OK, first of all apoligies about the lack of updates. I have many excuses, however will not bore you with the details...
One highlight for us since our last post was attending the inaugural eTourism Conference in Wellington. A big thank you to Lea Boodee and her team at on-Cue that put on a very sucessful gathering at Te Papa - well done!
Wellington even put on some reasonable weather and by our reckening is looking very sexy and upbeat. The retail sector is puting on a brave face, the restaurants/cafes are bustling and the streetscape is full of well-dressed happy people. No wonder the capital has recently been named as NZers’ most popular destination.
Meanwhile back at the conference, we were impressed with the calbre of the attendees. There were the usual government agencies, RTOs etc that were there by default, however there was good support from enlightened travel industry folk that paid their own way including several moteliers.
I guess we will be hearing more about eTourism in an environment where more than 80% of global travellers turn first to the Internet when making their travel plans. The Internet has empowered travellers, but has also distracted them. When on-tour they not only inhabit the real world, but continue to interact with a multitude of virtual communities.
Discussions on how to leverage the increasing customer use of the Internet to research and purchase travel related items online and to gain loyal returning visitors was facinating.
Marketing via email, txt was also discussed in detail, however the increasing relevance of social media was a recurring theme.
Overall a very entertaining and intense day and a half session was had by all. My own social networking with several delegates continued until 3am one evening.
The following video has been done before, but it is worth another look as the numbers are impressive:
