Tourism INTERNET Marketing Blog 1.0

Tourism INTERNET Marketing Blog 2.0 is live!

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:58:00 -0800

After over 200 blog posts in 365 days, I am very excited to announce the launch of Tourism INTERNET Marketing 2.0. Thanks to my readers, to my fellow bloggers, to the travel-, tourism-, and hospitality- industries, and everybody's support, especially to Chris Clarke for helping launch the new blog. All the best for 2008 and beyond.

Kind regards,
Jens Thraenhart

Most recent Tourism Internet Marketing Blog 2.0 posts:

Websites with a cause

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:22:00 -0800

Back in June of 2007, I wrote about the extraordinary concept of Kiva.org. Now I came across an interview with Bill Clinton that explains the mission very accurately...as well as this film by PBS.

Another great site is GiveMeaning.com by Vancouver-based Tom Williams. Tom started his career in Product Marketing at Apple Computer when he was just 14 years old. In his own words:

My dream for GiveMeaning is that we inspire people to take action. I believe that most every person cares deeply about something, but I'm equally sure that many of us find ourselves doing little for the causes that matter most to us — not because of a lack of desire, but a lack of confidence. My plan is for GiveMeaning to change all this by being able to take any cause or issue and identify a small, but tangible, piece of the problem to fix. I once heard a story where the moral was: "if you want to move mountains, buy a shovel." Giving Groups are like online shovels that make small steps towards addressing big issues. This is my hope for GiveMeaning; people connecting with friends, and strangers, united by a desire to achieve a common goal.

We are very fortunate...

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:10:16 -0800

...be appreciative.

Re-Launch of the Tourism INTERNET Marketing Blog

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:00:48 -0800

Exactly 1 Year ago, I developed and launched this blog just for the fun of it, and to play around with the technology and the medium. At that point, there were not many travel-related bloggers out there, and the few of us quickly became a virtual community, with the creation of the "T-List" by Mathieu back in March. That then lead into the travel-related blogging communities on Facebook (by me) and WIWIH (by Guido), as well as Henri's blog consolidation, and finally the global launch of the "Tips from the T-List" book (together with publishers Stephen and Phil from Rezgo and our editorial board Kevin, Siew Hoon, Mathieu, and myself as Editor-in-Chief) at premier online travel conference worldwide in Vancouver/Canada, London/UK, Orlando/USA, and Singapore. Darren from Travel Rants is looking to showcase different travel-related blog posts via his Blog Carnival, a great idea that maybe leveraged for future versions of the "Tips from the T-List" book. And these are just some of the iniatives - but in the end it all comes down to mass collaboration in understanding this ever-changing space. The bottom line for me, I have had so much fun with the blogging experience, but more importantly would have never imagined in my wildest dreams to meet so many great people around the world! I have gotten to believe that this travel blogging community has become the new influencers when it comes to the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry. That realization was confirmed when Phocuswright invited us to host the first Bloggers Summit at the PhocusWright Conference, and Phil, Stephen, and myself are now working with Bruce from PhocusWright on the second Bloggers Summit at the biggest annual tourism fair in the world, ITB in Berlin/Germany in March. Please watch for announcements soon - and it will be a must-attend event! Other Bloggers Summits (by the "Tips from T-List") at other top travel and tourism events are in discussion. But I give Philip Wolf a lot of credit for embracing these sometimes controversial bloggers, and inviting them to his event - something unheard of probably just a year ago. Bravo!

I would like to thank all my loyal readers (I am still amazed by all the traffic!), and my new blogging friends who I converse with now on a regular basis. I wish you all a very healthy, happy, and successful new year. 2007 was an amazing year, for me predominantly with the first Canadian e-Tourism Strategy Conference, Canada-e-Connect and the first Canadian e-Tourism Awards. 2008 will be another unbelievable year, and I cannot wait for all the exciting changes and developments to come to fruition.

