Travel plan idea blog

What do you think about New Mexico's new ad campaign?

Some people are calling New Mexico's new tourism ad campaign creative and bold, but there are also a lot of critics out there. The ads have won an Adrian Award.

However, winning awards is not the same as increasing brand awareness and bringing in tourism dollars:

Dale Lockett, president of the state's largest convention and visitors bureau in Albuquerque, addressed the issue in a speech at a statewide conference in October.

Lockett told the creators of the ads, Santa Monica, Calif.-based M&C Saatchi, that their handiwork, while innovative, appeals to the wrong audience. Why, Lockett wondered, was the state targeting its centerpiece ad campaign to a younger crowd when baby boomers have time and money to travel?

Take a look at the photos and let us know what you think:

Magazine ad
Scene from a video ad

Lake Tahoe changing, evolving away from its niche

This article is pretty interesting because it relates to one of my favorite books, Seth Godin's marketing book, Purple Cow. His idea is that new products have to serve a specific niche (and do it very well) to have a chance. Then if you succeed you need to exploit your "purple cow" (your unique product that people like enough to recommend to friends) for all it's worth.

It seems like that's what's happening in Lake Tahoe (which I've mentioned only briefly in past posts) and other areas. Tahoe was very successful in its niche so now the best way to profit is to use that popularity to make as much money as possible by attracting people from outside its old niche:

Massive redevelopment and an influx of wealth in recent years have all but wiped out the old kitschy charm of Tahoe's southern shore. As the transformation proceeds, the area is trying to become all things to all people: an upscale resort town as well as a draw for the younger set looking for all-night clubs and tequila shots.

It's a similar formula playing out in vacation spots across the country, from Atlantic City, N.J., to Aspen, Colo.

Speaking of change, although this one is not permanent, how about the Spa Experience in Grand Central Terminal, NYC? The Spa Experience will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 1 and Nov. 3. Who would've thought that commuters would have time for a spa treatment? Of course it may be perfect - I know there have been a few times when I left work feeling like I needed a massage or something.

Tourism marketing in Tanzania and Brazil

I've always been interested in how countries market their tourism opportunities so i found this article on Tanzania and brazil pretty interesting. One line from the new Tanzania commercial is "Tanzania: Land of Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and the Serengeti."

Brazil is focusing on "golf attractions, beaches and natural wonders."

Philadelphia's marketing to get more sophisticated

I blogged a while back on the Philadelpha advertising slogan: Get your history straight and your nights gay in Philadelphia.

I thought it was clever so this article made me feel a little bad when they said that the city of brotherly love is getting more sophisticated than the old slogan. I suppose I don't try to sell myself as sophisticated much anymore anyway.

One interesting number from the article is that the ads worked for Philadelphia:

Philadelphia saw a $153 return for every dollar spent on its marketing campaign, according to a 2005 gay tourism survey. But now, more than 75 cities around the world have gay tourism campaigns, as do travel companies like Orbitz, Travelocity, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

Disney tours worldwide (Adventures by Disney)

Adventures by Disney is a 2-year-old part of Walt Disney Co. Disney is using its brand name to sell travel to more than its theme parks and cruises. They have vacation packages throughout the world and will add eight more locations next year.

That means they will have trips to China, Australia, several destinations in America, Costa Rica, Peru, and a number of destinations in Europe.

I've never tried an Adventure by Disney vacation, and while I suspect they deliver what they promise...

Embark on an Adventures by Disney guided vacation and immerse yourself in the magic of expertly planned, hassle-free vacation experiences around the world - brimming with surprises for the entire family.

I suspect you end up paying too much for the Disney name. For example, a 13-day, 12-night China vacation will cost from $3,599 to $5,399 a person, not including air fare.

Now China can be a tough country to travel around on your own, but it can also be very inexpensive. Somehow I doubt that $5,000 (without airfare) is much of a value.

Of course, I respect Disney's marketing strategy - they would be stupid to offer cheap (less profitable) vacations because when you think of Disney you're not supposed to think of cheap...

Anyway, Disney travel VOD is another blog entry on Disney marketing. And if you do a search for Disney on this blog, you'll find lots of stuff.

New marketing technique at Disney includes travel VOD

I thought that this article on Disney's new travel-focused, video-on-demand programming was timely considering our recent discussion of travel TV shows.

According to the article, "Disney's channel, called Travel on Demand, will be available to 9 million Time Warner Cable Inc. and Cablevision Systems Corp. digital customers starting later this month." When watchers see something inspiring, they can press a button on their remotes to prompt a call from a Disney travel agent.

I like this kind of innovative advertising and it makes perfect sense for both Disney and the cable companies. Disney creates the content and pays the cable companies to show it - cable companies make money. Disney gets access to people who are asking for more information on their products - the most likely customers. And since these people watching Disney's "Travel on Demand" are giving their attention willingly they pay only for the people who hear their message.

Hyatt Resort reality TV show: The Ultimate Adventure Challenge

Hyatt Resort's The Ultimate Adventure Challenge has a lame name but is a brilliant marketing idea.

Families with at least one child between 9 and 12 can try to participate by uploading 90 second videos (of the entire family) on the official site. The first 1,000 entrants by May 30 will be eligible to compete. Hyatt Hotels Corp. says family video entries should "convey their passion for adventure and exploration while noting why their family should be selected for the competition."

Eventually, 5 families will participate in this reality show by staying in a Hyatt property (and getting filmed a lot). Then people who watch the "webisodes" vote for who should win the free 50 night stay in a Hyatt resort.

They also explain the theory behind the idea: "The idea came about because we know a lot of travelers are online researching, and our research indicated they wanted even more content online that's both entertaining and also informative; this also lets us go beyond traditional media."

