Category Archives: Tourism Marketing

As many of our readers are frequent users of our online booking and property management system, Resbook, we will be releasing some really helpful tips to help you understand how this online booking software can help you grow your business, and convert your website visitors into guests.

First up, we will go over adding specials to your rates in Resbook.

To access Specials in Resbook, head to Admin > Stock Configurations > Rates > Select the room type > Select the rate to which you wish to offer the Specials for.

Click on 'Create Special'.

Note: You should have already set up rate periods for your room type before you can create specials.

You can offer 3 different types of specials for your customers:

1) Pay a certain amount for a specified number of nights.

2) Stay...

The growing on-line community is rapidly becoming THE marketplace to compete within.

Increasingly savvy browsers can hunt out the exact thing they are looking for, compare you against your competitors and find the price they want.

What this means for suppliers of a commodity (from accommodations to activities and rental cars to wine) is that you need a website that keeps it really simple, with information that is easy to find and an accurate portrayal of what you provide (or be at the mercy of an upset customer on TripAdvisor, Facebook or Twitter!) .

You have probably heard it all before, but the reason you keep hearing it is because it is vital to your business! Your customers are online, looking at your site and if you don't look after it, you could be losing potential...

First we all had printed brochures and flyers to share the wonder of our tourism business with others.

Then everyone acquired PC in their home and we needed a website to reach those people researching their travel from home.

Soon a website wasn't enough and a booking engine became a necessity quickly followed by the need to have a channel manager to distribute our rooms/activities on a myriad of 3^rd party travel websites like Wotif and Booking.com

Now, you are "so last year" unless you have a mobile website. Really?

The answer is yes.

Travel website traffic via the mobile web has increased by a staggering 72% between August 2011 and January 2012 accounting for a total of 17.4% of all website traffic in the industry*.

Recent survey data reveals:

• High-end sites...

In 2011 we had the big "Men in Black" offering our country the hope of increased numbers for tourism.

The Rugby World Cup brought plenty of hype, promises and pride as a nation; and we wanted to believe that the whole world was watching us.

Truth is, rugby doesn't hold the attention of some of our largest markets (Japan, U.S. China) and the televised games do not show off our biggest assets as a destination: our landscapes.

In 2012 and 2013 the release of "The Hobbit" movies is the next great opportunity. When it comes to wide spread tourism benefit, the little men with hairy feet are going to stomp all over rugby.

While it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of international visitors who have visited New Zealand as a result of the films, after the 2002 and...

As a tourism business, you probably already know it's the visual that really engages your customers. You already have your best photos on your homepage, and you may even have a short video featured on your website - this is an excellent start (especially if you already have some video content on your website).

But are you using your video to its full potential?

Today, 94% of travel is researched online so when marketing your tourism business it's important to bear in mind where your customers are spending their time online and how they consume the information they find.

Recent studies reveal the continuing rise of online video. More and more people are using YouTube to search for content; it's now the second largest search engine after Google with their video views exceeds 4...

So we have all heard and read the articles about the recent UK lawsuit which resulted with Trip Advisor no longer being able to claim that their reviews are "real". This was a big blow for the online tourism review site but it does not stop travelers from reading and depending on the site to help make travel purchase decisions.

Trip Advisor is brilliant and simultaneously annoying - we live in a time when the consumer holds the power to help your business or tarnish it.

Take solace in knowing that even the world's most exclusive 5 Star hotels receive silly complaints about inane things like "the banana's in our fruit basket had bruises." People reading the comments can usually identify the "never happy" guests.

Travel purchase is an emotional and often large purchase...