RIP Canada-e-Connect

I had the privilege of serving our Canadian Tourism Industry as a volunteer Chair of the national Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference in 2009 and 2010. I also served in the advisory committee of CeC 2011, superbly chaired by Emmanuelle Legault and Joel Peters.  After every conference we used to have a post-conference meeting to go over what worked and what needed more work and to begin thinking about the following year's conference. Canada-e-Connect was started by the brilliant Jens Thraenhart, former Director of eMarketing for the Canadian Toursim Commission. Jens had a dream to start a world class eTourism event in Canada. And he achieved that dream in November 2007. After Jens moved on to pursue other interests (doing great work in China for many destinations around the world, including Canada, via Dragon Trail), the Tourism Industry Association of Canada took over the conference. While I haven't seen any official announcement (and maybe I missed it),  it is very unfortunate that TIAC has quietly killed the conference without, as much as I know, any industry consultations. On the one hand, I can understand why. TIAC is a lobbying organization, the voice of the industry in Ottawa. TIAC also manages the National Tourism Conference and Rendez-vous Canada, so adding another conference was a stretch and I know it was a lot of work for TIAC's fantastic staff.  So I can understand why TIAC is not doing CeC anymore. But, I wish there had been consultations and perhaps a call for other organizations to take over the conference.  But who knows, perhaps it will come back with another name and a more ambitious agenda (maybe I should look into it - perhaps my friends at Tnooz and Comptoirs du eTourisme will be interested in collaborating in an international eTourism Strategy event within a Canadian context). Many people have confused eTourism Marketing with eTourism Strategy. Any marketing, digital or not, must be grounded in sound strategy. CeC's purpose was to focus on this strategy, to help the industry think strategically. I was not about social media or Facebook or mobile, it was about how to strategize in the new digital era - how to use (or not use) the new tools, channels, technologies, etc., of the digital era to pursue your strategy in order to achieve your organizational's objectives. RIP Canada-e-Connect.

What do Social Media managers do? Who plays the role in your Tourism Business? No one?!?!

The roles of Social Media Manager and Director of Social Media (or similar titles) are very new. Even as recent as a year ago you would have been hard pressed to find any organization with a manager or director of Social Media. Some companies had people doing some of the things that social media managers are doing now. Many organizations delegated the functions to an outside Ad or PR agency. Some other organizations delegated some of the activities (or all) that social media managers should do to someone in their IT department or a Webmaster. Recalling Dr. Ian Fenwick's remarks at Canada-e-Connect 2009, having an IT professional doing digital (or social media) marketing is insane! Even today, I come across job postings looking for Social Media expertise that are more focused on technical aspects, like programming or CMS expertise, instead of communications and marketing backgrounds.

Canada is just beginning to catch up to other parts of the world (mostly the US and the UK to be more precise) when it comes to creating specific roles for digital and social media marketing practitioners (one job posting that I thought was funny was one in which the organization was looking for someone with about 8 years experience in Social Media - laughable, right? there was NO social media to speak of 8 years ago when Google was barely 3 years old!).

So what do the responsibilities of a Manager of Social Media would look like on paper?

Strategy - work closely with the appropriate colleagues to devise and implement the organization's social media strategy

Content (is still king) - create and agglomerate content from colleagues or outside sources, get approval for posts if needed) and publish content across social media platforms (make the content travel). Maintain the organization's social media presence up to date.

Engagement - harness the power of super fans of the brand, product, destination, by designing ways to reward these consumers for their contributions

Training - train and educate colleagues in the organization on the relevant aspects of social media depending on the organization's objectives

Research - stay informed on latest developments and trends in social media and communicate these to colleagues in the organization - monitor competitors' digital presence.

Measurement - use relevant metrics to measure effectiveness and prepare reports

Analysis - make recommendations on marketing initiatives based on sound analysis

Jaime

www.cactusrock.com

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #2 Twitter

Last year at Canada-e-Connect 2009 in Toronto, I had a conversation with Ted Souder of Google (head of Industry Travel Mid West - named "25 most extraordinary minds in sales and marketing" by HSMAI in 2006). This conversation took place on stage during the luncheon as a keynote presentation. At that time, I asked the audience whether anyone was using Twitter. This was January 2009. Only one or two people in the audience of more than 200 raised their hands. Many hadn't even heard of Twitter (Ted, of course, not only had heard, but was using it already), so I proceeded to do one tweet live from the stage about interviewing Ted Souder of Google at CeC2009.

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12 months is an eternity in digital time. At Canada-e-Connect 2010, pretty much everyone knew about Twitter and the majority of attendees (I think) have Twitter accounts. But not all. In fact, about a dozen people started tweeting for the first time at Canada-e-Connect. The fact that #CEC2010 became a trending topic in Canada during the conference bodes well for Canadian Tourism. It should very much be an example of the kind of exposure and "word-of-mouth-on-steroids," to use PhoCusWright's Philip Wolf's phrase, that social media can provide for an event or a destination. I know that Montreal, CEC2010's host city, is very happy about all the mentions that it too received from hosting the event.

