future will see the leading channel managers increasingly connected to more property and central reservation systems, providing seamless connectivity between the property management system and the online bookings channels. Facilitation of automatic delivery of all reservations from online channels directly into the property management systems, is an important capability of the future channel manager. Such a solution completely eliminates the need for the property to recapture online booking channel reservation emails into the property system.

With the proliferation of channel managers and similar distribution switch networks of the future, distribution and acquisition costs to accommodation providers will be dramatically reduced. Channel managers are a far more cost effective option than older distribution systems and these systems are already finding their market challenged with the new kids on the block.

The accommodation providers that embrace the right channel management technology today will have reap the benefits of increased online bookings, lower acquisition costs, increased business efficiency and ultimately, higher profit margins.

Can you afford not to?

Tick any that apply and feel free to leave a comment below the article for more detailed thoughts.

The solution for most is use of “Channel Management” internet based software that will automatically update pricing and inventory across these key channels by linking the systems together (usually via an API link).

Not only does channel management eliminate the risk of double bookings, it also allows operators to achieve broad exposure for their business internationally and increase their total bookings…a no brainer really.

Increasingly mainstream Property Management System’s (PMS) will link to update the channel manager for you, so keep this in mind when selecting a PMS.

Some channel managers won’t require a link to an automated property management system so these ones can be just as applicable for B&B’s as they are for hotels, motels, and Backpacker accommodation.

Some key Channel Managers relevant for New Zealand accommodation are:

Siteminder

• Australian based with one of the most comprehensive lists of channels that it updates relevant for both NZ and Australian accommodation operators.
• Prices start from $49 per month
• They also offer a booking system for your website called the “Booking Button” from $29 per month
• Can use their channel manager without a PMS
• Tend to be slow with their customer support responses at times (rather irractic), no NZ freephone number

Seekom

• A 100% NZ based option with a growing list of key NZ and international booking channels that it updates
• Seekom is primarily an online booking solution but has been expanding it’s software capability and now offer a full PMS, along with channel management and content managed website solutions.
• You can use Seekom Channel Management option on it’s own from $39 per month and is even more cost effective to use it in combination with their online booking system and other solutions.
• Recently been chosen as the preferred channel manager for the HAPNZ group

Staah

• Another NZ owned organisation offering an internet based online booking system for your website and channel management. They also provide website design and SEO services.
• They can link to some the common PMS’s used in NZ
• Set monthly fees, (pricing not published on their website)

RoamFree

• Australian based with links to global channels, they offer channel management and an online booking tool for your own website that can also link to some PMS’s (although at this stage they are not key NZ based ones). Their channels tend to be Australian and Globally focused so exclude some key NZ channels.
• Set monthly fees (not published on their website)
  

Have you got any more information about these channel management options or other options you think are relevant? Leave a comment to let us know.

In assembling this guide it occurred to me – who better to ask than travel professionals like yourself. People who are widely experienced and through personal travel or the experience of their clients have come across some useful ideas or travel tips that could help travellers in a variety of ways to:

- Save money – Save time – Prevent inconvenience
or
-Provide a more enjoyable experience – Improve comfort- Improve security , use mobile technology, take better travel pics etc

It really doesn’t matter what the tip or hint is as long as it is potentially useful.

As a way of saying thank you for your help any tips that get included in the ebook (provided you are the first to offer that particular  tip) will earn the recipient an  intelligent mytraca luggage label and the chance to win $10,000 via an  Instant Kiwi scratch card. I am also happy to acknowledge you as  contributor  in the eBook and of course you will receive a complimentary copy .

So it’s a bit of fun, a chance to earn $10,000 (well you have got to be in to win) plus a mytraca intelligent online luggage label to go on your own bag to assist in its return if it goes missing in your own future  travels (you can read more about how mytraca works at www.mytraca.com)

You can email me your Hints and Tips at:

les@epromotionz.co.nz

or mail them to: Travel Hints ePromotionz ltd, PO Box 302683 North Harbour, Northshore city 0751 Auckland New Zealand. (deadline Monday 09 August 2010)

I am sending this request  to travel colleagues globally and I am also happy for you to forward it on to your own contacts and colleagues.

Lets see if collectively we can make this a “must have” useful and interesting travel guide. Your help and assistance is much appreciated.

Kindest Regards
Les Probert
PS Different,  interesting and quirky hints are more than welcome

Few operators will implement all options at once due to budget and resources limitations or their business model.  It’s up to each business to research which elements are the most cost effective, which mix will fill capacity, which will be tasty in the short term and which will last the distance, which options go well together?

