目的地和博客营销的好处

　　博客，UGC，自然搜索…… 这些最新术语让目的地营销人员应接不暇，更别提还要让他们的在线营销活动充分地用上这些新玩意儿。但是专家们警告说，如果无法尽快适应，目的地将大难临头。

　　UGC（User-generated content，用户产生内容）比广告更具说服力已成共识， 但很多目的地在这一点上却稍显迟钝，尚未领悟其妙处，仍在死抠宣传口号。事实上，随着MySpace、YouTube、Flickr、Tagzania、Gusto、Wikia、RealTravel等C2C网站的日益兴起， UGC已经迅速成为一股无法忽视的力量。

　　分析家认为博客、社会网络站点以及自然搜索引擎优化潜伏着旅游业的巨大商机，建议每个组织在制定在线营销战略时都务必将其考虑在内。

　　英国贸易协会网络广告局的发言人则评论说，“现在有了博客，动动手指就可以做媒体了，市场人员和品牌经理的日子突然一下子好过起来，但这也使他们面临了前所未有的挑战，要跟着消费者与时并进也不是件容易的事情。”

　　“有了UGC、博客等各种社会媒体，消费者在网上对品牌的影响越来越大，品牌经理必须对传统的品牌管理办法进行反思，并且学会如何利用这些社会媒体来解放自己的品牌传播体系。”

　　据comScore Media Metrix公司统计，博客（网络日志）拥有近6000万的访问量，其流量较去年增长了50%以上，相当于34%的互联网用户。另外，研究表明，博客更容易吸引收入较高的年轻用户，这些用户的网页浏览量是互联网平均浏览量的两倍，而且他们更倾向于在网上购物。

　　Yeoh Siew Hoon作为Wired Travel Asia年会的协办者， 最近就社会网络站点影响不断扩大和有人认为旅游作家、旅行社将面临消亡发表了评论。她说：“在社会网络站点，有了像博客这样的平台，人人都可以是记者、作家、评论家、舆论制造者。都这样了，谁还需要旅游作家来告诉我们去哪里玩、玩什么，谁还需要旅行社来给我们推荐住宿地点呢？”

　　最近一个博客营销的成功典范是加拿大Bay of Fundy旅游公司，其博客推出短短数周，每周就能吸引好几百游客。该公司新不伦瑞克省和Nova Scotia的所有员工都定期向博客贡献内容。

　　Bay of Fundy旅游公司经理兼博客主Terri McCulloch说：“我们的博客让我们有了全新的机会来分享目的地的实时新闻、美食、照片、视频、诗歌还有故事，我们也很高兴邀请用户来和我们一起探索。”

　　当然，受益于目的地博客的不仅仅是游客，一个全新的旅游行业博客营销系统已由一家名为AudioConexus的旅游音像和市场营销服务公司开发成功了。该系统旨在通过提供营销技巧、书评、市场调研以及行业发展趋势来推动行业发展。

原文链接：http://tourisminternetmarketing.com/featured/destinations-and-the-benefits-of-blogging/

原文作者：Jens

Destinations and the Benefits of Blogging

Blogs, UGC, organic search… it’s getting harder for the destination professional to keep up-to-date with the latest terminology, and harder still to ensure that their online marketing activities fully embrace these new approaches. But experts are warning that destinations which fail to adapt could face disaster.

User-generated content, or UGC, is widely considered to be more persuasive than advertising, yet many destinations have been slow to recognise the benefits, preferring instead to maintain a tight control over their marketing message. But with the growing number of C2C sites such as MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Tagzania, Gusto, Wikia, and RealTravel, it is fast becoming impossible to ignore UGC.

Analysts cite blogs, social networking sites and natural search engine optimisation as massive opportunities for the travel industry, with some going as far to suggest that they should form part of every organisation’s online marketing strategy.

A spokesman for the Internet Advertising Bureau, the UK trade association for the internet marketing industry, commented: ‘With such a choice of media at their finger-tips, marketers and brand managers have never had it better, but neither has it been more of a challenge to keep up with consumers.

‘As consumers are increasingly empowered to take control of brands online through a variety of social media such as user-generated content and blogs, brand managers must ‘unthink’ much of the traditional approach to brand management and learn how to use these forms of social media to liberate their brand communications.’

Traffic to blogs (web logs) has grown by more than 50% over the last year to nearly 60 million visitors, representing 34% of all internet users, according to the comScore Media Metrix. In addition, the research reveals that blogs are more likely to attract younger visitors from higher incomes homes, who will visit nearly twice as many web pages as the internet average and are much more likely to shop online.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, co-organiser of the Wired Travel Asia annual conference, commented recently on the growing power of social networking sites and the suggestion that travel writers and agents face an imminent demise: ‘Their argument is that, because of the power of social networking sites where everyone is now a journalist, writer, commentator, opinion-maker i.e. blogger, who needs travel writers to tell us where to go and what to see and travel agents to recommend places to stay?’

One recent blog success story is comes from Canada’s Bay of Fundy Tourism Partnership. Within just a few weeks of its launch, the blog was receiving several hundreds of visitors per week. Members of the Bay of Fundy Tourism Partnership throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia contribute regularly to the blog.

Partnership manager and committed blogger, Terri McCulloch, commented: ‘Our blog provides us with an emerging opportunity to share real time news, recipes, photos, videos, poetry and stories about the place that we enjoy inviting visitors to explore with us.’

But it’s not just the tourists that can benefit from blogging. A new tourism marketing blog, designed to support the industy by providing marketing tips, book reviews, market research and information on industry trends, has been developed by AudioConexus, an audio tour and marketing services company.