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While Twitter, just as any other element of Social Media or of the marketing mix, is not the end all and be all, I think it is clear that it has become an extremely important tool (if used well) for tourism. What better example to confirm this than Ken Lambert's statement. Ken is VP of Sales and Marketing for Delta Hotels and Resorts, and a great panelist at CEC2010's Hoteliers 2.0 session. Ken said (I'm paraphrasing here) that "Twitter is very important for us and it's growing tremendously. For us Twitter is more important than Facebook."

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Digital Marketer and Strategist

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

¿Online Revealed Canada or Canada-e-Connect?

I spent the last day and a half in Niagara Falls attending Online Revealed Canada (Thank you Alicia and Patricia for the invite). It's my first time at Online Revealed and I thought it was important for me to come in order to see and experience the conference vis a vis Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference. The reason being that there may be some confusion in the marketplace as to the difference between the two conferences. While the terminology of some of the sessions is similar ORC focuses more on an educational approach, a workshop format, whereas Canada e Connect focuses more on strategic presentations trying to cover all topics related to new media and eTourism. While Online Revealed Canada focuses on eMarketing, Canada-e-Connect focuses on all areas of strategy that are or can be touched, influenced, affected by digital technology (the new standard gauge to use Dr. Ian Fenwick's analogy), i.e. Marketing, Distribution, Human Resources, Systems, Structure, etc. One of CeC's objectives is also to present to the attendees the latest trends in eTourism technology and strategy from anywhere in the world in order to provide a framework for the industry to ascertain where we are compared to the rest of the world, to our competitors.

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It is my hope that both ORC and CeC can collaborate with each other in some way in the future because it can only benefit the Canadian Tourism Industry as a whole. The industry employs over 600,000 people. ORC and CeC together have only reached about 1200 people (perhaps). If we count those who have attended more than once, these events might have reached 1000 members of the Canadian tourism industry. Even if we considered the audience for any of these events to be only canadian tourism professionals in managerial or marketing positions it is clear that we have a long way to go to reach everyone in our potential audiences.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

http://www.canadaeconnect.com/

Tourisme Montreal making waves in the blogosphere with its 100% digital marketing budget.

Gasps and wow's were heard during last month's Canada-e-Connect conference when Emanuelle Legault, Directrice, Communications et Publicité, mentioned during her presentation that Tourism Montreal's marketing budget was going digital 100%. Since then, the blogosphere has been abuzz with comments (mostly very positive) about this bold move. I myself am in awe that a Canadian destination has become the (as far as we know) first destination in the world to put its money where most of the worlds' travellers are today, that is in the digital space (whether accessed via a computer or a mobile device). If you can read German see what the TourismusZukunft blog had to say about it. Otherwise read the excellent article by Vicky Brock in her Tracking Tourism: The Tourism Research Blog. The also German Cofree blog blogged about this today. Canada's Marketing Magazine has also featured news about this strategy.

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I am confident that Tourism Montreal's strategy will pay off, especially in this challenging yearmuch success, and I wish them . If at all possible, we hope to see an update presentation by Tourism Montreal at Canada-e-Connect 2010.
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
www.montrealenespanol.com

A brief word of thanks to Canada-e-Connect 2009's sponsors

You don't really know how important sponsors are to a conference until you are partly responsible for it. As Chair of Canada-e-Connect 2009, I want to send a thank you shout out to all sponsors of Canada-e-Connect 2009, in no particular order: The Canadian Tourism Commission (and Government of Canada), Google, Deloitte, FCV Technologies, Parks Canada, Tourism Toronto (thanks Joel), Via Rail Canada, Banff Lake Louise (thanks Julie), InterContinental Toronto Centre, JackRabbit, Publicite Media Plus, Niagara Falls Tourism, Tourisme Montreal (thanks Carmen), TripAdvisor (Thanks Jim), QuickMobile, Weber Shandwick, Ottawa Tourism (thanks Karen), Tourism New Brunswick (thanks Carol), Baxter Travel Media, Quebec City Tourism, Tourism Yukon.

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A special thanks to a small group of last minute sponsors (thank you Errol). SETTLERS BEACH VILLA HOTEL , COURTESY CAR RENTALS and the BARBADOS TOURISM AUTHORITY. These organizations came up with a special prize that we gave away at the end of Canada-e-Connect. The prize consisted of a 7 night stay at the Settlers Beach Villa Hotel, a Car for the week courtesy of Courtesy Car Rentals, and a pair of airline tickets to Barbados courtesy of the Barbados Tourism Authority. While Canada-e-Connect is a Canadian event, and we recognize that, to quote Jerry McGuire, "We live in a world of fierce competitors," we also recognize the international brotherhood and sisterhood in the global tourism industry. In that spirit we were all rather pleased to welcome these Barbados organizations as sponsors of Canada-e-Connect 2009. Merci beaucoup. By the way, the winner of the trip was Mike Berezowski from WorldWeb.com based in Calgary, bon voyage.