Below is a list of options you may have considered (disclaimer: in no particular order of importance!).

What are your top five most cost effective and how did you discover that they work? Is there something missing from list?

Branding

• Brand name – Product names
• Logo
• Tag line, key messages/ byline
• Photography

Marketing Collateral (Banners, brochures, flyers, signs and posters)

• Design (incorporating words, photography, logos etc)
• Printing/production
• Distribution and display costs – Brochure rack fees, Space rental (signage)

Website and E-marketing

• Website design – hosting
• Search engine optimisation
• Integrated /third party booking engine
• E-marketing – Third party directories, Free listings and Paid listings (online advertising), Pay-Per Click (Google Adwords etc), Other web advertising (Banner ads etc), Social Media (i.e. Tripadvisor, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc.), Other link building
• HTML Email newsletter

Public Relations

• Press releases – Consumer Press/ Trade Press, Distribution
• Editorial
• Media monitoring/ clipping service
• Media liaisons and events – Local-International, Samples/giveaways
• Media familiarisations – Travel and hosting costs
• Promotions – Giveaways
• Media resources – Media pack, Image library

Travel Agents and Trade Distribution

• Sales Relationship Management – Wholesale Travel Agent, Inbound Travel Agents, Online Travel Agents, Retail Travel Agents
• Trade Shows – TRENZ, Meetings, Kiwilink
• Trade directories/ brochures
• Sales trips – Local (inbounders), International

Advertising

• TV
• Radio
• Billboards and sign writing
• Print advertising (Newspapers/magazines)
• Advertorial
• Guide books/ directories
• Internet/Online advertising
• Other

Associations/Marketing partnerships

• Local partners
• RTOs/DMOs (Regional Tourism Offices)
• Touring Routes
• Other (Lodge Association, Motel Association, etc.

I have spent the last 2 years living on the central plateau, where the natural wonders of NZ are in abundance. I was lucky enough to experience a lot of what was on offer. Magnificent mountains, largest fresh water lake in the southern hemisphere, fly fishing & tramping. It was here that I came across Pianika & Luke, from www.raftingnewzealand.com

Here you have the best of Tourism NZ, this entrepreneurial couple have successfully created an adventure company with growing sales in additional cafe & guided tours.

Business Tip – Pianika Boddington

Here is some advice from Pianika, three tips for people starting out in business.

• Get a good Financial Advisor – To help with your budget, so you have a good idea on what your target income is and to thoroughly analyse your expenditure.
• Research your business/market. Know it inside out.
• Systems – put In place systems for every aspect of your business.

Pianikas tribal affiliations: Ngati Maniapoto/Ngati Porou and Te Arawa

Uncertainty about upcoming GST increases, a depressed housing market, the strong likelihood of increasing mortgage interest rates through the remainder of the year, and the unknown impact of the emissions trading scheme on prices across the board,  have rather dampened people’s appetite for risk.

Buyer enquiry remains very strong, particularly from overseas, but buyers are even more careful in what they will take on. Overseas buyers are looking for a home and a business that will support them from day one.  They are already making the huge step to emigrate, so they are not prepared to assume even more risk in a doubtful business proposition.

Good businesses with a strong trading history and forward bookings continue to sell: but anything less than top performers is languishing.

Our advice is clear:

• Every business in our sector should be looking to maximise its trading accounts.  Every dollar in revenue should be on the books – we can’t sell invisible cash.
• Every feasible element of “potential” should be implemented – it is very difficult to sell vague possibilities (the standard buyer question when “potential” is discussed is to ask why it has not been done already).
• Don’t neglect the owner accommodation. Yes, it makes sense to invest in your business rather than your living quarters but, as noted above, the residence is of prime importance to buyers.
• If you are going to market, get the pricing right! Overpriced properties or businesses will just stagnate on the market. It is not rocket science: buyers need to make a reasonable return on their investment. Ask yourself: would I buy this, at this price, on this market?



Waiting for an on-request booking request response from an accommodation operator can be a similar experience. Will my booking be confirmed or declined? Should I wait to hear back before I request somewhere else? In managing Travelbug for the last couple of years, there is one thing that has been a constant thorn in my side. It is the cause of more support requests than anything else and the biggest cause of leakage on our reseller network than any other factor: poorly-managed on-request inventory.

On BookIt (as on Vianet), operators can manage their inventory in a variety of ways. They can be fully realtime and offer instant confirmation inventory managed through a direct link to their PMS, through a channel manager or by using our inventory manager tool. They can also manage their inventory on-request meaning that a traveller making a booking on any of our reseller websites must wait to hear back from the operator to see if their booking is going to be accepted or declined.

