Tourism Blogging!

[john]

As a small tourism enterprise, have you ever considered blogging? Why not:confused:

As the reccession becomes deeper; all tourism businesses should be utilising all opportunities open to promote themselves individually and collectively. ;) The World Wide Web provides a vast array of opportunities to all tourism businesses to make there mark and make others aware of the services that they offer.

Our 'Talktourism Web2.0 Network' whom have been trying out various promotional techniques online for the last six months and all have said that their blog has helped increase unique visitors to their website and collectively this network are becoming more proactive in terms of online activities.

I have added a Blog earlier today about blogging and how it could work for you on our sister Talktourism Blog site (http://talktourism.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/tourism-blog-why-bother/), Check it out and let us know what you think?

When you have had a chance complete our poll above

Oh! If you want to know more about Web2.0 check this out; Fáilte Ireland have a dedicated Web2.0 workshop (http://www.iia.ie/failte-ireland/events/event/200/) on the 26th March here in Cavan/Monaghan and for all other Talktourism members check out other FI online supports here (http://www.iia.ie/failte-ireland/)!

[Gra Curran]

I agree that blogging is a good and inexpensive way of getting your message out there. Blogging does get easier with practice! It also gives the blogger an opportunity to humanise a product or service by creating a personal touch of sorts.

In keeping with this festival time of year I have would like to share my favourite St Patrick’s day blog – of course it has to be connected with food – green food!!!

http://blog.vegcooking.com/2009/03/st_patricks_day_menu_ideas.php

Happy St Patrick’s Day.

[Geraldine O'Reilly]

I agree Grainne, blogging is the way to go to drive more visitors to your website. I started a blog through word press and have found it a new way of telling visitors about my business and what is happening in the area. My website Eonish Lodge (http://www.eonishlodge.com)is not always the place to give this information and by writing a blog and linking to my site, it is working well for me. I have found that some visitors find my blog first and then link back to my website. :)

[AlicesLoft]

I would definitely be in agreement with everyone by saying that Blogging helps drive traffic to your site,gives a platform to produce a dairy of your businesses activities and if you cant access your website you can update special offers and add news items.I have finally got my blog going with the help of Liz at swallow studios (http://www.lizchristy.com),check it out on http://alicesloftandcottages.wordpress.com/ . As john as explained the key is to link to each others Blogs and help lift your ranking with Google.

[thewicklowway]

One perfect example good use of web2.0 is Tripadvisor.com (http://www.tripadvisor.com) . Most people don't really care how many beds a bandb has etc but they do care about local amenities, friendliness of house, pick up from airport, local traditions etc etc and trip advisor is one of the first places to look when planning to go somewhere.

Whilst trip advisor is more interactive than a blog in its 'forum' format, a blog offers much feedback via comments from users regarding a post so that not only does your web content grow ( good for google) and stay fresh, but also users researching this topic will see what they consider to be honest feedback upon which they can (and will!) make their choice.

Take a look at my blog (http://www.thewicklowway.ie)for an example of this when a user sent me feedback on a local restaurant whichis now linked to that specific post:
http://thewicklowway.ie/blog/2008/12/20/the-park-restaurant-arklow/
I recommend the use of a blog to all accommodation and tourism service providers whether alone or integrated to their website.

Roz and Skipythedog
www.thewicklowway.ie (http://www.thewicklowway.ie)
www.wicklowtourism.ie (http://www.wicklowtourism.ie)

[csmith]

Just after having a look and it is excellant, Cavan could do with the same, must all get our heads together and with a little help I think we could do the same.;)

[nzbr]

I have a forum in my website. But which one is better (regarding google), blog or forum?

Cheers,

[Virginian]

NZBR ~ I am not sure that I am qualified to answer your question about blogs and would hope instead that you could provide the answer from your own tourism website experience, or perhaps other forum users might add their own experiences of using blogs as a method of promoting their business.

Your NZ website/forum provides tourism solutions that include tours of NZ, some beautiful photographs and a guest book for visitors to add their own comments, all of which is positive and appeals to me as a complete communication tool to people who intend visiting New Zealand.

Thanks again for providing a flavour of your beautiful country, my son and his family live in Christchurch and I intend visiting them again within the next year or two and would like to extend this to include a tour around the South Island. Wondering therefore would it be better to hire a car, camper van or go for a bus/accommodation package deal.:)

[McMillan]

Well, I do believe that blogging or forum posting is one of the best way to promote tourism to your local areas. a lot of people reads and do blog and forum so is a good source of traffic to get and advertise and let the whole world know about beautiful site on your area to visit.

[nzbr]

NZBR ~ I am not sure that I am qualified to answer your question about blogs and would hope instead that you could provide the answer from your own tourism website experience, or perhaps other forum users might add their own experiences of using blogs as a method of promoting their business.

Your NZ website/forum provides tourism solutions that include tours of NZ, some beautiful photographs and a guest book for visitors to add their own comments, all of which is positive and appeals to me as a complete communication tool to people who intend visiting New Zealand.

Thanks again for providing a flavour of your beautiful country, my son and his family live in Christchurch and I intend visiting them again within the next year or two and would like to extend this to include a tour around the South Island. Wondering therefore would it be better to hire a car, camper van or go for a bus/accommodation package deal.:)

From the point of view of feedback it is indeed quite important having a froum (in my case) or a blog. I do recommend it and that's what people tell me once they get here in NZ: "your forum helped me making the decision of booking the tour".

If you wish to have more freedom while traveling around the South Island my advice would be for you to rent a car.

Cheers,

[Kapoor Sen]

Yes, Blogging will help you to get more traffic,
As well as forums too help to get it. Inorder to feel the traffic via blogging or forums in your site, you should have some good PR for your home page. Then only the blogging/forums in your site will be one of the tool to get more traffic for you. So, you have to get good PR to your home page, for that you have to more than 200-500 inbound links or etc.......As well as, you have to have some social bookmarks, articles submissions to article directories and etc...Those will help you to get your home page a good position, Then the blogging/forums in your site will help you to increase your position in search engines....

[nzbr]

...and as for 'articles directories', mentioned above by Kapoor, I would recommend this site:

http://www.ezinearticles.com/

I have a few articles posted there as well. It's an easy and fast site to deal with.

Cheers,

[MahonFarmhouse]

Finally our Blog is up and running. Still trying to get my head around it all though!

mahonfarmhouse.wordpress.com (http://mahonfarmhouse.wordpress.com/)

[Anke Morgenroth]

:( Not sure how to set up your own blog?
We are holding a day on blogging on Wednesday the 24th of June from 10am - 4pm in the Silver Bear Centre in Bawnboy.
This is a hands-on workshop and we will get everyone's blog set up on the day. We have just two more places left.
We will touch on twitter that day as well.:)

[simonrodrix]

I have a forum in my website. But which one is better (regarding google), blog or forum?

Cheers,

Blog and forum having equally importance, bur compare to blog forum getting more traffic

[dub1]

:)

Blogs,forums and social networks are extremely important in driving quality traffic to your website. Nowadays it is important to have an interesting website to hold your visitors when they arrive.
Our six websites have being trying to do this for years :-
http://www.freewebs.com/dublinaccommodationsalmara/index.htm
http://www.freewebs.com/dublinbandb
http://www.almarabb.com
http://www.hidden-dublin.com
http://www.dublin1.webs.com
http://www.lookaroundireland.com

:)

[reiselaender]

I think blogging is an effective way of driving traffic to your tourism site. There are lots of users already of Blogging Directories, and these users can also be potential customers.