Tourism INTERNET Marketing Blog 1.0 - Interesting

RealTravel.com is hiring!

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:05:34 -0700

RealTravel.com, one of the top online travel websites is hiring...
This is a unique opportunity to join a growing best of breed company in sunny California, in the middle of happening Silicon Valley - however location is flexible. If you are interested, please contact the CEO Ken Leeder directly via email, and mention that you saw this opportunity posted on the Travel Internet Marketing Blog. Please click here for the job description.

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Managing and Leveraging Talent

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 09:22:00 -0700

A little while ago, I came across this great article by Pamela Slim, and I thought I would share it with you on my blog. In the end, you can have the best product, the greatest brand, the most innovative ideas, and the smartest strategy - but if you haven't been able to create a culture of empowernment and execution, it won't happen. In her what she calls "Open letter to CEOs", she explains the importance of providing objective, developmental feedback to employees that is based on observable behavior, not personal generalizations, and to be open with the business strategy so that employees could contribute ideas to grow your company.

Her main points are:
1. Don't spend millions of dollars to try and change your culture
2. Stop running your company like the mafia
3. Spend a moment walking around the halls of your company and look at your employees
4. Teach people how to get rich like you
5. Don't ask for your employees' input if you are not going to listen to it
6. Don't train people until you know what problem you are solving
7. Ditch the PowerPoint when you have town hall meetings
8. Focus on the work people do, not how or when they do it
9. Forbid people to work while they are on vacation
10. Forbid people to work while they are on vacation

Have a look at the article - having worked in different work environments, from start-ups to private and public companies in corporate offices, hotel operations, consulting, and now in a federal government situation, I must say - in all employment situations, success depends on how an organization can unleash and leverage the talent of its staff.

Never pack and carry a Suitcase again?

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:57:00 -0800

Now, here is an interesting concept...flying luggage-free! A great deal for lazy, busy, rich, or any combination of those frequent flyers. Flylite is providing this new service to US frequent travelers.

Here’s how it works: You sign up online, and FlyLite sends you a suitcase to fill with your usual travel kit (jeans, shampoo, golf clubs). They clean, store, and catalog everything (in a virtual closet that you can arrange to your liking). Before your next trip, select what you want online, and let FlyLite know where and when you’ll need it. Your stuff will be there when you arrive.

The downside: So far the service is available only in the United States. And it costs $100-$200 per trip. This might sound quite expensive, but when you add up everything from your time, dry-cleaning cost, the optional insurance to guarantee that you see your luggage when you arrive at your destination, and not to forget the wear and tear of your luggage by commercial airlines...may not such a bad deal after all. If they ever come to Canada, I might try...or might this be a business idea worth considering??

What about the competition? Here is a list of other Luggage Shipping services, in case you are wondering. In any event...a smart move by an innovative entrepreneur from Virginia.

http://airportbags.com
http://baggagedirect.com
http://fedex.com
http://flylite.com
http://luggagefree.com
http://luggageforward.com
http://luggageconcierge.com
http://sportsexpress.com
http://ups.com
http://usxpluggageexpress.com
http://virtualbellhop.com

Travel and Tourism Blogs

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 13:40:00 -0800

It seems a small community of travel and tourism bloggers is establishing itself. Many of us have either met, or at least emailed each other. With the great work that Guillaume has done in pulling travel, tourism, and hotel blogers together...just yesterday he released his Technorati ranking (and the Tourism Internet Marketing Blog is ranked at Nr. 21...I am quite pleased with this since I am live for just two months now). Today, Mathieu at Radar just started what he calls the T-List (Travel/Tourism Bloggers List).

Travel/Tourism Bloggers that I have met or I have worked with include:

Chris Clarke (in Vancouver - also writes for the Online Revealed Blog and other entertaining blogs such as Bed Jumping)
Dan Craig, GM of the Opus Hotel (in Vancouver)
Rogier Gruys (works in my team at the CTC in Vancouver)
Mike Wylie (co-chaired the HSMAI Hotel Internet Marketing Committee with me)
Joe Buhler (free-lancing for Phocuswright)
William Bakker (Director of E-Marketing at Tourism British Columbia in Vancouver)
Alicia Whalen (in Toronto, co-produced the first Online Revealed Conference with me last year)

I may have forgotten a couple, but in the next few weeks, I will put together a list of my favorite blogs in the area of Internet Marketing in the Travel, Tourism, and Hotel Industry.

