Brett Barash, VP at Digital Edelman, presented some interesting statistics at the recent ONE Travel Conference in Orlando, Florida. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that 66% of US leisure travelers use the Internet to research upcoming trips. But if this doesn’t convince every business that relies in any way on tourists for revenue that a relevant and compelling presence on the Internet is important to survival, I don’t know what will.

What really caught my attention in his presentation was the life cycle of a travel seeker online. People seeking information about a destination spend an average of three months researching online. The thread woven throughout those three months? Google. Everyday I am more convinced that Google is the center of the online universe. Not your website or blog but Google. It holds the keys to your success because the majority of Internet users use Google for search and whether or not they serve up your links on page one can make or break the likelihood that a user will ever visit your site. Oh, and by the way, YouTube is the number 2 search engine in the world. And YouTube is owned by Google. See where this is headed?

The key to building positive organic search results is content. Lots of fresh, quality content. Not black hat links (we all saw what happened when JC Penney tried that trick). Not one-way promotional messages on Facebook. But genuine content that can be crawled by Google (and Yahoo and Bing) and ranked as having value. In fact, content that provides so much value that others are willing to share it. That’s the liquid gold of the Internet. When others are sharing your content through social networks, Google recognizes that and your rankings will grow.

Your destination, attraction, restaurant or hotel has a story to tell. Figure out all the many ways visually and through text that you can tell those stories. Build an editorial calendar so you stick to consistent content distribution. Outsource your content development if you don’t have the resources in house. The value the content will bring to your organic search will far outweigh the investment in time or money.

Last week I attended the ONE Travel Conference for Shopping, Dining and Cultural Tourism in Orlando. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but the speaker line up looked good and I thought the conference’s focus on shopping, dining and cultural heritage made sense; it certainly hit our agency’s sweet spot in consumer marketing. The women who co-presented the conference Rosemary McCormick, President of Shop America Alliance and Sheila Armstrong, Executive Director of U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council are a formidable pair with surprising energy, a powerful network and generous spirit of sharing.

The title of the conference was Creating Coopertition and Connections. This word, coopertition, really summed up the spirit of the meeting. Lots of competitors were in the ballroom, but they recognized that they will all be more successful working together for US tourism than competing.

Here are two key takeaways from the conference:

1. Since 1997 the US has lost one third of its share of the international travel market. Roger Dow, CEO of the US Travel Association (USTA), called the ten years from 9/11 to last year the “Lost Decade,” as more than 1 million jobs were lost in the tourism sector. Now, international travel may have slowed down due to the recession in 2007-2009, but there was still lots of travel happening. It just didn’t happen here because we rolled up the welcome mat. Ouch.

The USTA is working with the Obama administration, the Department of Commerce and many travel associations and organizations around the country to bring international travel back. Part of this work is around loosening the tight net the government imposed on visas post-9/11. A public private partnership has launched a $200 million marketing campaign called Brand USA this year and most of the destination marketing managers I met are intently focused on the international market.

Top Five International Markets for the US?

• Canada
• Japan
• United Kingdom
• Mexico
• Germany

2. The marrying of shopping, dining and cultural heritage at the meeting made intuitive sense to me. Now I have confirmation because those are the top three activities in order, in terms of spend by travelers.

Top Five International Cultural Heritage Visitors to the US?

• United Kingdom
• Germany
• Japan
• France
• Brazil

If what you offer is a wonderful shopping, dining or cultural experience, piggy back on what the industry is doing and focus on these markets. Check out the links above and learn more about what’s being done. These visitors want what you have to sell. The beauty of the Internet is that you don’t need a big budget to reach those travelers. You need a smart online strategy that involves quality, shareable content; targeted media relations and social media dedication.

A big benefit of Twitter is the chance to engage with people who share your interests and meet potential customers and industry influencers. Following Twitter hashtags is an easy and effective way to find these people on Twitter. Plus, since many hashtags function as chat sessions, it provides a perfect setting to engage in a conversation.

For travel public relations pros, there are a few travel hashtags on Twitter that I recommend checking out, either for your personal Twitter account or for a hospitality client account. These hasthags provide a great opportunity to meet travel media/bloggers, hotel and hospitality operators and travel enthusiasts, while giving you a great source of information on travel trends and news.

Below is a brief list of some of my favorites travel hashtags on Twitter:

• #travel - This is a generic hashtag for all things travel. It is not very focused or organized, but is a good way to get a general sense of what is happening in travel in real-time.