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Merci bien,

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

Canada-e-Connect in Review - Connexions-e-Canada

As Chair of the Advisory Committee, I had well over one thousand emails related to Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy 2009 by the time the conference started last Wednesday evening with a networking cocktail reception sponsored by TripAdvisor. I did not keep count of phone calls and conference calls but there were many. But all the time and effort put into this edition of the conference was worth it, if comments I've received already about the conference are any indication (e.g. many "it was a great conference !!" comments).

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While the conference is still fresh in my mind, I thought of writing a brief overview of my impressions of it.

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Given the economic atmosphere we are living in these days, it was rather gratifying to see a decent turn out for the conference (over 200 attendees).

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Not only did we have a good turn out but the quality of attendees was also very good, meaning, we had emarketers and decision makers from all areas of Canada attend plus representatives from many very innovative digital marketing companies.

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I think the big theme or motif, to borrow a term from the music world, was the area of social media and content independent of delivery channel (see Dr Ian Fenwick's video at the end of this post).

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For me there were many highlights during the conference. Most of our speakers were excellent particularly the keynote and luncheon speakers who provided some anchoring, some focus on the strategic nature of the conference:

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1. Dr. Ian Fenwick, an experienced consultant and academic in business provided an objective overview of the state of Marketing and Digital Marketing as well as where it may be going in the future with a clear, articulate and sometimes humorous presentation which included examples from around the world (see video). I strongly recommend his book DigiMarketing.

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2. Diane Clarkson, a brilliant analyst from Forrester research, brought home the issue of custiomer service, of making sure that we make our customers, guests, feel valued in this era of Travel and Tourism 2.0 when complaints or compliments can and are posted to the web in seconds. Her clear and engaging presentation was definitely on the money.

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3. Joe Buhler of Buhlerworks and analyst for PhoCusWright reminded DMO's about staying current, about looking ahead and try to lead as oppose to follow when it comes to innovation in the digital space. He made the point that many a time DMO's are reactive to what's going on in the space and therefore are always at risk of playing catch-up. For example, as DMO's are now incorporating (or some of them are at any rate) social media capabilities to their strategies, the eTravel private sector is already somewhere else providing new innovations in trip planning as the market of consumers/and travelers moves from "finding the best deal" to "finding the perfect travel experience" (e.g. Kayak vs NileGuide; Expedia vs. TravelMuse.)

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4. Rob Hughes from Brewster talked about VacationsCanadaTV, a great example of innovative canadian tourism digital marketing grounded in solid strategic insight.

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5. Greg Klassen VP Marketing for the Canadian Tourism Commission gave an impressive presentation of what the CTC is doing in the space, where it is going and how it will leverage the Olympics for the benefit of the entire country. He showed us examples of CTC initiatives like the Influencer Program for the Mexican Market, which I really liked. By the way, Walid Salem, Executive Director of eMarketing for the CTC, who was one of our panellists and moderators made very good points in the sessions he participated. It bears mentioning that Walid and his team are working on great inititatives that will help canadian DMO's and businesses take advantage of the immense work the CTC is doing behind the scenes. He encouraged everyone (as I do now here) to visit the CTC's Corporate site and take a look at the Canada Brand kit.
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5. Ted Souder of Google (head of Industry Travel Mid West). Ted is a vey engaging man (named "25 most extraordinary minds in sales and marketing" by HSMAI in 2006). I was fortunate to meet him the night before his presentation when a group of us were having a drink at the InterContinental Toronto Centre's bar. His presentation was not only fun but very informative. He talked about the 6 megatrends that influence Google, from Moore's law to the long tail to the wisdom of the crowds. Definitely a highlight of the conference and something to think about going forward.

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5. Terry O'Reilly. Terry is a legend in Canadian marketing who will be officially inducted into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends this coming week. He is the founder of Pirate Radio and TV and creator of the CBC program the Age of Persuasion. Terry's presentation, I think, was a great way to end the conference. His topic, "Ideas Move Mountains," reminded everyone that it does not matter what vehicle or technology is used to market a product, a service or a destination if your idea is weak. Terry provided us with numerous examples of BIG (not necessarily expensive) IDEAS in marketing and digital marketing.

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As for concurrent sessions and panel presentations, the conference covered the major aspects of eTourism strategy from eMarketing (don't target, engage), to Mobile Strategies and Social Media. There was a palpable strong interest in blogging, forums, twitter and social media, but many speakers, including Ted Souder, kept bringing up the fact that mobile marketing and communications will continue to grow and that mobile will not only be ubitquitous in the future but it may become the number one way for consumers to use the Web. As for Social Media (panel in which I presented http://www.canadamigos.com/ as an example of niche social media marketing), it was clear that most panellists agreed that tourism businesses must have a social media strategy (IHG is doing a great job at this) if they want to remain relevant and competitive. This does not mean that you must go out and launch a social networking site, but you must join and participate in the conversation via the most appropriate social media platforms for your organization.

