Tourism promotion to get major revamp, but no mention of Social Media
Published August 11th, 2005 in E-PRA billion here and a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money - Everett Dirksen
RTE reports that tourism promotion in Ireland is to get a major revamp due to falling visitors numbers outside of Dublin. I bet they don’t start a single blog, make a podcast or start any RSS feeds.
Why am I getting so bent out of shape about this? It’s pretty safe to say that a lot of tourists that visit Ireland are Amercans. And guess what?Things like podcasting and blogs are starting to take off in the States, so why on Earth wouldn’t you use these techniques to target them.
More importantly, Americans are crucial to our economy because they are cultural tourists who spend more money and time here when they come to visit. iPods are expensive enough so making a few podcasts to bring a couple more Yanks here means that you’ll have some extra tourists with more disposable cash. Bling bling as P.Diddy would say.
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I saw recently on the Government Tenders web site that Bord Failte were looking for marketing material and web development - with a pretty hefty budget - but like you say, no mention of blogs, podcasts, or even search engine marketing - which is so mainstream now I can’t believe anyone would spend money on a web site and now promote it in Google.
So, we know a blog about tourism in Ireland would work great. Maybe one should do one for a month or two and then sell space on it to BF or some travel co.s?
I think part of the problem is they are still promoting ireland to the check trousered pensioner brigade, eg shots of red headed girls dancing on moutain tops type of thing. They need to segment the marketing more.
I think ireland is a tough sell these days, its hugely expensive compared to other european countries, espically eastern europe.
Also you could argue that we have lost a certain amount of our friendliness since we all discovered mammon.
Every year me and my mates go on a round trip round galway, dingle, etc, but the past few years its been really dead. No craic at all. Tourist numbers are away down.
Also the yanks being to scared to travel does not help matters either.
Your the PR whiz Piaras, how would you promote it?
I blog would never work as the government would require everypost to be signed off by 20 departments
In a nutshell they’re spending enough on your average marketing, promotion, advertising & PR tools as it is. They should seriously look at employing Social Media techniques to liven up their offering and gain a competitive advantage.
Moblog all the unique events in Ireland like the Puck Fair. It was so photogenic that pictures from it landed in a national every day over the last week. If it can land in a national then it’l definitely stand out on a moblog, Flickr, etc.
Podcast and blog everything. That sounds pretty stupid, but then again Bord Failte innovative tactics currently include the key strategy of sponsoring everything. My point is that there are all the little festivals and events that you rarely hear about but are a serious drawing power. In my own case I want to do the bull run in Spain next year, but I’m hesitant to go because I don’t know enough about it. If someone blogged it I’d definitely be there next year.
RSS - There’s loads you could do with this. Use a feed to update people on packages or bargains to specific areas.
Sorry about this brief reply but I’m wrecked for work.
There are 2 main reasons why I think Social media is important for the Tourism industry.
Firstly Ireland is/was renowned as the country of conversation - you could walk into a pub and start chatting. Those days are dying out, but at least we could start the conversation online again.
When you’re coming to a foreign country, you’re naturally apprehensive. Social media has been used successfully to help people understand and become accustomed to new products or services. There’s no reason why it can’t do the same for a country.