If it is accepted then that’s great, but if it gets declined then the traveller is faced with a decision. Do they go back to the website and find another place and try and book again (and possibly go through the same painful process) or do they give up on that website and try something else? Either way, significant damage has been done to their impression of that website and the property concerned.

Let me be clear, I’m not against on-request per se, just poorly-managed on-request. I understand that there are certain high-demand periods where operators may need to take extra care regarding double-bookings, and properties with only a few rooms that want to be distributed widely online may need to protect against that possibility as well.  On-request fills that need and allows a safety net.

Outside those two situations, however, if you are choosing to go on-request on a website then you should be actively managing your inventory and blocking out dates as soon as they become unavailable.  On-request as an availability option should not be treated as a free listing or a set-and-forget way of appearing on websites to drag-net for booking leads. It needs to be updated and managed pro-actively to keep the listing as fresh and accurate as possible.

Here’s four reasons why:

• Your listing is the first experience a traveller has with you. Waiting for a reply for a booking is bad enough, but having a booking declined is even worse. A bad experience in making a reservation means that you are on the back foot already.
• Travellers that have bad experiences spread the word, so declining a booking might not just mean you are unlikely to get that traveller’s booking, you might be unlikely to get their friends’ bookings either.
• A declined booking is lost revenue. Many travellers have flexible dates and if they could clearly see which dates are unavailable, they’ll request the available date. This means you’ll be able to accept the booking and everyone wins.
• The websites don’t like lost revenue or declined bookings either, and will likely have measures in place that will decrease your visibility on their site based on how often you have declined booking requests.

The best way around on this is to offer instant confirmation if you can manage it. Your visibility lifts, you have access to a far wider range of promotional possibilities, you don’t lose bookings and travellers have a great experience right from their first interaction with your property.

If you can’t manage instant confirmation then I’ll leave you with this one thought – don’t leave potential guests in the waiting room wondering if they are going to need a cast. Don’t use the on-request feature as a means of getting a free listing. Give it the attention it deserves and update your inventory as often as you possibly can. Use it as a way to increase your familiarity with managing your inventory online and you may be more comfortable with offering instant confirmation.

But when it comes to effective marketing, that is, marketing that actually delivers a return on investment, these two qualities are what help time scarce tourism operators get the job done.

Typically most tourism business owners try and do something once or twice and then move on. There is a general attitude of, ‘well that didn’t work let’s try something else’. It’s this impatience, which determines their actions, giving up too quickly when the marketing activity doesn’t immediately achieve what they had anticipated.

A classic example of this lack of consistency and persistency is when tourism business owners or managers don’t stay in touch with their customers on a regular basis. Customers can be anyone across any of the diverse channels of distribution i.e. consumer direct or business-to-business. Maintaining open communication with all people in your sphere of influence is one of the cheapest and most effective forms of marketing. Nothing can be more productive for generating leads.

The key is in developing a system or process that works for you. It has to be something that you can stick to and sustain. There’s no point in building something that you’ll abandon two months down the track. Ultimately you’re looking at how you can stay in touch with your customer for an extended or going period of time. It could as simple as — call, email, letter, see — repeat. There also has to be a purpose to your communication, some advice or information you want to give that will be of value to them and/or to ask for a referral.

The point that I am really trying to make is that in order to determine whether your marketing effort is actually working is to give it time to take effect. This means that you have to be consistent and persistent in your efforts. Regularity and unrelenting endurance are highly productive techniques.

And as it relates to this example when is the last time your key customers heard from you?

This Article was originally published by Angela Best on the Marketing Tour Guide Blog

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with the merge?  Vote below or leave a detailed comment.

For those of us lucky enough to get the chance to escape the New Zealand winter by heading to the sun, surf and serenity of the many South Pacific island destinations, the mere act of being there is heaven on earth. Our pale bodies getting some much needed Vitamin D, those Pina Coladas that just beg to be ordered (because you can) and the reading of that now-famous Steig Larsson trilogy (again, because you can) being all par for the course.

I had yet to visit Samoa however many of my friends had, so I figured it was time to get over there and get a feel for it first hand. Despite the relaxation and much needed time out, I was also there to scope Samoa out from a work perspective as well – somewhere that I could potentially send clients both on their way to, and coming from, their Kiwi Does It New Zealand itinerary. When planning these top-end trips, I am often asked for stopover recommendations, especially with those honeymoon folk desperately wanting some down time…

We looked into accommodation at the top end (our target market) and found Sinalei on the southern coast of Upolu and Le Lagoto on the island of Savaii. Both of these resorts are in the luxury category with Sinalei having just reopened after being completely wiped out by Mother Nature and her tsunami in 2009.