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I do want to make a special mention of Tourisme Montreal. Emmanuelle Legault and Carmen Ciotola gave impressive presentations about Tourisme Montreal's strategy in digital marketing and distribution. Prior to seeing these presentations, my favourite Canadian DMO vis a vis digital marketing was HelloBC (under William Bakker's direction), but now, it is Montreal. I look forward to following Tourisme Montreal's progress this year and beyond and encourage all in our industry to do the same.

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Overall, and given the current economic climate, I am very pleased with the success of Canada-e-Connect 2009. I did not go over each and every panellist/speakers' participation on this post for brevity's sake, but I will blog about all of them as time goes by (thank you all). I look forward to future Canada-e-Connect conferences. Stay in touch and connect by joining the Canada-e-Connect 2009 Facebook page and the Canada-e-Connect 2009 LinkedIn Group. Visit the Canada-e-Connect 2009 website if you want more info on the speakers bios.

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Visit the Tourism Industry Association of Canada website to keep up to date on industry initiatives and the most important canadian tourism industry events throughout the year.

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Dr. Ian Fenwick, speaking about Digital as today's standard gauge in marketing.

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

President Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

The Canada en Espanol Network

Canadamigos Social Network

Day 2 Canada-e-Connect

The morning sessions on Social Media Marketing and eTourism Strategy and DMO's were very well received and with a full house. Brand Management in the era of 2.0 had very specific examples of how a DMO is tracking what's being said about it in cyberspace, plus some very relevant points. Google's Ted Souder presentation and Q&A session at lunch was certainly a highlight in my opinion. As was Terry O'Reilly's session at the end of the conference remindng everyone that key to all our marketing efforts is the IDEA. Surprise people with BIG IDEAS in your marketing and advertising, whether the vehicle is online, mobile or traditional media.

Jim Brody of TripAdvisor moderates the panel on Brand Management in the era of Web 2.0

Above and below the very impressive brand tracking (conversation tracking) tool developed by Montreal Tourisme Montréal and their supplier Hue Web. It blew my mind (where do they get these wonderful toys?) Simplement Formidable.

Master raconteur, founder Pirate Radio and TV, creator of the radio and podcast show The Age of Persuasion, and Canadian Marketing Legend Terry O'Reilly closing Canada-e-Connect with the very appropriate topic: "Ideas Move Mountains."

Jaime

(more pictures and my overview of the conference coming soon).

Canada-e-Connect 2009 Day 1 in pictures (and video)

Over 200 tourism professionals attended the first day of Canada-e-Connect 2009. Feedback and comments from various attendees has been very positive so far:

More pictures tomorrow.

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Jaime Horwitz

Canada-e-Connect 2009 begins

Junior suite at the InterContinental Hotel Toronto Centre

After a few months of preparation, hundreds of emails, many conference calls, and several meetings, Canada-e-Connect 2009. I blog from the InterContinental Hotel Toronto Centre where the pre-conference networking reception took place earlier this evening. Several of the speakers and panellists attended like Dr Ian Fenwick, Joe Buhler, Stephen Joyce, Jens Thraenhart, Joel Peters, Carmen Ciotola, Emanuelle Legault, and many more. The conference proper will begin at 8 am tomorrow with a continental breakfast and informal presentations by the companies in the Canada-e-Connect showcase.

Dr Ian Fenwick, co-author of DigiMarketing, the Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing and Jaime Horwitz, Chair Advisory Committee, Canada-e-Connect 2009

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Social Media at Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy 2009

Social Media Marketing is a relatively new tool in a marketers toolbox. In fact, so new that many organizations are still trying to understand the relatively new phenomenon of Social Media. Many companies equate Social Media marketing with advertising on a social media site, like MySpace or Facebook. But advertising is only one area of social media marketing and not necessarily the most effective. Participating in social media is more important. How do you participate in order to generate business? What are the issues surrounding social media marketing? Should social media marketing be part of your overall eTourism strategy? "Social media is a tool that cannot be ignored when developing e-marketing strategies for tourism. Making use of these online tools to share and discuss information and experiences through text, photos, videos and audio with other like-minded individuals through web-based social interactions is one of the most ubiquitous trends of recent years." Canada-e-Connect's Social Media Marketing Panel will examine social media as it relates to tourism from a variety of perspectives.

