First some background:As reported by Reuters, and experienced by myself yesterday in sunny Beijing, the GFW (Great Fire Wall) strikes again. The Chinese Government censors blocked access to Twitter and other popular online services on Tuesday (June 2) afternoon at approximately 5pm, two days before the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. The photo-sharing site Flickr, email service Hotmail and other services were also unavailable this evening. Blogger.com was blocked last month and YouTube has been inaccessible from the mainland since March.

The move came amid increasing pressure on dissidents, in a reflection of the authorities’ anxiety ahead of the sensitive date. Hundreds died as the army forced its way through Beijing to clear away demonstrators from the capital’s political heart in June 1989, but the issue is taboo on the mainland.

Twitter is a crucial icon for the new internet era on which many innovations emerge. China can’t block their young generation from the future. While most Chinese internet users rely on domestic services, which are heavily monitored and controlled, Twitter had become hugely popular among an urban elite. They used the site to share information on sensitive issues in recent months, such as the fire at the Chinese state television complex.  A Chinese tweet can have three times the volume of an English tweet, thanks to the high information intensity of the Chinese language. Twitter limits users to 140 characters per “tweet,” but in Chinese one or two characters can make up an entire word.

The Twitter community in China was visibly upset, as many of them still found access to Twitter using proxy servers or via Twitter applications on iPhone and Blackberry, sending their complaints about the ban.

There are various speculations about why these sites were blocked today - was it the Chinese Government in light of the 20^th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, was it because a famous Beijing-based artist, known for his open opinions, started using Twitter two days ago, or was it an anti-Chinese Government group wanted to get people thinking the Chinese Great Firewall blocked more sites.

But in any case, it is clear that access to Western sites is unstable to say the least. It happened before, and it will happen again.

What does that mean for (Travel and Tourism) Marketers that would like to reach and connect with the growing Chinese consumer market?

As social media is growing in acceptance by marketers, while still being a black hole for many marketers in the travel and hotel industry, the ability to reach consumers world-wide on sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr when sharing videos, photos, and quick thoughts can be very powerful.

In North America and Europe, it is vital today to have a social media strategy, which goes way beyond just posting pictures on Flickr, and starting a company profile on Facebook and MySpace. But what many companies, especially travel organizations have not even realized yet, still struggling to understand the essence of social media, is that social media executions in various countries is vastly different, and requires different strategies and executions. While the underlying strategy of social media is the same, to engage in conversations with customers (B2B, B2C, and C2C), consumer behaviour and the use of the sites, as well as the sites being used may differ greatly - even though many sites have a global reach, like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Wikipedia, and others.

But while we see differences in European countries, or Latin American countries, China is an entire different game - and this recent censorship of websites made it very clear. Even if sites may get unblocked again, they can get blocked again at any point in time.  YouTube for example has been blocked and unblocked multiple times, and has not been accessible to Chinese consumers since March 2009.

The growing Chinese consumer market, especially the elite and affluent population is getting independent and using the internet as an outlet to connect.  It is then not surprising that online engagement skyrockets in comparison to North America and Europe. While some of them use proxy servers to access blocked sites, the speed and performance can be worse, which makes the online experience not as enjoyable (reminds you going back 10 years with modem connections). Take Youtube, Twitter and Facebook for example, a lot of people use the Chinese video sharing site Youkou, and a lot of people are already switching to the Chinese micro-blogging application Fanfei, as well Xiaonei, dubbed as the Chinese version (some people say “copy”) of Facebook is gaining in popularity .  Regardless if Youtube or Twitter will become freely accessible in China again or not, some Chinese people will continue to use them, however, as a marketer, it is important to not solely rely on these sites, but become familiar with these rapidly growing Chinese social media sites.  Of course, the differences don’t just stop there, but creating and executing a Chinese digital marketing and social media strategy also requires the use of technology applications in Chinese, such as booking engines, trip planners, content syndication and aggregation, to web design and usability.

With China’s leisure travel market growing at the same time as its online usership grows, it’s no surprise that a number of players are looking to capture the attention of travel consumers through social media. While companies can test if there URL is accessible in China, CHINAeCONNECT.net has created a unique methodology to help international travel organizations to connect with Chinese consumers, from tourist boards, hotels and hotel companies, cruise lines, and tour operators, by leveraging technology, digital marketing, social media, and electronic distribution, both on the consumer as well as the trade (travel agent) side.

