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The long tail of travel - Niche tour operators can now unite

The longtail concept has been around for a long time. Chris Anderson popularized it in his creatively name book “The Long Tail“. The Wikipedia definition is that “The distribution and inventory costs of these [longtail] businesses allow them to realize significant profit out of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. The group of persons that buy the hard-to-find or “non-hit” items is the customer demographic called the Long Tail.”

This concept has been applied to the tourism industry, and there is quite a fit. PhoCusWright brought this to our attention at the Sept 2007 conference in Florida, and Alan A Lew wrote a great article on it in 2006.

In Mr. Lews article he makes some claims about the long tail market. “The long tail market has huge potential. However it is highly distributed and highly individualized. Therefore, accessing it requires marketing and distribution channels that are both broad and deep. To sell relatively less popular products requires being able to store smaller inventories and being able to minimize distribution costs.”

Being in a business that is attempting to help small and niche tour and activity operators, these books and articles have influenced my business development. In an attempt to provide a solution that encompasses all of the many facets and challenges for marketing and distributing a long tail tour providers product, we have revamped our product, Rezgo.

We are releasing Rezgo Free on June 1st, and are confident that this solution will consolidate the long tail of tour and activities.

We recognized that suppliers needed more than simple book-now functionality; we found that they need a tour management and distribution suite that centralized all of their sales channels. We found that tour operators were more concerned with power and simplicity then with a “feature rich, function less” system.

Rezgo Free eliminates all of the traditional barriers that tour operators face when trying to adapt a new technology. It is intuitive, 100% free to sell products through their website, and it also has the capabilities to increase distribution and consolidate all of their sales channels. This will help ease companies into structuring their products for online sales, and will give them a platform to grow their business with expanded Internet distribution and marketing.

Offering this solution for free is a challenging proposition for the business stake holders, but empowering tour operators to standardize their products will help the long tail of tourism flourish. What do you think? You can find more information on www.rezgo.com.

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What are the latest buzz words?

I am not sure if it is a case of, once you hear it once you notice it more often, but I have noticed an increased frequency of Travel Industry buzz words that have been popping up everywhere. Do you know what I am talking about?

Here are a couple of terms that are really circulating on the news and at conferences. I will also give a brief definition to their intended meaning:

Perfect Storm - It now seams that everything is a perfect storm. Travel agencies needing help, airlines collapsing you name it.  Here is the Wikipedia definition:

“The phrase refers to the simultaneous occurrence of events which, taken individually, would  be far less powerful than the result of their chance combination. Such occurrences are rare by their very nature, so that even a slight change in any one event contributing to the perfect storm would lessen its overall impact. “

Walled Garden -  This term is of particular interest to me, I am all for breaking down the walls (I recently bought a piece of the Berlin wall This term is popping up in the context of media restrictions, inter-industry collaboration and especially the Tele-Com industry. Breaking down restrictions on collaboration is a trend that next generation businesses are going to have to adapt to. As Don Tapscott points out in Wikinomics “If you don’t stay current with customers, they invent around you”. This is in reference to restrictions on products that don’t allow for collaboration and modification.

Here is the Widipedia definition of Walled Garden:

“A walled garden, with regards to media content, refers to a closed set or exclusive set of information services provided for users (a method of creating a monopoly or securing an information system).”

So I hand it over to you, what BUZZ terms have you been hearing lately? Any interesting new ones?

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Earth Day Essentials - The Tourism Industy Wakes Up

Today North America celebrates Earth Day (March 20th for the Euros I hear). This is one of the greenest days of the year, and a great time to reflect on how much the Tourism Industry relies on the Planet’s natural resources for sustenance. This is not a feel good, ‘I love Mother Earth’ post, but rather a resource that the tourism industry can use as a reference and reflection point.

