by Todd Lucier on May 27, 2009
Of the different types of people your tourism business interacts with on the Web, the most important are Fans.
Deerhurst Resort engages with their fans
Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario will be hosting the G-8 in 2010. With this important international gathering the resort is undergoing a number of upgrades and improvements.
The enhancements included renovations to the Deerhurst Highlands golf pro shop and modification of the dining area, establishing a new Highlands Lounge for the golfers. And with that, came the annual task of deciding on the new menu for the lounge.
Where to get New Menu Ideas?
Ask the Fans
Instead of asking the chef to come up with a new menu, they went to the members first!
I was delighted when I received this email invitation from Simon Bevan, director of golf to offer my advice on the new menu.
To which I wholeheartedly replied!
But would they take my menu suggestion seriously?
You bet, not only can I get the grilled veggie wrap my way, I can get it on toasted flat bread or a swiss triangle too.
How do your fans feel when you engage them?
Let’s just say the club is going to serve up a few more lunches to members this year.
by Todd Lucier on May 22, 2009
With the relaunch of GlobeandMail.com and the regular Wednesday travel feature, we were delighted that Northern Edge Algonquin was featured in image and text in a story about a new travel trend… Glamping.
For the past few days, the phone has been ringing like crazy as a result of this article.
But the story just ends there.
This article is about the beginning of this story.
The purpose of this story isn’t to encourage the travel industry to embrace the BYOT (bring your own tent) practice, but instead to:
- appreciate the most important benefit of twitter – access to current trends by following travel twits.
- understand the power and immediacy of the product development cycle in an Internet age
- appreciate how Help-a-Reporter has turned the press release formula upside down.
Twitter provides access to Current Trends:
The story begins one month earlier when I noticed a tweet in my twitter stream that got me thinking about our travel packages and the current marketplace. There are really interesting people sharing their ideas on Twitter. Ideas that can enhance your business.
This tweet got me thinking about adjusting our product offer to provide a recession-based offer without lowering our price:
With a discussion among our team we realized that we could change our travel product
offer to provide a lower price point, without compromising the perceived value of the experiences we offer.
Bring your own tent and our Glamping package were born.
It’s never too late to adjust your product offer:
This isn’t the first time a challenge has faced the travel and tourism industry in Canada. April 23, 2003, Toronto was blacklisted as a travel destination by the World Health Organization. Our business, and others were hit hard hit by cancellations. It is easy to blame a difficult business environment for a poor travel season. But within weeks that year, we had created new product to fill empty beds and today, Quest for Balance (which likely wouldn’t have been created in a comfortable economic times) is a staple of our summer experience offerings.
When economic shocks shake up your business, think of it as a creative opportunity to enhance your tourism product.
Help A Reporter is more effective than traditional press releases in getting earned media:
HelpAReporter.com is a Web site that journalists, writers, reporters, bloggers and other media use to find sources for stories they are currently working on.
A newsroom, writer or reporter somewhere, right this minute is currently working on a story that you could be a source for.
Every day, approximately 100 briefs are provided in three short emails by reporters who need your help.
We saw this in a recent HARO email
I responded by email and two days later was interviewed for the feature story that is currently running on Globe and Mail.com and was featured in the print version of the paper.
Each day I spend about three minutes reading the headlines of the stories and if there is one I think I can help with, I read the brief and contact the reporter. It’s that easy.
To summarize:
- Pay attention to what’s happening NOW with Twitter. There are dozens of really helpful travel tweeps. Get started with a few travel follows like: @targetvacations , @elliotng, @kimmance, @wendyperrin, @nerdseyeview, @sekeener, @celesdavar, @cajun_mama, @authenticcoast, @happyhotelier. I know I’m leaving out a bunch, hey, I follow nearly 200o great people.
- When things get tough, get creative. Adjust your tourism offer any time you get an idea.
- For heavens sake – sign up for HARO
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