All these questions were discussed at length at the recent China Travel Innovation Summit in Beijing in May of this year. Please see the article by China Travel Daily writer Maggie Rauch that is a great summary of the discussions at the Summit:

Travel Industry and the Social Media Puzzle

With China’s leisure travel market growing at the same time as its online usership grows, it’s no surprise that a number of players are looking to capture the attention of travel consumers through social media.

The social media tools that are gaining steam–social networking sites, bulletin board systems, microblogging–may be a relatively recent phenomenon, but their function for marketers is based on a tried and true principle, says Mark Inkster, chairman of Yiqilai.com.cn. “You might not believe what you read online, but if it comes from your friends you will trust it.”

From travel booking sites like eLong and Ctrip to airlines and hotel review sites, China’s travel industry players are experimenting with using social media to attract and engage travelers. But the best ways to leverage that are still unclear, and social media strategy–particularly involving online social networking–was a major topic of discussion and debate at the recent China Travel Innovation Summit in Beijing.

“The barriers are quite high for creating a standalone social network,” says William Bao Bean, partner, Softbank China and India Holdings, who moderated a panel on social media at the Beijing summit. “Everybody belongs to two or three and doesn’t want to add another.”

Lufthansa Airlines learned that lesson when it experimented with creating its own social network for the U.S. market, Genflylounge.com, which failed to generate the interest that Lufthansa had hoped for. Its social media tactics in China are now anchored by a partnership with Xiaonei.com, the so-called “Facebook of China.” Lufthansa uses its presence at Lufthansa.xiaonei.com to interact with young consumers at the same place where they interact with each other.

“We felt that we would rather hook up with an existing social network provider,” says Martina Groenegres, Lufthansa’s chief China representative. “We chose Xiaonei because it is the biggest network for students, with 22 million active users. They’re generally well-educated, between the age of 18 and 25 and come from more than 3,000 universities.” Lufthansa’s 1,000-plus “friends” on Xiaonei share travel tips and have access to special deals and contests.

Jason Xie, eLong’s vice president of web and business development, is not so positive on the use of online social networking for travel industry players. Says Xie:  “It’s hard to have success with SNS in tourism because: One, the stickiness is not enough–people travel maybe twice a year for tourism; two, travel itself doesn’t generate sufficient content; and three, travel information is destination-based, so I think that SNS is in conflict with travel information. I don’t care about the ten places my friend has been.”

Mark Inkster, chairman of Yiqilai, a travel review site that relies heavily on user-generated content, directly disagreed with Xie. “Because you only travel two or three times a year, you want to come back [to social media] and have fun,” he said. “Dream, plan, book, travel, share–these don’t happen in sequence. We are looking to engage people as they move among these phases of the travel experience.”

Despite his aversion to social networking, Xie said that eLong is working on an initiative with Xiaonei, though he would not elaborate on it. The only program he discussed was eLong’s Yiqifei (”Fly Together”) program, which allows travelers to connect online with people who will be on their flight. Ctrip tried and scrapped a similar program in the past, as have several companies like the now-defunct Intown2.com, but Xie seemed confident that Yiqifei would appeal to eLong’s customers.

Inkster, though bullish on the role that social media can play in travel, acknowledges that Yiqilai is still working out its strategy. Echoing Bean, he says, “People are parts of other networks. I’m not too confident in travel social networks, so we’re building a presence on other networks.” Yiqilai allows users on its own site to contribute content through wikis, BBSes and interactive games. Its “Where I’ve Been” map app, which lets users place virtual pins on cities they’ve visited, is available on four different social networking sites including Facebook and Xiaonei, and is a top-rated app on 51.com, Inkster says.

China presents an interesting set of challenges and opportunities to travel providers when it comes to social media. Its rapidly emerging leisure travel segment does relatively little online booking, but is otherwise very active online.

“Online social engagement is higher in China than in the United States and Europe,” says Jens Thraenhart, president of brand strategy firm Chameleon Strategies. Forty percent of China’s online users can be categorized as “creators” Thraenhart says, compared to 14 percent in the United States. Thraenhart considers 44 percent of China’s online population to be critics or commentators, compared to 16 percent of the United States’ Internet users.