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Don't miss the Social Media Marketing panel session at Canada-e-Connect, Thursday, January 23 at 8:30 am. William Bakker, Director of E-business for Tourism British Columbia (top) will moderate a panel with Jaime Horwitz, Chair, CEC Advisory Committee; President, Cactus Rock New Media Ltd, www.canadamigos.com; Del Ross, Vice President, Distribution Marketing, InterContinental Hotels Group, www.ichotelsgroup.com; and Snow Rosen, Sales Director, Bazaarvoice, www.bazaarvoice.com. Register at www.canadaeconnect.com or on site at the InterContinental Hotel Toronto Centre on Front Street beginning Wed Jan 21 at 6pm.

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Regards,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

Brand management in the era of Tourism 2.0, can you control the message?

Next week attendees to the Canada-e-Connect 2009 eTourism Conference will hear experts talking about brand management (and reputation) in the era of Travel 2.0. Friday, Jan 23 at 3:15 pm we will have a panel on the subject: Web 2.0 era, marketers are increasingly finding it challenging to control their messages. Traveler reviews, which are now widely and instantaneously available, affect how others interact with the brands of tourism businesses, from tour operators to hotels to transportation providers. Prosumers (producer consumers) are creating their own content, which can build or undercut a brand, forcing companies to react more quickly. How does a company you build their brand in this environment? Is it even possible to “protect your brand”? The session promises to engage panellists and attendees in a dialogue about branding, messaging and consumer insight at a time when consumers/travellers have more power than at any other time in history. Companies who can best manage this new reality will be the winners in the Tourism 2.0 world. The current business environment where consumers are active participants in creating brand connotations for themselves and others has (or should) change marketer's approach to branding.

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Our panel will be moderated by Jim Brody, Sales Manager, Destination Marketing (top), Trip Advisor with the participation of Carmen Ciotola, Vice President, Communication and Marketing, Tourisme Montréal, David Alston, VP Marketing, Radian 6 Technologies Inc and Ian McAnerin, Chairman & CEO (right), McAnerin Networks Inc.

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Join us at Canada-e-Connect next week to learn, network and devise eTourism strategy. Register at www.canadaeconnect.com or on site at the InterContinental Hotel Toronto Centre on Front Street beginning Wed Jan 21 at 6pm.
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

The Mobile Strategy Panel at Canada-e-Connect

On Thursday January 22 at 13:45 Canada-e-Connect will present a panel on Mobile Strategy and eTourism. This will be one of the most interesting panels looking at the mobile space and tourism marketing and distribution as well as what's coming in the not too distant future. While most people know about and/or use text messaging, marketing via mobile devices is relatively new and tourism marketing via mobile is still in diapers. At the PhoCusWright Conference last November there were several innovators in this space. Basically there are two streams I noticed, mobile tourism guides and mobile travel assistants. The former is represented by companies like TravelChannel, Google (with its Google Maps and other innovations), iM@ (winner of Best in Show Innovator of the Year at PhoCusWright); the latter represented by companies like TripIt. Some of the Strategic questions to address are Should your organization have a mobile optimized version of your website? Should you advertise on mobile sites or services? What's the potential for synergies with other communications tools (e.g. QR codes)?

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Mobile marketing is growing, particularly in Asia (don't miss Dr. Fenwick's opening Keynote, but Europe and particularly Canada are lagging in this space. As 3G networks and smart phones (a la Blackberry and iPhone) proliferate and prices continue to decline, mobile strategy will become not only more important, but perhaps essential for the tourism marketer.

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Don't miss the panel with Patrick Payne of QuickMobile(top), Fraser Campbell of wCities (middle), Chris Ackerman of TravelChannel Media (right), and moderated by Dr. Ian Fenwick co-author of DigiMarketing, the Essential to New Media and Digital Marketing.

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See you next week, you can still register online at www.canadaeconnect.com or onsite beginning Wednesday Jan 21st at 6pm at the InterContinental Hotel Toronto Centre on Front St.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Joe Buhler, DMO and eTravel specialist to speak at Canada-e-Connect

I have known Joe Buhler for a few years and I can verify that he's a highly respected professional in the eTourism space. Joe is a Senior Analyst with PhoCusWright, perhaps the leading tourism research and eTourism conference producer in the world. He is also principal of his own consulting firm Buhlerworks, which provides consulting services for Vision, Strategy & Innovation in travel & tourism web marketing, with a focus on destination marketing organizations (DMO) at the national, regional and local level. Joe Buhler has Global experience in destination marketing, tour operations, retail travel and the airline industry and since the early days in the largest e-commerce vertical - online travel. He has held senior executive positions in Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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Joe is a member of the international group of Travel industry bloggers, the T-List and is a sought after speaker at tourism events. Joe will make a fascinating and engaging presentation at Canada-e-Connect on Jan 22 at 3:45 pm. He will speak about The Road Ahead On The Smart Web: The focus is shifting fast in online travel, from the completion of a simple transaction to an integrated planning, researching and buying process. Search, user generated content and social media are all important elements but not enough to deliver a superior, integrated experience for today's savvy and demanding online travelers. There is a need to act now to change the business model to meet the demand for personalization, intelligence and vertical integration of local services on DMO's sites. Joe Buhler will examine where DMOs are in relation to these innovations in e-travel and look at what new relationships are necessary to compete and take full advantage of this trend.
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There is still time to register for Canada-e-Connect