Practical Ways that travel suppliers can get involved:

• Sustainable Travel International - Turn Key Programs
  
• Green Globe - Internationally recognized certification program
  
• Green Tourism Advice - Great top tips and case studies for accommodations and tour operators

Back Ground information on Earth Day and related topics:

• Earth Day Wiki - a good overview of the history of Earth Day
• Environmental Accounting Wiki - This new approach to accounting incorporates externalities and gives the full picture of corporate impact on the environment, worth looking into.
• UNWTO Sustaiable Developmensin Tourism - Great news and reports tracking the efforts that the UNWTO is undertaking.

Personal Goals:

I for one, am making little changes, I have sold my car and only walk, bike or take the bus. Here are some of my future goals:

• Limit my garbage to 1 grocery bag per week.
• Recycle everything that has the potential to be recycled.
• Support local produce (BUT I LOVE BANANAS!!)

How about you, do you have any great resources that you use to guide your environmental strategy? How about your personal goals, what changes are you making in your everyday life?

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Alexa Rank Spank?

Recently Alexa made a “big change” to their ranking algorithm. They now “aggregate data from multiple sources to give you a better indication of website popularity among the entire population of Internet users.”

I know this sounds like a better way of calculating an accurate rank, however, there is no knowing what “additional sources” they are using. You used to be able to calculate their bias based on the fact that you knew that their rankings came from users with the Alexa toolbar. You were able to gage the type of user that would have such a device, and have a better understanding of your ranking amongst those users.

Where do these new sources of user information come from?

Most of the sites that I work with have dropped significantly:

Alexa Rankings	Before	After
http://www.tourismtide.com	460,000	1,972,759
http://www.rezgo.com	180,000	201,794
http://www.sentias.com	320,000	304,776
http://www.tipsfromthetlist.com	260,000	314,818

Conclusions:

1. Where ever Alexa is getting their Internet usage stats from now, I can tell that they have less of an interest in Tourism Technology then the former data pool.
2. Changing your domain (tourismtide.blogspot.com to tourismtide.com) can be painful. Both my Alexa and my Technorati were destroyed.

Have you noticed a change in your rank? Do you know where Alexa is getting their new user statistics from?

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10 Tips For Tour and Activity Suppliers

With my background in travel and technology I can’t really help you with the business management or HR for your tour company. So to be fair, these are 10 tips that a SME Tour and Activity Suppliers can use to help market their business online.

1) Set your online foundation before getting online - Planning your web strategy before you dive right into the Internet will save you time and money. You have to know who you are accessing and what message you want to tell them, and what you want them to do with that message. A little consultation here can go a long way.

2) Make small steps - You don’t need to have the fanciest new flash driven high graphic website with its own community network interlinked with video etc. Start small, see how you can engage your target audience on a more personal level using established community sites like FaceBook, or TravBuddy.

3) Get your feet wet - If you are new to website creation or representing yourself online, you can still try it out. These days you don’t need to be a programmer and designer in order to have a decent looking site, but if it is in your budget, I would recommend bringing in some experts to help you out. If you are on a shoe string, consider using WordPress as a site management tool. You can download free templates and customize the look and feel quite easily.

4) Track your steps - How do you know how well your site is doing if you don’t see who is coming to your site. Some common measures are counting page views, but this really lacks any useful information. With tools like Google analytics being offered for free, it only makes sense to see who is coming to your site, which pages are the most popular, how long they are staying on your site and a whole world of other useful information. This data can help you evolve your site to maximize your goals.
5) Frequency = Success - Blogging is a great way to keep your site relevant, recent and allow your customers to gain a better sense of who they are doing business with. Another great advantage is that if you are blogging, the search engines will index your site more frequently. Being indexed frequently and having great keywords can result in a higher search engine ranking!

6) Structure your products - Let your customers know what you sell. Easy to follow clear product offerings are a great way to answer those secondary questions that customers have. Be sure to include pricing, dates times and places. Remember that transparency leads to trust.

7) Let technology do the work - Online Booking can let your website do the work for you. (Self Plug Start) You can utilize inexpensive powerful software like Rezgo to sell your products through your existing website. (Self Plug End) It is getting easier to sell online and what a great way to increase revenues by selling directly to your customers with no additional labour!