Of course, spinning that engagement into air ticket purchases and hotel bookings is not an easy thing. Questions of measuring return on investment for social media projects were raised throughout the Beijing travel summit, and there were no easy answers.

Groenegres says Lufthansa is still waiting to see if its latest experiment pays off: “Will people actually exchange a lot of information and then finally buy something? Do they link with our own site, Lufthansa.com, and book something?”

The Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) had an important role to play in creating awareness and desire among national and international markets on behalf of its small businesses simply because the latter, acting alone, could never develop the same reach, influence or impact. The role of the DMO was “to extend the invitation” on behalf of tourism suppliers and residents.

The Internet has, of course, changed all that and the marketing task has mushroomed in complexity requiring new and unimaginable skill sets and generating a constantly changing set of
acronyms. It’s also having a profound impact on the roles of the various members of the tourism ecosystem.

While the role of the DMO used to be to “show, tell and persuade” it is now becoming
facilitate, orchestrate and enable. That’s because the same tourism suppliers and residents, who were unable to reach out to international audiences some 20+ years ago, can now enjoy instant contact with anyone 24/7.
So while the DMO used to lead from the front with glitzy, push-style campaigns based on a brand, customer and product database they considered to “own;” wise DMOs are learning to lead from behind by allowing and encouraging others to do the persuading for them. Utilizing the power of Web 2.0 (notably open source) and social media, smart destinations are encouraging their residents, local businesses, visitors and third party suppliers tell the destination story. The acronym for this is UGC – user generated content- and is finally capturing the interest of several tourism offices.

Here are five interesting examples:

1. Visit Britain - According to this press release, Visit Britain will formally launch their new social media initiative at the Travel Distribution Summit being held in London today.

“We want to offer travel organisations promoting Britain a media stream of
our reviews, photos and videos”, Comments Justin Reid – Head of Online
Marketing for Visit Britain. “UGC has been shown to increase browse
time, bookings and online interaction and if we can entice more people
to come to the UK using innovative media marketing like this, then this
is a win win for Visit Britain and our tourism providers.”

Using software developed by Digital Visitor, Visit Britain enables visitors and residents to upload videos, still images, and make reviews on their own and others’ contributions.

2. Vancouver 2010
– in February next year, Canada will host the Winter Olympic Games. Bell Canada – a major Games sponsor and one of Canada’s largest telecoms company has endeavoured to show the host destination through the eyes of residents. A great idea and one we have been promoting for
years but, and I hate to be negative, one that suffers from poor execution. Instead of mashing up a range of easy-to-use, well proven software modules that provide the easy-to-use functionality enjoyed by Visit Britain, Bell had to develop its own proprietary and, may I say it, clunky interface that inhibits exploration. Take a look at Canada Code: That’s if you’ve got the time to fill in all the forms. Too bad that they don’t appear to have been working with the tourism agencies – Tourism Vancouver, Tourism Whistler or Tourism British Columbia (Hello BC)…see below

3. Tourism British Columbia – if prizes were to be awarded to individuals who changed the way destinations are marketed, then it should go to Wilhelm Bakker at Tourism BC. What’s most endearing about Wilhelm is his willingness to share his thinking, his trials, tribulations and triumphs with little or no sense of ego – see these posts.

Here’s the link to Tourism British Columbia’s approach to User Generated Content in the run up to the biggest tourism event to be held in the province since Expo 86.

The significance of this would be lost on the average reader if I didn’t share this observation – Tourism BC is an organization that likes to do things very thoroughly and professionally. They like control over the final product and message. So it takes courage to include the less polished, perfect content supplied by non-professionals. The traditional approach would be to produce a high quality, expensive video but, thanks to Wilhelm’s efforts, they are now including the “right stuff”.

4. Philadelphia – this tourist board embraced the idea of blogging very early on. While they may have got it wrong to start by creating false blogging personas, whose profile happened to correlate
to their major market segments,  they quickly learned by doing. Uwishunu  is a major destination blogging community and success story – Go for it, Gophila.com!

