The Great Travel Site Showdown - Michigan vs. Virginia

After a thrilling (well, as thrilling as you can get online) semi-finals showdown which saw over 4,400 votes and a last-minute comeback via a 'viral' campaign from Virginia, the finals are set.

Michigan (George's Army) Vs. Virginia (The Lovers)

Congrats to our 3rd place, Illinois, and 4th place, Oregon, finishers.

We will give everyone in Michigan and Virginia a break over the weekend and start up the finals next Tuesday. Which will officially and finally declare one of these two sites as the undisputed, greatest DMO travel site ever!

Too much hype? Nah, just right.

Travel Trends - Blogging While Traveling, Forms, yatt'it

Have Blog, Will Travel - One of the ways I keep up with the Arizona Office of Tourism's social footprint is by subscribing to several Google Alerts on the subject. FYI, you will see some interesting things written about your state / city / attraction. But I digress. The other day, I came across a blog currently being written by an Irish family who decided to take 3 kids and a RV across the U.S. for 6 (count 'em, 6!) months. Aside from the fact that it is amazing that technology allows them to share the entire trip with relatives and friends thousands of miles away, in near real-time, the blog is a fascinating read as well as an interesting look at how travelers perceive your destination. One of many, I am sure, but really, 6 months...you owe them a quick look. We can only hope they make it to Wally World.
http://freerangetravels.blogspot.com/

Did you fill out a form for that? - A lot people don't like forms, count Luke Wroblewski as one of those people. Website blog A List Apart brings us an excerpt from Luke's upcoming book that discusses why forms are bad and how you can start to get rid of them. Of course, for a DMO or attraction or airline that needs a physical address to fulfill that brochure you ordered, getting rid of forms is going to be tough...okay, impossible...but Luke does provide some pointers to at least make the process less painful.
http://www.alistapart.com/

Join our Social Network too! - You mean you are not part of your favorite hotel's social network? Well stop writing posts on your GE Microwave / Blender social network (those blendies are so last year) and point all of your free time at yattit.com. Hyatt launched into the social networking world last year with this travel tip / recommendation site which combines Gold Passport members, concierge advice and Frommer's information. I think the idea of including tips from the on site concierge staff is great, same with subsidizing the content offering via Frommers, but the site seems to be coming up a bit short. So far this year there have been a grand total of 2 tips in the Phoenix / Scottsdale section...2 tips in 3 months...not exactly the up-to-date insider information I am looking for. Again, it all goes back to critical mass. If you don't have enough people populating your UGC site with content it will slowly fade away. Perhaps Hyatt should have focused more energy into providing (for example) text message alerts during your stay...the concierge could send you a text if they have show tickets or a great dinner reservation or a tee time. Anything besides another social network. I already belong to 489 of them...one more is just too much.
http://www.yattit.com/

Case Study: VisitCalifornia.com Launches...Again?

Okay, so maybe not a Case Study in the traditional sense, but let's take a moment to look at the brief history of VisitCalifornia.com.

Thoughts// On Monday, Melissa from our Research team at AOT forwarded me this press release about California launching a new website (visitcalifornia.com)...and my first thought was, 'didn't they just launch that site?' Turns out they did, about a year ago in fact, and if you had been visiting the site every so often you might have noticed some small changes which could shed some light on this most recent update.

So, let's take a look at the 'old' site:


A pretty nice looking site and, if I remember right, there was a good amount of conversation about the layout and design of this site. This is, or was, the whole homepage. The design kept the page 'above the fold' and very compact. Visually it is a very easy to read design. However, having being involved with another compact design choice, I did wonder how the consumers and constituents would react to such a minimal homepage.

When creating a minimal homepage, there are two big challenges (out of many) that come up...navigation and the desire to have everything on the homepage.

With such few choices on where to click, users must understand your navigation structure immediately in order to locate the content they are looking for. In VisitCalifornia.com's case, the navigation at the top only provided one or two words of copy and no drop-down menus. For visitors who may not be familiar with the state, that could be a lot to ask.

Another big challenge is what content goes on the homepage. Ah, the homepage. Everyone in your organization wants everything there, all the time...but, make sure it is appealing and user-friendly. Okay, so a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. With such a small homepage footprint, I would assume that keeping certain content off the homepage required a strong internal policy or earplugs for the webmaster.

The 'old' site, version 1.1:


Here we have version 1.1, as I will refer to it. Notice the white bar in the middle of the page...the one with the surfer image...that is a new element. Too small to read in this execution, but the text basically says there is a lot to do in California and has links to destinations, activities, events, etc. In theory, the only reason to add more links to a certain area of site, especially a broad one such as this, is because consumers are having a hard time finding it. Again, just an assumption on my part, but I feel pretty confident this was one of the reasons.

And now the new site, version 2.0:


As you can see the new site is visually similar. Colors, photos, structure, the white boxes all remain, however the size of the page, content on the homepage and the navigation have all been updated. I liked the boxy-feel on version 1.0/1.1, however with the expanded content on the homepage, the boxes begin to feel a bit cluttered, with too much information for this simple, effective design.

In version 1.1 a user only had to scan 5 boxes, which is just about right for the average person...easy to read and understand the content that is presented in those 5 areas. In version 2.0, we have 9 boxes to read, which requires more than a quick glance. Plus, the boxes are not as clearly defined. Interesting what a large difference those additional 4 areas create.

Finally, the navigation certainly provides more information, which should be a plus.

As with any of our case studies, this is certainly just one point of view. I am sure the CT&TC did a large amount of research when making these changes to ensure that the new site is beneficial for the consumer. And FYI, I am trying to contact my counterpart in Sacramento for some more insight as well as a look at the process that went into these design changes.