• #TMOM – This is a hashtag for the very active Travel Mom Blogger Network. They have regular Twitter parties on Mondays at 9 PM EST where they discuss a specific travel topic using the #TMOM hashtag.

• #TNI -TNI stands for Traveler’s Night In. This hashtag was started by Zip Set Go and occurs every Thursday from 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EST. Every week they discuss a different travel theme. They also give away cool prizes and special #TNI discounts for participants.

• #TravelTuesday (also sometimes used as #TT) – Every Tuesday is Travel Tuesday, and anyone who shares travel related info uses the hashtag on this day. It is a perfect opportunity to connect with other travel aficionados and give a shout out to some of your travel favorites (similar to #FollowFriday, but specifically for the travel world).

• #satw and #tbex and other specific trade shows and organization hashtags -  Whenever there is a trade show or conference, there is generally an accompanying hashtag to help people at the conference connect and let the people at home follow along.  SATW is the Society of American Travel Writers. Some members use the hashtag throughout the year, however the best time to follow the hashtag is during its yearly convention, which generally falls in October. TBEX is the Travel Blog Exchange and it also hosts an annual event for new media travel writers. TBEX 2011 will be June 11 -12, 2011 in Vancouver and the hashtag is sure to be active during these two days. TBEX also hosts regular meet ups around the country year, so this is a hashtag that can be followed year round.

Once you start using these hashtags, you will find  people with similar interests to engage with in a conversation and find interesting travel information. Even better, you can also use these hashtags to help grow your Twitter followers. A win-win, if you ask me.

The ‘media stay’ is a quintessential part of any hotel’s public relations program. A majority of the media want to experience a property first-hand before recommending it to their readers and most media outlets do not have a budget to pay for travel. Hotels happily oblige, as the media exposure they receive is worth the cost of the stay.

While many media stay requests come about from proactive pitching, often times it is the other way around. An editor/blogger/freelancer will approach the PR company for a media stay and sometimes these requests come from media the PR agency isn’t familiar with. It is then the public relations team’s job to qualify the media request for the hotel. There are horror stories about people posing as journalists and enjoying free, very expensive vacations. While this is a rare occurrence, it is one that no PR person ever wants to find themselves responsible for.

Here are some steps to qualify media before offering any complimentary stays or services.

1. Find out exactly what their story focus is and when the story will run.

2. Look them up in whatever media database your agency uses. Not everyone is listed in these but it is a good place to start. There are also sites like Media Bistro that for a small fee provide mastheads and journalist information.

3. Ask the writer to provide you with past clips. If they have none to provide, that is a major red flag.

4. If they are a freelancer on assignment, ask for an assignment letter from their editor. Most publications will happily provide this to PR firms.

5. Google them. The easiest way to see who a person is and where they write for is to just Google them and see what you can find out about them.

6. If they write for a blog, ask for background information on it. How many unique visitors does it get a month? How long has the blog been in existence? Has the blog covered similar hotels in the past? You can also check out blog traffic on compete.com.

The reality is most media requests come from honest journalists, but as any publicist knows, it is better to be safe than sorry.

I’d like to preface by saying that I have yet to read the original memoir Eat, Pray, Love. I haven’t got much to say about the premise or written works of Elizabeth Gilbert, but what I am interested in are the marketing and publicity strategies behind the film. I think that the marketing team behind Eat, Pray, Love deserves a job well done for their promotional support surrounding the film, not only because they’ve created a massive buzz across all media platforms (online, print, television, you name it), but because they’ve also encouraged consumers to spend more money, period.

Not only will the major film conglomerate behind the movie cash in, but other industries like the food and travel industries will also reap the benefits.

Within the last two weeks I’ve noticed a plethora of promotions surrounding the movie – especially involving companies who service the film’s target demographic of females 30-50 years old. For example, the Home Shopping Network (HSN) teamed up to launch a program devoting 72 hours of air time to Eat, Pray, Love. Throughout the allotted time frame the network will not only promote the film but also incorporate more than 400 of their products across multiple categories that are somehow related to the movie. Brilliant right? Everyone’s a winner—the studio, HSN, and even the home shopper.

Today, I saw another promotion tied to Eat, Pray, Love—this time online.  The contest, living on Self.com, plugs the film and ties it back to a chance to win a free trip to Italy to “reconnect with the pleasure of food” just as Julia Roberts does in the movie. I thought the contest was cleverly done. Not only does the studio reach their target audience online at self.com, but they also encourage one lucky winner to travel to Italy and spend more money while they’re there.  Well done marketing team, well done.