But one change I can already announce - and that is the re-launch of the Travel Internet Marketing Blog! I have been experiencing some real frustrations with my hosting provider, and have decided that it is time for a real upgrade. I have also decided to allow select guest bloggers to be part of the Travel INTERNET Marketing Blog. I hear from many travel and tourism executives that tell me that they would love to share their opinions, but do not want to start their own blog as they don't think they have the time to commit (it's like getting a little doggy). So please feel free if you are interessted in becoming guest bloggers on Tourism Internet Marketing. I am also extremely pleased to announce my Senior Guest Blogger, Chris Clarke. Chris will continue to be writing on his popular Vacant Ready Blog about the Hotel Industry, and will be sharing his online marketing and social media insights right here on this site. I have agreed to become his Senior Guest Blogger on Vacant Ready, where I will be focusing more on the hotel industry. Chris was the Co-Blogger for the Canada-e-Connect Blog together with myself and did a tremendous job. Chris also has some amazing changes in store, which I am sure he will share soon.

So expect, some great content to be published on www.TourismInternetMarketing.com starting January 6th, 2008. The current Tourism INTERNET Marketing Blog will continue to exisit here at www.JensThraenhart.com/cblog.

Since this is the last post on Tourism INTERNET Marketing 1.0, I thought I finish with wishing you all a Happy New Year with U2's virtual concert in Second Life, in the spirit of social media. Enjoy, and see you all very soon on Tourism INTERNET Marketing 2.0.

What if Google re-designed their homepage?

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:46:00 -0800

Have a look...quite amusing what a Google developer came up with...

New Travel Search Engine Kango.com goes into Private Beta

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:29:00 -0800

A little while ago, my friend Yen Lee, Kango’s President and former General Manager of Yahoo Travel, gave me the opportunity to be one of the first bloggers to get a sneak preview and play around with Kango.com a few months ago. I was very impressed, and decided to interview Yen to get an insight view and share it on the Tourism Internet Marketing Blog. Now, Yen informed me that he is pleased to finally open up Kango for the private beta release. Feel free to have a look at the interview, and apply to be one of the few to be a previate-beta tester. Yen noted that it helps to mention that you are a reader of the Tourism Internet Marketing Blog...

So what is Kango.com, and why should you care - with all the new online travel sites out there...well, in short: Kango aims to save travelers time, so they have more time to travel. And isn't it all about creating value to travellers? But let's go a little bit more indepth...

Kango has received some serious funding from a well-established investor and is creating a new travel solution that is doing a couple things that are very new and interesting.

The first thing is something that will save you a lot of time. The problem I have run across in booking hotels is that one travel site will say a hotel is 3 stars, another 4 stars and if I check a third source the hotel is rated 1 star. I now, discouraged more on to looking at another hotel, not wanting to pay a 3 star price for a hotel that could end up having a 1 star experience.

Kango is doing all that work of hunting down the truth on a hotel and presenting the information on a single page

For example if I were going for a vacation in San Francisco I might decide to stay at the Omni Hotel San Francisco because there seems to be a broad consensus from 6 different travel sites with 250+ reviews and ratings of four-out-of-five-or-better; I may be less inclined to choose the Hotel Bijou which appears to be in a similar price range because the ratings were less consistent.

The other thing that Kango is doing is aggregating what to do when you are there, beyond just booking the hotel, which most of the major travel sites don’t really talk about, presumably because it’s to hard to make money from listings of beaches just looking at the first page of Kango ideas about things to do in San Francisco and I see a few I probably would never thought to do that look fun; sure the popular Alcatraz is listed, but what if I wanted to take the kids somewhere? The Exploratorium looks like a good bet, or perhaps the Junipero Serra Playground.

Finally, Kango should help you find better choices that lead to better trips. With Kango, if you are looking for a romantic getaway in San Francisco, you will get different hotel and activity recommendations than if you are looking for a family vacation in San Francisco.

After playing around with the site, which Kango is adamant, is a pre-beta at this point, I already see a lot of usefulness, which gets me a bit excited, for what else they might be working on that could save me time, make it easier to travel, and lead to better trips.

In my opinion...a site worth watching. Good luck Yen, and keep it us posted. You can also get some more inside inforamtion right from the Kango team on their own blog.

Interview with the Founder of TripAdvisor Stephen Kaufer

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:23:12 -0800

At the recent PhocusWright Conference in Orlando, Florida, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Stephen Kaufer, Founder, President & CEO of Travel User Generated Content leader and pioneer TripAdvisor.com.