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

101 travel and travel related Twitterers

Twitter was the social media story of 2008 and it shows no sign of abating, rather it continues to grow with more people and companies signing up daily to micro-blog and take part in the conversation. I did not find current stats for Twitter, but it's widely thought of having millions of users. Twitter is a great way to "blog" in a very short period of time. It can be used to promote travel deals, announce special events in your area, new attractions, etc. Messages can only be 140 characters long or less, so it doesn't take much time to do (beware of conversation hoggers and try not to hog it yourself or you may lose followers). Many travel pundits and tourism professionals have mentioned to me that they still are not sure what to make of Twitter, how to measure its effectiveness. Many people are still wondering about the value of blogging, let alone micro-blogging. In both cases, in my opinion, it's not so much what return your business or destination can get from blogging and twitting (tweeting, twittering), but what the impact on your organizaton may be if you don't. As with blogging, one of the measures of success is not in terms of $$$, but rather in terms of engagement: how many readers, followers you generate. Blogging and Twitter are nothing more than tools for communication. From a strategic point of view you must consider all means of communication with your guests and potential guests. Who does the actual writing, is up to you, but don't dismiss blogging or twitter as fads. Whether Twitter, as a business, survives (it is not making money yet) or not, I am sure that some form of micro-blogging is here to stay. Here's a list of 101 travel and travel related Twitterers:

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Jaime Horwitz twitter.com/jaimehorwitz
West Jet - twitter.com/Westjet
CTC CCT Canadian Tourism Commission Media Centre twitter.com/ctccct
Hotel Chatter twitter.com/hotelchatter
SouthWest Airlines twitter.com/SouthwestAir
SeatGuru twitter.com/seatguru
La Times Travel twitter.com//latimestravel
twitter.com/travelsavvymom
Karen Bryan twitter.com/karenbryan
Hertz – twitter.com/connectbyhertz
Jetblue - twitter.com/JetBlue
Luxor Hotel and Casino - twitter.com/LuxorLV
MGM Mirage - twitter.com/VegasConcierge
MGM Grand Hotel and Casino - twitter.com/mgmgrand
Marriott - twitter.com/MarriottIntl
T Mobile - twitter.com/FlyWithTMobile
Travel Channel - twitter.com/travelchannel
Travel writer twitter.com/Nancydbrown
Travel writer – twitter.com/TravelSavvyKayt
Carnival Cruises twitter.com/carnivalcruise
Travel Blogger twitter.com/alexbainbridge
Travolution twitter.com/travolution
BootsNall twitter.com/SEKeener
TargetVacations twitter.com/targetvacations
Viscape twitter.com/viscape
iSango twitter.com/isango
Conde Nast Traveler twitter.com/cntraveler
Capilano Suspension Bridge twitter.com/capsuspbridge
NewYorkology twitter.com/newyorkology
British Airways twitter.com/britishairways
UpTake twitter.com/uptake
BootsNAll twitter.com/BootsnAll
Tim Huges Blogger twitter.com/timothychughes
TravelMuse twitter.com/travelmuse
Roger Gruys blogger twitter.com/bluepeak
NileGuide.com twitter.com/nileguide
William Bakker twitter.com/wilhelmus
TripBase twitter.com/tripbase
Tripit twitter.com/tripit
Fairmont twitter.com/fairmonthotels
HotelierPortal twitter.com/hotelierportal
MiNube twitter.com/minube
HostelTurCom twitter.com/hostelturcom
HotelChatter twitter.com/hotelchatter
TravelPR twitter.com/travelpr
HotelBlogs twitter.com/hotelblogs
Destinos Actuales twitter.com/destinoactuales
FlyAwayCafe twitter.com/flyawaycafe
Peak2Peak Gondola twitter.com/gondolatour_m
JetWithKids twitter.com/jetwithkids
HotelJuice twitter.com/hoteljuice
Hoteles 2.0 twitter.com/hoteles20
TravelRants twitter.com/travelrants
TravelerWire twitter.com/travelerwire
MarketingTravel twitter.com/marketingtravel
JebWorks (Joe Buhler) twitter.com/jebworks
Planet Eye twitter.com/planeteye
NY Times Travel twitter.com/nytimestravel
Blog on Travel twitter.com/blogontravel
Claude Benard (Hotelitur) twitter.com/claudebenard
Happy Hotelier twitter.com/happyhotelier
The T-List (travel bloggers) twitter.com/tlist
Jens Thraenhart twitter.com/jensthraenhart
Vicky Brock twitter.com/brockvicky
Arizona Tourism twitter.com/arizonatourism
Phil Caines twitter.com/philcaines
Stuart MacDonald twitter.com/stuartma
WorldTravelista twitter.com/worldtravelista
PromoTurismo twitter.com/promoturismo
Stephen Joyce twitter.com/stephenjoyce
Travel2dot0 twitter.com/travel2dot0
Fodor’s Travel twitter.com/fodors
Travel Alberta twitter.com/travelalberta
Heather CTC twitter.com/hadola
Wendy Perrin twitter.com/wendyperrin
Albert Barra twitter.com/albertbarra
The MayFair Hotel London twitter.com/themayfairhotel
Where twitter.com/whereitsat
TravelinGirls twitter.com/travelingirls
TravelPRgirl twitter.com/travelprgirl
CoTravelGirl twitter.com/cotravelgirl
EverywhereTrip twitter.com/everywheretrip
Asheville Travel twitter.com.ashevilletravel
MatadorNetwork twitterl.com/matadornetwork
Travel Trade Gazette UK twitter.com/ttglive
Travelography twitter.com/travelography
GoVisitHawaii twitter.com/govisithawaii
Budget Travel Mag twitter.com/budtravel
Carlo Alvarez Spagnolo twitter.com/cortomaltese
Jet Blue Airways twitter.com/jetblue
Miss ExPatria twitter.com/missexpatria
Go Green Travel Green twitter.com/gogreentraveler
Jaunted Travel Guide twitter.com/jaunted
Gadling twitter.com/gadling
Travel Pod twitter.com/travelpod
Venere Hotels (Spain) twitter.com/venere_hotels
Top Vancouver Restaurants twitter.com/van_restaurants
Travel Off the Cuff twitter.com/travelotc
Wine Travel twitter.com/winetravel
Scottsdale Arizona twitter.com/scottsdaleaz

