It’s been a busy week in the travel and tourism industry. Scroll down for the latest social media news stories affecting travelers, bloggers, tour operators and DMOs.
If you have a social media event or news story to add to this roundup, please leave a comment below!
Tourism Boards Turn to Digital Media to Repair Image
Mexico Focuses on PR, Digital Media to Lure Back Tourists
The Mexico Tourism Board hopes to boost tourism and dispel safety concerns by focusing on public relations and digital efforts instead of traditional media buys.
CMO Gerardo Llanes explained the campaign to AdAge:
“We’re reaching out to [leading] media outlets like Bloomberg, Newsweek and CNN to help us tell our side of the story and get the facts straight,” Mr. Llanes said. “We’re not denying that there are some areas of the country that have problems, but we’re saying if you hear about something bad in Chicago, it wouldn’t stop you from going to Los Angeles.”
Mexico is also launching a $1 million positive branding campaign carrying the tagline, “The Place You Thought You Knew.” No word yet on whether the PR campaign includes blogger outreach.
>> Source: AdAge.com
Tourism Vancouver Spreads Positive Message After Riot
The Canucks riot in Vancouver made headlines earlier this month and created an unflattering image of the city. In response Tourism Vancouver has launched a website, www.thisisourvancouver.com, as a one-stop source of photos, video and comments.
The online platform searches Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube for content. Tourism Vancouver president and CEO Rick Antonson said in a press release,
“Today, Vancouver’s integrity shines again. This is a testament to the commitment of this city’s citizens to set things right if they have gone wrong. ‘This Is Our Vancouver.com’ is our way of helping the world know that Vancouver’s greatest asset is its people.”
>> Source: Socialtimes.com and Tourismvancouver.com
Korean travel blogger Juno is on her way to the US. (photo:RunawayJuno/Flickr)
Korean Blogger Runaway Juno Heads to the USA
Korea’s leading travel blogger, Runaway Juno, is ditching the “cubic farm” (her day job as a mechanical engineer in Seoul). Her first order of business is visiting the United States this summer. She’ll be in Washington DC for the 4th of July and will make a stop in New York; expect more time-lapse travel videos of her journey. Contact Juno on Twitter (@RunawayJuno) if you’d like to show her around your hometown!
>> Source: RunawayJuno.com
Priceline, Expedia Embrace Local Deals
Leading travel companies Priceline and Expedia are following Travelzoo’s lead and are embracing local deals. Priceline is rolling out deals on spas, restaurants and retail stores in a partnership with Group Commerce Inc; their New York City site is already live. Competitor Expedia recently partnered with Groupon to offer local deals on hotels.
>> Source: Tnooz
Ritz-Carlton Puts Concierge Tips on Foursquare
The Ritz-Carlton’s Foursquare profile now includes tips on local destinations for all of 75 of its hotels. The feature is meant to showcase the knowledge of Ritz Carlton concierges and give current customers a way to interact with the brand.
>> Source: Mashable.com
London Olympic Athletes Could Be Banned For Misusing Twitter
Twitter is usually a solid source of celebrity gossip, but don’t expect any shocking tweets from Olympic athletes. Under new guidelines set by the International Olympics Committee, athletes can be banned if they post commentary about the games or other athletes, use vulgar language or post video taken at official venues.
>> Source: AllTwitter
Upcoming Events
AF Expo
What: AFExpo is a social media conference for marketing professionals, developers and “anyone looking to stay up to date on Facebook advertising, Pages and Places, app platform, and Commerce and Monetization.”
When: June 28-29, 2011
Where: Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF, 1675 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA 94143
Cost: The least expensive ticket is the Expo & Networking Pass ($25 at door or free for online registrants)
Tip of the Week
“…In the eyes of Google, it’s better to have
fewer high-quality pages then lots of low-quality pages.”
>> Source: 7 New Ways to Improve Your Google Rankings, SocialMediaExaminer.com.
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We were in Cancun last summer and it was a ghost town. I hope they can turn the tide, it’s a beautiful place.
Thanks for your comment! Hopefully Mexico Tourism’s PR campaign will help turn the tides.
This is awesome Leslie! 🙂 Thanks for including my escaping from cubic farm and next travel! Really, NYC meet up is like one of the highlights of my 3 months trip. Looking forward to it!
Very excited for your visit to the US, Juno! Your NYC stay will result in the tweetup to end all tweetups 🙂
Like the Mexico PR campaign. Hope it includes bloggers (I’ve never been to MExico!). As for Vancouver, had no idea they had launched that site. That is awesome and still saddened to see what happened to that city. And of course, excited to follow Juno on her trip!
Thanks Jeremy. Agree– I hope Mexico invites bloggers to “explore the place you thought you knew.” Their immediate coverage (and photos and videos) would help spread the word that Mexico is open for business!
awww man! am so jealous Juno is coming! I want to visit too! 😀
Come! There’s room for two visiting bloggers in the US this summer…
I hear mexico it the place to visit and the prices are very fair since the economy is dipping.Me and my husband are planning for november to vist, cant wait 🙂
It’s a great time to visit Mexico– you can’t beat low prices and lack of crowds! I enjoyed traveling in Egypt this April; there were no lines at any attractions.
Thanks for the great summary. Hope you get to meet Runaway Juno when she’s in town!
Juno’s visit is a great excuse for a tweetup!
Runaway Juno will be bloggnapped by her U.S. fans and will never leave.
That is a strong possibility… 😉
lol!! (I just left this comment and suddenly disappeared! Well,, not important)
Great summary of recent news…Glad to know Vancouver is back..! The true Vancouver is what you all saw during the Winter Olympics last year….full of greatful and friendly people.
Thanks Alec for your comment. I agree– Vancouver is a great city, and the actions of a small group of rioters shouldn’t tarnish its image.
CVBs are really lackluster on getting back to emails. I had emailed every CVB in every state in Mexico, along with contacting companies in Cancun directly with no reply.
I sure hope they pump more money into it because their turn around is God awful.
It seems like Mexico is missing a low-cost PR opportunity by not courting more bloggers. It’s a shame the CVBs did not get back to you; you were already in their region, so their only expense would be providing a free tour or attraction. Inviting bloggers to visit Mexican towns and cities would be a great way to dispel negative perceptions– don’t you think?
Totally understand that Mexico tourism need to do some success PR campaign. I remembered when I told my Travel Agent that I want to have a wedding in Mexico. Her first concern was do you think your friends or family will be okay about it. Since Mexico has so many bad press. I told her yea I’ll explain to them.
Mexico just can’t catch a break… did you see the latest news, that a tourist boat sank and several Americans are missing? Hopefully this PR push will help boost Mexican tourism. They have a tough road ahead!