Having trawled the net and decided on Samoa, the introduction emails were sent, the flights were booked and the commitment made – and then the countdown was on.

The experience came around quickly and finished with the same speed and so it was that we returned from the beautiful islands of Samoa after only a mere 5 days of bliss. It was without doubt a stunning destination to visit. Yes, I did get burnt and yes, I did order a Pina Colada however I have already read the trilogy so I opted for something slightly more obscure – Paul Tordays ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ (and I highly recommend it).

Without harping on about it, the damage post tsunami was not hugely visible where we went. However, the graves in the front yards of nearly every home were testament to the depth of tragedy that was. The smiles were still given freely, the waving was clearly still a custom and the timeframe upon which we worked was clearly still relaxed. As far as I was concerned, it was a great experience.

However (and I will just remind you quickly) the purpose of my visit was to get a feel for the place from my clients’ perspective. Is it somewhere with the level of accommodation and service required for my clientele and do the prices reflect this?

To be honest, I think there would need to be some serious expectation-setting in order for their experience to be a smooth one. There are a couple of reasons I say this and I will start with the most obvious…

As a rule, my travellers would be arriving from either the continental US or on the back end of the super-lodge experience around New Zealand – their expectations will be pretty high. As a result, pricing is a sensitive issue. It’s one of those realities that everyone is conscious of no matter where you work or what you do for a crust. Money is arguably needed for almost everything and we all like to get more ‘bang’ for our buck, especially post GFM (that’s like, Global Financial Melt-down for you cyber-virgins).

With regards to Samoa, the need to get heads on pillows has understandably been the first and foremost priority however with that comes the visitor expectation. To be honest, at around USD500 per night, the Beachside Fales (albethem brand new) were not up to scratch. They lacked basic amenities such as any hint of a mini-bar, TV or sound system and, while I am most definitely not one to stay in the room watching TV, my clients may be. The photos from the old website have been used and as amazing as it looked, gone was the outdoor shower, there was no beachside hammock in sight and the rooms are now a completely different setup. Come on people, update the website – it’s only fair.

Secondly, service. Despite loving the culture and resonating with it on a personal level, I felt that the relaxed nature (or lack of training?) of the Samoan people ultimately hindered necessities at these resorts such as service and upkeep. Our showerhead hit nothing but the wall it was attached to, the roof of our bathroom was a mildew-grey (the rest was white, the compendium stated a mini-bar service was available however when asked it wasn’t, and there was clearly no communication around our check out, as we were charged full rates when I had been dealing with management for over 6 weeks. Blank stares and simple answers were common though, but all with that Samoan smile so its hard to get worked up over anything.

I really can understand it on a certain level and I have no doubt that it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand you have staff that are local villagers and walk down the beach to work – how cool is that? On the other, you have a luxury resort offering a luxury product, at luxury prices, with below luxury attention to detail. Again, the small things become large when you are charged through the nose for them.

One of the key issues that most operators face is the expectation of their travelling clientele and the managing of them. I feel the most pivotal factor in this process is knowledge of the product you are selling. By knowing, I don’t just mean of the website (which may or may not be current), the brochure or the location of the country. I guess the word ‘knowing’ could be replaced with ‘experiencing’ – and it has to be first hand.

Despite our initial contact with the resort being somewhat disorganised, there were just those little things that were missing – for want of a better word, the ‘polish.’ For those frequent top-end travellers among us you will know what I mean…

In order to marry together what I experienced personally with what I expect for my clients, perhaps some in-depth training angled towards the luxury end of the market would be a good start. There is obviously some training that goes on but perhaps more experienced people could get in there and call the shots. That way, the locals would know what to polish, the clients would be charged the right amount and they would recommend it to all and sundry.

Please don’t get me wrong Samoa, I still think you are beautiful. I feel like I have been hard on you, but I had my agent hat on. Take that off and replace it with my traveller hat and I loved you. I loved your lush, fruit-scented native forests. I loved your white-toothed, cheeky grins from children and adults alike. I loved your completely ‘pimped out’ public buses with flames down the sides that were overflowing and I loved your water – oh the crystal clear, brimming-with-electric-coloured-fish water you have…

Samoa, I’ll come back to you and this time I’ll have my surfboard.

So what attracts the potential customer to your product, service or activity? When they visit your website or read your printed marketing material, what is it that sways the decision to use your business over your competitors? The importance of having well designed marketing material, whether online or offline, and a level of integration and synergy between them cannot be argued. However, content is king. What does your content say to your potential customers? Is it generic marketing text that is not targeted to the behaviour and language of the target markets you are attempting to serve?

The use of images, photos and videos is essential in the tourism industry, where experience is everything. Interactive media formats are the perfect medium for telling the story, rising emotive decision making processes in consumers and creating a virtual sense of demand. The use of colloquial, descriptive, emotional and experiential text is just as important in spurring the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for consumers to purchase your products and services, or at least qualify your offerings to be in the final decision set.

Social media offers all tourism businesses the perfect platform to share and promote the experiential based tourism product through the use of interactive mediums. Image sites such as Flickr and video sites such as YouTube are obvious sites to utilise. Although not considered as a pure social media tool, these sites have developed over the past several years to include interactive and communication capabilities that are conducive to social networking. However, these could be considered the first steps of social media.

In comparison to sites such as Twitter or Facebook which require a constant level of activity as far as engaging with the audience, Flickr and Youtube can be used simply as a platform for presenting interactive media about your business, the activities, accommodation, customers enjoying their EXPERIENCE. There is the option to engage with other like minded people and current and potential clients though the joining of groups, engaging with conversations and participating in the community, but it is not as essential in other social media platforms. And for this reason, these platforms are the perfect place to start for the novice, even the sceptical tourism operator to dabble with social media.

Here is a simple example of how an activity based tourism operator could utilise either Flickr or Youtube (or both) to build the visibility of their business, utilise experiential based marketing mediums, create a valued personal level of customer service and engage in a basic level of viral marketing: Let’s take the case of a four-wheel drive motorcycle operation. When the customer purchases or attends the activity, get their email address. Before, during and after the activity, take lots of photos and/or videos (basic digital camera is all that you need). Once the activity has finished for the day, upload the photos/videos from the camera to your Flickr/Youtube site, then email the customer saying thank you for using us and having a great time and inform them that you have posted photos/videos of them enjoying their experience.  This proactive level of customer support will impress the customer, leading to greater levels of satisfaction, developing a brand ambassador or who will surely create a level of word of mouth marketing for you. But it doesn’t stop there, the customer will then view their photos/videos on the sites, they will have their experience rekindled and be likely to email and tell their friends of their experiences and direct them to the URL address where the photo is held, your Flickr and Youtube sites. Now you have the start of a viral marketing campaign, where the customer’s friends are viewing the photos/videos and spreading the word about your business.

If you are a tourism operator attempting to gain a greater market share, identifying methods to increase customer satisfaction and support and want to start engaging with social media, implement an experiential and emotional strategy to your online and offline marketing mediums, increase the use of experiential based photos and videos, utilise descriptive text and consider utilising some of the most basic social media tools to promote your business and brand.

With the future looking bright for their outbound travel market to continually grow it makes sense for New Zealand tourism organisations to develop strategies to target the China travel market to compliment efforts already in progress by the likes of Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand and the Shanghai World Expo.

So what are the key ways to do this?  It really depends on the resources and size of your organisation.  At present over 71% of travellers from China come as part of a pre-arranged group tour (source: Tourism New Zealand) rather than as FIT so forming relationships with key inbound tour operators and group tours is a logical first step.  The FIT market however is growing so an online strategy is also important, and The Economist has identified social media as another key way.

Here are some further links to articles of interest regarding the Chinese tourism market and China Online Travel

China Travel Trends

Ruder Finn Asia China Travel and Tourism Market Newsletter

Role of Social Networking in Chinese Online Travel Market

Tourism New Zealand – Changes Set to Benefit Chinese Group Tour Market

Tourism New Zealand – ADS Programme (China Monitoring Unit)

Tourism New Zealand – Crossing the Digital Divide in China

TNOOZ: Most Popular Travel Websites In Hong Kong June 2010

Nielsen China Outbound Travel Monitor 2009 (have to purchase the full report)

If you have any tips or success stories about dealing with the Chinese market let us know.

Many articles and posts that attempt to be useful end up confusing businesses in respect of using social media marketing effectively. Typically, they list up to 50 sites that HAVE to be engaged with, offering no assistance as far as the methods to gain targeted followers that replicate the demographic and geographic dimensions of the businesses stipulated target market, or proven strategies that direct increased traffic to the business website, increase sales and create a loyal community of brand followers through a process of engagement. No wonder some people are confused.