5. Disney – thanks to blogger Josh Hallett, we can follow Disney’s experience with Social Media. I’ve paraphrased the key points from his blog post below:

Disney started by partnering with CareerBuilder.com to allow consumers to
upload a video to apply for a ‘dream’ job. For Disney it was a totally
new arena. They had no idea how many videos they would receive and what
the videos would could contain. The big step was of course letting go.
Disney was overwhelmed with the number of video applications they
received,  eventually narrowing it down to five finalists. The
finalists were posted online and consumers were allowed to vote,
resulting in millions of votes. The finalists built their own marketing
campaigns, driving even more traffic to the campaign. A side benefit
was the number of regular job applications that Disney received.
Because of this, it was the most successful recruitment effort to date.
The next project was the Walt Disney World Mom’s Panel.
Theylaunched a search for some of the most passionate Disney moms. Once
again the response overwhelming. They received 10,000 applications over
the weekend, but turned away over 30,000 applicants. That was the one
major mistake they made.

As the program evolved, the internal issue was once again giving up
control of the marketing messaging. The mom’s panel has helped them
overcome the two largest barriers they’ve faced, affordability and age.
That is, what is the appropriate age for a child to first visit the
theme parks. The honest, open advice of the mom’s helped break down
this barrier.

The women that did not make the Mom’s Panel became part of the Mickey Moms Club.

One major step was allowing the club to select their own logo.
Once again, for Disney to allow somebody outside the brand to do design
and select a logo was a huge leap of faith. But, it worked.
Their work with the moms made them look at how they consume media. To
help promote the new What Will You Celebrate? campaign
they created a viral video campaign. The program allows consumers to
create a uniquely branded video to ‘celebrate’ an event such as a
birthday or an anniversary. These videos can then be sent to friends
and relatives. This builds the standard pass-along/viral effect,
spreading the video even more. The site has had an 85% click-thru rate
and paid for itself in just over 18 hours from launch and has gone on
to blow past all expectations for views and revenue.

I am confident that there are many other great examples of the use of User Generated Content by Destinations to attract visitors so – I invite you, please, to add comments so we can learn quickly from each other. In later posts – we’ll look at UGC to enrich the visitor’s stay at the destination.

1.       We’re not looking at a temporary blip in demand. Life and business, as experienced between 2003 and Q3 2008 will not return to normal. The growth in demand for discretionary services was fuelled by cheap credit, cheap energy (until 2007), and asset inflation - all unsustainable illusions based on a denial of environmental realities. Expansion in capacity (airline seats, condominiums and ocean view apartments, whether sold in wholes or fractional units, hotels and restaurants) was all based on an over estimation of demand by suppliers and consumers alike. Now only the airlines have the option to remove excess capacity from circulation by parking their vehicles in the desert. As identified by Time Magazine in February 2009 , consumers shop very differently today. As indicated by McKinsey as far back as 2007[i], boomers won’t be spending as freely after seeing their assets (first homes, second homes, pensions and equities) plummet in value; and the kids, who were supposed to be filling a major labor shortage due to retirement of the boomer workforce, will face tough competition from people old enough to be their grandparents.

2.       We are looking at fundamental changes in the nature of demand; the way consumers make decisions and respond to brand messages and the way suppliers gain their attention. Not only do consumers regularly turn their backs on advertising, they worry more about the opinions of peers or society. Sean Gregory’s article in Time identified three kinds of consumer in terms of their willingness to spend right now. In short:

• Those that can’t (they’ve lost their job or income)
• Those that might but won’t (they fear they might lose their job or income or are simply being prudent/cautious)
• Those that could but still won’t (because they don’t want to send the wrong signal to peers)

3.       We are looking at deep and major changes in the source of travel demand and businesses must be more granular and refined in their approach. In their 2006 article, McKinsey showed how price sensitivity varied by a factor of 13 across regional markets and even by a factor of 3 across zip codes in the same cities. In other words, consumer behaviour cannot be predicted by macro demographics, psychographics and post code but by individual circumstance, perception and attitude. Individual consumers are demonstrating their individuality. Destinations that continue to rely on macro economic models to prioritize top ten performing countries will miss out big time. This is the time for more in-depth research into customer perceptions and motivations not less.

4.       We are also looking at fundamental shifts in the way consumers spend their free time (internet usage now exceeds TV watching for many) and the way customers are reached and influenced. Furthermore, the relative cost and ROI of various distribution channels can vary enormously as illustrated by McKinsey’s research[ii]:

In this context, blanket reductions in marketing spend across the board combined with a reluctance to change channels would spell disaster.

