I had a really great conversation with Barbara Vega, founder of I Heart BackPackers, a tour operator who specializes in backpacking tours all over the World.  During our talk, Barbara wanted to know if I had any suggestions on how to get started with social media and how to improve what she was already doing.  This got me thinking that the best thing I could probably do is put together my top 5 list of things to do to get started with Social...

During the OpenTravel Alliance half day session at Eye for Travel’s Distribution Summit in Chicago, we had an opportunity to discuss new and emerging distribution channels including, believe it or not, destination marketers.  Although many of the comments were not particularly supportive of this model, I think there is a huge opportunity for destinations to open up distribution and generate revenue, not only for themselves but for their...

Before you can run, you must first learn to walk.  You’ve all heard this many times in your lifetime.  Although the saying is overused, it is used because it is true.  Although the saying can be applied to travel product distribution,  in many cases the players are not even crawling yet.  The challenge with any travel product distribution is that it is, unlike tangible goods, an information exchange rather than a physical product...

Google released their latest labs project called “City Tours” last week.  I was quick to jump on the bandwagon and take a look, but I resisted from posting right away because I wanted to think a little more deeply about the implications of the application.  Let’s not forget that Google is a powerhouse and, if they wanted to, develop and release ANY travel application they want in any vertical.  With a single mouse click they...

One of the biggest challenges for any on-line business, especially on-line travel businesses is building trust with the on-line consumer.  In my Tourism week post titled “Building On-line Credibility” I discussed ways that businesses can build their credibility on-line.  In this post, I am going to share with you my five favorite tools for building and sharing trust on-line.  Some of these tools are free and some require payment,...