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Photo Tourism?

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:51:00 -0800

An interesting concept indeed - still in the development phases but certainly with some interesting potential to inspire travelers about destinations. Conceived by engineers at Microsoft and the University of Washington, Photo tourism is a system for browsing large collections of photographs in 3D. The approach takes as input large collections of images from either personal photo collections or Internet photo sharing sites (a), and automatically computes each photo's viewpoint and a sparse 3D model of the scene (b). The photo explorer interface enables the viewer to interactively move about the 3D space by seamlessly transitioning between photographs, based on user control (c).
You could read the quite techical paper, but you should definately watch the video or view the Java demo.

We’re used to hearing about how applications such as Flickr and Google Earth are providing revolutionary new ways of looking at digital images, but PhotoSynth could be taking this conccept to the next level.

101 Dumbest Moments in Business

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:46:00 -0800

CNN/Business 2.0 ran it's "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" in 2006 again. If you haven't seen it, flip through it to get a good lough. My 10 favorites were:

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Free Hugs...

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:52:00 -0800

In our fast-paced, stressful lives, sometimes a hug is all we need. Watch this video of Juan Mann - a man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives. Have a great day, and maybe give somebody a hug for no particular reason....

New Hospitality and Tourism Marketing Textbook

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:36:00 -0800

A new Marketing Textbook for Hotel and Tourism Colleges has been published by Stowe Showemaker from the Conrad Hilton College at the University of Houston, Robert Lewis from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Peter Yesawich, Chairman at Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell. I just received a copy and have to say it is an outstanding book, and having talked to the authors, I know what an enormous undertaking this has been. So congratulations to the authors!

What makes the book unique are interviews with industry executives such as Michael Leven (former CEO of US Franchise Systems), Christian Hempell (Inter-Continental Hotels), Gary Leopold (ISM), Bruce Himelstein (Ritz Carlton), Tom Storey (Fairmont Hotels & Resorts), Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace (Caribbean Tourism Organization), Hirohide Abe (Hyatt), David Norton (Harah's Entertainment), Peter Warren, Spencer Rascoff (Zillow.com, formerly Expedia), Terry Jicinsky (Las Vegas CVB) - and yours truly (Chapter 18: Ditribution Systems). Below is the author's description of the book:

How do you gain a sustainable competitive advantage in today’s global hospitality industry? Are there ways to attract and keep a customer over the course of a lifetime? Marketing Leadership in Hospitality and Tourism, Fourth Edition addresses the marketing strategies and tactics known to be effective in the industry such as strategic pricing and revenue management, customer loyalty programs, proven communication mixes, and more! Each chapter explores how to market services and the hospitality experience from both an academic and industry point of view. Over sixty Case Studies, on CD-ROM included with each textbook, bring the material to life in real-world situations based on actual events. International examples, web exercises and intriguing interviews help students learn about marketing and also about the industry itself.

The Great (Fire)wall of China

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 10:47:00 -0800

As is well known, there are some subjects - such as Taiwan, Falun Gong - that the Chinese Government doesn't think its people should know about. So about 30,000 Internet censorship officials have been deployed to man what is called the "Great Firewall of China", which blocks access to these and countless other subjects.

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TourismInternetMarketing.com featured on Hotel-Blogs.com

nospam@example.com (Jens Thraenhart) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:44:00 -0800

Big thanks to Guillaume Thevenot over at Hotel-Blogs.com for profiling the TourismInternetMarketing.com blog in his series ‘20 Blogs about Travel‘. I am very honored to have been chosen to be featured on this recognized blog, which has has been listed to be among the Top 50 Travel Sites You've Probably Never Heard Of.

Read Guillaume's profile of TourismInternetMarketing.com at his site.