At a time when customers have ceased to trust brands; when they favor the recommendations of friends and peers over the exhortations of sales personnel; and when they can research a producer’s claims or compare supplier’s prices on their mobiles as they walk to the check out stand, loyalty cannot be bought. It can only be earned through assiduous attention to detail, through rigorous honesty, through genuine respect for the customer’s intelligence and through genuine gratitude for past business. Tough but true.

So if these four observations have some validity, why do so many businesses in tourism continue to slash prices and offer blanket discounts at the first deep drop in occupancy statistics or passenger loads? Random or blanket discounting can only do more harm than good:

a.       It sends a very dismissive signal to past loyal customers - essentially saying their loyalty is worthless and implying that the profit margin is so high that the supplier can afford to discount indiscriminately now. Can it surprise if the following thought passes through such a client’s mind “so if, when I visited your resort last year I was being fleeced why should I return this year when times are tough for both of us?” How many times have you been attracted to an offer made by your own supplier only to read the fine print that says “this offer doesn’t apply to existing customers.” So much for appreciation.

b.      It reinforces the notion that if the seller doesn’t value their own product, why should the buyer? How often do you see de Beers slash the prices of their diamonds?

c.       It further commodifies the industry and, by necessity, downgrades service levels. How do 5 star hotel properties manage to offer 50%+ discounts without reducing back of house staff and dropping service levels?  Once upon a time and a long time ago, travel was a joyful and sometimes glamorous experience of positive discovery and excitement. Now it is an exercise in stamina requiring an infinite capacity to endure rudeness, boredom, indifference and alienation not to mention body searches.

d.      It will make it very difficult to raise prices and capture back customers when interest rates, taxes and the price of energy, carbon and other key inputs rise and rise they most certainly will within the next 18-24 months.

So what’s the alternative? Which businesses and destinations will come out of the recession ahead in terms of resilience and fiscal health?

1.       Those  who act on the truth that marketing is not a battle but a  dance in which the customer does the asking and takes the lead and that markets are not monologues broadcast by suppliers but conversations between customers that occasionally involve suppliers.

2.       Those that bend over backwards to sustain a conversation with past guests - find out which ones are suffering and cheer them up with an attractive offer or who reward loyalty with carefully crafted offers to past guests. Note:  well over 70% of business is influenced by the recommendations of peers and the stories people want to read in gloomy times are happy stories told by delighted customers who feel cherished and supported when time are tough.

3.       Those that engage their employees in collectively finding ways to combat the downturn together; who offer discounts to employees’ networks of friends, peers and families simply because they are connected to a person who helps co-create the brand; and who do whatever they can to retain and incentivize good and loyal staff to go the extra mile.

Companies are not just legal entities with a profit motive built into their DNA but also communities of people sharing a common purpose, culture and considerable time together. Remember, it is always during tough times that corporate rhetoric about our people being our greatest asset is shown to be true or false - with potentially disastrous consequences for service, loyalty and guest satisfaction.

In summary - successful businesses understand that companies are communities courting customers though respectful conversations. The provision of discounts has a place alongside active listening, on-going support and exemplary customer care but only if tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of customers and are perceived as a way of saying thank you - for trying the product or sticking with it. What do you think? Let’s start a conversation.

-       Make sure your Twitter voice is consistent with your brand.

-       Do not exist on Twitter only as another version of corporate promotion. Be a person.

-       Get your CEO or top executive involved. Employees love it. Customers love it. There is no more powerful way to humanize your brand.

-       Above all, be authentic. Don’t try to fake, spin or hide behind your tweets — it won’t work.

Then a poll was launched to actually survey the audience to vote on the various social media trends in travel and tourism. The results were interesting…

On the top was Change in Philosophy, then PR using more channels, and hiring a Social Media guy to increase ROI, and lastly Twitter.

Hiring a Social Media guy is interesting. Social Media is one of these new buzz words that a lot of organizations do not know where to put.  First it was conveniently ignored, and now it is pushed around. The technology department believes that they need to own it, because it has new technologies. E-Commerce believes they need to own it as it as something to do with the website. Distribution believes they need to own it as it involves external websites. Branding believes they need to own it as the consumer is trying to take control of the holy brand. PR thinks they need to own it because it includes the word “Media”. Advertising needs to own it because they received a call from an Advertising Sales Manager from a Social Media website. Research thinks they need to own it as it provides valuable consumer information. And then there is the Legal Department that simply wants to shut it all down and put their head in the sand.