The fact is that a business does not have to use 50, 30, 15, even 5 social media sites to drive business results. Based on the characteristics of the target market, and any dual goals of a social media marketing strategy such as search engine optimisation or employer branding, the business should identify 2 or 3 social media platforms that are well suited to these goals. It is much better to concentrate on several sites and use them well rather than spreading your efforts over a wide range of platforms that will not create any advantage, possibly damage your social media efforts as the increased workload over a variety of sites means the neglecting of current and potential customers that could be achieved through focusing the social media efforts.

If you are a small to medium sized business either considering the use of social media marketing, or experiencing levels of frustration that your current efforts are not creating the desired results, choose 2 platforms that fit well with the business model and customer base. Allocate 10, 15, 30 minutes a day to work on your social media marketing, or whatever time you can spare on a daily basis. Start dabbling with the software and the features, the more comfortable you become with the workings and functions of the software, the more confident you will become in utilising the tools. Think back and remember when you first learnt a Microsoft program, it wasn’t second nature and you probably had to become familiar with the software before a level of confidence ensued.

Above all, remember that social media is another channel or medium of communication, it does not outweigh or outdate traditional modes of marketing communication. The implementation of any social media marketing strategy is not a technology decision, where many can get caught up in the latest and greatest without ascertaining if it fits the business model. The use of any business tool, including social media must be a BUSINESS DECISION.

If you are having trouble starting in the social media world or are not achieving the desired business results from your efforts, give us a call or drop us a line. At Social Eyes Consultancy, we’re always happy to provide advice.

So should we in fact combine resources with Australian tourism from time to time for particular campaigns and in some markets?  Interested to see how you vote, feel free to comment too.

The Aussies at least think it might be a good idea to “invade” our country and our 100% Pure brand as you can see in the video below…

1) Get to know your product. This means doing the legwork, and getting out there.

Or you can cheat and go to TRENZ, but you’re never going to know for sure if the brochures they’re showing you are simply putting their product in the best light, or if they’re for real.

If you’ve visited a product provider, and can report from first hand experience that their “Garden Suite” actually looks over someone else’s garden, whereas their “Lake View Suites” do get views of the lake, but across someone else’s roof, you’re in a better position to be able to manage a client’s expectations.

2) Get to know your suppliers. Again, it’s the small things that count, and a smiling face upon guest arrival is most probably worth more the comfortableness of the bed in terms of visitor enjoyment, because that smile will set the tone for their entire time with that provider. How do you know your supplier’s going to welcome your client with a smile? You’ve got to get out there and meet them.

3) Get to know your client. This is key -  a comprehensive brief from them about their likes and dislikes, preferences and tastes, is non-negotiable. Get on the phone to them, at least twice, preferably a whole lot more times. Arranging for them to do a challenging 7-hour Tongariro Crossing when they’re built like a retired gridiron linebacker and usually only manage half hour walks around the local pond, is NOT going to score you points on their feedback form.

4) Which brings me to the penultimate point – feedback. Always ask your client for comprehensive feedback about your services, your suppliers’ services, and about their travel experience as a whole. This is invaluable in helping you to get better at what you do -  if you can forward that feedback on to your suppliers, any provider worth their salt will appreciate constructive commentary.

5) CHARGE FOR YOUR SERVICES. This could spawn another article in itself, and I’d welcome feedback from anyone and everyone on this. We’ve wasted so much time writing itineraries for people, never to hear from them again, that we gave up. Now, we spend 15-20 minutes doing an overview itinerary, which gives them an outline of where we’d recommend they visit (geographic place names), what they should be getting up to whilst there (activities), and how much time at each place. We also offer them to chance to request references from past clients.

If they like the overall timeline, route map, and pace, then before we go ANY FURTHER, we take up an front “good faith” deposit by credit card. This shows us they mean business – if we then go ahead and spend another 2 hours writing a fully fleshed out itinerary including accommodation and activity operator recommendations, the chances are they’ll book through us. If you DON’T charge them an upfront fee, then there’s every chance they’ll simply take your itinerary and book it all directly themselves. If they do this after paying your “good faith” deposit, then at least you’ll have made a couple of dollars for your 2 hours work.

If anyone would like a recommendation for a superb itinerary creation software product, get in touch.

Some local councils own and manage i-SITEs, operate visitor websites, have tourism development employees and promote and manage events or festivals that attract visitors.

The rationale being that prosperous tourism and hospitality businesses pay rates and therefore provide ongoing revenue for councils with the potential for further development.  Win-win right?

However with ever increasing costs and debt levels borne by councils, there is currently debate over whether Local Government should stick to their “core services”, meaning infrastructure of services like water, sewerage, roading etc.

TIANZ beleives that ‘tourism is core activity for local govt“, so we’re interested to hear what you think – from both rate payers and those with vested interest in the tourism industry.