That being said, this is a fascinating example of website design and a good case study for anyone evaluating the effectiveness of their own website.

Travel Trends - California, .travel, 2007

California, The Land of Wine and Food - The California Travel and Tourism Commission has recently launched a new website and campaign in partnership with the California Wine Institute titled 'The Land of Wine and Food.' The site contains videos, Google map integration, wine info and wine blogs from regular Californians and celebrities such as Andrew Firestone (from 'The Bachelor' fame...personally, I always preferred Joe Millionaire, but I don't think he has a wine blog). The site looks great, but like most of these 'partnership' sites, it is lacking content. I could not find a simple address of a winery, let alone a link. And the search function displays worthy content (like this article on Lodi...hooray Lodi!) that is otherwise no where to be found on the site. Still, worth a look. Cheers.
http://www.landofwineandfood.com/

More .travel - Yes, more .travel. For those of you who thought I was crazy to dismiss the euphoric promise that is .travel (see my original argument and follow-up argument), I present an article from Jens Thraenhart, currently the Executive Director of Marketing Strategy at the Canadian Tourism Commission and fellow blogger. Here are the 'cliffs notes' version of the article:

Jens is a pretty smart guy and he agrees with me on .travel.

If you are keeping score:
Troy: 4
.travel: 0

Now, I should be fair when it comes to the .travel subject...if anyone finds a positive article about the current state of the domain name (which is not authored by someone directly involved with Tralliance, The Globe or EnCirca) just pass it my way.
http://www.hsmaieconnect.org/

The Year That Was - comScore recently released the 'U.S. Internet Year in Review,' which contained these interesting stats:

• Total U.S. Internet Audience grew 5% from 175 million to 183 million. (including Home, Work and University users)

• Social networking giant Facebook.com reaped the benefits of opening registration to all users, jumping 81 percent versus December 2006 to 34.7 million visitors in December 2007

• Wikipedia Sites gained 34 percent to reach nearly 52 million visitors, continuing its reign as the Web's most popular reference hub

• Craigslist.org jumped 74 percent to 24.5 million visitors

• AT&T grew 27 percent to 30.2 million visitors boosted by its exclusive deal with Apple as carrier for the iPhone

• Yellow Book Network jumped 137-percent to 10.4 million visitors

http://blogs.mediapost.com/

IAB Issues New Lead Generation Policies

The IAB, Interactive Advertising Bureau, has just completed a pretty thorough best practices report on lead generation for B2B and B2C businesses. The report, which is the closest thing to an industry-wide policy on this often abused practice, lays out several guidelines for organizations to follow.

I have been watching this report develop for a little while and would encourage anyone who is gathering leads (names, email, data) online to review the recommendations.

Here are the highlights:

• Complete, accessible, and straightforward disclosure of all parties’ intent regarding data collection and usage is essential

• Data should not be brokered or sold without consent (or notice and choice) of all parties involved, including the consumer and the advertiser

• Both the consumer and the advertiser should be made aware, through clear notices, of all parties involved in data collection and sharing.

• All parties should be educated and aware of current regulations regarding consumer protection and privacy.

Travel Trends - Everywhere Magazine

Everywhere Magazine - I have been waiting patiently to write a post about the new travel magazine 'Everywhere' until my first (trial) issued arrived, and guess what showed up in my mailbox yesterday?

Everywhere, from 8020 Publishing (who also publish JPG), takes online user-submitted content and packages it in a 'beautiful printed magazine that is distributed internationally.' A bit of a process reversal, but still an intriguing concept. As far as the magazine itself, it is put together very well with a professional yet 'hip' feeling about it (ugh, I can't believe I said 'hip'). The articles and columns are interesting and certainly not what you would expect in a typical 'send everyone to Paris' travel magazine. Plus, an impressive lineup of advertisers (not sure of the commitment) give the publication some instant credibility. I would encourage you to visit the site, take a look around and order a trial issue.

It will be interesting to watch the progress of Everywhere, could this be a new trend in print publishing or just a flash in the pan? And, from a DMO perspective, if this is a larger trend should we begin thinking about how we can incorporate user-generate content in our printed pieces as well as our websites?

Ah, more questions. And more reasons to keep reading the Travel 2.0 blog.
http://www.everywheremag.com/

Visit My Baltimore Allows Baltimoreans To Post Video

If you've never been to Baltimore, you don't know what you're missing. That's why we've created this website. So you can get the real Bawlmer experience from the people who know it best: Baltimoreans. Let us show you what gives Charm City its charm. The wonderful. The weird. The waterfront. It's the world's biggest invitation, from us to you. So please, come explore. http://www.visitmybaltimore.com/

Thoughts// The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association launched Visit My Baltimore earlier this summer to allow Baltimoreans the opportunity to show off the best of the city as well as continue the new 'Get in on it' marketing / branding campaign. The site, which uses online video technology from ViTrue, lets users upload their own videos or create a video using a variety of pre-selected clips. So far the site is hosting just under 100 videos. Side note, how can you not love the video rating icon of the crab...a nice touch.

As with several other DMOs who have begun to explore the idea of user-generated video, it would appear that the growth of content is slow, however it is still too early to determine the impact of the site on potential visitors.

In addition to the UGC video site, the BACVA has also launched a mini-site for it's recent 'Get in on it' brand launch. The site, www.areyouinonit.com, offers some good information on how and why the current brand was produced...including a brand-icon match game! If you are currently going through a re-branding process, I would recommend giving it a look. This is not only a good way to introduce a brand to the public, but also to constituents and co-workers who will help determine the success of any new brand.