DestiCorp 2.0

Geobeats Let Residents Share their Favourite Places

For years I have been arguing that residents are an under tapped source of of both local knowledge and enthusiasm about the unique attributes of the place they call home and that visitors experience as the destination. There are now a host of independent companies emerging to tap this resource in an intelligent way - and I'll review more later. 

But today Geobeats caught my attention a.) because of the quality of content. I believe there has to be a filter to ensure that everyone's home movies, regardless of taste, topic or visual quality, are not thrown in my unsuspecting direction and b.) because of the ease with which I could embed the player. The whole process of finding Geobeats - thanks to a tweet from @lynnerosie, reviewing their site, embedding the player, and writing this post took 15 minutes. 

I selected Siena as my choice of place as it happens to be my favourite Italian community but their coverage of places is growing fast. Beneath the video player is a frame grab of the embedding process (I even inserted my logo onto the beginning of the video).

 

Survival Resources for DMOs & Their Members - whistles and life rafts

The rules of engagement for marketing are being re-written in front of our eyes. The pace of change is exceeding the ability of even those full-time trend watchers to keep pace. Those who can say they are experts in this field are very few and far between simply because there is insufficient time to strategize, execute and evaluate a new tool before it is replaced with something more interactive, delivering better metrics, or enhanced functionality. 

In this situation, those brave souls who do who wish to move out front and take risks are advised to hold hands in the darkness. (Is tweeting the equivalent of blowing the whistle supplied as part of your life jacket? ) Collaboration and sharing are winning strategies. There are so many forces at work that would undermine tourism's stability at present, that we can't afford to be hoarders of knowledge. Where's the competitive advantage to being the only player left on the field? 

As "winning by sharing" is DestiCorp's guiding principle, I'd like to recommend those who work in or for so called tourism destinations to do the following: 

1.  Join Dr. Jim Hamill's online community Tourism 2.0 and start posing questions, sharing experiences and holding hands..

2.  Read the blogs of listed in the Great Travel 2.0 list - see column to right

3.  Get  a Twitter Account and search on twitter for terms like "DMO", "DMAI" to see who is tweeting about destinations. Blow those whistles - and you'll be surprised who comes to your aid!  And if you're still not sure about Twitter, read the guide Twitter published on how businesses are using this microblogging service here. Obviously, I'd be pleased if you'd follow me on Twitter @pembridgeanna!

Finally, It Shouldn't Have to be So Hard!

Vicky from Highland Business Research - a profoundly competent, diligent technology advisor and practitioner to tourism businesses has written a heartfelt post here basically saying - why is it so hard to drag the tourism community kicking and screaming into their own future? 

I empathize and there are some structural reasons which individuals can't fix. But for as long as there are so many able resources willing and waiting in the wings, waiting to be asked, tourism's prospects are bright! Just ask......