What activities related to tourism do you think local government should be involved with?

Should each council have the ability to determine their policy according to their regions needs rather than being guided by legislation? Let us know what you think.

Take Our Poll on this subject below, or you you have more detailed thoughts, add a comment at the bottom of the post.

At present, like the early days of the internet, most of the applications are content focused brochures rather than booking tools.  Many will link you to mobile versions of booking websites that allow you to book but overall the interface for many of these is still cumbersome to use.

Tripadvisor has recently launched their new iPhone to include links to book accommodation online through their OTA (online travel agent) booking partners websites rather than trying to come up with a complete solution.

This article on tnoonz (Talking Travel Tech) “Isango starts work on mobile destination app” highlights the issues over product payments for mobile apps.  The key concern being that with last minute bookings, which are most likely on a mobile device, there is a need to ensure real time availability is accurate in the last minute period (particularly if made with 48 hours of arrival) rather than a simple email confirmation process with accommodation properties.

No doubt many different solutions are being developed and the gap in the travel market to deliver an effective mobile booking and payment solution for mobile devices is being worked on.  According to this article on m-Travel.com “Start-up works on new enterprise mobile platform for hotel reservations“.

The start up named is “TripCraft” and they promote themselves as “the industry’s first enterprise-level mobile application… No more cumbersome mobile browser-based experiences. TripCraft combines the speed and efficiency of a native app with the ability to pull in dynamic content in real-time.”  Their application allows connection to reservations systems to book in real time with the ability to modify and cancel bookings.

At this stage TripCraft is a solution for hoteliers rather than online travel agents, but initiatives such as the Open travel Alliance will be key to standardising ways for the industry to achieve true real time availability distribution no matter what the platform.

No doubt, for accommodation providers, providing your own application for mobile bookings will be a key way to ensure repeat business with your regular and business travellers making it easy for them to book with you no matter where and when.

1) To check how well your current homepage is optimised, follow this simple process:

• Visit the Submit Express Meta Tag Analyzer page.
• Type in your website URL and click “Submit”.
• View the “Meta tags analysis” report.

Meta tags are “backend code” that your web developer should have inserted into your Homepage when they set up your website. These comprise:

• A TITLE, which you can see if you roll your mouse over your browser tab, and is the heading for the search result that Google returns in a search for your website. It needs to be 70 characters max.
• A DESCRIPTION, which is the wording that will appear underneath the title of the search result that Google returns in a search for your website. It needs to be 150 characters max.
• KEYWORDS, which are simple keyword search terms that sit in the backend code and help Google measure relevancy. Keeping these to 10 is a good strategy.

The report will tell you how well you score for search engine optimisation on your homepage:

Maintaining page relevancy to meta tag title, description and keywords is key.
In layman’s terms this means that the keywords you’ve chosen to optimise your page content for eg. “luxury lodge auckland” are used multiple times throughout your page content headers and text, and your meta tags.

2) To do your own basic search engine optimisation:

• Decide which search terms you want to rank highly for.
• Write content for your Homepage headers and text (300-500 words) that is infused with these keywords, multiple times (preferably 3 or 4 times).
• Create your meta tags in line with the instructions in 1) above to include these keyword search terms
• Ask you web developer to upload your new page content and amend your meta tags.

You’re done!

You should now have a clean, well-optimised homepage, and if you combine this with some link building (sourcing inward links to your homepage from other well-ranked websites), you should be well on your way to marching up those Google rankings…

Impossible you say (and you’re not without reason), especially considering we are talking the travel industry. I mean, the words ‘global travel’ and ‘environmentally friendly’ = irony, surely. Some would even say to the point of being like rain on your wedding day, or that free ride once you’ve already paid.

In this day and age, travel and the mere act of boarding a plane is frowned upon to a large degree and quite understandably too – there are not too many things out there that top the carbon emissions incurred from air travel and the associated anti-green images that go with it.

However, as a result the travel industry has had to pull its socks up along with the rest of the world’s industries (bar BP clearly) and despite intention and whether it’s because you care or simply just want to jump on the sustainable bandwagon to look good, bettering our operations and being conscious of the old ‘footprint’ is surely a good thing.

To be honest, it’s been quite the mental barrier getting this whole ‘green initiative’ up and running, to the point where as of the end of May and after our successful audit, Kiwi Does It Ltd is carboNZero!!! A very proud feeling indeed with that 90′s little framed certificate to go with!

