Travelblather

I recently met up with my editor to discuss the upcoming second edition of my Frommer's guidebook: Day By Day Seville. I was delighted to be able to share an email with him from the Andalucia Tourist Board offering to fix up trips, organise a hire car and some accommodation if I wanted to get out of Seville and see more of the region.

It's a breath of fresh air. It's clearly easier to get people to help you when you have a finished product in your hand to show them. I've had notably better success with the main Seville Tourist Board this time around. When I first pitched up there, I was made welcome, but the help I got was pretty limited and I had to work hard to get it.

That's not really the  point I want to make though... what I just don't get is how hotel owners, restauranters, tourists boards, PRs and all fall over themselves to provide accommodation, meals, tours etc if you are writing a feature for a national newspaper.

Tell them you are writing a guidebook and many of them don't even reply to your emails. To me this is nuts. Why?

A newspaper feature gets published - once (in print) and that's it. Some tour cos I have worked with on features have had awesome response from them. Loads of calls as a result of people reading my piece. Others have had next to none. It's totally variable. It can depend on whether it rains that particular Saturday (people have more time indoors to peruse the travel pages and make a call) what else is in the supplement (there's an awesome competition or whatever) whether it's a slow news day (David Beckham hasn't injured himself).

Compare this with a guidebook.  Once printed, it lasts. People use it to plan their trip, they take it with them to their destination, they lend it to friends also planning trips there too. It sometimes gets reused if people return to the same destination. Admittedly guidebooks are printed in far lower volumes than newspapers, but think what a tiny proportion of the 300,000 readers of say the Guardian actually want to go to Seville and so will pick up the phone as a result of reading a feature about the city? Everyone who purchases a copy of my Seville guidebook clearly plans to go there and will certainly act on information printed in it.

My hunch? It's about short term PR and lazy marketing. A PR agency needs to demonstrate the value of its service to its client. The quickest and highest profile way to do this is a newspaper feature. If three years down the line someone books a night in a Seville hotel due to a recommendation in my guidebook, no one will be able to tie that action back to the work of a PR co organising for me to stay in the hotel years previously. Likewise with the hotel's marketing team. Chances are the hotel reception won't even track the fact that the enquiry came as a result of reading my guidebook.

I see this approach as pretty typical for our times. Short spans of attention... give me a bright shiny thing now rather than a more durable dull thing later.

But that attitude runs totally contrary to building sustainable, long-lasting business.

I have relationships with GMs of several hotels that I've struck up personally in Seville. I know them and their businesses well. It's a pleasure to recommend them. They are genuinely excellent. If I was working for a hotel chain in PR, I'd have a programme devised specifically to target guidebook writers. If I was a hotel marketer, I'd make it my job to get to know guidebook writers and to work with them.

These kinds of relationships will far outlast a single hit in a newspaper and - whilst it's difficult to prove with hard data - I'm convinced they will deliver more business over the long term.

What do you think?

Regular readers (hello and thank you!) will I hope remember a recent post about how I see travel writing changing. (And I think it's happening increasingly quickly.)

As I explained, I see an opportunity for travel writers to associate themselves with a brand and get paid for doing so.

In return the brand gets credibility and quality content on their website/blog (or even out there elsewhere on the net.)

Here are a couple of interesting live examples:

• Fiona Hilliard writing the Glove Box blog for Argus Car Hire
• Lara Dunston and Terence Carter, writing the Gran Turismo blog for HomeAway Holiday-Rentals (screen shot above)

Anyone found any others?

So - what are the new skillsets that a travel writer in the web-age needs?

Here are a few that I can think of:

A blog and a twitter feed - you need to demonstrate that you 'get' web. That you are live in your network.You need to demonstrate too that you get CMS systems like Wordpress and would be comfortable writing posts directly into a CMS platform yourself

Comments and followers - you need to demonstrate that the web gets you. People online are following your tweets, commenting on your posts, interacting with you. This is actually quite subtle in my opinion. Or to put it another way... how do you get comments and followers and what does that show about you as a writer? You need to know how to write posts that are opinionated, thoughtful, and encourage others to respond. You need to know how to nurture that discussion by moderating the comments and responding. You need to tweet usefully (an obvious example, don't tweet that you've just eaten a donut or someone on the bus is annoying you if your twitter feed is supposed to be about you as a travel writer. Set up a separate personal twitter feed for personal stuff!).

Connections in the right networks - marketing bods are all about audiences and customer groups. So instead of profiling yourself as say an expert on six different destinations that you've written Lonely Planet guides to or whatever, profile yourself as someone who can interact successfully - with real credibility - with backpackers and independent travellers. Pick an audience and focus on that. I don't know how crucial this one is... but it's certainly interesting. Editors like to be able to think of their freelance writers as having a particular skill or specialism. If someone has a ready made network that targets a particular demographic, wow, that's a powerful thing.

