I had been meaning to write about the first scientific conference on blogs and destination marketing that took place in Kitzbuehel on July 12. Unfortunately, I could not go, but Jens Oellrichs from the German Tourismus-Zukunft-Blog was there – among a crowd of 40 attendants.

You can find all presentations here. I recommend looking at the presentation by Dean Carson from the Charles Darwin University on "The ‘Blogosphere’ as a Market Research Tool for Tourism Destinations: a case study of Australia’s Northern Territory".

His conclusions about monitoring travel blogs for market research are:

• Blog analysis is not necessarily a cheap alternative for destination marketers
• Understanding who is writing and reading is critical
• Perhaps greater value from specific questioning
• Many ways of interpreting the contents

The last pages of Stephan Pühringer’s "Practitioner Views on Tourism Blogs" are a good read too. Stephan Pühringer is responsible for the website of Kitzbuehel Tourism, one of Austria’s poshest mountain destination. He recommends:

Your website should also convey your organisation’s culture, philosophy and passion

• Allows potential customers to engage with your organisation on a human level
• Introduce your history, your staff and your journey as an organisation
• Update with recent happenings and your staff’s involvement in local events
• Enable customer postings on your site – “electronic testimonials”

Must moderate these aspects of your site

• Link to other sites that provide positive commentary about your region and product
• Make your site part of the “Experience”. Add photos as the season change
• Include areas for updates on interesting stories from your region
• Allow staff to blog

Sorry folks, there was no blog.

This was my traditional weekly English post. If you liked it, please check out my recent English articles:

• The Social Web in Destination Marketing – Canada & New Zealand relaunch
• Updated T-List of Tourism & Travel Blogs
• When Travel 2.0 meets Print Advertising 1.0
• Travel 2.0 & User Generated Content in Destination Marketing – Interview with William Bakker from Tourism British Columbia
• Hotels & the Social Web – Some suggestions for Yotel
• Fake Travel Reviews are no Issue – Interview with Ian Rumgay from Tripadvisor continued
• About Hotel 2.0 & Travel 2.0 – Interview with Ian Rumgay from TripAdvisor
• Hotel 2.0 – Interview with Opus Hotel CEO Blogger Daniel Craig
• Marketing manifesto for the travel industry – Interpretation of Jeff Jarvis

More to come at my English category. Every Monday, I promise!