DealBase twitter.com/dealbase

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Beware of squatters, impostors who may use someone else's brand to Twitter.

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Canada-e-Connect eTourism Conference will have a panel session on Strategic Blogging, forums and Twitter on Jan 22 at 3 pm. Come hear some experts discuss this fascinating topic and prepare your questions.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

http://twitter.com/jaimehorwitz

Diane Clarkson, expert eTravel Analyst at Jupiter/Forrester to speak at Canada-e-Connect

I first came across Diane Clarkson on the web. I stumbled upon her blog posts on the Jupiter Research Blog (now a Forrester company) sometime ago and began following her via my Google Reader. After I was approached to Chair the Advisory Committee for Canada-e-Connect 2009, she was one of the first people I thought that could bring something of value and interest to the conference. I am very pleased that TIAC was able to confirm Diane Clarkson as one of our speakers. "As a travel analyst at JupiterResearch, Diane Clarkson focuses on travel consumer behavior and industry trends. Her research focuses on online leisure and business travel, with a particular interest in travel consumers research and booking behavior." Jupiter Diane's research "has looked at many different trends, including the role of social media, the growth and evolution of online travel providers and at the specific opportunities brought by travelers' access to mobile devices. Diane's most recent research has identified how the current economic environment is forcing online travel advertisers to redevelop their marketing and advertising strategies."

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Before I had the pleasure of meeting Diane on a conference call for the event, I did not know that she is actually Canadian, now based in San Francisco. I think this fact makes her an even more interesting speaker for our Canada-e-Connect audience because she has an intimate knowledge of Canadian and American business cultures. Don't miss Diane's Luncheon Address: "Making Travelers Feel Valued in the Web 2.0 Era" at Canada-e-Connect 2009 on Thursday Jan 22, 2009. Register now before the conference is sold out.

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see you in Toronto
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009
www.canadaeconnect.travel

Tom Griffin, CEO of TravelScream a leading eDistribution travel company will be a panellist at Canada-e-Connect 2009

TravelScream is an innovative digital distribution company in the eTravel space. Travelscream has developed partnerships with leading online publishers to present their clients' travel deals and special offers to engaged, targeted and trusting audiences. Some of TravelScream's partners include Fodor's, New York Magazine, National Geographic, Orlando Sentinel.com and Spa Magazine.

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Recently I had a brief conversation with Tom Griffin, CEO of TravelScream and asked him a couple of questions that may be of interest to the readers of this blog:

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JH: Regarding your social media toolkit, is there any particular feature that is most popular with clients, e.g. video, blogs, maps? TG: I would say that our RSS application is the #1 application utilized from our toolkit, blogs 2nd, guest book 3rd, maps 4th. We haven’t really been promoting the video application the way we should. We are starting to be more aggressive on our mapping product next year with the implementation of our walking and driving directions, which should be complete within a couple of weeks.

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JH:Can you tell us anything about your business model? Is it a PPA, PPC, CPM, a combination model or is it tailored to different clients? TG: Premium pricing for home page widgets, annual pricing for list views and going to a CPM model in 09. We have a several destination guides that we are launching in 09, which should provide us with a Low Impression rate but a higher conversion. In addition our new Geo-targeting product will be introduced in the new year.