All in all, I’m a huge fan of Eat, Pray, Love. Not necessarily of the book or movie (although I do love Julia Roberts), but more of the fabulous marketing and publicity surrounding it. I appreciate the efforts to submerge our pop culture with the idea to live your life to the fullest –and spend more money while you’re at it. Hey, when it comes down to it, our economy could use a little nudge. Just my two cents. 

I just had the opportunity to do some travel in Italy, and although I was there primarily for the pasta and wine, I am still a marketer at heart – and that’s hard to shake off, even on vacation.  What struck me about Italy was the lack of advertising and branding messages everywhere – we are so used to being hit with them from all angles in the States. But I can’t tell you how many times we met some nice Italian local who said “I know a guy who know a guy, and he can get you…”

Clearly, word of mouth marketing – the original form of advertising – is alive and well.  Perhaps this kind of communication was born in Roman times, and has smartly persisted throughout the ages as Italy and the rest of the world have modernized.

Nowhere was I accosted by brand-mania.  Althought there were occasional ads in the areas where we traveled, there were no roadside billboards, no digital signs in the airports, no poster ads above the urinals.  Yet both locals and visitors were clearly conducting business, referring customers to various locations, and communicating the benefits of particular products and brands.  All by talking.  Animatedly.

One great example was presented in a restaurant along the coast, where the simplest way to advertise the daily specials were to just show us.  Luigi, the owner and proprietor of the restaurant, brought around a platter of fresh caught fish to each table.  He told us what kind each one was, how it would be prepared, what kind of wine would be best served alongside. Very effective.  And delicious, I might add.

In another town, shops marketed their handmade local specialties by putting a few in baskets outside on the street.  As we walked by, we saw something that interested us and the shopkeeper picked up on that interest, nicely told us about the products we were eyeballing, and we were drawn inside the store to buy.

The concierge at our hotels became preeminently important people.  They deftly directed us to fabulous restaurants, wine and cheese shops where we could find the best of Tuscany, and where to get the best deal on gasoline.  Their word became fact for us, and we followed every recommendation.  No tourist magazines, no bus side ads, no peel downs or page take overs. Just one-on-one recommendations.

And when in doubt, we just asked someone along the way.

There’s something to learn here about the simplicity of direct communication. Maybe those Ancient Romans weren’t famous only for their aqueducts and gladiators…. perhaps they are also the original social networkers.

Since we last spoke about Foursquare, the location-based social networking site has grown up a bit. With an audience of over 1.9 million people, and an average of 12,900 new users per day, Foursquare is becoming a social media site to be reckoned with. Many companies have been using the platform as a rewards programs for a while now, including our very own Del Mar Racetrack who will be launching their program starting Opening Day. What we are seeing more of lately is that companies are getting more creative with their approach, especially in the hospitality industry.

One of the first to do this was Joe Sorge, owner of AJ Bombers restaurant in Milwaukee. Taking it one step further, Joe created a whole event to engage customers through the use of Foursquare, and ultimately increased sales by 110 percent in one night. The idea behind the event was to allow customers to earn Foursquare’s coveted “I’m On A Boat!” Badge—which was made possible by displaying boats in his restaurant for all to see. Being that the restaurant was probably one of the only places to actually be on a boat in Milwaukee, AJ Bombers was the place to be for those in pursuit of the special badge. All in all, it was a big night for AJ Bombers due to Joe’s clever use of Foursquare and online engagement with customers.

In addition to using Foursquare to perform the ultimate PR stunt, it is also useful for customer service and target research. The website now provides marketing tools for businesses to grow their online network. In fact, The New York Times recently published an article highlighting all of these resources. The new analytics program provides access to a range of real-time information and statistics about customers like who they are, when they checked in, gender ratio, and additional interests. The focus is on current customers, those who have actually visited the store and like the brand. Ultimately, these are the most important customers, and your biggest fans. This information can mean big things for the hospitality industry, especially when customer service is one of the most valuable ways to improve sales.

Going back to the most basic implementation of Foursquare, incentive programs are one of the easiest ways for hotels to engage their customers online. Offering a ten percent discount at the spa or a free drink during happy hour at the lobby bar is probably going to entice a guest who is familiar with your property and already enjoys your brand. Some properties listed on Hotelchatter.com that are actively engaged in Foursquare loyalty programs are Wynn Las Vegas, The Encore Las Vegas, Hotel Lucia, Hotel DeLuxe, and the list goes on. If you weren’t signed up for Foursquare before, you may change your mind once you realize how easy it is for you to find great deals for travel and everything else in the world of leisure.