I guess I'd summarise the above points in one phrase: Social Influence

And then as a counterpoint - Search Influence

Page Rank - If you haven't downloaded and installed the Google toolbar - try it! It has a particularly handy Page Rank indicator that gives a rough and ready idea of the relative authority and hence link-value of any website you are looking at. It's a mark out of 10 (Travelblather is currently Page Rank 4). So... a link from Travelblather to your website is worth 4 out of 10 in Google's eyes. Not great, but not too bad either! The higher a site's page rank the more authority the links from it have. If you know a bit about SEO you'll know that links to a site have a huge impact upon its position in search rankings. (Another post on this sometime, but enough for now to say that if your blog has a decent page rank people who know their stuff will want to get you to link to them and this could be a revenue opportunity for you.)

So... if you're a travel writer (be that an old pro or a complete newbie) and you've set up a blog and maybe posted a few times and are now wondering 'why am I doing this?' the answer could be because in another year or two's time it could be your most valuable asset. Print sure isn't dead and it will always be there, but as opportunities for publication in print decline, the alternative will be on-line and in my opinion the winners will be those who demonstrate the qualities and skills I've blathered about on this post.

What do you think? Does this give you hope or fill you with despair?

(Another post you might want to read: The Future for Travel Editors)

Regular readers will know I work quite a bit for web marketing and social media company iCrossing. One of our clients Cheapflights has just launched a new flight comparison website in the UK called zugu.

With their permission, I wanted to post some thoughts about the way they are trying to get people talking about it and using it. I'd be really interested to know what people think about their strategy. Is it smart? Will it work? What would work better? Interestingly the stated aim was to drive search volume for the term 'zugu' - not to gain sign ups or comments.

Here's what the Cheapflights crew have come up with:

• They've used a name that was memorable, unusual and that actually meant something. (Important!)
• They've created a short (just 2 weeks) competiton. People have to try and guess what zugu actually means. The winnner will get two free flights to anywhere in the world. The competition is still running now - feel free to enter! (closing date is: 5th March)
• They've come up with a series of clues to help people guess.
• They made sure people can enter several ways - twitter by using a hashtag #zugu and on a new Facebook page (see next bullet).
• The new Facebook page forms an easy to access place for people to discuss with each other about the name and learn more - there are video clips of people's entries too.
• They are also using a new twitter ID to encourage people if they are getting close to the correct answer and engage with people who are trying to guess.
• They are approaching travel bloggers and offering them an exclusive clue that they can host on their blog and share with their followers. In return they're offering to link to the blog post that the blogger writes from their Cheapflights website(s), twitter accounts, and facebook page. There's no obligation to link to zugu or cheapflights - they're just asking the bloggers to tell people to 'Search for Zugu'.
• Clues are also posted in PPC ads as well as on the zugu site itself and they change daily.
• It's not just the marketing team working to promote and create buzz - Hugo Burge Cheapflights' Chairman is tweeting as well - lots.

At first I thought it was a tad gimmicky... but I'm impressed by the thinking that's gone into the idea.


These days there's something new every second on-line and you could spend a truck load trying to promote your new venture. But strategies like this that seek to use social media are absolutely the way to go in my opinion.

Here are a few key things that I think mean the idea will gain serious traction:

• Offering a prize worth winning - you absolutely HAVE to offer people something of worth otherwise they just won't engage. Ideally something tangible and aspirational and of decent value.
• Using multiple platforms that everyone uses - whether people are on twitter or they use Facebook they can enter and engage.
• Finding a smart way to keep the competition alive - the clues are a nice idea. Particularly because they only last a short period of time. I wonder whether some enterprising bloggers will start to sniff around and find as many clues as they can and post them in one place?
• Not attaching strings - they could have gone to bloggers with a much more formal/commercial offer... maybe even offering to pay for posts. But I think offering a link with the potential for lots of traffic and NOT insisting on a link back is ethical and thoughtful. To be honest, if I were choosing  to have a clue on my blog I'd link to the zugu Facebook page anyway - seems like the obvious thing to do.
• Thinking about search as well as social (increasingly we refer to them as the ying and yang of the internet). If bloggers who host clues don't link back to zugu, then their readers will have to search for zugu to find it and enter the competition. More queries to google/bing/yahoo for the term zugu will probably help from an SEO perspective. (I am no SEO guru, but it feels to me like it ought to.)
• Getting everyone to pitch in - it says a lot that the Chairman is tweeting away and commenting on blog posts too.

So... will it work? Would you post a clue on your blog for them? And are there other good (and bad) examples of travel cos seeking to create buzz for their products online?

I got an interesting email yesterday. I really appreciated the honesty of it. And, clearly John who sent me the email 'get's what he is trying to do - that's demonstrated by the way that he includes some pertinent information about his business rather than just asking me 'how do you do it'?

I thought that rather than just replying with a few suggestions I'd share it here on Travelblather and see what other people think. Is it possible to get mentions independently these days despite the stranglehold of PR?

This is not a request for you to review or publish an article about our holiday business, but a request. Would you mind just briefly explaining how we can be mentioned or recommended either printed or online with national newspapers or magazines?

We send press releases but never have anything published, how do we break in?

What is galling is that guests have stayed with us and said how much better we are than some of our  competitors who are always recommended. (No I don’t think they are just being polite).