I think it's brilliant. Hyatt will get a ton of publicity from this. They already had good brand awareness, but now people, lots of people, are talking about Hyatt. That has to be good for business, especially when they start talking about the webisodes - all the fun activities people can do on vacation while staying at a Hyatt.

Torism Marketing in England can provide a model for South Korea

Here's an article that praises the way England has increased tourism through promoting Harry Potter and similar invented tourist attractions:

The British people knew they couldn't draw significant numbers of tourists with their featureless attractions. In recent days, Britain turned a robbery in which 50 million pounds (W90 billion) was stolen into a popular tourist destination. The program includes a guided tour of the crime scenes, including a vault from which the money was taken, a storehouse where a custodian was held hostage, and the safehouse where the suspects were caught.

In places where there was nothing to sell, people created something new. A disused mine in the southwestern region of Cornwall has been turned into a giant botanical experiment called the Eden Project. Like some kind of primeval garden, it's more than just a botanical zone. In spring, the Project hosts "Blue Mania," a hands-on event in which tourists help plant one million flower bulbs. Since its opening in March 2001, more than nine million tourists have visited Project Eden, helping it rank fifth among Britain's tourist attractions. About 500 full-time employees of the park have been recruited from the nearby area, 75 percent of whom were jobless before the Project was founded.

The article goes on to mention some formerly popular attractions in Korea that I've never heard of, probably because they aren't marketed very well. The idea is that promoting Korean tourism more effectively could help reduce the 7 billion dollar travel defecit South Korea saw in 2006.

America's tourism marketing: A Blueprint to Discover America

America's tourism industry is in decline: "Overseas travel to the U.S. is down 17 percent since 2001, with business travel alone down 10 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to TIA."

"Among the major reasons why travelers are not coming to the U.S.: concerns about the U.S. visa process and perception of poor treatment at the point of entry."

The idea is to streamline the visa process, modernize ports of entry, and change negative perceptions about America. In my experience the first one is the big one. In downtown Seoul, people line up hours before the US embassy opens trying to get a visa. They wait on line all day and sometimes get a visa. I have friends who were refused.

Sometimes, there's no good reason for the refusal. For example after my wife and I got married we applied for a tourist visa for my Korean wife so she could meet my grandfathers who were too old to travel to Korea for the wedding. The guy in the US embassy in Rome was rude and stupid (a few days earlier he had told me that I couldn't get my passport extended but luckily his boss walked by and corrected his error). They denied my wife a tourist visa.

Anyway, for many people, getting a US visa is more trouble than its worth. You spend lots of time and money and you may come away empty handed for no good reason.

The second one seems OK to me flying into JFK regularly. I never see long lines for immigration and the guys in the booths seem friendly enough. When we go into the little office to have my wife's greencard checked out, it's often another story but most travelers never see those people. The third one seems easy enough. It's not going to be hard to convince people they want to visit New York, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Boston, Chicago, etc.

Here's the article on the new tourism marketing plan.

Marketing West Virginia Tourism with We Are Marshall

We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConaughey, opens nationally Dec. 22. The movie is about how Marshall University recovered from a Nov. 14, 1970 plane crash that killed 75 people (including most of Marshall's football team).

Since Marshall University is in Huntington, West Virginia, some of the filming was done there. When the DVD comes out, it will feature West Virginia as a tourist attraction. So if you look at the special features section, you get West Virginia tourism, bloopers, and interviews with actors. Warner Brothers received state financing ($300,000 worth) while filming in Huntington.

This is an interesting tactic for promoting tourism. I went camping in West Virginia 8 or 9 years ago, but I don't know too much about vacation places there. If you know something or have some thoughts on this marketing idea, please leave a comment.

Honeymoon, conceptionmoon, babymoon, recoverymoon, petmoon, anniversarymoon, familymoon, divorcemoon

That's the vacationmoon order and here's an article that discusses the cultural implication of all these moons. It's quite interesting:

"To be honest, some of it is tied to marketing by the travel industry, but it's also a reflection of how consumers are now looking at their life stages," says Howard Green, co-founder of MoonRings Inc., a Chicago-based travel firm that specializes in honeymoons and other "moons." The travel industry is leveraging people's emotional connections to the turning points in their lives, he says, "and creating products to help them celebrate those events."

The article doesn't go into too much more detail about culture, but they do give some examples. It's worth a read.

Slovak Tourist Authority unhappy about Hostel and now Hostel 2

Apparently Eli Roth has created a very disturbing horror movie. Horror movie buffs love Hostel, but the Slovak Tourist Authority hates it. The movie is about tourists being tortured in Bratislava:

Eli Roth, the writer and director of last year's in-your-face horror hit Hostel, got himself a pile of hate mail from Slovakia after shooting the film in these parts. This time around, someone just may try to run him over.

I probably won't watch this movie but they say it is far more violent than "soft" American horror movies.

Tourism marketing: Two nation vacations in Maine and New Brunswick, Zimbabwe

Why not hit Maine in the US and New Brunswick in Canada on a vacation? New Brunswick and Maine tourism officials are working on promoting this "two nation vacation".

Zimbabwe also needs to work on its marketing, and hopes to learn a thing or two from Indonesia. Zimbabwe thinks of itself as "Africa's Paradise" and has "vast tracts of land under wildlife, which is the backbone of the lucrative tourism products." Apparently that means you can hike, canoe, or see elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah, rhinoceros and buffalo on safari.

Grenada's tourism minister is also hard at work:

"We are going to sign another contract with Excel Airways, starting service from November 1 and continuing on a weekly basis. We’ve also signed an agreement with Condor out of Germany, and we are signing contracts with British Airways and Virgin for continued service up to 2008."

So we can get there, but I still don't know what to do in Grenada.