[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 11:41:39 10/20/08
[podcast]http://www.tourismkeys.ca/aussie%202.mp3[/podcast]Todd and Fabie continue their discussion about the digital divide, or how to bridge the gap which exists between the current state of online marketing and the capacity of tourism operators to take advantage of it.Fabie has been heavily involved in the Australian tourism e-kit - a series of 37 tutorials about Internet Marketing for tourism operators available for free : http://www.atdw.com.au/tourism_e_kit.asp and is seeking advice from Todd on how to get the support from the Aussie government to move to the next logical step: face to face training.The Canuck and the Aussie tourism geeks also address and propose solutions to the following challenges:Guiding small tourism operators to create new Internet content for their region"Get together with a whole bunch of other operators and skilled people such as your local photographers, writers, multimedia students and get your hands on the case to create a whole bunch more content to be available on the Internet"...Why you shouldn't give Martha from your local tourism association $253 for an advertisement in their new brochure"If zero phone calls were generated from the ad, why would you invest those dollars again? - invest them in your own time to become better at understanding how visitors search for you and what they want to read. Your future visitors look for you online and want to read, view images, videos about you and not simply another ad in the paper quoting your rates, showing a 10 year old photo and your opening hours".So next time Martha rings, ask her to help you to get better at providing the content a potential customer wants to see online. Tell Martha about how many bookings you got from your TripAdvisor listing!Tracking the origin of your enquiries and bookings"Get your pen ready, Todd will tell you exactly which questions to ask a visitor on the phone to track where they heard from you - was it on your Website, or somewhere else?"What are your thoughts? Have you been getting many phonecalls from Martha? Or do you want a few tips on how to get your message across to the Marthas of the world? Leave your comments so we have some "meat" to lobby for more training programs both in Canada and AustraliaStay tuned for part III of our Travelling Podcast...