Brief details about us: We are a small, family business based in the Lot and Dordogne region of France, offering cycling, walking and wine-tasting holidays. Our unique selling point is that customers stay at our very comfortable country home for the whole of their stay and enjoy gourmet-standard food and wine throughout their holiday. There is no need to pack a suitcase every day and move on to a new base – guests arrive and settle in to their light and airy en-suite room for the week and know that they will be returning to comfort and calm and enjoying a 4-course menu every evening. We are passionate about food and wine and we try to source all our ingredients locally, from markets, farms and vineyards, as well as our own garden and chickens, so guests get to experience the real taste of the terroir and French regional cuisine at its seasonal best.

We have received a great deal of positive feedback from guests which appears on our websites at  www.lotcyclingholidays.com and www.winetoursfrance.net

How DO smaller tour companies who can't afford to pay a PR agency get mentions in national newspapers and magazines?

A recent press release set me thinking. It was publicising a Chartered Institute of Marketing debate titled Travel Agents - Are They Past Their Sell-By Date? The debate is on Jan 25th in London. Click the link to find out more. I plan to go and assuming I do (they have kindly offered me a press pass) I will write up my thoughts. It's a very pertinent question in my opinion.

Just as many commentators reckon the internet means the end for journalists (anyone can be a writer now there are no barriers to publication) others have painted a similarly bleak picture for high street travel agents. (Anyone can book a holiday now every travel brand known to mankind has a web page and a booking engine.)

The net is indeed challenging a lot of old business models, but I remain convinced that many of the old basic rules for business success remain. If anything some of them are more important now than ever before.

I’ve blathered plenty already about how hard it is to find the right holiday on-line. Right now hundreds of thousands of people are probably lost in the usual January maze of different travel websites promising similar things, user reviews providing hugely different opinions of the same properties and booking engines that are so slow by the time you come to check out and pay, your holiday has gone up in price. There’s still a huge and immediate need for trustworthy, appropriate advice. Let’s face it, we aren’t talking about blowing a few bucks on a £10 book from Amazon or a £2 download from iTunes.

For Brits in particular the annual holiday is one of the year’s biggest expenses. Not something you want to take risks with. You want to be sure you’re getting the right holiday for you – at the right price.

If, instead of spending literally days lost in the online holiday maze you could sit down with a travel professional who knew your budget and understood your needs – in particular the ‘softer’ stuff like who your neighbours might be if you book at a particular resort or whatever – wouldn’t you happily buy from them? And, if it saved you all that time and frustration... maybe pay a little more?

So what impact has the net had on the high street travel agent? There’s been consolidation that’s for sure – big names like Lunn Poly and Going Places have disappeared. But where’s the innovation? It all feels incredibly entrenched and backward looking. (Very much like the financial services sector – as if rebranding all the Abbey, B&B and Alliance and Leicester branches as Santander will make a scrap of difference to customers?).

Ironically, the web is driving a desire it can’t fulfil right now. The huge impact of social media has meant that customers are increasingly demanding ‘real person contact’, service that is customised to them as individuals, service that treats them as real people, not numbers on a spreadsheet. Of course, no travel website is anywhere near offering this kind of service, no matter how empowering this new technology is or how wholeheartedly a web-based travel company embraces it.

In the meantime I see opportunities on the high street.

What would the ultimate travel agency look like? For me it would offer help with the complete experience. So many internet businesses now make as much of their profit selling the ancillary stuff alongside their main product – travel agents are completely missing the (clue)train here.

So let’s focus our Travelstore 2.0 on people and activities NOT destinations! How about separate areas for Family Holidays, Student Holidays, Short Breaks, Adventure and Activity Holidays, Cruises and so on; with staff who are passionate about their market sector and really understand it. Make sure they sell a vast range of different brands of holiday – so it’s clear there’s no incentive to sell me one particular trip over another. And offer me all the other stuff that goes with holidays – guidebooks, travel magazines, backpacks, sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent, great books to read on the beach, music to drink my sundowner G&T to, travel insurance, airport parking, a funky bikini for my wife. And how about a playzone to keep the kids quiet whilst I’m chatting to an advisor?

Guess what? You’ll get me coming in months before I buy a holiday... I’ll end up buying guidebooks and gear and who knows what else long before I book my break. And, suddenly buying a holiday will be fun... like browsing in other retail sectors... dreaming of awesome trips to amazing places. What could be better for brightening up a dull Saturday afternoon?

Wouldn’t it be nice if buying a holiday could be inspiring?

Would this idea work in practice? Well clearly there are risks, and it requires some serious investment... but stop a moment and think about the fact that it's already happening.

There will be literally thousands of people visiting travel shows like Destinations and the Adventure Travel Show over the next month or so. (Not to mention the Ski Shows back in the autumn.) Here they will find all manner of brands offering all sorts of holidays, face to face advice, in-depth presentations, kit for sale, talks from travel presenters, gear demonstrations, photography competitions and more.

And, get this... a significant number of these customers are paying to get in!

What would your ultimate travel agent store look like? And would this concept work in practice?