The key is that a Social Media strategy needs a home, which creates a dedicated staff. In the end it is part of content, but depending on the complexity of the strategy, a community manager, an editor, a business development manager to take care of aggregation and syndication partners, as well as technology support. However it is important not to lead with technology, as technology should just be an enabler to stimulate the conversation.

Just as Kevin May, I believe very strongly that the key is to integrate Social Media in the organization and not to build silos.

Finally, I would mention that a lot of companies in the travel and hospitality space are still struggling to pinpoint why they should invest resources into Social Media.  Just because everybody is talking about it, and social networking sites such as Facebook are growing? Well, here are some of the benefits of well-executed Social Media Campaign:

• Higher search engine rankings for their top keywords.
• More rankings of additional keywords or “long tail” keyword phrases.
• More link popularity from sites linking on their own accord.
• More link popularity from social media sites.
• More activity on their blogs, such as more commenting and interaction.
• Direct traffic from incoming links on social media sites (One good StumbleUpon.com submission can net thousands of visitors alone.)
• Significant traffic increases and steady growth in unique visitors month after month.
• An increase in subscribers and sales. Social traffic, properly acquired, is very receptive to your message and products.

So, get ready, and have fun.  If you have questions and need help, visit Chameleon Strategies, or listen to the travel blogging community at Tips from the T-List.

For years, I have respected Claus Sendlinger - the Founder and CEO of Design Hotels.  One for his vision and fun personality, and second because he is German and created a very cool concept.  Design Hotels is for cool stylish hotels what Leading Hotels of the World is for the luxury hotels.

When I met Claus the first time, I had Wow.travel with Mary Gostelow (which was sold to Kiwi Collection a couple years back). Now I happen to ran into Claus in Bangkok during his Asia Tour when he launched his new concept “Made by Originals”.  A very engaging presentation walked the invited audience (I of course just sneaked in because I had an influential friend…smile) through the reasoning behind the concept and the future of Design Hotels.  We all received a book (cannot believe it fit into my luggage back to Beijing), and 170 of the 180 are featured, categorized by style. I was able to spend some time with Claus after his presentation - unfortunately I forgot my little Flip Camera - to ask him a few questions.  I was especially interested what Design Hotels is doing in the digital space, and learned that they have been able to engage people on Facebook, as well are launching a brand new website.  A little bit of begging and pushing rewarded me with a link to the beta site - but I had to promise not publish this article before ITB…and I am good little blogger!

So here is my INTERVIEW WITH CLAUS SENDLINGER, FOUNDER & CEO OF DESIGN HOTELS:

TIM (Tourism Internet Marketing Blog): Why have you re-launched your homepage?

CS (Claus Sendlinger): We wanted to create a mix of experiences and services. The new website combines cool film-clips with hotel references and specific city recommendations with interesting packages. The films in particular convey the sensory experiences that guests can expect at our member hotels and also the passion that went into creating them. In stark contrast to the more common “hotel walk through” video or 360° images, the “Made by Originals” films bring visitors closer to the hotel by allowing them to see, hear and almost feel the hotel.

On our City Pages we are planning to use a local contributor (a retail outlet, bar, restaurant, etc) to give a few bits and pieces of “insider” knowledge. User Generated Content also makes its first appearance on the site in the form of images on over 100 city pages. These are posted by visitors to our Flickr content. As soon as they do, they enter a prize draw: if an image is chosen as the best of the bunch the photographer wins a stay at a hotel.

TIM: Besides the films and user generated content, what will be the major differences to the old website?

CS: The biggest difference will be the homepage itself. It has been re-conceptualized to offer visitors a deeper insight into the brand, as opposed to the current homepage which focuses on driving bookers into the site. Exclusive partnerships with the likes of GoSee and The Future Labs ‘Life Signs Network’ will see the arrival of non-travel related content to the site that will help the visitor to associate themselves with the brand. Exclusive offers, not just promotions, will form a key part of the page.

A more emotional, brand-driven feel will be apparent throughout the site, with larger images, more focus on the product as opposed to the promotion and a greater depth of content will complete the re-launch.

TIM: Which networks are you working with??