In his presentation at the PhocusWright (picture shows Stephen Kaufer presenting in the background, and myself together with Philip Wolf in the foreground), Stephen was talking about the importance of trust in the travel research and buying process. In order to get trust (the gold dust of the Internet), a site need "honest brokers" (people that give trust), and a "social network" (the group that you can trust). He also emphasized the importance of transparency, and that the monitoring of negative hotel reviews would hurt the integrity of the site, but also would diminish the value of all the real true brand ambassadors. Monitoring is a natural process that happens as part of the online community.

Enjoy the 10 minute interview (please excuse the wind noise), where Stephen addresses the growth of Tripadvisor, what is next with the company, his personal aspirations, as well as his views on sites like Facebook and integrating applications.

I haven't written - but I am still alive...

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 01:30:57 -0800

I know I haven't written anything for over two weeks, but the last few months (especially the past few weks have been quite insane...but all good insane!). The Canadian eTourism Strategy Conference, Canada-e-Connect, and the first Canadian eTourism Awards in Vancouver were a success, according to all the calls and emails we have been receiving. We created a Facebook Group for delegates to share pictures and videos, as well as thoughts. Before Canada-e-Connect, we hosted the first ever Canadian eTourism Council Summit, which was simply amazing. Before was TIAC (Canada's Tourism Leadership Summit) in Victoria, where we hosted a half-day eTourism Summit for CACVB members (Canadian Association of Convention Visitor Bureaus). And then right after Canada-e-Connect was the PhoCusWright Conference in Florida. So it has been busy, but I will post again soon...I have had a chance to chat with Stephen Kaufer (Founder of TripAdvisor), and Greg Brockway (Founder of Tripit), as well as the founding team of start-up LeisureLogix, which I will share here shortly. Also, I will write about my impressions of Canada-e-Connect and PhoCusWright. Next week, I will be leaving for Asia, starting with Wired-in-Travel in Singapore.

In the meantime, please join the Canada-e-Connect Facebook Group, view the Flickr Slideshow of photos, and visit some of the great reviews of Canada-e-Connect (I probably forgot a few...):

- Jaime Horwitz
- Daniel Vasquez
- Philip Caines
- William Bakker
- Joe Buhler
- Ian McAnerin
- Marc Tyrell
- Sean Moffit
- Timothy O'Neil-Dunne
- Heather Kirk
- Chris Clarke
- Stephen Joyce

Just a quick word to thank the many volunteers, speakers, partners, sponsors, and the Canadian eTourism Council who made Canada-e-Connect a reality. But especially to my Canada-e-Connect small but dynamite team (Mimi Chan and Trevor Roald).

Last but not least, I wanted to share the presentation from one of our highly rated keynote speakers (with permission from my friend Jeremy Gutsche, CEO of TrendHunter.com)

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New Logo for the TOURISM INTERNET MARKETING BLOG

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:09:24 -0700

I have a new logo for my blog. Nice and whacky, but that's what it is all about!

Continue reading "New Logo for the TOURISM INTERNET MARKETING BLOG"

First ever "E-Tourism Climate Change Awards" finalists announced

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:40:35 -0700

The first ever "E-Tourism Climate Change Awards", sponsored by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Microsoft, and hosted by the Canadian e-Tourism Council, has received numerous very strong nominations. The Awards that is planned to become global competiton is being pilot-tested at the first Canadian e-Tourism Awards on November 8th, 2007 in Vancouver, BC.

The expert panel of the UNWTO has determined the finalists, which have been voted by the Canadian e-Tourism Council to determine the first Canadian e-Tourism Climate Change Award winner.

The criteria is as follows:

Addressing Climate Change and having sustainable tourism environmentally friendly programs and initiatives
Promoting these initiatives on the websites, preferably on the homepage, in order for users to become more conscious and aware
Marketing Canada as a unique tourism destination

Congratulations to the companies below that have made it into the finals. The winner will be announced at the Canadian e-Tourism Awards Ceremony in the OmniMax Theater at Telus World of Science during the Canada-e-Connect e-Tourism Strategy Conference.

The finalists of the UNWTO e-Tourism Climate Change Award are:

Links for 2007-01-26 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Tourism INTERNET Marketing

Links for 2007-01-25 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600

eStrategies for the Global Travel, Tourism and Hotel Industry - by Jens Thraenhart

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Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600