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Tom Griffin will be one of the distinguished experts participating in the eDistribution Panel at Canada-e-Connect 2009. There are a few weeks left to register, so if you are interested in attending and networking with experts like Tom, register now at Canada-e-Connect registration.

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cheers,

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Rob Torres, Managing Director of Travel at Google will be at Canada-e-Connect 2009

I'm happy to inform readers of this Canadian Tourism Blog that Rob Torres, Managing Director of Travel at Google will be our luncheon speaker at the second Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference. Mr. Torres' session will take place on Friday, January 23, 2009 (and I can't wait) and it will be an interview format. Here's a brief bio of Rob Torres who was also one of the key presenters at PhoCusWright 2008 this past November in Hollywood. -

As managing director of travel, Rob Torres oversees the day to day strategy for Google’s North American travel advertising business. Rob is responsible for the profitable growth of travel advertiser and agency business. In that capacity, he oversees the strategic planning, sales, operations and business development efforts as Google provides internet, as well as radio and print, marketing solutions to its customers. Rob is based in Google’s Seattle office. Prior to joining Google, Rob was vice president of strategic hotel partnerships at Expedia.com. During his career at Expedia, Rob managed a team that had Global responsibility for 30 strategic accounts, generating gross bookings in excess of $2B. Rob is on the board of HSMAI and ATME and serves on TIA’s eMarketing committee. In 2004, Rob was named to HSMAI’s Top 25 list of Most Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality and Travel Sales and Marketing. He is actively involved in Royal Family Kids Camp, an organization that provides summer camp opportunities for children in foster care. Rob is a frequent speaker at industry events. Rob received a bachelor of science degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and holds an MBA from Georgetown University Business.

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I very much look forward to meeting Rob next January.

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Here's Rob Torres in an interview at PhoCusWright Hollywood 2008:

Email me your questions for Rob. We will select the most interesting and challenging ones for the interview.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

To Register for the conference visit www.canadaeconnect.travel

How versed are you in eDistribution? Canada-e-Connect's panel on eDistribution

Canada-e-Connect's edistribution panel will include, Tom Griffin, CEO of TravelScream, Sean Shannon, Managing Director, Expedia Canada Corp, part of Expedia Inc., the largest OTA (online travel agency) in the world which happens to own TripAdvisor, the largest travellers' reviews website; and Andrew Van Luchene, President & CEO, JackRabbit Systems, a relative newcomer in the eDistribution space. Andrew was a lead inventor at Walker Digital, the think tank that created Priceline.com, where he filed over 150 patent applications. Andrew also helped to launch RetailDNA, Priceline Perfect Yardsale, and Priceline for Gasoline. Moderated by Patricia Brusha, one of the principals at A Couple of Chicks e-Marketing, this panel session promises to bring an update of what has been happening in the eDistribution space. Companies like Expedia are starting to look like media companies selling ad space to complement their travel transactions revenue. New innovators like JackRabbit (I previously mentioned TravelScream) are taking travel deals from their clients and partners and making them travel via widgets, RSS and other technologies. Expedia has also entered this portable aspect of eDistribution - notice the travel offers on this blog (from an RSS of Expedia deals).

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Where is your hotel, tourism attraction or destination in the eDistribution world? Are your deals travelling in the blogosphere? Is your hotel promotion bookable via a widget and available for distribution on a multitude of web properties and possible mobile platforms?

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Don't miss Canada-e-Connect's eDistribution panel. Thursday Jan 22, 2009 11:30 AM. Register at www.canadaeconnect.travel

The battle of the DMO's at Canada-e-Connect 2009 (well not quite)

One of the sessions we'll have at Canada-e-Connect is "CTC/PMOs/DMO’s view of e-Tourism Strategy." Come hear what the leaders of some of Canada's biggest destinations have to say about eTourism strategies. Our panel will include Walid Salem, Executive Director, E-Marketing/ Directeur exécutif, Marketing électronique for the Canadian Tourism Commission, Joel Peters, Senior Vice President Chief Marketing Officer Tourism Toronto (SeeTorontoNow) and Emmanuelle Legault, Directrice, Communications et Publicité Director, Communications and Advertising for Tourism Montreal. I will have the pleasure of moderating this panel and I'm already preparing some good questions (if you have a question for the panel, leave a comment here and we'll keep it in mind). Among the topics we'll cover is an update on these DMO's eStrategies. We'll also discuss whether they see eStrategy and eMarketing as separate from Strategy and Marketing. What threats and opportunities they see vis à vis other destinations' digital initiatives. What challenges do they face when trying to implement a digital project?

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Canada-e-Connect 2009. Registration is open.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Chair Advisory Board, Canada-e-C0nnect 2009