CS: DesignHotels.com surfaced on Facebook last year quickly accumulating a 700+ strong following. The focal point of the group is its “Friday Specials” which will continue to offer group members exclusive deals. It has also been used to promote the launch of the Design Hotels Club, sound visitors out on new developments and offer prizes for those in-tune with Design Hotels^TM. The DesignHotels.com group continues to grow in numbers and more exclusive opportunities are planned for 2009.

Design Hotels^TM recently entered the Twitter-sphere and will be using this medium over the coming months to connect with our consumers and encourage them to experience the brand.

TIM: Interesting to see that the Twitter page for Design Hotels only has 20 Followers, and Fairmont Hotels’ Twitter page has over 1,200.  Who knows why?  Well, Chameleon Strategies can help (just a little shameless plug from our Sponsor..hehe)

TIM: How is the categorisation of your hotels designed on the website?

CS: Following closely on the heels of the re-launch, the search functionality on the site will be extended to allow visitors to search in a “Mood” related fashion. Want something cosy, romantic but a bit daring, DesignHotels.com will be able to find the perfect property for you.

TIM: What kind of online partners are you interested in?

CS: We are always on the look out for like-minded brands and websites who share an affinity for design, architecture, fashion, art and of course travel. Niche travel blogs, design sites, members only clubs and networks, architecture authorities and travel related stores make up our current affiliate partners.

In our new blog format “Travel Diaries” some of these contributors will update our users about their travel experiences.

TIM: Tell us more about your Future Blog?

CS: Originally used to make updates about our annual Future Forum design and architecture symposium, this is now where we introduce content from related industries like architecture, design, fashion, and gastronomy. It is updated several times a week.

TIM: Thank you Claus, and looking forward to seeing you at ITB in Berlin.

Note: Unfortunately, we did not have time to talk about all aspects about the concept of Design Hotels, and its articulation on the web.  Of course, it is difficult to represent such a design-specific concept online, while at the same time being user-friendly and increase online sales.  While not perfect, I believe that Design Hotels has done a nice job in leveraging the electronic medium.

Here are some more screen-shots of the new site, which should be live in the next couple of days at DesignHotels.com.

Source: Monographer.com

Everybody is talking about China, India, and Vietnam…what is really going on in the fastest growing tourism destination in the world?I have had the pleasure to sit down with Peter de Jong, CEO of PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) to learn about the challenges and opportunities facing the Asia Pacific region.  In particular, Peter addressed the issue around climate change, and how the markets such as China, India, and Vietnam have to focus on infrastructure issues and sustainability in order to be able to cope with the increasing demand. These are all topics that will be addressed at the innovative “PATA CEO Challenge” around Climate Change, held in Bangkok from April 28-30, 2008.

The Tips from the T-List will be there with a new e-Book version for the event, having added a section on climate change and sustainable tourism, as well as with a real-live webcast in collaboration with Travelmole, to broadcast the opening and closing sessions directly from Bangkok and invite bloggers, members of the media, and travel and tourism professionals to take part in the conversation.  The interactive summit, featuring Dr. Pachauri, Chair of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as keynote speaker, will be co-moderated by my very good friend Anna Pollock.

It was around a year ago when Google started going live with universal search .

The goals was to bring all the other specialised search results (from Video, Maps , Images , News , User Reviews, etc.) to the main web search portal.I think it is interesting to analyse some data and live examples, thinking about a strategy and then to give our travel readers some tips to be operational with this “new Google game”.

According to Google:

Google’s vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the company will incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.

Some data about Google Universal Search

James Lamberti from Comscore give us some very interesting data.ComScore made a study during one week in January 2008 based on Google search queries observed through comScore qSearch.During this period they observed over 220 million Google searches containing a universal result, out of 1.2 billion searches overall:

click image to enlarge

17% of the queries had a universal result 16% of total Google clicks were sourced from a page where a universal result was present 14% of paid clicks were sourced from result pages where a universal result was presentSo, it’s significant numbers for just a one week analyse and we see a good ratio for paid clicks.

update April 22: for futher information, please read the Blended Search Results Study from iprospect.com

Some “travel” examples for Google Universal Search

Bellagio Las Vegas

click image to enlarge

We can find :

35 videos from YouTube

and 2047 reviews (from TripAdvisor and some others)

Folks can easily write a review, even if they never stay at the hotel…try it right now if you don’t believe me or click on the image to read my “fake” review

Disclaimer : I already delete this fake review after the test.

