Destinations and the benefits of blogging

is the title of a post on Jens’ Tourism INTERNET Marketing Blog.

It touches on a key issue facing DMOs today, the fast growth of user generated content, social networking, mashups and other web 2.0 tools in travel. This makes it even more urgent for these organizations to review their long established marketing strategies. When looking across the global DMO website landscape it is evident that most are still very much in a web 1.0 mode, and I would guess, consider their website just one more communication channel in their overall marketing arsenal.

That will no longer do. For quite some time now, I’ve expressed the opinion, that the web needs to be at the very core of a DMO strategy and the rest of their marketing flows outward from there. This will also have an effect on the organizations personnel structure. Not only will this very likely result in the discovery of new funds that can be invested in web based activities, which is an important aspect, but it will also put the presence of their destination right where today’s travelers are looking for it – the web.

Like traditional media companies, especially newspapers, DMOs are in the firing line and those who don’t adapt quickly will be threatened like never before.

Tags: DMO, destination marketing, social web, travel, tourism