Grow your presence - Once you have established your website and have worked out the usability issues, structured your products and have online sales abilities you should consider spending some online marketing dollars. Working with the big three search engines (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) you can structure a very targeted and cost effective advertising campaign that will help to drive traffic to your website.

9) Stay engaged - Let your customers know what you are up to and give them an opportunity to respond. Have a newsletter that links to your blog articles and encourage your readers to post comments. (One great program that I use is iContact.) This will help to create a sense of community and gain more face time with your customers, thus helping you understand the people that pay you!

10) Have fun! - Be creative, think of unique ways that you can engage your customers and keep them coming back to your website. Maybe consider a photo safari where the best photo of your tour gets posted each week. The sky is the limit and the technology is more accessible then ever! HAVE FUN!

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Is Green the colour of Money any more?

According to TravelMole, “Interest in properties with sustainable hospitality or green programs is huge”. This post ‘Al Goreism‘ world, where you can buy ‘Green Vodka‘, has really realigned its focus, and this new focus is starting to trickle down the purchase chain to both business and consumer travel. We are starting to see a marketable shift in consumer preferences with site like RezHub offering a Green Travel Hub to consumers who want to embrace responsible travel. With all of this attention, it looks as if Green is now green, and companies that embrace this, you could say are growing money from trees.

It is great to acknowledge the growth of awareness and certifications and offset programs that are out there, but what is really being done in the industry. What best practices are driving the most changes and  making an impact on the world today?

Consumer:

For consumer tips we go to the UN’s green passport site to find relevant tips for travllers:

1. Know who you are booking with - When planning your trip, look for sites or travel agents that support concepts keywords like “sustainable, responsible, green, eco, smart, slow, pro-poor, fair trade, and ethical tourism.
2. Slow it down - Flights are the fastest-growing contributors to greenhouse gases, so the UN recommends that you travel locally whenever you can, and take walks and bike rides in your destination where ever you go. This gives you a true appreciation of the area you are traveling in, and gives you some great exercise.
3. Home away from home - Ensure that your accommodations support the same policies that you do for your house. Be sure to ask them about their energy/water/and waste policies.
4. Bring it home to momma - When bringing back souvenirs, try to support the local economy by purchasing locally developed or created goods. If you are planning on bringing animal or wildlife based products, be sure to check with CITES.
5. Spread the word - Share your ‘eco-experiences’ with others. Tell them the choices you made and the effects that you are making. Getting the multiplier effect going is the only way that we can all learn from others. I would recommend blogging about it!

Business:

For Tourism business best practices I visited the infamous famous Visit Scotland website, which has some great resources that any company can download, and I have a few of my own to add. Here is a brief rundown for various sectors:

Accomodations:

1.  Involve your guest - Let your guests know all of the programs you offer (waste, energy, etc.) and let them know what they can do to participate. This could look like a pamphlet or clearly marked recycling bins in rooms.
2. The new VT - No, not a tax, but a ‘Virtual Transaction’ encourage your guests to process the entire booking virtually, and ensure them that they don’t need to print their reservation.
3. Hit the road jack - Offer alternative transportation, partner with other properties and offer guests a shuttle bus, or even have public transport information available. There still will be Taxis on the street, however shared transportation is proven to lower impact.

Tours and Attractions:

1. Count your blessings - Do an energy Audit, find out what you consume, and seek alternatives. Heating, lighting and driving often take up a large portion of the wasted energy a company uses. Start to track your consumption and start to make little changes (ecolights, driving techniques, insulation etc.) and see the savings!
2. The new alternative lifestyle - What fuels do you burn. Did you know that most diesel engines can be converted to run off of a variety of alternative fuels. (Mc Fat, etc) This would lower your companies dependence on foreign products.
3. Keep it close - Shopping for locally sourced products will not only help to develop your local economy, but it will reduce the amounts of fossil fuel burnt to deliver it to your guests.

What best practices have you found? Am I missing any key points?

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