Yep, here at Kiwi Does It our office and operations are green friendly (and we’re working on our itineraries too) which means we do actually care. And it’s not just that token care where you pay some money and get a certificate – it’s that care where you have to measure your emissions (and we learnt all about these as we went), put a plan in place to manage them, and then where possible, mitigate and offset them. Did we hear you say ‘that’s great’? Thanks, we think so too.

Did I also hear you ask ‘but what does it all mean?’

Well, it means that from here in on we will be looking at all our emissions sources (like power, gas, vehicle usage, printing costs, travel costs etc) and making sure they are reduced where possible, excluded where we can and offset if they are a must (like flights needed to create the itineraries). As the years go on, Landcare Research and the carboNZero rope gets tightened to the point where we have to be really into it to maintain our stamp. Tough eh?

But… the point behind it all is guilt-free travel for both our travelers and ourselves (which means we can have that extra bar of chocolate if we want).

Now it’s up to us to help encourage those operators and events people we use for our itineraries to think about their options for sustainability and keeping the travel industry the amazing place of work that it is…
Choice.

This post was originally published by Rob Grieve on the Kiwi Does it blog.

If you think your tourism business has successfully implemented innovative and creative ideas then consider entering the awards application process for 2010 – the profile and benefits of official industry recognition the awards offers for finalists and winners is no doubt a coveted prize.  We’ll look forward to hearing more about the nominees and finalists later int he year!

What is it?

Using a mobile device with GPS, it’s a way to explore a city and find people, places and things to do.  The users “check-in” to their current locations and can earn rewards in doing so.   
It’s got much more of a “game” approach to it than other social media tools where users can “unlock badges and discover new things” for rewards, but the interesting bit is that these things are in the real world so businesses can use it to influence behaviour and actions, turning Foursquare users into paying customers.

Is It Useful for Tourism Businesses and Destination Marketing?

You bet ya it is, well eventually anyway – once more people start to understand it, and provided it’s content continues to grow throughout New Zealand then it could become quite a powerful tool for travellers to decide what do to and where to go while visiting, plus you can incentivise your regular customers.

Here is a link to find out how businesses can use Foursquare to reward their customers with special offers and incentives.  You can either “claim your venue” as the business owner if someone has already added your business on Foursquare, or you can add your venue yourself.  Once you have claimed it you can monitor the stats, add special offers and award prizes etc.

This article “VisitPA uses Foursquare to it’s Full Potential” on the Project Wander blog is perhaps the first example of a Destination Marketing Organisation getting onboard with Foursquare to market it.

The limiting factor right now in New Zealand is the quality and lack of mobile internet access nationwide so it’s use is mainly in the cities….that may take some time to fix, but if your coverage is good then give it a go for your tourism business or organisation.  Would be great to hear about any businesses using it already.

Interview with Prime Minister and Minster of Tourism, John Key

Q&A with Tourism New Zealand’s Chief Executive, Kevin Bowler

Interview with Tim Cossar, TIA’s Chief Executive

The decision on which online booking system you choose will come down to a few key areas that are relevant to your business:

Cost model

Is it commission based per booking or a set monthly fee?  The certainty of a set monthly fee will suit some and not others.  Those will lower volume bookings are likely to be better off using a supplier with a straight commission model.

Flexibility with Inventory Management

Can you opt to offer real time or on request bookings?  Can you mix it up between the 2 options?  There are definite key benefits to having control over your availability type for different time periods – particularly for smaller suppliers who don’t have the luxury of large room inventories to always offer instant bookings.

Distribution opportunities

Does the system offer a retail distribution channel or network to increase your booking opportunities?  Many of the key systems either have set up their own retail website, work with key retail websites or have been purchased by a large retailer.

Functionality

Does it come with all the bells and whistles of a full reservations system or simply accept online bookings?  Can you choose what you use in the system to suit your business?  Pick a system that will work with your needs.

Channel Management

Does it offer an automated link to updating key retail travel websites or at least link to a channel manager that does?  This ability opens up the opportunity for you to gain broad exposure and easily manage your pricing and availability with key online travel agents.

Easy to use

For both yourself and your customers.  It’s an important consideration as to how your customers experience the booking process on your own website.  It should be simple, quick and easy to understand (likewise for you!).

How Do New Zealand Online Booking Systems Score?

To me, a great system would offer you options in all of these areas and give you the choices to make it work for your business without dictating how you use it.  Does any of the New Zealand systems offer all of this right now?  Not really, there is no perfect system yet that will suit every type of tourism business.

Don’t get me wrong – many of the systems work fine and offer comprehensive solutions, but I think all of them fail in one respect or another so it’s a matter of picking the one that is the best fit for your business based on some of the criteria discussed above.