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What does this mean for your travel business?

Well, Google is playing with all your data, playing with the user reviews data and with some others User Content data.

What are the Google goals with Universal Search?

• Serving the most relevant result
• Showing the best result that Google controls
• Test and sales potential new product monetization

How you can have some “control” and “action” on the Universal Search?

It’s now or to late to play this “new Google game”?

What can be the strategy?

The ostrich strategy

I guess thousand and thousand independent hotels and small travel Cies are not aware about Google universal Search.

They don’t understand the new search landscape and their risks and advantages . They will take no action and will lost their organic search ranking.

The feeding strategy

Feed each other with content because traffic come from different channel and Web 2.0 services.

At the end, Google search blended your “good” data.

>>> My tips for this strategy:

• Post some video on YouTube and other video hosting services and take advantage of tags that the service offers. Videos could be about your product and your destination.

• Add your business to Google Maps Local Business Center

• Add image description to your image files name (with brand name, your destination, your main product)

• Add information to Google News and via free PR services (i-newswire.com, prweb.com and press-world.com)

• Manage your user reviews on TripAdvisor and other User Reviews web site. As we view, Google use the user reviews in the Universal Search.

• Think about Google Mobile Search because Google Mobile Search is changing:

Recongnises if you have a mobile optimised site
Priorities mobiles sites
Mobile Icon on search results

and maybe the next step will be inclusion in Universal Search

• Watch all Google services because Google gives preferential treatment to its own content. But don’t hesitate to feed other web services and travel social network.

Conclusion

Time is changing and we need to anticipate the Google Universal Search impact in our travel business.

What are your thoughts about this?

Do you have other tips to share with us?

Give us a comment and let’s try to built a little piece of collective intelligence about this subject.

Credit : Google logo via http://www.deviantart.com/

Green IT – Is technology helping save energy or is the increased use of the internet and the associated server usage actually doing the exact opposite?
It is a valid question, but in my opinion, technology, especially the internet is an enabler to improve live in general. So I am not looking to debate if the Internet and technology are actually bad for the environment, but more to look at some interesting facts.

The entire energy consumption of the global IT infrastructure, estimated by Stanford University, was around 120 million megawatt hours, double than just 5 years ago, which is 2% of the entire CO2 emission world-wide. The biggest energy consumer is the gaming capital Las Vegas with 20 million Mega Watt hours. Google has been very concerned about the environment, not surprising with having to operate its many servers.  Every search on google.com blows an estimated 4 gram of CO2 into the environment – multiplied by a few hundred million searches per day.

Speaking of Google, an interesting idea indeed is Blackle.com, which is the Google search engine in black. The blogger Mark Ontkush calculated in 2007 that a black Google search engine would save 750 megwatt hours globally per year. It is not much, considering that this would equal the yearly consumption of around 100 Germans, however the savings could increase over time.  Why? Well, because the savings can only be realized by flat screen monitors, and not traditional monitors – so when more and more people switch over to flat screen monitors, the savings would obviously increase.

I also thought it is interesting that if an avatar in Second Life was alive around the clock, the CO2 emission would be 120 kilo, the energy consumption would be higher than that of an average resident in Brazil, or an American in three months.

I think it comes down to PC manufacturers and organizations such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, and others to work together to develop products that will compensate for the increased usage of the internet, especially in countries such as China and India, but also in less developed regions, such as Africa.

Yahoo! Answers is becoming a reference site on the Internet. Its popularity could provides an opportunity for online marketers to acquire targeted referral traffic.

Yahoo! Answers propose The Yahoo! Answers Knowledge Partners program (currently in Beta) and Travelocity is one of the partners for the travel space.

By identifying Travelocity as providing great answers, they are building credibility and positive brand image. Good move.

Yahoo! Answers might be a viable way to increase your exposure and branding as an expert in your field.

When used correctly, Yahoo! Answers can be a source of direct referral traffic, even for small Cies who have time to handle this new channel and are not afraid sometimes by some “stupid” or “strange”questions!

My tip: Follow the guidelines, and as with any other social media site, focus first on what you can give to the community rather than what you can get from it.

What do you think about this marketing channel?

More information on Yahoo Search Blog