Ultimately, the hospitality industry is getting the hang of this thing we call social media, and even kicking it up a notch. Although Foursquare isn’t quite ready to compete in the big league with Twitter and Facebook, the site holds its own because of its unique online opportunities for consumer and business owners alike.

Flights and hotels go hand in hand; one part of a trip is getting to a destination, and the other half is figuring out where to stay. For those of us that do PR in the hospitality industry, realizing this simple notion is the basis for many story angles to pitch media. A few of these include coming up with creative hotel packages to help clients boost PR and sales, and tying hotel or travel clients into current events to maximize marketing opportunities.

Earlier this week, the Golden Nugget saw a great opportunity. On the heels of Southwest Airlines’ announcement of its $39 birthday special, the hotel came out with a $39 room rate good for the same dates as Southwest’s deal. Clever?

Let’s look at the flipside, too – perhaps a less tactful approach.

In the same week Southwest celebrated its 39th birthday with a sale on rates, Spirit Air launched its “Check Out the Oil on our Beaches” advertising campaign, offering a discount on airfare to destinations in the Gulf of Mexico. Hmm, I don’t think anyone finds the oil spill funny. Perhaps this is a lesson learned for Spirit?

Companies are finding more and more uses for social media, and while we’ve covered how to implement customer service strategies, and even how to use social media to find brand ambassadors, we haven’t written about companies that utilize social media tools as an added component to seek out the perfect employee…until now.

A couple of months ago, our client, gaytravel.com came to us looking to increase awareness of its newly launched website – with an idea already in mind – to integrate social media into a larger strategy to find America’s First Gay Travel Guru. Specializing in providing the LGBT community with expert recommendations on gay-friendly destinations, gaytravel.com is hoping to enlist the help of a Social media-savvy, culture-seeking Rock Star to travel the U.S. for six months sharing photos, videos, blogs and tweets.

So what does a job search through social media look like?

From April 30 – August 1, gaytravel.com will conduct a search for a travel enthusiast to city-hop, mingle, and report on the hottest gay destinations in North America.  Interested applicants will write travel reviews, post photos, videos, tweets, and use word-of-mouth to demonstrate why they are the perfect candidate for the job.  gaytravel.com will also use its own social community, Meet; public voting; and a questionnaire and job application to select its Gay Travel Guru.

What does this lucky Gay Travel Guru do once they get the job?

• Spend six months traveling across North America
• Share his/her experiences through blog posts, video, photos, tweets, and updates to Facebook and gaytravel.com

And what are the benefits aside from the job itself?

• $30,000 salary during 6-month employment period
• $200 stipend per trip
• Full compensation for hotel stay, transportation, and airfare

For full details on how to apply, check out gaytravel.com/guru.  And you can expect a full case study upon completion of the job search.

I recently returned from a business trip to New York City for a marketing agency conference, and was blown away by something I always have taken for granted – the doorman at my hotel.  My experience reaffirmed for me that the doorman is THE most important position in hotel marketing. Sure, he’s dependable and helpful, always ready to grab me a cab or direct me to the nearest Starbucks.  But this guy was phenomenal – and here’s why:

He remembered my name.

The hotel I stayed at was The London NYC, a recently renovated hotel that was formerly the Rhiga Royal Hotel – I used to love staying at the Rhiga because it’s well located in Midtown Manhattan, offers all-suites, and was my virgin hotel experience in New York when I visited NY for our client Tiffany & Co. more than 18 years ago.  Now it’s updated and even more cool and trendy.

And here’s the kicker – I haven’t stayed there for more than 9 or 10 years.  And Michael the doorman remembered me.  AND CALLED ME BY NAME. Impressive customer service.

Stunned by his feat of memory, I realized at that moment how critically important that job really is – and how much the doorman can make a difference in a guest’s hotel stay. In today’s world of instantaneous communication, the roles of customer service and marketing have become synonymous.

What if we all had this same attention to detail, this same freakish memory?  If every business had a “doorman”, how would that man or woman represent the front door of your company? We would all do well to think about this approach a bit more seriously.

One thing I can tell you about this experience. I am instantly made to feel like the London NYC Hotel is the only place I care to stay in New York City.  I will be back there soon.  And Michael the doorman will remember me.