Category Archives: Tourism Marketing

OK, so it wasn't exactly a time travel experience, but compared to daily life in New Zealand, my recent two-week trip to California felt like a 'back to the future' experience, minus the DeLorean.

We've all read the statistics in both articles and through insights from Google that mobile usage is escalating at a rapid pace. We know it, talk about it, write blogs about it, and at Tomahawk we build only responsive websites or mobile-specific sites. But to actually witness and experience first-hand the explosion of mobile use in just one year in California is nothing short of astonishing.

Never far from hand, the "young 'uns" were snapping photos, poring over emails, Facebook and review sites  even my 76-year-old parents were using their phones for directions, visiting review...

Last month I wrote about how sexy Trip Advisor's newly-launched search and book functionality is which is already proving popular with the travellers. This month they have announced yet another new feature - it is called TripAdvisor Connect.

At Tomahawk, we are thrilled that our booking engine ResBook is one of the chosen booking engines that TripAdvisor will be including in their initial Trip Advisor Connect launch. 210 booking engines from 48 countries worldwide were chosen for the the initial launch.
 

TripAdvisor Connect allows properties to have their own booking engine button on their listing page instead of just the Online Travel Agents (OTA) big fat buttons which lure bookings to their own sites. But before you jump to the conclusion that this is the...

So the race is on.

Will Google's new Hotel Finder or TripAdvisor's recently upgraded rate comparison metasearch be the ultimate travel search and book website?

In my humble opinion, TripAdvisor's is certainly the current winner. Their new functionality is just damn sexy and makes the customer experience enjoyable while giving the confidence to book appropriately.

Why I love it

TripAdvisor offers superior functionality that allows you to search not only on existing customer reviews but also on price and type of travel, for example business travel, family or romance.

And then it gets even better and makes the experience personal with their integrated TripAdvisor Friends functionality. Throughout your search it allows you to see if any of your Facebook friends have...

It all begins with understanding Google's purpose.
 

Google's Purpose: To make the web a better place for the user

The team at Tomahawk want to help you get on Google's good side. If you impress Google, your business's website can be on page one when someone searches for your relevant keywords.

There's no such thing as a free lunch though! Your website won't receive love from Google simply by virtue of existing.

Optimising your website for search engines (also known as SEO) involves a number of tasks and processes. The best thing is you can do SEO yourself, it just takes a little bit of understanding and your time.

Here are the 5 ways you can DIY SEO!

#1: Impress Google with Keywords - Choosing and Using Them.

• Decide on which keywords you would like...

Facebook Offers highly recommended tourism businesses - not only does it present a fantastic opportunity for you to spotlight your business, it also has simple-to-use yet powerful targeting features. Through Facebook Offers, you can build brand awareness amongst new visitors (through existing fans 'sharing' the post), and entice dormant fans to return for your products and/or services.

Ooh, I'm listening - I want to learn more about Facebook Offers!

Facebook Offers are a fairly new feature on Facebook. These work in a similar way to voucher sites like Groupon, Groupy, TreatMe, and others, except Facebook Offers are only available within Facebook. Facebook Offers require a budget to go live. The extent of reach (how many people see the offer) is based on how much you...